The NEW Normal

Oh No!!

Have you looked out your window?

There is another enemy attacking and we can see this one.

The mobile metal machines that have been parked for so long are being covered in a dusting of yellow. The professionals tell us it will only get worse. Where is the curve? When will it end? Where are the daily briefings? What are we to do?

This new invasion will make your eyes water. This yearly elusive enemy will make you sneeze and cough. It is better that you are sheltered in place than go outside for you can’t avoid this pollen plague.

Data

Everyday there are statistics, charts, graphs, analysis, opinions and assumptions based on data. Everyday there is a stream of numbers of who are infected and the numbers of who are deceased. There are worldwide numbers and local numbers. This is the new normal scoreboard.

If all the numbers are assembled from scientific fact or general trends, the general public must make life decisions based on the presentation.

Scare the public with numbers of 2,000 dead or 600,000 dead or 8 billion dead and no foreseeable cure. Do not the elected officials know it is spring and folks are ready to break out?

How will the executive orders keep people from sunbathing on the beach? How will the executive proclamations restrain young love?

I haven’t dwelled into researching the constant changing numbers but who are these people?

What are the locations of the sick? Are they on your block? Have you seen them recently?

The one’s who have ‘passed away’ with a death certificate that states cause of death ‘Cornovirus-19’ must be identified for the obituaries. What is their age? What is their gender? What is their ethnicity? What is the color of their hair?

All-important information to make charts and graphs.

Home Schooling

Having your kids at home during these troubling times is a treat to be remembered. These are times they will tell their grandchildren (hopefully).

Mom (and or) Dad has gone from being a hair stylist, waitress, accountant or newspaper salesman to become a teacher.

It may have been some time since you took Algebra or figured out the proper grammar for a dangling participle, but you have been recruited to take over the lesson plans, direction and testing.

Luckily there is the Internet. Unfortunately there is the Internet.

If your school district has a setup for video or online instructions, sit back and watch your kids become bored (just like they were in the classroom).

If not, as a good responsible parent must pick up the baton and teach your offspring how to be smart.

How you test them and if the school board accepts the results is another question but I’m sure there is an app for that.

The big question is how do you send a discipline problem to the principle’s office? Do you have a yardstick?

At graduation you can have them walk around in their bathrobes and give them a piece of paper.

Chinese

Since this plague originated in China (or at least that is what the President says), what else came from China?

The Chinese invented papermaking, moveable type, the compass, the abacus, porcelain and toilet paper to name a few. Shoot, the Chinese invented gunpowder. Without them we’d have no NRA.

As usual our reaction is to blame someone for this ‘invisible enemy’. The President says it wasn’t his fault, so whom do we blame.

Just like our previous accusations and prejudice of people who don’t look like us or talk like us or have different hair color, remember that person you might think detriment to might not be Chinese, but Japanese or Vietnamese, or Hawaiian (that is one of our states, like the last President).

A virus has no nationality.

Money

Are you checking your retirement plan go down the drain? How are your kid’s college loans? When is your mortgage due? Have you saved up for that (now cancelled) vacation or were you planning on putting it on the plastic? What is in your wallet?

While it seems that the government wants to bail out every man, woman and child; these are all additional loans.

How is your debt now?

What if your plumbing springs a leak or your car gets a flat?

Attire

When was the last time you changed your underwear? Or you socks?

This time of sheltering is like camping when the same outfit will work for days and nights.

You can shake off the sweatshirt you wore yesterday and take a sniff. Not so bad so put it back on.

Who are you going to impress? The cats?

Let’s not talk about personal grooming.

Cooking

Have you learned how to make a menu for the family? How is your innovation in the kitchen going? How many recipes are there for beans and pasta and hamburger?

Eating in makes more dirty dishes. Is there enough soap? It will at least get you to wash your hands.

What is that call-out number?

Social Unrest

While building the airplane in flight, the human species has not seen anything like this in over 100 years (at least in our backyard).

The joy of spring is being restricted. No walks in the parks. No sitting on the rocks by the river. No clubbing or backyard parties with friends. No socializing.

 Now you know how those in the zoo feel.

When the temperature gets hot, the backyard sprinkler will not do it. Why did you go to the beach in the first place? Going to the beach vacation to buy fried fritters and get sunburn?

Maybe the ‘wall’ is to keep us in and not keep them out?

Entertainment

Are you appreciated of those who wear the label ‘artist’? The moviemakers and the television producers and the book authors and the poets and singers and dancers and painters, etc. who you are binging on instead of working at home are now out-of-work.

There are all sorts of videos on the web, but that is not paying the bills. Their second backup jobs were waitresses or Uber drivers or a grip with a book deal on the way.

Please put a penny in the hat. A half a penny will do.

Indulgence

Drinking is a popular and acceptable way to pass the time when there is nothing else to do. Remember Ripple Wine?

The bars, taverns, diners and eateries may be closed but the alcohol bureau is open for business.

Unlike paper products, the booze business is keeping the shelves stocked.

There are virtual drinking parties that get better by the minute and you don’t have to clean up the other person’s puke.

Homes

Prisons, jails, orphanages, old folk’s homes and hospitals should be avoided at all cost. They are all places where people are massed and a breeding site for contagion to spread.

What about detention centers?

Faith

Faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something greater than you.

If you don’t believe these are stressful times, just listen to the media.

Everyone is confused, full of panic and looking for an answer to the unknown (because we have become so accustomed to the norm). 

Perhaps the faith leaders can give us some direction to get us through?

Things will be better tomorrow. Suck it up and stick it out. We are all in this together (except in confinement).

Bring out your dead.

Watching the clock and the calendar

The officials now say it will be another 30 days. Maybe another 60 days? There may not be a family gathering? There may not be a birthday party? There may be no Halloween or Thanksgiving or Christmas?

The NEW normal is the Great Unknown. What an adventure it is.

Down to seeds and stems again. Luckily there is delivery or drive-by pickup. Cash only.