Rant #2,366: Whatcha Gonna Do?

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

No parades, no nothing, because of the coronavirus.

I guess you can still lift a pint, but you will do it in the privacy of your own home, because no bars or restaurants are open due to this virus.

But boy, has activity been fierce at liquor outlets, which are probably doing great business from what I have visually seen.

When I take my son to work, there is a liquor store nearby, and at all times of the day that I am there to transport my son, I see people walking out with cartons and crates of liquor.

Again, not bottles, but cartons and crates.

And using that as an assumption, how do liquor stores have tremendous, seemingly endless stock of liquor, but supermarkets don't have enough toilet paper and other essential items to go around?

And talking about supermarkets, my wife told me this morning that one local chain here on Long Island announced their new hours of operation, and they will be only catering to those 60 years of age and older during those hours.

So you see, it pays to be 62 years of age as I am. My experience, my background and my knowledge is finally paying off for me!

In other ways, of course, I am simply hitting my head against the wall. Looking for employment is tedious enough, but looking for employment when no company in their right mind is hiring is even worse, not just hitting my head against the wall, but literally breaking it through the wall, and not to the other side.

I look because the government says that I have to, so I can collect my unemployment, but if this thing stretches for as long as it just might stretch--the president said July or August yesterday, but he was kind of pushed into an answer, and you can tell, like everyone, he really can't possibly know--then I will be retired by then.

Maybe, as the form letters I get claim, the companies I apply to "will keep my resume on file" if something else comes up, and when things get back to normal, they will already have a ready stream or resumes to choose from.

Yup, and by that time, I, myself, will come up with a cure for the coronavirus.

Fat chance.

And talking about pulchritude, what about all the gyms that now have to close?

My wife, whom by the way, is in great shape, regularly uses a local, 24-hour-a-day gym. She goes in the morning before work, spends a good hour or so there, and then is on her merry way.

I asked her this morning what she is going to do now that all gyms are closed, and she said that she can do some of her exercises here at home, but she hopes the ban won't be for too long.

No, sorry, it is going to be for a long time, much like the Major League Baseball season, which has been pushed back once again, to open in June at the earliest.

I'm afraid that is a just something that they are saying now, but honestly, with what is going on right now, I don't expect things to start to get back to normal until July or August at the earliest, Funny, the president said the same thing yesterday, but like I earlier said, he really doesn't know, and can prognosticate like everyone else can.

Let's just say that the July/August timeframe is right on the money. Do you think things are just going to spring back into action right then and there?

I think that if things get back to normal in that time frame, things really won't get back to "full normal" until several months after that, maybe six months after that. Yes, things will start up once again, things will start to reopen, but to get everything back and running like they were, it could take six months, so we are talking about maybe January or February or even March of 2021.

Yes, so in essence, I believe that we are going to be in lifestyle purgatory for about a year.

You can already forget about 2020, early 2021 is a better bet for our lives to get fully back in order.

About the only good thing about this is that we are told to be isolated from others, and maybe it gives us time to take pause, to slow down a little bit, to enjoy our homes and our families a bit more, to cherish these things that maybe we have taken for granted for far too long.

In my house, i have my wife and son here, and below us, we have my parents.

This group is my true bedrock, and they help me push on through the day in their own unique ways.

I am sure we all have our own person bedrocks.

Let's honor and cherish them during this down period.

I mean, what else do we really and truly have that is stronger than this virus?