We’ve read the stories and seen the pictures – hundreds of spring breakers congregating on the beaches and in the bars in Florida.  Partiers fill the bars in Charlotte, New York or other cities on a Saturday night.  A group of runners posts photos of their latest group run, and when someone suggests too much togetherness they shake it off with a “haha, we’re always together anyway so what difference does it make?”

Well, the difference it makes is that those young people are the ones who are getting sick.  A news release from Mecklenburg County Public Health indicated that nearly 50% of the 80 cases (at that time) in the county were people in the 20-39 age group, with another 33% in the 40-59 age group.  Us oldsters – once again – appear to be the wise ones, at 18%.  Huh.

I get that we live in an independent society, but people seem to be more concerned about their personal inconvenience than they do about making sure they don’t get sick or transmit a virus to others.  I stood in line at the liquor store on Saturday, and no one in the line was maintaining the recommended distance.  They were talking and laughing and carrying on, no one seemed to be concerned.  I will give them credit though – they didn’t seem to be complaining and were nice to the clerks!

Friends returning just yesterday from several months in Italy remarked at the stark differences between the airport in Rome and JFK in New York.  New York is currently the epicenter of contagion in the US, and only a fraction of the people were wearing protective gear and no one was maintaining distance.  Granted, some of that may be because we were not/still are not properly prepared with adequate supplies (another contentious subject but not my bone today!), but mostly I think we (as a society) are just selfish and lazy.  Italy has a strong sense of community and is taking it very seriously, and they have still been hit hard.  Cause & effect, choice & consequence.

I live in a neighborhood where the majority of the residents are well into their 70s all the way to their 90s.  And nearly all of them have some kind of health issue that puts them at risk.  And most of them are being sensible and staying put.  We make regular runs to the grocery store, but thankfully we have a fully stocked (except for toilet paper!) grocery store and a Walmart within sight of our neighborhood.  We go early, get out quickly, come home and wash our hands and face.  I’ve been keeping up my morning walks, and rarely see a soul.

For all we wring our hands at the stories in the news and on the internet, we don’t seem to be taking it seriously.  And that’s going to make it harder on the people who have to take care of us when we do get sick.  Those people are taking it seriously now, and we need to listen to them and do the right thing, instead of wondering if we have enough junk food and toilet paper or what’s going to happen to our summer vacation if the school year gets extended.

“I couldn’t hear them before because Rabbit would talk.”

I know I’m not the only one, but over the last few weeks I’ve started getting emails from businesses and companies that I haven’t heard from in weeks, months or years.  For some reason all these people feel the need to “say something.”  Sure, for businesses it might be a winery saying that they were closing their tasting room, or the grocery store announcing shortened hours.  But if that’s all there is, that’s all they need to say!  But instead of “We’re Closed” they have to say something like “we care about our customers and understand that in this difficult time blah blah blah.”

I get that a crisis provides a good opportunity to remind customers that they are still around, but I don’t think an email from a spice shop in Blowing Rock that I’m not even sure I’ve been to is going to make me say, “honey, let’s drive up to that cute little spice shop in Blowing Rock and stock up on some of that Adobo seasoning we like.”  On the other hand, there isn’t anything else to do….

It just seems to me like a little bit of piling on.  If you want to send me an email when you open, that would be great, thanks!  But, if you happen to be having trouble with your X-Rite software, we sympathize.  If you happen to be driving through Sanibel, Florida, stop by, even though we’re only doing take out.  But no one is offering to bring me toilet paper….

I feel better now, thanks! 🙂

Oh, the photo is a series of “tree portraits” that I took in Hilton Head a few years ago.  The tree was just outside our condo, and I took multiple photos of it over the course of a week.  These 5 are printed on individual pieces of wood and hang in our bedroom.  My only “installation.” 😉

The road to our neighborhood leads past a shopping center before ending at a traffic circle.  The entrance to our neighborhood as well as a fitness center feeds from the traffic circle.

About once a month, an inattentive truck driver misses the entrance to the Wal-Mart, doesn’t notice the “No Trucks” sign and ends up in the traffic circle.  The traffic circle was not meant to accommodate semi trucks, but that doesn’t seem to deter the drivers.  What they should do at that point is back up the 100 or so yards and turn into the Wal-Mart entrance, and sometimes they do.  But more often than not overconfidence prevails and they try to swing their rig around the circle.  When that happens, they invariably snag one of the boulders that was placed around the circle specifically to deter such activity.  The rocks usually end up right at the curb, but sometimes they get drug out into the road.

This most recent time, someone helpfully placed construction tape around the rock as a warning to drivers.  Then someone came along and added some Christmas bows.  The rock is too heavy to move, so it will sit there until someone hires a contractor to move it back.  In the mean time, we have a Gift Rock!

The first trash day after Christmas is always interesting, sometimes to see who got what, and sometimes to see who got how much!  It looks like someone had a good haul this year.

I hope no one pays much attention to our recycling bin, as it is usually full of empty wine bottles.  You can always tell when ours goes into the truck by all the crashing glass! 😉