My Covid World 2020

 

My first car was a 1960 VW Beetle with a soft sunroof like this one. My car was three shades of red thanks to various bumps and scrapes it had before it got to me in 1972. It became my ride on my 16th birthday, so the car and I were close to being the same age. It didn't have air conditioning but I didn't care, I loved it. My boyfriend of that time installed an 8 track tape player in it for me and I had a plastic cup holder so life was good. It used $5 of gas a week and had no gas gauge - if it started coasting I just pulled off the road and moved a switch on the floorboard with my foot to open the one gallon reserve gas tank so I could go find a gas station. Life was easy in 1972.

I'd say that easy life ended for me on March 1, 2020. Bye bye, normality - hello Covid. I had flown to Altona, Illinois and back that weekend to pick up a cocker spaniel puppy that was intended to be my companion in my retirement years. That trip included 4 airplanes and two chaotic passeges through Chicago O'Hare airport ; thankfully I had reserved assistance to get to my gates or I never would have made it. I noticed several people walking around with masks on their faces but didn't think about it at all. I played with the dog and brought her home! We named her Tootsie.  

In the March 1st newscasts we got the first clues that Covid had arrived in Tennessee. Of course in hindsight we realize it had probably been here for months, but that was part of the initial mystery. It looked like any town that had an airport also had Covid, and it was spreading fast. By March 6th I was working from home and spraying my mail with Lysol before I touched it. It was perfect for someone who needed to be at home house training a dog. And I could stay in my pajamas all day!

Thousands of people died. We got to see closeups of the mobile morgues parked outside of the hospitals in New York City. Business travel screeched to a halt all over the nation. My job specialized in travel arrangements, event logistics and filing expense reports. By June my job was gone and I was unemployed - poof!

October rolled around. This was to have been my auspicious 65th birthday complete with a week at the beach drinking champagne, getting Medicare insurance, and getting my first tattoo. Another 'poof' - Covid continues to kill and terrorize the elderly. I did get the Medicare but the rest floated away as if in a dream. Bye Bye.....

So I'm home every day with the dogs, filing for unemployment and taking art classes online thanks to the ZOOM app - I'm getting to play with paint and drawing pretty pictures. It is a surreal life that I never would have dreamed of. I go out of the house maybe once a week but you can bet it's a quick trip, I don't linger anywhere. When I get cabin fever I load up the dogs and we all go for a ride around the countryside, windows cracked so they can smell all of the interesting things out there. Otherwise, we are at home listening to audio books from the library or playing with the art stuff. Life is simple and I hope we all survive! Ya'll stay safe -