Pandemic sucks. There’s just no two ways about it – life in this world will never be the same.
I’ve often told Ms. Boss that her eyes are the window to her soul. That’s still very true, but it took pandemic to recognize that the rest of her face is necessary to know at a glance what is going on in the mind of the woman I love.
I was walking across the parking lot of my work the other day lost in thought, when a woman says ‘hi’ across the parking to me. I look towards her and see someone in dark chunky sunglasses and a black face mask. My ‘friend or foe’ function was a little slow to respond to the situation, so I gave a perfunctory ‘hi’ that could easily have been interpreted as ‘do I know you?’ and moved on. It was about three seconds later – after the situation was no longer recoverable – that I realized she was one of my bosses. I definitely could have handled that better.
The previous encounter could have been worse. I ran into the father of one of my daughter’s best friends the other day and it took five days to finally realize who he was.
I can’t hear, which is to say I can hear, but not very well. This likely comes from too much heavy metal music and wearing a headset at work for the last thirty years – different topics that will need to be addressed in different posts. I first learned that I was supposed to have a problem in 2009 when my hearing test for a job said I had problems with the high ranges in one ear. I didn’t think anything of it – no one needs to hear that high because people don’t talk that high. Fast forward about eight years when I finally get it looked at and the doctor tells me the higher ranges are necessary to understand what people are saying because they shape the voice. Over time my hearing has gotten worse little by little (my right ear is ringing as we speak) which is frustrating in and of itself, but then pandemic comes along. Take a person in the service industry, put a mask on them, then place them behind plexiglass. Next, bring in a 49 year-old dude and have him try to make a transaction. Hilarity may ensue for you, but frustration reigns for him.
Last night, I went to pick up Indian food for Ms. Boss and myself. The counter persons accent made things I wrote about in the previous paragraph even worse for me. When he said how much our food was, I was definitely having a ‘never coming back here again’ moment. When the bill actually showed the meal to be twenty dollars less, he ended up getting a $3 tip out of it. I guess in that very small sense, pandemic worked out for him.
I don’t just struggle with other people’s mask, I struggle with my own as well. My work requires them and I’m required to be there so I’m wearing one anytime I’m out of the office. As I mentioned yesterday, C.L. is quite a bit more rotund than he used to be and needs a bit of air to walk up the stairs – no problem without a mask. With a mask, I get foggy glasses, a mouth full of mask, and an elevated heart rate to start my day. I also barely leave the office anymore because I don’t want to put up with my mask. As result, my exercise goes down, and struggles with the mask have the potential to get worse if I embrace the sedentary lifestyle.
I used to fancy myself a Libertarian. Despite the fact that I work for government – a very necessary part of government I hasten to add – I felt that government was too much into our lives. Then the pandemic came along and all my fellow Libertarians clamored for the economy to open back up because government was infringing on their rights. What about my rights? Sure, it hasn’t been easy dealing with all this, but I know it’s for the greater good. I just know it.