Unexpected Holiday

      One of the things about surprises in life are the ones that turn out to be a blessing in the midst of a bad situation.  This was the case during the early stages of the Corona Virus.  A curse for some turned into a four day holiday out of the blue for me, just at the right time.

    I will start out in the days leading up to when the lockdown started in earnest.  This is going on a couple years nows and I don't recall the details (funny how I can recall certain details when I write my childhood stories from the 70's...), keep in mind I am not writing this as a historical document.  Anyway in the days, weeks, etc. leading up there had been a growing social anxiety.  One could sense it when they went to the market, the shops, etc.  Queues in the shops were more hectic, and don't get me going about the situation about toilet paper shortage (our house never had an issue with the, even in the worst of times, I will chalk that up as one of life's little blessings).  Granted I currently am living in a large city and urban life is chaotic on a normal basis.

     I will start on Friday the 13th March 2020, I was in my hometown of Bellevue, Ohio.  It was a day off for me and every couple weeks I take a drive to get out of the big city and visit family and friends in my hometown.  I had gotten my hair cut at a barber who is a friend of mine from high school,  I probably told him that he should take advantage of his name Jason and it being Friday the 13th.  I always thought he should advertise something along the likes of "get cut this Friday the 13th by Jason..".  Jokes aside, I then walked 20 yards to the candy shop owned by my two Sisters.  

   I then went to one of the two grocery shops in my town.  I thought it a good idea to stock up on a few things.  I got some ginger beer for me and a extra bag of food for the cats.  What struck me was how laid back the place was.  I was used to being in Toledo with a total hectic loud crowd scene that was claustrifobic to put it lightly.  Here was a small town shop with people acting civil and there was plenty of toilet paper for sale...

    Saturday the 14th of March I was walking into work at the auto parts store I a work at.  I was scheduled from 9am to around 8pm.  I had to work in the warehouse part till 3pm then I had to drive a four hour route delivering parts to other stores.  Walking into work I was informed that we would be shutting down our last delivery routes today and for the foreseeable future.  Boom!...my work day had been chopped down to 3pm.  As fate would have it, with the current cutbacks I ended up having four or five days off in a row!!!  Talk about getting lucky!!!  We had been working our bums up to that part.  I had not had more then two or three days off in a row in recent memory.  I was not concerned about missing a few days of work at that point, I was just stoked to be able to have a rest.

   On my way home that afternoon I stopped at a local store to stock up more on food.  Dealing with the crowd scene took patience, but I made it.  My Wife had a few days off as well.  It happened at a perfect time.  It was mid March, it was cold, wet, dark etc...probably the best time to be stuck inside with nothing but TV and internet, and a bunch of small projects I could take care of.  

    I got into a habit of going to sleep and waking up sometime after Midnight.  I would then go to my workshop in our basement.  Down there I would fire up the stereo and reload cartridges.  I reloaded a bunch of empty .38 Special cartridges that I never got around to, then onto reloading .45 Auto...  I even loaded some .44 Winchester Centre Fire rounds.  

   Another habit I got into was waking up and looking for horror films from the the 1970's and 1980's.  Thank God for Tubi!!!  I would watch a film at 2am, then go to sleep, wake up at 5 or 6am then watch another.  Then sleep in until whenever...  I think I watched "Shriek of the Mutilated" 1974, "Humanoids From the Deep" 1980, some film about a Yeti attacking a Ski resort circa 1977?  Films like that...I love them!

    After four of five days of having carte blanche to do bugger all and not feel guilty, it was back to work for a few days.  I think I worked two or three days, then I had three or four more days off.  It was some strange to drive around a big city like Toledo and see the roads devoid of the massive traffic clogs that I had gotten so sick of being stuck in.  For a few days it seemed the World had stopped.  But it did not last...as for where I work.  We were quickly deemed "essential" and work started where it left off.  Quickly we were doing more and more with less people.  All good things come to an end, but it was back to normal and beyond.  

   Maybe I should feel bad for having a good time when the lockdown started at first, but it was great to have a rest for a few days.