Pansy and the Pandemic: One Year Later

Well, it's one year later, more or less, and things are starting to get back to "normal." Well, as "normal" as we can get: schools are starting to re-open. you can dine in (in limited numbers), go to the movies (in limited numbers, both because of restrictions and because a couple of movie chains gave up the ghost), and the traffic and the air quality is almost back to the dismal pre-covid days. Just yesterday there was the ultimate sign that Los Angeles was over the hump: Channel Two preempted hours of coverage of anything for another one of those LA Institutions, a freeway chase. They only went to split screen to inform us that the Staple Center had been disinfected and would be open for the big game tonight.

Glad there's nothing happening in the world.

As we move more toward "normalcy" there are a few things that I, selfish creature that I am, will miss. Certainly the air in the first couple of months after the lockdown. It was amazing what can happen to the sky after a decent rain in Los Angeles if nobody is driving their cars. I will miss at the lack of rush hour, which started pre-lockdown at 6AM and went on until about 9PM on weekdays, and that was just the surface streets. I will miss Zoom meetings (If they ever truly go away) and the notion that a decent shirt, clean face, and appearance of concentration is all you need to get through that hour. I won't miss waiting in line to get in the store, hoarders, and crazy people who insist that masks are a commie satanist democrat plot Hillary, Dr. Fauci and George Soros came up with over a few brewskis.

Which brings me to..

I will, in a week, be receiving my second vaccination jab, in no small part because of a local anti-vaxxer and anti mask "advocate" who I will refrain from calling a local loony (oops! Too late!) She apparently had a meltdown (this time not on camera, how novel!) at a local market and decided to call for a boycott. Of course I decided to call on said market and shop. When there I was chatting with the owner, with whom I have been friends for thirty years or so, he told me the whole story and how a mutual friend informed him of the boycott. Mutual friend and I got to chatting and I lamented that I was unsuccessful in getting an appointment for the vax. Being she, she had me one in ten minutes. So while Ms. "Stop the Steal" would appreciate neither the irony nor the humor, the fact that I will be "Thoroughly Moderna Pansy" by the end of the month has a lot to fo with her.

Photo: Me in my Satanware (actually Lilly Pulitzer, but some would say it's the same thing. Taken by me.