Peoria, Arizona during the Coronavirus, November 2020


It's November of 2020, and if you're reading this in the future I'll try to describe exactly what I'm seeing now, in Peoria, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix.

This blog is usually about things that happened way in the past in Phoenix, but I'm a time-traveler, not a historian, so past, future, and present are all the same to me. I like imagining myself at any point in time, as if I were able to dive into the river of time at any point that I choose. Right now I'm choosing right now.

Speaking for myself, I feel great. I've never been so healthy in all of my life. I'm not kidding - I was a sickly little kid, I came down with colds so often when I lived in California in my twenties that I had my tonsils taken out at age 28, and when I started teaching at a private college in Phoenix, in my late thirties, I would inevitably get whatever was going around. It's a teacher thing. But this past year my human contact has been very minimal, and even when I stop in at my local Jack in the Box for my senior coffee (only 55 cents!), I'm wearing a mask, and I'm in and out in just a few minutes.

Anyway, the Coronavirus that's been floating around since the beginning of the year is absolutely deadly. The number of people who have died from it, and have gotten terribly sick from it, is staggering, and it's been especially bad in places like Arizona which have a large percentage of the population who don't believe that it's actually real. I've met these people, and to them it's all a hoax, or at least greatly exaggerated. I really don't know where these people get their information, but it's not from the news sources that I follow, as they generally call them "lamestream media". I try to smile and nod, and move on quietly. Make no mistake, there are a lot of people in Arizona who are very angry, and potentially dangerous. Best to not provoke them, like staying away from javenlinas.

I have a wonderful recumbent trike that I love to pedal around on every morning, so while I've been doing social distancing, I'm not stuck at home. Traffic has been very light, but nowadays I see it picking up a bit.

In spite of the people who deny that the virus is all that dangerous, I'm seeing excellent compliance with mask wearing. Of course I'm only out for a couple of hours in the morning, and I'm in a suburb, so I can't say what's going on elsewhere. I've been wearing a mask since it was just a suggestion, and seemed to make sense to me. I've always been that guy - I wore seat belts long before they were required by law. The Woman in my Life got me a few cloth masks, and my favorite one is in the pic up there, wiener dogs with cactuses (cacti?).

The Presidential election just wrapped up, and it looks like we'll have a new President in a couple of months. That is, unless you're talking to someone who doesn't trust the media. Also, the temperature just dropped like a rock, which is kind of what happens here in the desert, going from uncomfortably hot to "dang, it's cold out there!" I have to admit that I'm one of those people who doesn't trust the weather forecast, so I just go outside to see if it's cool enough to wear a jacket. If it looks like rain I stay home.

I got my flu shot a few weeks ago, which I've always done, and when the vaccine for the Coronavirus becomes available, I'll do that, too. I'll also continue to wear my bicycle helmet!

That's all I can think of right now, so I'll leave you with some reassurance, and advice. The advice is to keep smiling, and the reassurance is that while I'd love to give an easy answer to the situation, there isn't any, but there are a lot of good people working on it, including at my alma mater, ASU. Go devils!
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