Life Matters: It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

By LINDA PETERSEN
Posted 5/6/20

What a lovely day! The air is warm and the sun is again streaming through my windows. With the loosening of restrictions coming up, many people are outside enjoying the weather and the limited freedom. Many dog walkers come down our little side street

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Life Matters: It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

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What a lovely day! The air is warm and the sun is again streaming through my windows. With the loosening of restrictions coming up, many people are outside enjoying the weather and the limited freedom. Many dog walkers come down our little side street with oomph in their steps, including the dogs that seem eager to explore. Our pets are going to get spoiled during this pandemic as most of us are at home where they receive regular tummy rubs, left over tidbits from lunch, not to mention the daily walks.

Although cautious, most of us have a positive outlook about the future. Many people are going to have to acclimate to new jobs. My youngest son, Angel, has been earning money driving for DoorDash, something he would have never thought to do a year ago. Although I have been working from home, I can still cover all my job duties. Granted, it is a little lonely without colleagues with whom eating lunch and chatting is enjoyed. Zoom meetings leave a lot to be desired as a group activity, but it is better than nothing. When I was a child looking to the 21st century, talking via video streaming seemed predictable to be the norm.

Shopping at Big Lots, (properly attired in personal protection gear and keeping a six foot distance from everyone else,) I was greeted with a display of T-shirts. Not just any t-shirts, but inspirational, optimistic t-shirts. They were bright and cheery and had smiling suns and flowers and encouraging sayings on them. My mood brightened just seeing them, and, of course, I had to buy a few, unable to keep the smile off my face. Their marketing director was a genius to place them right inside the front door.

It is very ironic that gas prices are the lowest they have been in years, yet we have no place to drive! When I DO drive, the cardinal rule about speed limit is always broken. With so few cars on the road, it is very difficult not to lose perspective and drive faster. This was brought to my attention by the flashing road sign that said NOT to drive fast, at which point my speedometer was hovering around the 70 miles per hour mark. Oooops…

Driving along Warwick Avenue is sure to provide entertainment. One young man wearing music headphones was be bopping along on the sidewalk practicing dance moves, CLASSICAL BALLET moves. He was so good that, were I an entertainment manager, I would have signed him on the spot. He was so good that, for once, I could appreciate ballet. He was so good that he made many people smile, lightening their moods.

There have been many issues surrounding food sources. In order to make accommodations for too many potatoes unable to get to market, people in Belgium have been instructed to eat their favorite French fries twice a week. It is thought that there will be a decrease in the supply of apples because migrant workers, who prune the apple trees to let sunlight get to the growing fruit, are unable to get into the country. Strawberry pickers will need to spread out in the strawberry patches, making it more difficult to harvest the regular amount during their two to three day picking period. Of course a meat shortage has been predicted due to the virus affecting meat packing plants. Hubby figured this out too late. Excited to see the current meat sales, his plan was to buy a freezer to store extra meat. We searched high and low and could not find a freezer to purchase; too many people had thought of this idea before him.

The one thing this pandemic has taught me is how to slow down and enjoy life as it is to the fullest. I now have time to read newspapers that I didn’t have before. I video chat with my granddaughter and son in California, something that wasn’t done as often before. I create little care packages of school lessons for her, simple but fun for her to receive. Hubby now has time every day to create an amazingly creative dinner menu, (as testified to by our waistlines.) He and I have time to watch entire movies on Amazon Prime and Netflix. We sit outside in the backyard to enjoy the geese on the lake, and enjoy taking walks, which we never did before. Yes, it is a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

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