Well hi there! I sure have been quiet lately, haven’t I? Part of that is the traditional summer slowdown, part of it is my ever present sleep issues being especially present the last few weeks and part of it, at least in the last couple of days, was being out experiencing the world for the first time in five months. Yes, I am the first person in our wee little household to venture into the wild and do something that isn’t an errand. And because this is 2020 and this is just how things roll now, the main reason I did it is so I could attend the burial of a family member. Party on, right? For the record, no, the person did not die of COVID. I feel like that needs mentioning because I know somebody will ask or at least wonder quietly to himself about it.
I’ve been sitting here trying to think of the best way to describe how it felt being around people again, and the best thing I can come up with is that it was an experience. There was happiness because I haven’t seen a lot of these people since Christmas, there were nerves, there was a sense of what’s going to happen next and of will I remember how to act? But what there wasn’t was any sort of dominant emotion. It was almost normal but simultaneously not normal at all, and for the most part those two things cancelled each other out and made for a slightly edgy sense of calm.
One thing I definitely noticed is how quickly the stated goal of an expedition can expand. What started out as a sleepover at my mom’s house and a morning trip to a cemetery followed by a small backyard lunch soon became so much more than that. Before I knew it there was a visit to my grandparents who already had company in the form of a great aunt and a cousin, a dinner inside a restaurant and a couple hours at my sister’s for some Seppa-tebby-tebby nephew time and an unexpected free, desperately needed hair cut.
Man, I’m so glad I finally got that hair cut. I wish I’d gotten before and after shots of myself. Basically I went from hair partially covering my shoulders to not quite a buzz cut. That’s what happens when your hair is getting a little long in March, you think to yourself I ought to head to the old First Choice when I have some time and then the world shuts down. I wasn’t super keen on running straight out for a cut when things first reopened. The lineups would have been insane, and like Carin and I have said many times, this new world isn’t built for anyone without all of their senses, especially not when there’s a mad rush on what it is you need.
The burial was an interesting experience, mostly because I only had to shake hands with one person. That’s unheard of at one of these things. And it was, as you might expect, the most awkward part of the entire day. I met somebody, started to instinctively stick out my hand, thought better of it and ended up short-arming her in the hopes that we would both just forget the entire thing or that maybe she wouldn’t notice. Yeah, I know. But we did briefly shake hands, so time will tell if we need to soon attend another burial.
So yeah. I did it. And I think I could do it again. I’m not in any sort of huge hurry to be out and about especially when it comes to dining out without at least one sighted person, but when circumstances call for it, I’ll be about as ready as one can get.
I’m not sure what else there is to say, really. So for now I’ll take my leave, catch up on email and quietly hope that my COVID Alert app doesn’t go off.
I have just been informed by COVID Alert that my app has logged 0 new exposures this week. This means that either I’m in the clear or that nobody at any of the places I found myself recently had both the app and the virus. Neither seems more likely than the other, so for now I’ll go with in the clear.