This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, (this ain't no foolin' around)

The words of "Talking Heads" ring true as we are now if week 6?  7?  of extended lock-down in Ohio.  I was thinking of them because, as everyone likely has, I've been chewing through all of the reasonable video content on my Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video accounts. Last Saturday I happened to come upon "Stop Making Sense," Talking Heads' 1984 concert video by Jonathan Demme.  I watched it and was transformed back into the '80's.  I had no big suit like David Byrne, but I was definitely a fan.  It was great watching and listening to music that I really haven't heard in a while.

With this music stuck in my head all week, I can't help applying their lyrics for "Life During Wartime" to today's circumstances.  "Heard about Houston, heard about Detroit, heard about Pittsburgh, PA."  We're all watching the news and hearing about these and other cities and how they're being hit by the virus.  Detroit especially has suffered in a terrible way.  We're approaching two milestones for my daughters this week: my youngest girl Caty's 21st birthday, and my middle girl Tessie's graduation from  U Cincinnati's DAAP graduate school in Architecture, both on May 1st.  Both milestones will likely be celebrated here at home, just like every day we've had since about March 16th when they both came home.  We're hoping that with the gradual lifting of restrictions, commencing on the 1st, that maybe we'll be able to have a few friends over, perhaps on the front porch or other outdoor venue, with plenty of space between, to help us celebrate our girls' accomplishments. "Life During Quarantine."

Preparations continue for the upcoming Dinosaurs on Wheels tour of America, but what will this be like?  Will anything be open?  Will we be able to find places to stay?  Or eat?  We were planning to credit-card camp, meaning pack light, buy what you need along the way.  We'd still like to do this, but we're going to have to plan for the worst and pack for more camping and cooking out.  "I got some groceries, some peanut butter, to last a couple of days." sang David Byrne, so long ago.  Could this be our fate?  We won't know until we get there, will we?  In the meantime, our packing lists are adding stuff for self-reliance.  We're hopeful, for the sake of so many who have suffered, that May will see a peak and a gradual decline of this scourge.  A bike ride is a silly thing, and I feel selfish for worrying about how this will affect us, since it's not really a necessity.  But like everyone, including my girls, and all the kids who had planned Proms, or graduations, or weddings, or new careers, that we can start to see an end to this isolation, and return to our regularly scheduled lives.  I think we'll appreciate a lot more of the little things we miss.  Aren't we all ready to try a little "social non-distancing" again soon? 

And as the lyrics of yet another 1980's singer-songwriter, Tom Petty, said, "The waiting is the hardest part."



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