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Lockdown Birthday
Drive-by celebration.
By Tim Clark
Back at home today, nothing new, nothing different. Nothings changed. The Corona Virus has painted everything in bland, boring shades of grey. Reality has become a monochrome kaleidoscope, vague shapes swirling into patterns of uniform insignificance.
Facebook has become a source of inspiration. You see proof that the people you know are alive. Sometimes it is easy to doubt that anybody is out there. I don’t know how many people it takes to bring you TVLand, (and we quit watching the news, Covid19 is the news and it is wearing thin) but it might be automated, it might run for years after everybody is gone. On Facebook, though, you get live updates. People going for a walk, a picture of somebody’s lunch, a furry friend playing with a ball or ball of twine. Little things, but huge things.
One of my wife’s co-workers asked people to drive by and honk to wish her son a happy thirteenth birthday. We jumped at the chance.
Shower, shave, dress, decide it is too much, dress again. “Do you think this is too casual?” “Do you think this will be too warm?” My wife found a birthday card and an iTunes gift card, everybody could use some iTunes money, we hoped.
Preen, fuss and prep. And then wait. The clock seemed to be stopped. Time crawled, sometimes…
