COVID-19, oh, I swear (what he means) / At this moment, you've taken everything
Hey all, it's been awhile since I rapped at ya, but I been real busy.
The last time that I updated was due to illness, when a 16+ year barfless streak was broken on St. Patrick's Day due to a stomach bug. Go figure, but this year I'm updating again due to an illness. Not my own, fortunately (yet...), but because of the COVID-19 pandemic that is currently gripping the entire planet. News about the virus had been in my periphery for weeks between headlines I'd catch on Yahoo, various social media, and my wife expressing to me her concerns about how bad it could get from what she had heard on news/health podcasts/radio shows she listens to. I'd even gotten an e-mail from my friends Chris C. and his fiancee Kym about how COVID-19 may affect their March 28th wedding in Los Angeles, to which I'd basically replied, "No way we're missing this. See you in a few weeks!"
I'd taken all of the news with a (in hindsight lamentably) cavalier attitude, chalking it up to other viral bogeymen that I'd heard about for years, like ebola, swine flu, bird flu, SARS, and so on. I'd even gone out to eat with my Dad on March 10th to a Cajun restaurant in Tremont, and we agreed over dinner that it all seemed like much ado about (relatively) nothing. We knew about the potentially deadly affects, but thought as long as we maintained our standard hygiene practices that we'd be good.
Flash forward two days, and I texted my Dad:
"So maybe my attitude toward corona virus on Tuesday was a little cavalier haha / We may have to cancel our trip to LA at the end of the month for my friend's wedding."
A few hours later he replies, "Perhaps."
I follow that up with, "NHL, NBA, and now it looks like spring training and the start of the MLB season - all suspended!"
Flash forward another day, and all bars, restaurants, barbershops/salons, and nonessential businesses in Ohio have been shut down (except for restaurant pick-up/delivery). Bear in mind that this is a few days before St. Patrick's Day. I'm getting e-mails from my banks, the dealership where I bought my car over 10 years ago, any hotel that I've ever booked, The Athletic, the Cleveland [Buckeyes], art museums, Bandcamp, music venues, and virtually any other company or business that I've given my e-mail address to over the last probably 15 years to let me know how they're addressing the crisis and keeping people safe. I even got the following voicemail from a season ticket rep for the [Buckeyes] last Friday, March 20:
"Hi, [Dean], this is Kate with the Cleveland [Buckeyes]. I'm sure you're not thinking about baseball too much right now, but I just wanted to make sure that I check in with all my accounts, make sure you're doing alright, see if you have any questions that I can answer for you. No new updates with what the season will look like yet, but keep an eye on your e-mail once we hear something from MLB. That's how we will communicate it to everyone. If anything comes up in the mean time, feel free to reach out to me. My direct line is..."
Pretty mind-blowing to hear a voicemail from a professional sports organization, and the first line after the introduction is about how they're sure I'm not thinking about the sport much at the moment.
Roni thankfully still has some work that she can do, plus she's been finishing projects in our other house (thank creeping piss she's handy, because I ain't), and this thankfully hasn't affected work for me either. In fact, my day-to-day life isn't all that different from how it has been the last 10.5 years (with the exception of no hockey or baseball to watch on TV). During the winters, especially, there might be days at a time where I wouldn't leave the house. We have had an exceptionally mild winter though - very little snow, and the temperatures rarely dipped below the 20s - and the CDC hasn't outright stated that people have to shelter inside, so Roni and I have been going on a few more walks than normal with Parker (and we walk 2-3 days a week, weather permitting). I asked Roni to take pictures of all of the business-closure signs during our normal walking route, which I've included here:
Saturday, March 21st
Lakewood Public Library, Madison Avenue Branch, 13229 Madison Ave.
Taco Tonto's, 13321 Madison Ave.
Cleveland Curiosities (digging the plague doctor, also on-brand for the store), 13375 Madison Ave.
The Salvaged Boutique, 13383 Madison Ave.
Allstate Insurance, 13425 Madison Ave.
Angelo's Pizza, 13715 Madison Ave., turned their front door into an exit-only point. Later in the week, we saw people gathered around the door (adequate space between them) and an Angelo's worker would exit, call a number, and hand off an order.
Songsten Gampo Buddhist Temple, 14023 Madison Ave.
Westside Skates, 14047 Madison Ave.
Tommy's Pastries, 14205 Madison Ave.
Jason's Barbershop, 14301 Madison Ave.
Cottage of Flowers, 14519 Madison Ave. Note the mask on the bunny rabbit.
Heirloom Barbershop, 14549 Madison Ave.
Sherwin Williams, 14711 Madison Ave.
Barrio, 15527 Madison Ave. (They did have a taco truck parked outside of the restaurant on St. Patrick's Day, and we did take advantage of the three-tacos-for-$10 deal they were running.)
Patio Tavern, 15615 Madison Ave. The "No cash or liquor on premises" sign made me raise an eyebrow. It reminded me of the story that Henry Rollins talked about on one of his spoken-word releases about the Rodney King riots, where a storefront put up a sign that said something to the effect of "Already looted. Nothing left on premises."
New Moon, 15729 Madison Ave. I feel for all small, independently-owned businesses, but proooobably not an essential business that needs to remain open during these times.
Cleveland Area Paranormal Society, 2009 Carabel Ave.
Tuesday, March 24
Roni took these pictures at Edgewater Park. If I recall correctly, Roni was saying how florists have tons of extra flowers, so they've been putting up "pop-up" displays around the city. This was taken around 5:30, and just about all of the flowers had already been taken. The sign reads: "Individually, we are one flower. Together we are a beautiful garden."
Wednesday, March 25
Malley's Chocolates, 14822 Madison Ave.
Nature's Oasis, 15613 Detroit Ave.
Breadsmith, 18101 Detroit Ave.
Lakewood Music Collective, 16426 Madison Ave.
Lakewood Senior Transportation Center, 16024 Madison Ave.
Imperial Home Center, 16000 Madison Ave.
Dance Lakewood, 1661 Westwood Ave.
Fitness Edge, 15649 Madison Ave.
Here are a few random screenshots I've taken over the last week or two. COVID-19 sidebars on Facebook, a COVID-19 drop-down menu on the front of the Yahoo sports page, a resource page for Lakewood's website, and the "Stay Home" filter/badge thing that you can post in Instagram stories.
Randoms
I'm sure there are more observations or pictures to post later, but I gotta get moving.
Live responsibly and lovingly. Be positive and creative. You're beautiful. Peace.
Yours, etc.,
<3dane
xoxo
The last time that I updated was due to illness, when a 16+ year barfless streak was broken on St. Patrick's Day due to a stomach bug. Go figure, but this year I'm updating again due to an illness. Not my own, fortunately (yet...), but because of the COVID-19 pandemic that is currently gripping the entire planet. News about the virus had been in my periphery for weeks between headlines I'd catch on Yahoo, various social media, and my wife expressing to me her concerns about how bad it could get from what she had heard on news/health podcasts/radio shows she listens to. I'd even gotten an e-mail from my friends Chris C. and his fiancee Kym about how COVID-19 may affect their March 28th wedding in Los Angeles, to which I'd basically replied, "No way we're missing this. See you in a few weeks!"
I'd taken all of the news with a (in hindsight lamentably) cavalier attitude, chalking it up to other viral bogeymen that I'd heard about for years, like ebola, swine flu, bird flu, SARS, and so on. I'd even gone out to eat with my Dad on March 10th to a Cajun restaurant in Tremont, and we agreed over dinner that it all seemed like much ado about (relatively) nothing. We knew about the potentially deadly affects, but thought as long as we maintained our standard hygiene practices that we'd be good.
Flash forward two days, and I texted my Dad:
"So maybe my attitude toward corona virus on Tuesday was a little cavalier haha / We may have to cancel our trip to LA at the end of the month for my friend's wedding."
A few hours later he replies, "Perhaps."
I follow that up with, "NHL, NBA, and now it looks like spring training and the start of the MLB season - all suspended!"
Flash forward another day, and all bars, restaurants, barbershops/salons, and nonessential businesses in Ohio have been shut down (except for restaurant pick-up/delivery). Bear in mind that this is a few days before St. Patrick's Day. I'm getting e-mails from my banks, the dealership where I bought my car over 10 years ago, any hotel that I've ever booked, The Athletic, the Cleveland [Buckeyes], art museums, Bandcamp, music venues, and virtually any other company or business that I've given my e-mail address to over the last probably 15 years to let me know how they're addressing the crisis and keeping people safe. I even got the following voicemail from a season ticket rep for the [Buckeyes] last Friday, March 20:
"Hi, [Dean], this is Kate with the Cleveland [Buckeyes]. I'm sure you're not thinking about baseball too much right now, but I just wanted to make sure that I check in with all my accounts, make sure you're doing alright, see if you have any questions that I can answer for you. No new updates with what the season will look like yet, but keep an eye on your e-mail once we hear something from MLB. That's how we will communicate it to everyone. If anything comes up in the mean time, feel free to reach out to me. My direct line is..."
Pretty mind-blowing to hear a voicemail from a professional sports organization, and the first line after the introduction is about how they're sure I'm not thinking about the sport much at the moment.
Roni thankfully still has some work that she can do, plus she's been finishing projects in our other house (thank creeping piss she's handy, because I ain't), and this thankfully hasn't affected work for me either. In fact, my day-to-day life isn't all that different from how it has been the last 10.5 years (with the exception of no hockey or baseball to watch on TV). During the winters, especially, there might be days at a time where I wouldn't leave the house. We have had an exceptionally mild winter though - very little snow, and the temperatures rarely dipped below the 20s - and the CDC hasn't outright stated that people have to shelter inside, so Roni and I have been going on a few more walks than normal with Parker (and we walk 2-3 days a week, weather permitting). I asked Roni to take pictures of all of the business-closure signs during our normal walking route, which I've included here:
Saturday, March 21st
Lakewood Public Library, Madison Avenue Branch, 13229 Madison Ave.
Taco Tonto's, 13321 Madison Ave.
Cleveland Curiosities (digging the plague doctor, also on-brand for the store), 13375 Madison Ave.
The Salvaged Boutique, 13383 Madison Ave.
Allstate Insurance, 13425 Madison Ave.
Angelo's Pizza, 13715 Madison Ave., turned their front door into an exit-only point. Later in the week, we saw people gathered around the door (adequate space between them) and an Angelo's worker would exit, call a number, and hand off an order.
Songsten Gampo Buddhist Temple, 14023 Madison Ave.
Westside Skates, 14047 Madison Ave.
Tommy's Pastries, 14205 Madison Ave.
Jason's Barbershop, 14301 Madison Ave.
Cottage of Flowers, 14519 Madison Ave. Note the mask on the bunny rabbit.
Heirloom Barbershop, 14549 Madison Ave.
Sherwin Williams, 14711 Madison Ave.
Barrio, 15527 Madison Ave. (They did have a taco truck parked outside of the restaurant on St. Patrick's Day, and we did take advantage of the three-tacos-for-$10 deal they were running.)
Patio Tavern, 15615 Madison Ave. The "No cash or liquor on premises" sign made me raise an eyebrow. It reminded me of the story that Henry Rollins talked about on one of his spoken-word releases about the Rodney King riots, where a storefront put up a sign that said something to the effect of "Already looted. Nothing left on premises."
New Moon, 15729 Madison Ave. I feel for all small, independently-owned businesses, but proooobably not an essential business that needs to remain open during these times.
Cleveland Area Paranormal Society, 2009 Carabel Ave.
Tuesday, March 24
Roni took these pictures at Edgewater Park. If I recall correctly, Roni was saying how florists have tons of extra flowers, so they've been putting up "pop-up" displays around the city. This was taken around 5:30, and just about all of the flowers had already been taken. The sign reads: "Individually, we are one flower. Together we are a beautiful garden."
Wednesday, March 25
Malley's Chocolates, 14822 Madison Ave.
Nature's Oasis, 15613 Detroit Ave.
Breadsmith, 18101 Detroit Ave.
Lakewood Music Collective, 16426 Madison Ave.
Lakewood Senior Transportation Center, 16024 Madison Ave.
Imperial Home Center, 16000 Madison Ave.
Dance Lakewood, 1661 Westwood Ave.
Fitness Edge, 15649 Madison Ave.
Here are a few random screenshots I've taken over the last week or two. COVID-19 sidebars on Facebook, a COVID-19 drop-down menu on the front of the Yahoo sports page, a resource page for Lakewood's website, and the "Stay Home" filter/badge thing that you can post in Instagram stories.
Randoms
I'm sure there are more observations or pictures to post later, but I gotta get moving.
Live responsibly and lovingly. Be positive and creative. You're beautiful. Peace.
Yours, etc.,
<3dane
xoxo