April is in the books and with the pandemic, I a few days late getting the president’s letter written. In all honesty, it feels like May just kinda slipped in without any fanfare. No Mayday baskets, no Cinco De Mayo commercials looping endlessly on TV, no spring baseball. Just more sheltering in place. Still, life goes on…
I wanted to thank everyone who attended the live demo my son Quintin and I did in place of the April meeting. This was a first for me in several ways and it was definitely a series of “learning opportunities”. The video is out of YouTube, accessible from a link on the club website if you’d like to watch it. My plan is to bring the completed sphere to the May meeting (in some form or another) but as I worked to finish it, I started liking it less and less. There may be a design change before this is all done. Speaking of the May meeting, since we’re still not allowed to meet in person, the meeting’s been canceled. Q and I will be at Youthbuild, putting on another Facebook Live demo, this time on turning miniature birdhouses. Hopefully, we will be able to incorporate some of the things learned from the April meeting in terms of sound and lighting.
The board was able to meet this month for our quarterly meeting. We tried something a little different for some and held the meeting via Zoom. It works really well, and as long as you have a computer with internet access, anyone can attend. We may consider using that software for some events in the future. Additional information will come out concerning what was discussed and decided, but for me, the best part of the entire meeting was to see a friendly face on the screen, have some good conversation, and even a few laughs. It is funny how you miss little things like that when you have been “sheltered” away.
It seems like the world has devolved into two types of people. One type is the “Doomers”, who believe that the virus is so deadly that any person who sneezes, coughs, or sniffles is surely in need of a ventilator to postpone their inevitable death. These people only come outside only when it is absolutely mandatory, go about their business as quickly as possible, and seem incredibly self-focused on what’s best for society in general, regardless of personal impacts. The other type are the “Deniers”, who believe that the whole negative side of the virus is overblown, the chances of them getting it is very low, and seem focused on what’s best for their personal health, and leaving others to take care of themself. Yes, this is oversimplified, but just go with it. I can understand both sides, but tend toward the Denier crowd, but tend to take a “you do you” approach to how other people react to events. I’m doing what I think is right, but I’m not about to tell others what they should or should not be doing. Aside from Facebook, I think these groups co-exist pretty well, but go to the grocery store, hardware store, or any of the other “essential businesses”, and all bets are off! I was at Meijer, wearing a N95 mask that I had on hand from some painting I had done several years ago. Somewhere in the garbage bag aisle, a woman approached me wearing what was a very well crafted, home-sewn mask. She was definitely a Doomer, and immediately began berating me for being “so damned selfish”. Over the course of her rant, complete with a wagging finger covered up to the elbow in Playtex kitchen gloves, I learned that her daughter or grand-daughter was a nurse at some hospital that was apparently not providing what she believed to be appropriate PPE for the nurses. When she saw me wearing an N95 mask, she took it upon herself to tell me I was being selfish because I should have donated that mask to a nurse, rather than “wasting” it by using it to run errands. She was VERY emphatic that if I still had a soul, I would be stopping on the way home to drop any additional masks I was “hoarding” off at the nearest hospital. I was stunned by the whole list of assumptions she had made before talking and that she believed she had every right to accost a stranger for NOT doing what she would have done, but I was still impressed at the voracity of this old woman! I went to Menard’s a couple of days later, masked up, and had decided to go as quickly as possible. The problem was, I needed a board from one side of the store, some bolts from the middle of the store, some of the soda pop that the boy likes from the back of the store, and a piece for the toilet all the way on the other side of the store. No matter what I did, I’d be doing a lap around the store, otherwise known as “the Menard’s Mile”. I got the board first and patiently waited while two Deniers stood right in front of the board I needed, debating what they should get. They had masks, casually resting on their collarbones while they talked. After they left, I selected the piece of wood I came for and headed to the bolts. Apparently, the nuts and bolts aisle was THE place to shop! Rather than wade through the crowd, I went down the adjacent aisle, snuck around the corner, and was able to get the little bag of metal that I needed without having to be too near anyone. The grape Shasta that Q requested was easy. No one was even close to that stuff, most likely because it’s just too nasty to actually drink. I slipped to the back aisle, hoping my luck for a quick, uneventful, trip would continue. As I rounded the corner, I nearly ran into the exact same couple from the lumber aisle. They had (apparently) reunited with two couples they must not have seen since the end of the great war and all six of them were taking a moment to reminisce. Not a mask among the other 4 that was covering their mouth and/or nose and absolutely no social distancing, but there was a pretty steady parade of pissed of Doomers walking by, showing angry eyes over the tops of their masks. I decided Amazon would have the plumbing piece I needed and made my exit. On the way home, I swung through Meijer, again, just to get a jug of milk. As I got to the milk cooler, there wasn’t any milk to be found. Another woman, a Doomer, was already standing there, mumbling through her mask. When a jug of whole milk was slid into position, she opens the door and started yelling at the person that she was looking to get 2% milk and was trying to get her shopping done as soon as possible and this guy was PURPOSELY putting the other milk out first. Then she accused him of actually trying to get her infected with the corona. He said, very politely, it would be about 15 minutes before the 2% would be restocked and it was buried behind other items so he couldn’t go get it for her or he would. She told him she “was not going to stand there risking her health because he was too lazy to do his damn job” and stormed off, slamming the cooler door as she wheeled away. I waited for the next jug of whole milk to slide into place, opened the door, and told the guy stocking the cooler “thanks for getting the whole milk, I think 2% tastes like crap. Oh, and I appreciate you not trying to murder me while I’m shopping, too”. I suspect that was the first time he’d laughed all day. Nowadays, I try not to go out much. Simple manners seem to be declining. Don’t believe me? Go through a McDonald’s drive-thru and see just how ferocious that merge process is. I’m ok with the self-quarantine, but I really do miss being able to talk to other people – as humans – and not as potential plague carriers. Hopefully, by June, things will be much, much, closer to normal.
Until next time, thanks for reading, be safe, be well, and please be kind!