The World Is Coming To Me!

With Silver Dollar City experiencing concerns with the Coronavirus, and the requirements associated with going back to work there and mingling with guests from all around the world, I was hesitant. Well, mark me seriously concerned about returning to work there post furlough. My lovely wife and I had deep, in depth conversations about our work possibilities, what we needed to do for our remaining child at home and his schooling, and where (and how) to live.

I applied for a job as a business manager in the area we desired to live in and lo and behold, I was interviewed then offered the position! We are now back in the Branson area, and I am hard at work making this business the best it can possibly be.

And we were able to move back to where we wanted to live, where we lived before! So we are now fully immersed in the condo culture once more, back where we desired to be, where our son loved to be, and he will (might?) get to finish out his high school years in the school he has enjoyed the most.

Last week, there were eight cases of Coronavirus. I know, I checked. Less than a week later, those cases skyrocketed. A local kid's camp in Lampe has almost 50 cases, and they were social distancing AND wearing masks! Silver Dollar City had six cases among their employees, and THEY were wearing masks! In both locations masks were mandatory and yet, people still caught this virus.

And now, the world is coming to Branson.

Will the virus spread even further here because of the influx of visitors? Or will they catch it here and take it with them home? The country is exploding with a virus that was supposedly going to diminish during the summer months and yet, it isn't. In more than half of the country, cases are rising dramatically. Including Missouri.

Branson is seeing more cases and this is before the influx of travelers this weekend. So, who am I seeing coming to visit me here in Branson?

When I went to Walmart yesterday in that one parking lot I saw the following:

Delaware, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, California, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado. Oh, and I saw a New York plate on the way home, and in the parking lot here at the condos I can add Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa. Oh, and of course Missouri. That's almost half, 50% of the country here in my immediate area.

I feel so safe.

Some; not many. I would say perhaps 10%, not much more. And at Lake of the Ozarks (a notorious party lake) the locals are saying this is the best (read: most visitors) summer EVER!

Cue the mayor in Jaws.

"This is gonna be one of the best summers ever, and those beaches will be open!"

The governor of Missouri, the honorable Mike Parsons has declared Missouri to be wide open, with few if any restrictions, and the country is flocking to our area. States which are on lockdown are escaping and coming to the middle of the country (here) and bringing their ways with them. They do not want to wear the masks because "They are on vacation!" and want to fly free in the face of common sense, discarding conventional wisdom and either bringing the virus with them, or will be taking a gift home when they leave.

But honestly, I think it is already here and has been for a long time. If we haven't been exposed to it we will be shortly then our makeup will take over from there.

The doctors and "experts" are saying O+ blood seems to be resistant to it; thank God my wife, son and I all have O+!

Do we even know if masks work? I read a story today saying that the aerosol aspects of the virus can hang in the air for a long, long time, making it highly likely that someone walking through the mist will inhale deeply enough to catch it. And I am also reading that these same experts are saying that if you are wearing a mask, and can smell someone's scent (be it cologne, perfume, or a gaseous emission from the anus) you are breathing in air that might contain the virus, through the mask itself.

Really, I don't know if there is a damn thing we can do about it. And the ability to move freely about the country which is guaranteed in America causes us to assume we have the right, nay the obligation to travel about and to spread diseases and viruses, common sense be damned. Americans are arrogant in a way few other countries are and this time it just might harm us more than anyone else, regardless of how good our medical system is.

The world is on my doorstep, protocols are being ignored, and we will be cleaning up the mess for weeks and months. Some might not ever be cleaned up and some people might lose their lives due to someone's carefree attitude regarding safety. Someone like me, who had to endure a near septuagenarian's close talking ways when they informed me that they imbibed daily to the tune of a six pack each and every day with no ill effects; all while within a foot of my face, regardless of how many times I took a step back.

And there's not a confounded thing we can do about it. Branson, much like the fictional Amity in "Jaws", is a tourism based community, dependent upon the influx of visiting people to provide the wealth and ability to weather the rest of the year in the span of a few short months. However, unlike Amity, Branson cannot kill the shark and live happily ever after. This particular shark will not leave, it will continue to swim in our waters for weeks, months and possibly even years. This shark, unlike Bruce, is real and will affect far more people than those few stupid enough to swim in shark infested waters; it swims in the air and is invisible; and it will most definitely kill you.

The tourist industries here in Branson are already feeling the heat as places like SDC are seeing dramatic drops in numbers, with retirement prevalent among its people and seeing COVID cases among its workers despite the precautions taken; precautions as mandated by the CDC and WHO. If this continues for another few days I will not be surprised to see Disney World and Land either not open at all or close down shortly after they do open. I fear for SDC, Shepherd of the Hills, and all the other tourist driven businesses in Branson. Without the tourists, and with high virus numbers, they cannot survive.

And then the stuff will really hit the fan as they close and Branson and the surrounding area suffer that reality.

I also saw this morning an article where the Harlem Globetrotters offered to sell the Washington Redskins the name "Washington Generals", their long time basketball nemesis, as a means to help the Redskins change the name of their franchise. A part of me wondered, "Are they doing this as a means of raising money for the business?" Who can say?

As of this date, I can now declare that I have seen license plates from 48 states in Branson. The only ones I have not seen this year are as follows: Maine and Vermont. I even saw a Costa Rica license plate where I work! Much like the Hawaii plate, I have to wonder how they got here? Did they really drive?