Things are different

By Grif Bond

As I start to craft this writing it is a pleasant late Sunday afternoon on our back deck, and I am sitting in the shade. The temperature is pleasant, sunny, low humidity and there is a clear Carolina Blue sky with the rising moon peeking between the Leyland cypress trees at the back edge of our yard. It is quiet.

It has been a challenging time for all of us in the past 12+ weeks. The novel coronavirus (aka COVID-19) has spread across America like an invisible wildfire. Sickness and death. Lost incomes and lost jobs. Travel stalled. Significant changes to our routines.

I am fortunate to be able to work from home at the breakfast table, in my home office or occasionally out on the back deck. Technology keeps many of us connected to work using a laptop, a head set and a web application for video conferencing. Telecommuting became telework. Things are different.

A recent TV commercial starts out with the soft narration “Find things that bring you joy; find things to remember; find new perspectives; find things to share; find the bright side; find connections”. The commercial promotes products from Etsy. The narration with the accompanying music included several images of family. I replayed the commercial several times to capture the words and found them to be of interest related to the current pandemic. Families cooking together. Families sharing old memories. A dad dressing up and playing with his daughter. Mom spending time with her son. I envisioned many of the images fit the challenging time we all are in. Things are different.

Spending all my time at home in the last three months allowed me to see the bright red cardinals, blue jays, wrens, chickadees, quail, and several other birds are all routinely at one of our bird feeders. More birds than I have ever seen. Maybe I just did not take the time to notice before due to all the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life. Go here. Get this. All the time at home working from the breakfast table and looking out the back windows allowed me this joy.

The neighborhood rabbit bops in and out of our backyard every few days. I figured out why my yard has small holes here and there. The squirrels returned to find the acorns they buried last winter. They roam around, stop, sniff, look right, look left, dig, and they find their bounty.

Open windows at night for a delightful breeze for easier sleep. Fresh spring air. No need for a sound machine. It is quiet. Waking to the sounds of chirping and singing birds at daybreak. Wonderful.

The sounds of the CSX local freight working on the north side of town are now easily heard at night. The hum of the locomotive’s engine I typically can hear at night when outside now is accompanied by the recognizable sounds of the squealing freight car wheels and the clang of the couplers. Several weeks ago, with the stay at home orders it was dead quiet at night.

Old recipes have been pulled from books along with the magazine clippings stuffed in drawers. Almost every meal is cook in. The folding grill style quesadilla maker we used years back with a teenager in the house has moved up on to the kitchen countertop for weekly use. Leftover chicken, beef, turkey, and other items help clear out the refrigerator and make a quick and easy lunch in less than 10 minutes. I have time to brew a big gallon of Luzianne iced tea the old-fashioned away. Gone are the premade jugs of tea from the grocery store. Things are different.

We saw and spoke with family using Zoom video conferencing on Mother’s Day so we could all catch up. We made connections across four states and multiple time zones. My nephew and his wife are expecting a new baby. The family was all informed at the same time, live on the computer.

Joyful times will return.

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