Suddenly Facebook ‘memories’ from last year are being shared. Yes it has been a year.. ONE SOLID YEAR..
Friday the 13th .. March .. the moment that shall live in infamy. That is when a slow motion horror show developing on our television screens.. in our cities and states.. and in our personal lives.
Hindsight is ‘2020’ in 2021. But it’s not quite perfect yet.
That said, we know that the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold many weeks –if not months– before government officials stated it did. We also recall vividly the early days when the media blitz said not to wear a mask.. fast forward a year and we’re being told to wear two.
The entire year was spectacle. From European shut downs to travel bans, presidential briefings to bleach memes and a new President..
The entire affair can be counted as 12 solid months today of high strangeness. Friday the 13th. Just one year on.
Indulge me for a minute as I take a step back in time.. 365 days of solitude and sadness, melancholy and reflection. Your personal story may be as interesting..
Here’s mine.
While the world started to celebrate a new roar of a new 20s, we noticed the horns were rising with red. A devilish feeling was taking hold while the confetti at Time Square was still being cleaned.. Something was in the air. We just could not put our collective fingers on it. Perhaps the Iran strike? Perhaps the winds of war? … No. Something else. Something that just did not hit yet.
Meanwhile in my personal life, I began to use so much hand sanitizer that skin was beginning to literally burn off!
My paranoia set in early.
The Drudge Report noticed too, headlining “virus” on the site..
Things were real. But did not quite feel it yet.
By the end of January we were comparing the new virus to 1918. Other news like Kobe Bryant and the Trump impeachment dominated the more American headlines.
Meanwhile by February things changed.. something else became more serious.
The world began to watch developments closer.. the virus began to spread faster.
I began wearing a mask in some locations early January and February.. Amtrak.. when visiting Pittsburgh or Philadelphia..
A visit to China town in mid-February proved desolate and lonely.. things were changing, despite at that time leaders of major cities still telling people to go to dinner and go to public events… They didn’t get the memo yet.
The intensity level began to increase as the month of February continued..
A surreal sense of …something was increasing.
And the memes were spreading too.. the net was quite to make light of something that would soon become very, very dark.
Only days later.. March 2020, Broadway shut down.. New York City shut down. The NBA.. domestic travel..
Even Jeopardy shut down!! You know things are real for $100 Alex (RIP):
School began as we reported in March with a ‘school’s out for virus’ headline..
Just as the lockdown week started, my personal tale got interesting.
The weekend before, two important events took place.
It was my son’s 9th birthday party
Sort of appropriate for the affair, Ayden chose “Stranger Things” as his theme. People entered the ‘upside down’ for his party.. little did they know that reality would take them upside down a week later.
Yes, we were a little cautious as we know something was brewing.. as a matter of fact we gave a handy dandy gift bag to all of my son’s friends that included some candy and stickers. We also doused the kids with hand sanitizer and tissues as.
We had over 20 kids and 60 people total at the event. We shared a buffet of food, cake, and all congregated in the same room. Everything we would be told not to do only days later…
THE FINAL TIME I SAW MY MOM BEFORE LOCKDOWN
My mother is in a nursing home with dementia. It has been a personal matter rarely talked about on this website. Nonetheless, little down I know that one weekend before the lockdown would be the last time I would be able to be in the same room as my Mom … little did I know the significance of this Sunday visit..
As the second week of March began, chaos and crisis was in the air. To show how much has changed one year ago compared to now, take this headline: Riot police were called to the University of Dayton in Ohio as students protested the closure announcement of the school!
FRIDAY THE 13TH: REALITY TAKES THE WORLD
The declaration! It was an emergency! I was taking my temperature with a fever pitch while buying up as much CBD and ZZZquil a I could to relax!!
Just like 9/11, I recall exactly where I was during this event. My desk at my job, surrounded by co-workers, watching the live events take place. My paranoia was suddenly affirmed. I did not feel too good about that, of course…
As the lockdowns across the nation and world took hold, we wrote this:
WE ARE LIVING THROUGH A SURREAL TIME.. A few weeks ago, several followers and friends shrugged their shoulder and rolled their eyes at Coal Speaker’s Coronavirus coverage.. We knew this was serious.. I wish we were wrong. It feels weird.
Actually, mid-week this week I woke up and thought most of this COVID-19 news was just a bad nightmare until checking Twitter and realizing it was real. We have been on top of this for months now, and quickly realized back in January that the virus that began in a Wuhan fish market, and canceled China’s new years celebration, would become the story of the year..
And suddenly American is thrust into the drama of watching cases unfold before our eyes.. predictions–if they are true–state that our health care system will be tested to its core within 7 to 10 days.
May God be with our health care workers–my own family included.
The final personal dispatch on this moment in time comes with a photo of a sunset.. March 14, the day after the lockdowns too hold.. A basketball game with a new net and a beautiful sunset…
Life is good and bad at the same time. The best of times.. the worst of times.. at the same time.
The previous year was the best and worst at the same time indeed… And here we are one year later .. waiting to see what is in store for us next…..
