Here’s the next in the “Outside My Window” series, chronicling life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Winter Beer
This year of the pandemic has it’s own rhythm. It was going to be different anyway, an election year and all. But with masks and restrictions, there still is a unique kind of isolation than there was in the past. Sometimes I feel as cutoff as my lonely “Biden” sign in the sea of “Trump” placards here in exurban Ohio. Not only are we wary of crowds and strangers because of COVID, but also guarded in the conversations we do have. A loose moment, and down the rabbit hole of political diatribe you go.
And as we move through September, it’s time: time for the “Biden” bumper sticker on the back of the Jeep. It generates interesting responses. There’s the random honk of support, the occasional middle finger of outrage, and once and a while, the aggressive tailgate and even dangerous cutoff. It takes a minute to remember – why is this happening? Oh yeah, it’s the bumper sticker and the fall. Folks are expressing their partisan views through their driving.
And after this long hot summer, it’s time to switch to winter beer. That’s been a thing for me for a couple of decades: Corona with lime to mark the beginnings of summer around Memorial Day, Canadian Labatt’s after Labor Day for the beginning of morning flannel shirt weather. So the last of the summer beer is gone, and the sad few remaining limes are relegated to the occasional Sunday Bloody Mary. Still need to be careful in the pandemic; don’t want those Bloody Mary’s to expand throughout the week. But they do taste good, and I am retired.
Tapped Out
It has been another week of tapped political adrenalin. We started this week, seven days so long ago, with the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That foreseen tragedy was followed by the outrage of the fight over her still warm seat on the Supreme Court. President Trump and the First Lady came to pay their respects: the crowd below the steps chanted, “Vote Him Out”. No disrespect to the deceased was intended: I think Justice Ginsburg would understand.
And while we were celebrating her life, the fires still burned through the West, and the rain events threatened the South. By the way, there have been so many (23) named storms this year that they’ve run out of names to call them. Now we’re down to using the Greek alphabet. Tropical Storm Beta came ashore last week.
More Outrage
The President outraged much of the nation and changed the subject once again, by declaring that he didn’t feel bound to accept the results of the election. So we spent a couple of days discussing what would happen if he lost, but refused to go. The glorious vision of the Secret Service dragging him out of the Oval Office, kicking and screaming and hair all awry was fun to think about. But the more serious matter of a President using all of the levers of power to invalidate an election challenges America’s democratic traditions.
The Attorney General of Kentucky denied access to the Courts to the family of Breonna Taylor, generating another round of protests and some violence over her unnecessary death. Two police officers in Louisville were shot on the first night of protests. They’ll survive, and the suspected shooter is in custody. He will end up in court, and likely in jail. Those officers have a good chance of getting justice for their pain. What about Breonna?
And, looming over the entire week, the COVID-19 death toll grew past 200,000. There was so much happening, that it seemed more than just overlooked. It felt like it was ignored, a political inconvenience instead of a national tragedy. Today’s “Butcher’s Bill”: 207,555 dead in the US, with over seven million infected. It was all this week. No wonder so many feel exhausted.
Normalcy
There were a couple of “flashes” of normalcy this week. I sat around a fire with a few friends one night, and had dinner on the back deck with some alumni athletes on another. Both events were exciting because they have become so rare since March 15th when the world flipped. And subconsciously I must be looking for an “old” normal. I got hooked on watching the last season of The West Wing that aired in 2006. It was about a “normal” Presidential election campaign in a “normal” time. Seems so much better than the “real” campaigns of today.
Besides my nostalgia for the characters of The West Wing it’s remarkable how the issues of fourteen years ago are still current. Trade issues with China, police shootings, the future of American energy, LGBTQ rights, and the use of the military to keep the world peace: all were part of the discussion in this 2006 fiction. It would fit straight into much of today’s debate as well.
It’s thirty-nine days until the Presidential election, a little more than five weeks. But that obviously won’t be the end of the national controversy. And if each week is as filled as this past one, we’ve got a very long way to go in the fall of 2020.
Out My Front Window – Part One (4/21/20)
Outside My Window – Part Two (4/23/20)
Outside My Window – Part Three (4/26/20)
Outside My Window – Part Four (5/13/20)
Outside My Window – Part Five (6/3/20)
Outside My Window – Part Six (7/3/20)
Outside My Window – Part Seven (7/31/20)
Outside My Window – Inshallah (8/13/20)
Outside My Window – Part Eight (9/15/20)
