The pandemic Covid'19
After the pandemic hit, the so-called “experts” spoke about the “new normal”. This is supposed to be a resetting of our everyday expectations. The things we took for granted as normal would need to be reconsidered. This would affect everything from how close we stand to another human being to whether we had to schedule a time to visit a local zoo or some other now capacity regulated venue. But Rod and Lori aren’t from the generation that just accepts these rollbacks to our freedom.
Perhaps Lori is a little more conspiratorial in her thinking than Rod. After all, she has “go-bags” filled with survival items in case some disaster or man-made crisis causes the need to depart from their property.
Seeing people in masks everywhere you go is disheartening. Both Lori and Rod are of the mindset that “if it’s your time to go, it’s your time”. Little could be done to prevent it. This doesn’t square with a world currently caught up in fear. Whether the virus is as bad and deadly as news reports say, Rod and Lori weren’t the types to live in fear. They already went against those who naysaid their reunion. “Oh, they will get tired of each other” or “They are trying to relive their childhood”.
But the virus did change their dream. The dream for the RV was to travel to multiple states, to see the world. This new normal includes people who block highways and do damage to the stopped vehicles, all while the police sit and watch. The governing authorities no longer want to engage the lawbreakers. The new tactic is to wait it out.
Such an incident occurred in Louisville Kentucky, the route up to Indiana. What if Rod and Lori would have driven the RV up to Indiana like they had planned this summer and the RV was attacked by these criminals? Rod and Lori were not likely to just sit and let it happen yet any aggressive response from Rod and Lori would place them in trouble, not the agitators.
So, there sat the RV. The faded infinity symbol on the front. Plugged into the orange cord to make certain the auxiliary batteries stayed charged. But it wasn’t going anywhere. They couldn’t even take it to someplace nearby as the Florida snowbirds were leaving no vacancies in the usual campgrounds Lori and Rod like to frequent. The RV sat and sat.
There were still plenty of things to get done around the property. The stocktake pool needed the moulded cement cobblestone border made all around it. The bird sanctuary needed red mulch laid over the caladium bulbs. The used-tire vegetable garden needed tomatoes, potatoes, watermelons, green beans, and peppers planted. Not to mention, trees need to be selected for the orchard. There the RV sat and sat. The new normal is a disaster for living life.
Some people think America is a place, a country but rather it is a mindset of those original settlers that came to this wild land. They no longer wanted to be ruled over by kings and queens sitting on golden thrones barking out dictates to which the monarchs do not need to abide. It seems we are back at that position. But this time, the dictators are local and dressed in ties and pantsuits. They claim they do what they do for the greater good, but their many contradictions say otherwise. This book is not a political expose so the author will leave that to some of his other books. Yet, a sentence or two was needed here so that the reader can feel the frustration of a world on lockdown.
The new normal happens all the time. We must constantly readjust to circumstances. Fortunately, Rod and Lori’s 1.33-acre property allows for another outlet. The seven-foot, three and a half inches yellow table Rod and Lori built from scratch sits against the sunroom windows, overlooking the bird sanctuary. The newly planted gardenia and plumbago waving in the zephyr wind as cardinal and crackle peck pieces of seed and corn from the plastic plates affixed to lumber tops. This is the view every morning as the two adoptees sip their coffee and tea.
Out a few feet further to the left, following the…wait, “Get down Roscoaf. Okay I’ll pet you for a minute”, says Rod. Back to the book.
…following the cobblestoned footpath to the stock tank pool. At its edge, chocolate mint plants will encircle it, hopefully giving a pleasant but curious experience as swimmers swim and talkers talk – a momentary whiff of delight. Rod and Lori are trying to make Yggdrasil memorable this way. The little things you wouldn’t realize are going into every detail. Even the yellow table has just the subtle splash of glow in the dark paint that gives off a mysterious hue that only the mind’s eye might perceive. This is the new normal Rod and Lori are creating. A new normal that is not normal at all. If we’re going to be forced to be more solitary, it might as well be beautiful and full of imagination.
Lori’s dad sometimes expresses that he doesn’t understand why she and her brother do things the “hard way”. Why not just buy a prefab plastic shed? Why not buy a standard-sized table instead of putting so much effort into that customized yellow plank of a thing? But then again, even before Rod and Lori’s reunion, her adoptive parents noticed she was a bit eccentric, always creating the unconventional. Whether it was using sticks and cardboard boxes to create a dollhouse or building a home out of a pole barn on the 41 acres she once owned in Shoals Indiana. These adoptees separated by years, miles, and minds still have the same propensities. Rod was as creative as a child, making large colonies out of a mound of dirt with tunnels and valleys for the 26 toads he once caught in his backyard. His creative side as an adult would be more demonstrated through his programming abilities than building toad cities or pole barn mansions. He had a knack for words and letters and conditional statements which is more helpful in computer coding than mathematics as you’d suppose. This way of looking at things allowed him to apply unconventional solutions that fittingly enough also turned into a book called Excel for Everyone. It’s not a boring nerd book full of functions and code snippets, but rather, like all of Rod’s books it is urging the reader to break out from the convention and embrace innovation. The new normal indeed. --
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/03/23/10/26/covid-19-4960254_1280.png