Grandfather Clock
There is a Grandfather Clock sitting in our dining room. It really is a family heirloom: it came from Jenn’s mother. All of the pieces and parts, the chains and pulleys and weights are there, but it doesn’t work. Jenn said the chiming was beautiful but loud, every quarter hour, and the ticking was, of course, incessant. So her Grandfather Clock stands silent against the wall, hands at 3:15, unerringly correct twice a day.
Most flat surfaces in our house have something on them, and the top of the Grandfather Clock is no exception. For years there were garlands from our wedding at the top, and for a while there was an old wireless doorbell. They garlands are now in a drawer, and the wireless doorbell replaced by a “Ring” camera system. So a year and a half ago, the top of the Grandfather Clock was vacant.
Pandemic
And that’s when Covid hit. We had our last meal out that Sunday, March 15th, two of four customers in a normally crowded tavern. And then we were home. It would be well over a year before we went out to eat again. At first, it was hide in your house. In fact I remember consciously thinking that if it was the outside that was safe. The virus was in people, not “in the air”. But we had to get groceries, and beer, and that most rare item of all, toilet paper. And to risk human contact, we needed masks.
Originally, I had the masks we used to sand drywall. They weren’t designed to restrict viral spread, to my knowledge, but there was a mask shortage and it was the best we could do. Then my niece sent us a stack of N-95 masks, the “hospital standard” for viral spread prevention. They worked, but it was a struggle. The N-95 were restrictive. They muffled our speech, and weren’t comfortable for breathing. So we had them for the times when we might be in a more crowded environment, but they weren’t our “go-to” masks. There are still some on the Grandfather Clock.
Our next choice was the handmade masks created by our friend, Angie. It was kind of like the ladies who rolled bandages for the soldiers away at the Civil War; there were mask making YouTube videos and family “bubble” gatherings to sew masks. Those were more comfortable, but they didn’t seal as well. And they had to be tied, so they weren’t as convenient. We soon realized that masks were going to be a semi-permanent part of our lives.
Amazon
So we ordered some cloth masks from Amazon, masks that had elastic straps to fit around the ears and metal tabs that could form fit around our noses. And those became our “go-to” masks. Whenever we went anywhere, which wasn’t very far, we had our cloth masks. They were hanging on the key rack beside the front door, on a hook beside the keys. Whenever we went out to the grocery or to Lowes for whatever house project we were working on, it was grab your mask and keys. And since dogs still got away from home during the pandemic, Jenn was often on the trail of one, and I’d occasionally tag along.
It was almost like another world, out there “dogging”. Gas stations and convenience stores were kind of open, and fast food drive-thru were available. As long as you didn’t need a restroom, things were pretty good. And if was good to connect with other human beings, mostly outside, standing over a “humane trap”, sharing stories of dogs and life in the pandemic. Those masks are still hanging on the hook.
Vaccines
Come December and the vaccines, it looked like another six months and we might be “over” Covid. I purchased paper masks, ones that could be worn, washed a few times, and thrown away. I decided to officiate outdoor track meets, and masks were mandatory even though the meets were outside. As I headed out, there was a paper mask in my right back pocket, opposite the wallet in my left. But by the end of track season in May, the mask orders were being lifted, and at the Regional meet it was OK to go maskless. It was good to see people’s faces, and not have to remember to “smile with my eyes” because they couldn’t see my mouth. The box of masks was on top of the Grandfather Clock.
I think it was mid-June that I considered cleaning off the top of the Clock and throwing all the masks away. We were vaccinated, and it looked like Covid was waning. But then came the Delta Variant, now followed by the Omicron Variant. As the pandemic turns into an endemic, it looks like masks may be a standard apparel item, like a coat or shoes in the December weather.
Time
There are still plenty of masks; paper, cloth, and N-95’s on top of the Grandfather Clock. It’s a fitting place for them. Masks have bought us time: time to get the vaccine, and time for Covid treatments to improve. Now there’s talk of a pill, kind of like Tamiflu, that you could take if you tested positive and had mild symptoms. And there are booster shots, maybe every year like the flu shot. What was a deadly risk is becoming “manageable” – if folks were willing to take the shot.
But many aren’t. So we’ll probably need masks again. And they are always available, on the way out the door. They’re up on the Grandfather Clock.
