Stubbed toes and viruses

Published 7:01 am Saturday, April 25, 2020

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So, Friday morning got off to the bang-up start that only a stubbed toe can provide.

Walking casually from the living room to the bedroom, as one would typically walk from living room to bedroom, my big toe managed to strike the leg of our bed.

The moment started as one would think it would: the quick dawning realization that you stubbed your toe, followed by the slow burn of the pain working its way up from the toe to your brain and ending in the stream of swear words either contained or verbalized.

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You can probably guess where I went as I hopped about the bedroom on one-foot, cursing the bed for its clearly intentional stubbing of my toe.

COVID-19 is the stubbed toe of humanity in 2020.

For this limited time, that is stretching for far too long, you can find all of the COVID-19 hits on this four disc collection from Time-Life Media. You know Donna, when I hear these phrases from way back in March, I’m reminded of an overlay complicated time period that just sucks.

Before Jeff Humphress’ performance on Facebook Wednesday we, along with his wife Kellie, vented a bit about hearing these phrases far too much.

It was a clear frustration that many of us are probably feeling right now. “I’m just so sick of being indoors and away from family and friends,” says the wayward soul tired of looking at their own family.

Shrug of the shoulder of suddenly-unimportant-person-in-their-life, “It is what it is.”

Cue wine bottle thrown across the room.

We’re all frustrated in life at this point. Social distancing, for all the good it has been doing for our state, is an irritant like that crud that gets wedged in your eye that you can’t get out.

Granted the weather is getting nicer and some of us are looking forward to ruining my garden, but for many, the idea of not being around people is tiresome.

We’re going to continue this for quite some time and where it ends nobody knows; well, except maybe the Shadow. He knows … he always knows — stalker.

The nice thing about human beings is we are really inventive. When faced with the circumstance of confinement and limited entertainment, we find ways to entertain ourselves. I think back to when this was also starting to ramp up and I covered a neat little neighborhood St. Patrick’s Day parade.

We’re using technology to keep up with friends and family with maybe a little tiddlywinks with manhole covers or for the real adventurous of us, underwater BB stacking.

What’s funny, is we’re at such a point somebody might be thinking they can actually accomplish underwater BB stacking. If so, please let me know how it went. I would love to see the video.

What I’m trying to say is, we’ll persevere through all this. Just like a person trying to spell persevere, we’ll hunker down and figure things out because that’s what we do — for better or for worse.

The history of humans, for all of its hang-ups, has alway found ways to get through tough times with an inventive nature. It’s what we do.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, but really it’s boredom. How many of your parents told you to go outside and “do something?” And we did go outside and made spears out of sticks and pieces of glass.

Listen, it was a different time and “First Blood” was kind of a big deal in our lives. We didn’t throw them at each other and we had to go in for supper before realizing any dreams of jousting on bikes. 

Give us some credit.