2 Years
Two years ago to the day… the World changed.
We all know what happened. COVID-19 happened.
Normal life was no more. The early days were possibly the darkest. No information and also… disinformation. How deadly was this thing? Fear is a terrible thing. It is insidious. It uses our own imaginations to create the worst case scenarios. Being locked down and not being able to go out and hang with your friends and family? Fear has even more things to use against you. Usually you could just be out and about and forget about what ails you. Whelp… not this time. This was different. This was a once in a hundred year pandemic. Humanity hit the worst case scenario… for real. And we had to deal with it.
Lockdown was one of the weirdest things I have ever experienced in my life. Businesses shut down. And you suddenly had a lot of time on your hands. Going on walks was very nice. You could just run away from people if they came close to you… but the thing is… they would do that to you also. It works. Lockdown was especially hard for front-line workers. Sadly even now… they are still the most affected by this never ending pandemic. I will say… that there were some benefits to the lockdown. Surprising… I know! In Los Angeles… to-go cocktails and drinks were suddenly okay and encouraged! Prohibition laws were suddenly thrown into the garbage in order to save businesses. Lets just not talk about how there were still some old laws from that time still on the books. Ridiculous. Also… I think people pulled together in ways not seen before. Families got closer. Friends became lifelines. Zooms were EVERYWHERE! You really knew who your friends were.
This wasn’t alarming at all…
That first year was rough but… fortunately vaccines came on the scene to save the day! It wasn’t even a full year by the time we got them! I will say… the rollout for vaccines was absolutely THE WORST. I won’t give a lot of time to this but needless to say… Wedding Planners could’ve done a better vaccine rollout than our state and local governments. Eventually people that wanted a vaccine… got the vaccine and places started to really open back up. Outdoor patios became THE HOT THING. Mask mandates were everywhere! People were getting back out there.
Travel started to open back up and my goodness was I ready. I got a booster before my trip and hopped on a plane to spend two weeks in Europe! To say that I needed that trip… was an understatement. People need to live and I certainly needed that. It was just sad that on the day I came back to the U.S. was when Omicron hit. Yay. Another variant. Woo. Guess what though guys? It is even more contagious than any that has come before! Right when we thought we had this whole thing on the down trend… this thing comes around and tries to mess up everything once again. Great.
Now this thing has become endemic. COVID has become the new influenza. It is… just going to be around forever. It really is depressing. All that time and effort everyone put into trying to eliminate it has kinda been for naught. If only we all lived in the place where Lord of the Rings was shot. Maybe if we had done what they had done at the beginning… maybe we could’ve ended this whole thing differently…
This past Friday, Oregon dropped the indoor mask mandate. It is weird. But… I guess this is what it is.
Grab a pint of your favorite Craft Beer. We all deserve one on this anniversary.
