(Thanks, Jay Partridge!)

I’m sure that I noticed exactly when people stopped taking the idea very horrid fact of a still thriving pandemic a whole lot less seriously here where a few too many people have died from it or assorted complications arising from it. By my estimation, it was about two weeks ago, give or take. I know this because I live across the street from a car wash and in the past few months, it’s been busy there, but mostly quietly so. About two weeks back, a sudden blast of loud music woke me from seven floors up. It was some person who drove up and yes, was blasting their music for all to hear too early in the day.

I was of course, annoyed by this, but I did take it as an alarm clock of sorts as I’d overslept (again) and dragged myself out of bed. A pot of coffee/chicory blend went to brew up and it was decided to kick off another Groundhog Day of mostly staying indoors and side-eying both the news and my backlog of work to do.  It’s harder to concentrate on fun stuff with actual life now a lot less fun, but it is sort of a necessary non-evil these days. To be honest, I liked the solitude for the most part except the MIA partner in crime part. But that’s part of the job description when you have a new virus, a new potential thing to kill you added to all the other things than may or may not set your expiration date to SOONER THAN YOU’D CARE FOR. “Did you hear? That guy died when he slipped in the shower while trying to dodge the plague!” makes for a rather poor epitaph.

Well, a funny one, but still poor.

(Thanks, Almacén Diseño!)

After a fourth car pulled up within about 15 minutes also blasting tunes too loudly, I had a thought to conduct a little experiment. I finished my coffee, got dressed, masked up and went downstairs and across the street to bus stop next to the car wash, watching the cars rolling up for an hour. Yep, every single car but one that pulled up blasting music had a driver and/or passengers with no masks on. I guess those sonic waves kill more than just one’s hearing. Since I was already outside, I sighed and walked down the street to the grocery. I wasn’t supposed to go nuts with the sugar these days, but I needed something relatively sweet (not too sweet!) to kill the sour taste in my mouth. For some reason I thought of that old Canada Dry TV commercial at that point and I laughed out loud for about a minute or so. I’m sure the people I was walking by on the way to the supermarket thought I was a bit nuts.

The store wasn’t packed at that hour, but when I walked in there was a guy about be given the mighty boot because he came in without a mask and the manager wasn’t having it. Under normal circumstances, I’d feel sorry for the customer, but I knew that the shop had at least two employees die as a result from the virus and well, there were signs posted outside that the governor here had issued an order that people be responsible and wear a face covering of some sort. Sealed for your protection, as it were. Meanwhile, I was busy deciding on a decent snack, so I didn’t stop to gawk at what was the outcome with the customer, who in this particular case was not always right. Obstinate behavior like that I chalk up to general ignorance of some hard to swallow facts. When the mirror looks back at a mask-less face and that person decides it’s fine because hey, it’s just a simple run to the shops, I’ll be back in five minutes and no one will notice me because I move so fast. Yeah, well… so does this virus, pal.

(Thanks, kinolorber!)

I really don’t get the rampant politicization of this from some corners. The virus doesn’t care which party you belong to, what religion you practice or whether you believe in it or not. Like a lost cute puppy who’s hiding a mean case of rabies, it will follow you home and sure, you can keep it if you like. That foaming at the mouth business is just a feature, not a bug, amirite? Meanwhile, a few more minutes of poking around the store found me staring at a plastic box with four slices of somewhat thick cut double chocolate cake. which was a bad choice, but I noted from the label that it was a lot less sweet than it looked. I got a few pears instead… but grabbed that cake as well on the way to the cash register. Hey, what’s life without the proper sort of risk-taking, right? For the record, it wasn’t too sweet at all and I made it last for four whole days. Now, I’d have preferred some green tea ice cream, but yikes, the price on the two brands I saw sent me into temporary sticker shock.

Eh, maybe next time, or when a sale hits – we’ll see.

(Thanks, chronocembalo!)

-GW