This is the first post I am writing in relation to anything going on during Covid-19. We are bombarded with so many sad, bad, miserable, discouraging, and soul sucking stories and images on a day-to-day basis that I decided that I would try to not dwell on it the way it seems that everyone else seems to be. That does not mean that I cannot escape the insidious nature of the things that are going on around me. Hence, my reflections…

Travel

To anyone who has had the luck (or misfortune) to run across my blog, and has looked through the pages that I have posted so far, you will see the things that are really important to me. Travel is definitely one of them. It is one of the biggest pleasures that I have. Or had. I hear people talk about wishing 2020 would be over. As though 2021 will be better. The holy bible has a word that says something about this being the day that the Lord has made and being happy and joyful in it. Tomorrow is not promised. Suppose tomorrow is worse than today. If you wait on tomorrow, you may regret not living today to its fullest.

I am a strange person when it comes to travel. I do not get bored driving. I do not get bored traveling to destinations. There is a measure of excitement, enchantment even, when you are going to a new place or even a place that you have been before but are getting to enjoy again. Walking along the flood wall along the James River in Richmond, Virginia. China Town in Washington, DC. Exploring San Francisco. Driving along the back roads of North Caralina. All of these things are pleasures. They are things that I hope to enjoy again. Maybe they will not be enjoyed the same way. Maybe for the worse. Maybe, just maybe…it will be better. We can hope.

Courtesy, Civility, and Sanity

I am thinking about taking a fast. Not from food, drink, or sex (well, I am taking a fast from that because I am single), but rather from television and news. Bad news sells. Civility has taken a vacation. Maybe it has always been gone. The isolation of this world-wide pandemic sort of makes you pay attention to forms of entertainment and news more than you may have prior to the crisis. You notice the negative. You hear it day after day. There is some good. But even those small doses of good seem to be monotonous. I am thinking of shutting out some of the bad to keep my sanity. Maybe not sanity but rather mental clarity. Then there is courtesy. Wearing a mask has allowed people to shut off any measure of expected courtesy. “Hello.” “Thank you!” “You are welcome.” People will look at you with blank eyes and walk past you with confronted with normal greetings. As if the mask they are wearing is controlling their response mechanisms.

Movie Theaters

I was driving around on a beautiful Saturday evening drive recently (one of the few Covid actives I can still do) and saw this very sad sight. An AMC movie theater basically abandoned. On what would normally be a very busy movie going night the place was empty. Looked almost post-apocalyptic. It got me to thinking…

Who is going to be comfortable in a movie theater again? Raise you hand? Really?! You would feel comfortable sitting in a seat, in a closed room with a bunch of strangers, trying to “socially distance” (whatever that really means), while wearing your mask during a two-hour movie, and trying to pretend that the experience is normal. And you are going to pay $$$$$ for it? Hmmmm. I would rather sit in my living room and stream Netflix on my 75″ HD television, while eating an enjoyable meal that I cooked, all in the safe confines of my comfortable home. Oh, and no silly mask.

Eating Out

Thank GOD I know how to cook. Not just boil water for noodles but really cook. I am the type of guy that actually prefers a good home cooked meal more than I enjoy eating out. That was my preference even before Covid-19. Now, having said that, I also love to occasionally eat out. Usually the dining out that I like is in conjunction with my travel adventures. Due to Covid, I have not eaten out since February 2020. With the exception of Starbucks coffee, I have not had anything from any food establishment outside of a grocery store. It saddens me to see the collateral damage. The job loss. The businesses that are tanking. The restaurants that are struggling to change their model of operation to stay buoyant in a new and radically unpredictable world.

I was in my local Target and looked at the gift card rack. I took a moment to look at all of the gift cards for companies that may not even be solvent at the moment. Gift cards used to be my old go-to gift for friends and family. You could count on it when you did not know what else to buy for someone. A gift card to a nice restaurant chain that someone could use at their convenience. How could you go wrong? Now I wonder about people that are holding onto gift cards that are basically a few days from being a worthless piece of plastic.

Just a few reflections. There are so many things that I could talk about but I will save some for another post on another day.