Overcast, 66°
Weather sponsored by:

Some lessons learned during COVID-19 leave lasting memories, bumps on head


Posted

As we slowly get back to normal following months of concern and confusion created by COVID-19, it’s clear some things will never be the same.

Personal space now is more than a preference. It’s a requirement. Washing hands and using sanitizing lotion has made obsessive compulsive disorders seem ordinary.

But there so much more we’ve learned from COVID-19.

Like most men, I didn’t understand just how important beauty and nail salons were to women. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way when I asked my beautiful girlfriend (yes, I’m pandering) if she had just baked something. When she asked why, I said, “It looks like you have flour in your hair.”

Through trial and error, I then found a frozen bag of blueberries helped soothe the pain and the knot on my head that followed my comment about flour in the hair of my beautiful girlfriend (still pandering).

Like, how much we’re starting to hate the terms “new normal,” “in these challenging times” and “in a world …”

Did you know if you have facial recognition on your cellphone, it won’t work if you’re wearing a mask?

And while we’re talking about masks, is it really necessary to wear a mask if you’re the only one in a car?

Another thing COVID-19 has done as pushed gas prices from unexplainable and obscene to absurd. There is no reasonable explanation why prices jumped as much as 50 cents a gallon in one week. I guess they think we’re being distracted by the virus and wouldn’t notice.

Now that we know how the novel coronavirus started, it’s safe to say most of us won’t be eating bats or Asian anteaters in the future. Also, what does this do to the future of buffets?

If it wasn’t for COVID-19 I wouldn’t have realized how much I don’t like the smell of bleach.

And while it’s noble for entertainers to offer at home concerts, it’s not the same. Watching “Thunder Road” isn’t the same with a bowl of fruit in the background. It also makes you eager for our favorite bands to get back on stage. I can’t wait to hear Johnny Van Zant to say “Turn it Up” before Mark “Sparky” Matejka starts the “Sweet Home Alabama” lick when Lynyrd Skynyrd returns to its tour.

Now that grocery stores have one-way traffic for its aisles, have you noticed no matter what you’re looking for, traffic is being routed in the opposite direction?

According to Yelp!, garlic rolls have been the most-delivered foods in Florida during the pandemic. Other interesting on-the-go foods include sushi in both Nebraska and South Carolina, burritos in New Hampshire, egg rolls in Montana and SPAM musubi in Nevada.

One good thing about being stuck at home more than normal is are number of home projects I’ve completed. I’ve replaced a drain motor on my washing machine, door lock, fixed my trunk lock, cleaned my grill and changed all of my refrigerator and air conditioning filters.

Of course, all the time home means I’m finding more projects to get done.

I don’t know the tolerance for the number of times I can watch “Two and a Half Men,” “That 70’s Show,” “Law and Order” re-runs, but I’m getting close. By the way, how many times are they going to show the four Indiana Jones movies?

And with so much attention being spent on COVID-19, it’s been easy to overlook this ominous fact: hurricane season officially starts next week.