The Long Road Back to Normalcy

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

Actually, with the few restrictions that are being lifted as of today, my life doesn’t change that radically. For the past two months, I’ve been going for a walk almost every day, meeting up with my girlfriend in her backyard for tea and/or snacks every few days, and shopping at the supermarket once or twice a week, while maintaining the safe distance and wearing a mask in all those instances. The rest of the time I stay home and indoors. Under the new guidelines, I can do all of the above and not run the risk of a citation and/or fine, and that’s pretty much the only difference. If I were aged between 6 and 11, there’s a good chance I’d be going back to school this week, though I haven’t been in that age bracket for over 60 years now.

But what a time to be living through! We got the pandemic of the late 1910’s, the financial crisis of the 1930’s, and most recently echoes of the political movements of the 1960’s, all rolled into this new decade. And it’s certainly possible that we could incorporate the War era of the 1940’s in there if Trump decides he hasn’t distracted enough attention away from his struggles with all the above crises. His corrupt administration (let’s not mince words here) could rally not only his ignorant base with a war, but possibly some of those on the fence. He could then point to the war as a reason why he needs to be re-elected, and with a little help from any foreign entities that are still speaking to him, he could steal another election, and his systematic destruction of the United States could be complete. I might be doomsaying a bit, but I’m just relieved Joe Biden has made sense the last few times he’s spoken.

This wasn’t meant to be a diatribe against Trump, but it does occur rather naturally once I get going. I’m just happy that I have things to keep me occupied, be it reading, TV, food (I’m getting damn good at cooking, though my meals are admittedly pretty meat-and-potatoes monotonous), and my girlfriend. I also have the extracurricular activities, and we have to be grateful that the lockdown, if it must happen, comes at a time in history when the lines of communication are such that we don’t have to be in complete isolation. Two days a week, I do virtual choirs, with my Tuesday choir based in New Zealand and having usually over 400 participants. Tomorrow we attempt Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colours,” last week it was Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” and before that Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.” I also do a Wednesday sing with the choir where Maggie and I met five years ago. The songs we do are less recognisable than in the other choir, but still can be entertaining, plus we have a few minutes each week where we break up into groups of five and chat about how we’re all getting by. I feel guilty when I see other choir members doing and creating things to help their communities while all I can talk about is my Tuesday night quiz.That’s going great by the way, though it pales next to the real thing, and if the pubs reopen in July as has been forecast, I would hope re-instituting a safe quiz night would come shortly after.

I saw two great things yesterday while online. One was the clip of a protest in Flint, Michigan, in which the (Genesee) county sheriff Chris Swanson told his officers to put down their batons and helmets and march with the protestors, making it more of a parade than a protest. There was a bit more hugging and fist-bumping than I would have been happy with, but the fact that an officer could appease a mob so effortlessly was a lovely thing to see. When Swanson asked the marchers how far they’d like to go, one of them yelled out “How about Minnesota?” The other thing I saw was crude, but it did address the hypocrisy that runs through the horrible family in power. On Twitter, Ivanka Trump made a vain plea for peace, using the bible as her basis. Ivanka quoted, “This is what the lord said: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you.” 2 Kings 20:15. The first response was “Go fuck yourself” Tony 5:31.

The other thing that has made it difficult to stay indoors is the unusually great weather UK has been having during almost the entire lockdown period. It’s hard to ignore when the temperature each day averages between 70 and 80 fahrenheit (21 and 27 celsius) and in the entire month of May there were only four days of rain. There’s rain in the forecast for Wednesday thru Friday this week, but I’ll believe it when I see it. So my game plan for today is another simple one: eat, walk (with Maggie), read, do puzzles, and tonight watch the final two episodes of Normal People. Not that different from my normal Monday really, but when you lose track of what day it is because each day has mostly the same agenda, that’s when the cabin fever starts to take its toll. Hopefully, we have no resurgence of deaths or cases, and Boris Johnson’s plan actually works, but in the meantime I’ll continue to wear the freaking mask. I’ve got a dozen or so to use up.

June 1st, 2020



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