Day: March 16, 2020

I can’t describe how infuriated I was yesterday to see the photos and videos of people coming into airports returning from Europe because they were scared and UNDER-INFORMED about the new travel restrictions.that were put in place by the President. This restriction was put out without warning or coordination with our allies and countries in Europe, and it was originally thought the restrictions also applied to CARGO. That was not the case and corrections had to be made almost immediately. It was also not clear that the travel restrictions coming from Europe did NOT apply to American citizens.

So…people panicked and the airports were jammed and packed with people for hours….people coming back from countries more infected with corona virus than here in America. All jammed packed together, coughing and breathing and rubbing up against each other. Many of them did not even get checked as they went through customs. They interviewed a couple from Chattanooga yesterday on channel 3 who said they came back from France, and went right through customs without being checked. Today they found another TSA worker in Atlanta who was positive for the virus. This was a huge mistake. It increased the problems we are going to have in this country exponentially.

In this country we are asking people to keep their distance from each other. We are asking people not to gather in groups. We are short on hospital beds, equipment, and manpower in our hospitals. This is the most serious crisis in my lifetime, and I was born in 1950. I don’t think there’s anyway to avoid this virus long term, so it becomes a matter of when it comes home to roost, not if. It becomes can it be survived? Most people will survive, more than will die….but “the center cannot hold….mere anarchy is being loosed upon the world.” (yeats…the second coming)

This could have been handled better, it could have been handled earlier, and more efficiently. It could have been taken more seriously earlier. We could have been better prepared. Lord I hate for people to die because of what might have been! I hate for the world to suffer because our civilization is breaking apart…even though writers and artists warned us. Scientists warned us! It makes me so angry. It’s so scary. Damn!

I don’t know where we go from here, as a country….as a world or as a race. Humanity. Humanity will survive, but the things are going to be so different next year this time, in two years, in five years. There will be a new normal….there will be a new….normal. Nothing will ever be the same. Nothing. I don’t know if I’ll be here to see it or not. If I am, I will help anybody in any way which I can. If not, then all I can do now is as I have been doing of late and that is to pray.

Tick tock goes the clock…..

I have laid my watch down in my driveway several times when I have gone for a walk. It has always been there when I got back. It’s never chased me around the block. All that has ever happened to that watch has been a change in the “hands” on the inside. They move. They measure time. And they always run forward.
For almost four years now Paula and I have been babysitters for Eli and Rue. Any of you who are my friends have seen their pictures. Tiny little tots they were when they first came to us….changing magically into toddlers and budding students.

I looked over at Rue today as she was sitting in Paula’s lap taking her nap. She has always sought solace in Nana’s lap for her naps. She’s being “weaned” off of “sassy” gradually, and she can only have it at nap time. So she’s laying there with her sassy in her mouth sound asleep and I suddenly am struck by the realization that there won’t be many more naps like this one.

Both of them are going to Pre-K next year, so they won’t be here during the day. School is out in May this year, so days of Rue napping in Nana’s lap are dwindling. The days of Eli and me going over to the church parking lot and kicking around his little red rubber ball are dwindling.

Those two have fought like brother and sister, but love each other like brother and sister.

And the hands on my watch are still moving, and won’t stop. And why the heck are there tears in my eyes while I’m writing this? I think I’m getting soft in my old age.

There have been memories with these two that I will never, ever forget. Those days will be one’s it will be hard for them to remember though.

There’s been days I could scalp them, but I miss them as soon as they walk out the door. Go figure.

Ahh well, it’s not as if they are dropping off the planet. They will still be around plenty…and I walk and walk every day to try and lengthen that time, and slow down those hands on my watch. Love will get you to do things you didn’t think you would or could.

Baby Evie will be down next week for a trial run with Nana and Papa. So, a new chapter joyfully begins while one of the previous chapters begins to wind down. And we turn the page, and wait for the hands on the watch to move ahead into the future.