It’s easy during normal times to reflect on our lives and the many things we’re thankful for. But have you looked back on the dreadful days of COVID lockdowns and counted your blessings? For us, it’s a long list, some serendipitous, but largely of our own making. Here are the six things I’m thankful for.
1. Thankful for good timing.
We decided to spend a winter month in Florida and rented a condo in St. Augustine Beach in February 2020. We had three sets of family come visit us, and we showed them the historic sites, ate at our favorite restaurant (Mango Mangos), and took a few of the many available tours in St. Augustine. The weather was good, but not great, typical for northern Florida. We enjoyed the month away, and we knew spring was just around the corner when we got back home.
Of course, COVID was just about to hit, and the initial set of lockdowns were as brutal as they were ineffective. If we had chosen March instead of February, we would have been caught in some of the early orders closing bars and forcing restaurants to operate at half-capacity. April would have been even worse when the Governor issued a statewide stay-at-home order. If we had been there and gotten COVID, we would have been far away from our doctors and family. As they say, timing is everything, and in this case, I was thankful it was on our side.
2. Thankful for our lifestyle.
We were both retired and did not have to deal with everyone working remotely, did not have to be concerned with layoffs, or losing medical benefits. We were pretty healthy people; we really like being together, we watch our diet, and exercise most days, so the threat of COVID killing us was pretty small.
We had joined Walnut Grove Country Club in 2018, and after the golf course was briefly closed, we played a lot of golf. It felt like we had the course to ourselves and took our time enjoying the outdoors. We also spent many afternoons at the pool since we could be maskless when lying down and catching some rays. We kept up our outdoor running schedule and really enjoyed annoying people who thought we were crazy exercising, when, of course, the opposite was the case.
Unless something was strictly mandatory, we largely ignored the “officials” and the “experts.” While other people took “stay at home” literally, we continued our usual travels, starting with a trip to Pittsburgh to surprise our brother-in-law on his 70th birthday. His confused look as we pulled in his driveway was precious. Since so many people stayed home, I-70 had few cars on it, and the drive was as easy as it gets. In June, we vacationed in Nags Head, North Carolina, for a week, and other than the on-the-beach condo’s pool being closed, everything was pretty normal. We had a great trip to Hilton Head, SC, in July and a long October weekend in Charleston, SC.
We both cook a lot, and I think we’re pretty good at it, so when restaurants were closed, it wasn’t a big deal for us, other than having to wear useless cloth masks in the grocery stores.
3. Thankful for getting COVID before shots were available.
We both got COVID in December of 2020, fortunately not at the same time. Elaine got it first, and it hit her very hard. She spent over a week on the couch or the recliner, and I did the best I could as her nurse. After the worst of hers subsided, I got COVID, but not nearly as bad. I had enough energy to do things in the morning, but ran out of steam in the early afternoons. The most annoying part of COVID was losing my sense of taste. But now we both have natural immunity. There was a lot of noise about whether natural immunity or the COVID shot was better. My take is that human beings have a well-developed immune system, tailored over many thousands of years to combat all sorts of viruses and other attacks. To think that a bunch of scientists can do better than Mother Nature in less than a year is just ridiculous. The more they pushed, and how they pushed, led us to reject the COVID shots. The more we learn, the more thankful we are that we said no.
4. Thankful for being smart enough to see through the narrative.
In my opinion, anyone with half a brain who listened to what was going on would have figured out how wrong our government was. We learned that they had changed the definition of the word vaccine, changing its goal from "producing immunity" to "producing protection." That allowed them to say the COVID shot was a vaccine, which was only true under the new definition. When they start doing this type of wordplay, you know something is amiss.
As large gatherings were finally permitted again, the press shouted “super-spreaders” at the top of their lungs. All these fools would get infected, and suddenly, they would start a chain reaction that would overflow hospitals. Most of the gatherings that triggered rapid spread came from groups of a few dozen to a couple of hundred. You never heard the media say, oops, we were wrong. They just didn’t say a thing. You know they are trying to control the narrative when they’re not transparent.
The biggest lie was “if you get the shot, you won’t get COVID”. When “vaccinated” people started getting COVID, they called them “BREAKTHROUGH CASES”, trying to say they were few and far between. After enough of those occurred, they shifted their narrative to “you won’t get as sick”. At this point, everyone should have doubted anything these morons were saying.
Finally, when we learned that the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where they study coronaviruses, was near the first public outbreak of COVID, it was obvious that’s where it started. When the officials began vehemently stating it came from bats and doing everything to cut off any discussion, that just made the case clearer. Of course, it came from Wuhan. Duh.
5. Thankful for some changes that became permanent.
There were a handful of changes that businesses made during COVID that turned out to be good, and we appreciate them to this day.
At Walnut Grove Country Club, before COVID, you could only make tee times on the weekends. If you showed up during the week, you might be able to tee off right away, or you might find yourself behind several groups. To keep groups dispersed, WGCC moved to requiring tee times at all times. Because that turned out to be very popular, they have kept that new scheduling even after the COVID restrictions were lifted.
Several restaurants installed plexiglass barriers between booths in a silly attempt to keep this airborne virus from spreading. But the barriers did a good job of reducing the noise level from adjacent booths, so they stayed.
Our go-to bar/restaurant was Elsa’s. It’s less than one-half mile from home, so we would often just walk up and not worry about having a car. But Elsa’s had been going downhill for a while, particularly the food, so we had been looking at other options, but never pulled the trigger. One place on our radar was Jorrge’s, a Mexican restaurant further away but still fairly close. Because of reduced staffing, many waiters and bartenders were working extra shifts, and Elsa’s decided to close on July 4th and 5th in 2021. We decided to give Jorrge’s a shot, and it instantly became our favorite. They have great food, tasty golden margaritas, and the people are super friendly. We’ve met new friends, including the owners, George and Janet. Sometimes you just need a nudge to make a change, and we’re thankful we got this one.
6. Thankful that Marge did not pass during the lockdowns.
Elaine’s mother, Marge, passed away in the summer of 2018 at the age of 91. Like many older people, she spent her last few months in a nursing home, visited frequently by family and friends. While I understand that protecting the elderly from COVID was necessary, hearing stories of parents passing away without any contact from their loved ones broke my heart. While everyone misses Marge, I’m thankful she passed away surrounded by the ones who loved her most.
