Life in the Time of Coronavirus

Remember when you were a kid, and you went to a school or a church and they had what was termed a “lock in”? Where you went for an overnight get together full of excitement, whether it was a party or graduation, a means to experience a Happy New Year moment while staying safe from all harm? Well, we are experiencing a different sort of “Lock In” at present, all while attempting to remain safe, a means to the same end, so to speak.

But rather than it being overnight, we are entering the third week of being locked in. Three weeks. Twenty one days…

The dog is beginning to look good as a meal, if you get my drift.

No, I’m not going to eat the dog, are you crazy?! It was a metaphor, nothing more.

And yet…

I hope all of you out there in Hubland are staying safe, that no one has contracted this virus which is sweeping the world, or if you have that you are doing well and getting better swiftly. As for me and mine, well, we are safe for the time being, and while we have not been completely shut in, we are remaining home for days at a time, venturing out only to get what we need, to help our children, or to make a desperately needed break for sanity.

Heh heh, but I’m feeling much better now!

No, really, we are doing well all things considered. Our internet is still slower than snail mail and my son has been relegated to actually playing games on his console or speaking with his parents. My wife has done her best to find the means to binge watch several shows (anyone out there seen Ozark. Apparently it is pretty good according to her. I wouldn’t know, I’m afraid to get involved with those people!) and me, well I am reading, playing cards on my computer (Hearts and Spider Solitaire) and watching some DVD’s we have purchased over the years. I am also writing a bit, but as I shared with billibuc, I am struggling to author anything original right now, instead doing what I term “reactionary writing” about topics which capture my attention. For the most part, this has been related to the current pandemic, my thoughts and views on it whether positive or negative. Unfortunately, my writing has been negative for the most part.

So today I set a challenge for myself to author something positive about the pandemic. However, nothing positive comes to mind concerning it so I altered my experiment midstream to create something positive out of the conditions we find ourselves in; namely, being homebound.

And so, here we are in our condo, doing what we can to both remain connected to one another within these four walls, and to not get on one another’s final nerve. I tell you, it is a fine, fine line to walk; finer than frog’s hairs split four ways.

We each have an area for ourselves, finding ways to occupy our time awake. Our son has his room, his games and the various pets. His mother has our room, her television and shares the pets. I have the living room, and a sliding glass door. The living room houses my library, which contains somewhere north of 250 tomes for me to read, re-read, look at and arrange in various orders. A few of what I have read these past days include Michael Crichton’s “Dragon’s Teeth”, a fictitious story about real paleontologists battling it out in the late 1800’s searching for dinosaur bones; Ken Goddard’s “Prey”, a thriller about a group of law enforcement officers battling an ecological terrorist group ; Don Coldsmith’s “Runestone”, a tantalizing what if fiction novel about Vikings in North America and a stone found in Oklahoma hinting at the possibility that they might have made it that far into the New World; Orson Scott Card’s “Shadow of the Hegemon”, a sequel to the amazing “Ender’s Game” where Ender’s brother is trying to take over the world, in a nice way; and Jennifer Lee Carrell’s wonderful murder mystery “Interred With Their Bones” which takes the reader for a ride between William Shakespeare’s days and our own.

I am also currently reading William Martin’s “City of Dreams” which is a wonderful whodunit type of thriller which bounces back and forth between present and past effortlessly, drawing the reader into a historical chase for treasure.

Films I have viewed include Rogers and Hammerstein’s classic “The King and I” with Yul Brynner. Continuing the Brynner theme I have also watched Westworld (the original, not the HBO remake) and The Magnificent Seven (again, the original). The list is long but some of the highlights include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Aliens, Planet of the Apes, The Abyss (see where I got the inspiration for my SciFi article?); Tombstone, Somewhere in Time, and Joe vs. The Volcano. I just love that film, with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. She plays three different characters in this film, each completely different. I marvel at her chameleon-like ability to become these people, so completely different from one another even as I wonder how Kevin Costner became such a star playing the same person time and again, just with different names. Really, watch him closely. His expressions are the same, his voice: same, his acting ability is so limited but still he is a star; how? Oh yeah, women like him.

Then there are the baseball films, which makes me sad because THERE IS NO BASEBALL!! You’re killin’ me smalls!!! Quick, what movie is that from? Of course, The Sandlot. Yep, watched it, and Trouble With The Curve, Talent For The Game, When It Was A Game II, and Eight Men Out.

Right now I am stuck on Westerns. John Wayne’s The Cowboys, the aforementioned Tombstone, Shane, and Last of the Dogmen. I have viewed literary classics come to life in The Snows of Kilamanjaro, true life tragedies such as Challenger, and comedies such as Grown Ups (yes I have a soft spot for Adam Sandler films).

I have compiled a list of our foodstuffs, make a wonderful dinner each day, sometimes even whipping up a breakfast fit for a king. I had set my mind to not having a garden this year, as our lovely pot smoking, cigarette butt flipping, let the dog out to crap wherever they choose neighbors dominate the condo experience here, but my lovely wife talked me into somehow (I still don’t remember how she did it, perhaps she is a closet hypnotist) and we have a group of tomatoes and cucumber plants (for pickles) growing in pots on our deck. We have built a wall between our deck and the neighbors in order to have some privacy from them and placed a trellis atop for the cucumbers to vine on once they are large enough.

A sadistic part of me is hoping the flowers bring in honeybees to pollinate them so the neighbors will be afraid to go outside on their deck. Is that wrong?

It is funny how we find ourselves all three at the same time in the smallest room in the place, the kitchen, bumping in to one another and laughing about it. We congregate for meals and for some movies, such as the newest Star Wars flick Rise of Skywalker, and to speak about how this virus is affecting and influencing so many, wondering how and when things might get back to normal again. Personally, I don’t think that will occur anytime soon; but if it doesn’t then we have our different means to occupy our time, and we have discovered that we can talk sensibly to one another again, that we can allow one another the space needed to not drive one another insane, and that we can actually not get on one another’s nerves to the point of not being able to stand each other. In today’s world, that’s not too bad. Above all, we love one another, we let each other know we do, and we show it.

I’ll take that!

For now, I need to go; the pot of potato soup is simmering on the stove and we need to eat lunch. I think chili tonight for dinner (that should make for an extremely interesting gastric combination later on tonight!) before making a run to Wally-world in the morning for supplies; as I am of age (over 60) I get to go in on Tuesday’s an hour before the store opens to the general public: ain’t I special!? I will get some needed items, maybe some wanted ones as well and return home and remove my gloves and mask, then wash my hands for at least twenty seconds with hot water and soap before creating a breakfast and waking the house. Tomorrow will be biscuits and sausage gravy, hash browns, free range eggs and bacon I think.

Y’all come on over, just remember your masks!!

Please stay safe everyone and carry my best wishes with you. God Bless.