Off-Kilter

Hello Lovelies! I went on my first "journey" in a while today. All the way to the library on their last day open before an indefinite re-shut down due to some spiky spikes of Coronavirus around here. Then I went to pick up my prescription, and let me tell you how the both went: The library was like a parody of itself. Like "The Twilight Zone" really, as an uncomfortable amount of things have been this year. There was a volunteer in front of the door asking me to state my purpose at the library--not in those words, but that's what it felt like, and he opened the door. Then once I got past that "check point" a member of the library staff greeted me (not unusual) and then I had to tell her why I was there (different than before). I'd only come to make some copies, and found out the machine wasn not even on the same level of the library as it had previously been! I was told to take the elevator up rather than down, which I had anticipated, which was a surprise. It reminded me in a scene from a movie sent in France during the Black Plague years. Pointing behind him on a filthy, rainy street, one man warns another: "don't go that way monsieur, it's The Plague." I thought to myself "is the basement so Covid-ridden that they've closed it off to the public completely, and moved everything so it could be decontaminated? Wild." "Don't go that way m'amselle; it's the 'Vid" History repeats itself in such astonishing ways. So anyway, every single service desk has about a four foot plexiglass panel above the desk to protect the people working behind it in masks. I had to tell somebody at almost EVERY station what I was there to do. Finished my business quickly and had to take the elevator back down. There was a block of wood covering every button on the floor panel except the two in use:( It was so sad. To think there have been people with Covid touching all the elevator buttons so often that the staff finally had to MAKE them stop that...makes me sad AND angry. Because here we are amid a double Pandemic after all. The Flu hasn't surged yet, which is the only reason ignorance, Coronavirus AND the Flu haven't taken over the world yet. Apparently we can only hope, as ignorance--WILLFUL ignorance--is definitely a nationwide infestation. Nevertheless, as I left the library I avoided opening my mouth to anybody at the desks or the check points. I knew if I dwelled on the fact that I was losing the library again, I would have left that building in a puddle of tears. Luckily I could instantly focus on getting my prescription, which was not far at all. They were exceptionally careful there too, but the strangest thing about THAT experience wasn't even so much the blocked off building or the pharmacist sitting in the antechamber to the building with a door behind him to all the supplies. That was weird, but not unsettling. As I sat and watched the custodians talking and laughing while they mopped the main floor behind a barrier while I waited. I washed my hands with a squirt of hand sanitizer. I complimented the sweet employee who'd gotten me and another lady chairs while we waited. Everything was weird but normal. The creepiest part was going home! My section of the street was blocked off. There was a hand-written note saying "STOP: Testing Site" and traffic cones in front of the double-wide trailer-sized Red Cross testing site people drove up to. It honestly felt like I'd fallen down the rabbit hole. Like everything looked normal but wasn't normal, like a parody of itself--the theme for the day. In my absence from the outside world a couple of new restaurants seem to have popped up, to my amazement. Some of my old favorites amazed me further by still being open. But It felt absolutely spooky. And a little sad. I walked past the big building that formerly housed my favorite museum, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts. Filled with moving boxes and gated closed behind locked doors, I just ran my gloved hand all the way across the biggest window, as if giving it one final hug. This was the building that somehow escaped unscathed during the riots this summer. But it couldn't withstand the economic mahem this new world has brought with it. I couldn't get home fast enough. My happy thought is a moment on my way to the library when a guy started to leave his car, but saw me with my mask on and ducked back into his car and emerged with a mask in his hand:) It made me glow to think I "spread sunshine" even when I'm not planning or trying to, even with strangers. After I got safely back to mt apartment at last--somewhat out of breath from all the ups and downs of this hilly neighborhood because I've been...rather lazy lately--I threw whatever comfort food I could find into the oven, and made me a huge late lunch! One must remember to eat during these, the strangest of strange days.