Staying Put

baby ducks!

Missouri has started to reopen bars and restaurants and public spaces of all sorts. Me? I'm staying the course. As Leonard Pitts said in a recent column, "I'm not about to die of stupid."

I long ago lost any illusions I had surrounding the notion I could somehow avoid bad luck, bad genetics or a combination of the two. Given that I am a cancer survivor, I am at heightened risk for a bad experience with the 'rona virus if it catches up with me before a vaccine can be developed.

So, until the curve flattens out, I'm not budging. I have not one, but three face masks I can choose between when venturing into local stores. I try to sanitize my hands as soon as I get back into the car after I'm done shopping. I will do what I can to minimize my risks.

All that said, I still need to live.

Against the rules of caution, I went to Iowa for lunch last Sunday. My niece had called partway through the week; needed a good place for a time-out from her regular life. My sister, who is also high risk and also mostly staying put, disregarded her own precautions to climb into the car with her husband and ferry the restless teen on down to Ankeny, the halfway point between our houses. Given we'd already broken quarantine, we threw caution to the winds and shared a meal in the Chipotle parking lot before going our separate ways. What the heck.

As I drove on up, it was easy to pretend nothing in the world had changed. The drive is familiar, I thoroughly enjoyed the varied spring greens adorning the trees on the way. There was some traffic, but it was fairly light; I was able to let my mind wander hither and yon as the road unfolded before me.

I had to laugh at myself when I stopped for a pit stop. As widely reported on the news, masks are few and far between in rural America. And, for a stupid second, I wanted to blend in. Since no one else was wearing a mask, I didn't want to stand out by wearing mine.

Where did THAT come from?  Since when have I minded if people look at me crossways? I mean, I used to care, but that's been more years ago than I care to count. Sometimes, old patterns of belief pop in at the oddest times... The mask went on.

My week has been spent learning to adjust to yet another person in the house. It takes time to learn to share quarters; there's been lots of wriggling on all parts as we figure out how to get along.

I think it might just be a plot on the part of the Universe to keep me from getting bored. If so, it's working.