What a Month This Week Has Been

I’ve only ever seen limit signs on empty shelves.

So yeah, things are weird out there. I feel like this entire week has been spent bouncing between grocery store treasure hunts (because really, we can’t call it shopping these days), scanning the news for pandemic-related updates, scanning the news for anything other than pandemic-related updates, and washing. Washing all the things. Hands, countertops, magazines that arrive in the mail. You hand it to me, I’ll wash it. And I’ll probably ask if you washed that hand.

Okay, I’m exaggerating. But probably not as much as I wish I was. Things are getting weirder every day here. And by here, I mean a small remote island right in the middle of the world’s largest ocean. The entirety of this place is smaller than the area code I grew up in. When something runs out at the grocery store, there’s only so many other stores you can check before you run out of island to drive around. And all the other grocery stores are out of whatever you’re looking for, too.

Things are weird. And they’re only going to get weirder. Schools are being closed. Hell, everything’s being closed. I took my son to get a haircut this weekend, likely the last public setting we’ll go to for a while, and he was the only kid in the place that’s usually standing room only. We were done before our appointment was even scheduled to begin. They ended up cutting his hair shorter than normal. I couldn’t understand why at the time, but I think I’m starting to.

There’s not really a point I’m getting at here. I think all I’m trying to say is, I’m with you. Each and every one of you who is adjusting to this new now that we find ourselves in, I’m right there with you. Not physically, of course, because of that whole stuck on an island thousands of miles away from the rest of civilization thing. But we’re all clawing our way through this worst timeline together.

So it’s on us to make the best of it. Get creative. Grab a board game and play with the people you may be stuck indoors with. Do a video chat with other people also stuck indoors. Figure out how to play a board game over video chat. I think it would work with Battleship. Less so with poker, but let me know if you figure out how to make it work. Just keep your wits about you, and be kind when the opportunity presents itself. Because it will, and with increasing frequency as this continues. We’re only just now entering the gaping mouth of the tunnel ahead, but that daylight is going to feel sweet on our faces when we reach the other side.

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