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| About 8:00 last night, I snapped this picture of a sunset. |
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| After snapping the first picture, I waited a while, then zoomed in and snapped this photo. It almost looks like a grass fire is raging in the background, but it's just the sunset. |
I had only passed a few houses before I encountered a neighbor standing in her drive. "I'm waiting for the paper," she informed me. A few houses farther up the hill, I came across another neighbor doing the same thing. By the time I had finished my walk more than an hour later, I had come across a dozen or more lost souls wandering dazed around their yards, looking under cars and under bushes for their papers.
Old people are funny. They get into routines, and they don't like those routines altered at all. If I happen to be outside when the mail carrier makes his rounds, it's fun to watch all the old folks come out and head to their mail boxes before the mailman is even pulling away. I guess it's the big event of the day for some of them. The same is true with the paper. They look forward to that cup of coffee and paper when they wake up, and they are lost when that routine is disrupted. They remind me of meerkats or prairie dogs emerging from their dens looking around. Boy, I'm glad I'm not an old person.
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| "Have you seen my paper?" |
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| "I thought I saw that mail man go by, but my mailbox is empty" |
Tomorrow is Labor Day. Of course, the Labor Day weekend began on Friday, or even on Thursday for some. That worries me. I'm concerned that there will be another surge in COVID cases. I know that several events have been scheduled in our area. Lots of folks from all over West Texas usually show up in town to enjoy Lake Nasworthy at this time. I'm sure there will be little social distancing or common sense at any event. If there is a spike, we should see it begin in about 2 weeks or so.
I've more or less given up hope that the folks in this country will learn how to behave. We seem to put greater value on having fun than almost anything else. Our only hope now, I think, is an effective vaccine. We just don't seem to be able to make the sacrifices we need to bring this pandemic under control.
I'm sure glad I'm not one of those tied down to a strict schedule - - Ohp, hang on a second - - OK, I'm back. (I was almost late getting my thrice-a-week fruit-pop out of the freezer!)
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking the other day about my maternal grandparents in just the same context as your last couple para's.
They moved from their village with its limited prospects to the big city (Belfast) where they each lived separately while working low-paying jobs as they saved up for passage to North America, continuing their courtship, which started when they were children, the whole time. It took them over a decade to earn their passage to Canada, then look things over for nearly a year before moving on to America because it had better prospects. Several months later they finally felt things were right for them to marry and start their family.
They had the patience and discipline to essentially put their lives on hold for a decade until things were right, yet we can't manage to give up partying and bar-hoping for a short year or so.
It doesn't bode well for the species.