Phoenix, Arizona during the Global Pandemic, November 2020


It's November of 2020, and like I do every morning I woke up at about sunrise, fed the dogs, and went pedaling around Peoria, which is a suburb of Phoenix. I just love getting out into the fresh air, especially because the weather is so nice right now. OK, enough "Chamber of Commerce" talk from me! Let's talk about what's happening right now all over the world, which I will call the Global Pandemic.

I usually call it COVID-19, which means the strain of coronavirus that was discovered in 2019. But I realize that in the future this will become confusing, because the response to it didn't really start until 2020. At least that was my experience, this past April.

The streets were pretty empty this past year, and have started to pick up a bit recently. Of course, I don't see much, I'm usually back home by 9 or 10 am, and I travel the neighborhood streets mostly, only crossing the major streets when I have to. I see people who take the bus wearing masks, and while I don't wear my mask when I'm out on the road, I mask up when I go into a park, or crossing a major intersection, or wherever I see people. I see kids walking to school wearing their masks.

Of course, I live in the United States, in Arizona, a place that I dearly love, and I know that I have to share it with people who see things differently from me. I've always had a special fascination with trying to see things through other people's eyes, and this has been, and continues to be quite a challenge. And I've found that the best place to start is with what people call things.

Like I said, I tend to call it COVID-19 because I'm kind of a nerdy guy who reads medical papers, and has always been interested in science, and that's what those people tend to call it. Actually, the real serious people call it SARS-CoV-2 (I had to go look that up), but my head isn't quite that pointy.

You can call it coronavirus, but since the current strain is actually a type of coronavirus, that can make you nervous, especially when you see that your can of Lysol that you bought many years ago mentions coronavirus. Still, if people say that, I know what they mean.

For my friends who don't trust the mainstream media, I hear the term 'rona (which is kinda nice and breezy), and also the China Virus. Like everything, there's a wide range of what people believe, and trust. I have friends who imagine that it's all just a conspiracy, and since they don't wear masks, or believe in vaccines, I simply have to avoid them. I wouldn't argue with them any more than I'd try to convince field doctors in the Civil War of a thing called germs. It would just annoy them, and I'm not Dr. Lister!

I've been intellectually curious since I was a little kid, and wanted to know why the sky was blue. My mom pointed to a building called the library, and I started my journey of discovery. I know that it puzzles people that I read all kinds of books, and listen to all kinds of people. I grew up in the '70s, and I don't trust authority. I want to find out for myself.

OK everybody, let's be careful out there!

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