The Wrong Channel

04/10/2020

I’m not really a sci-fi person. More of a psycho-thriller or a good drama with a love story type. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy Travelers on Netflix. It did not sound like my cup of tea with people coming back from a dismal future to alter events in order to change the path. We never see the future in the three seasons, but it is subtly referred to throughout the episodes as a place where human beings are not thriving and live it a sheltered space to avoid the demise that would result from going out into the world. Again, it did not sound like my cup of tea, but it was good.

Yesterday was a cold, windy and rainy day. Motivation escaped me. Cadence wanted to make a vegan soup with a lentil and coconut milk base and dragged me into the kitchen for some sideline coaching. She decided to add walnuts and I suggested toasting them first. She blended the base and added the vegetables but the walnuts were forgotten and burned in the oven. Against all better judgement, she coerced me into driving with her to the store to get more and she pulled on her PPE beside me in the car.

“Touch nothing.” I tell her.

Just two weeks ago, we were shopping unprotected, doing what we could with hand sanitizer on our carts and hands. The CDC said masks and gloves were unnecessary unless you were sick. They said masks would not protect you from catching Covid19, but should be worn by those who were sick to avoid spreading the virus. Leave them for the medical personnel who were being exposed so they would not be infected. So they wouldn’t protect us from the contagion, but they would protect nurses and doctors. It became obvious that this was a supply decision.

Still, early on, some people started wearing gloves. I did when I went on an inspection or to the gas station, pulling them off inside out and disposing in a bag before touching my car door or steering wheel. They only help if used properly. And soon thereafter, we began to see maskers. Occasional shoppers with faces half covered led me to wondering if perhaps they were sick and following CDC protocol. As of last week, the recommendation was made that people should, in fact, cover their faces. With mask supply still an issue, creativity spawned alternative face coverings from fabric masks sewn on a machine to paper towels with hair ties. It made me chuckle a bit when driving to see a jogger alone or a person driving solo in their car with a mask on; silly really.

In ten days’ time, the cases in CT went from 2,000 to just under 10,000 and the deaths from 36 to 380. Masks and gloves became mandated for public workers.

As I waited in the car for Cadence, I watched people come and go from the grocery store, gloved and masked, all but one. Last week the maskers looked like apocalyptic paranoid. There I sat, shaking my head looking at the one woman who was about to enter the store unprotected and she was the strange one. What was she thinking? The shift was dramatic. Everything that was up is down. Everything that was light is dark.

Cadence emerged and sat touching nothing, peeled off her gloves and held hands out for sanitizer to disinfect her credit card and hands.  She told me how surreal it was going into the store where literally everyone is masked. “Like a movie about the future where the air is contaminated and the only way to breathe is through a mask.” She said that someone said hi to her and it seemed like someone she knew. She returned the greeting, but had no idea who the person was as only the eyes are exposed.

In ten days, from silly to serious. Our reality has been altered.

I’m not really a sci-fi person.

I’d like to change the channel.