During the past months of all the tumult brought on by the Covid-19 crisis, I’ve felt a little off kilter. I know I’m not alone in this feeling of discombobulation….(now that’s a three cent word!) It’s just knowing that things are not normal nor will they be for a very long time, if ever. We are settling in to a “new normal” whatever that entails. Now I grab a mask every time I leave the house. I have become used to seeing people on the street and at the store in masks and no longer look at them as if they are aliens.
My how things have changed. I remember before we went in to lock-down seeing news showing people in China wearing masks. I used to be amused, think how quaint and how ridiculous. Do they really need masks? I also assumed a virus thousands of miles away had no relevance for me. We have learned a harsh lesson that we live in a small world which has no borders. We are just one big dysfunctional family. I think of that song you hear in Disneyland, “It’s a Small World, which stays in your head for days. The ride is fun anyway.
Have you noticed in these crazy days misplacing things? Here is our saga which is pretty funny anyway. First my husband misplaced his hearing aid which he had put in the console of my car. He takes them out before putting on his mask because they are easy to pull out. I’ve already lost three earrings. When we are back in our car after our hike in the redwoods he goes to put on his hearing aid and one is missing. Then the hunt ensues with flashlights looking in the crevices of the car, underneath the car seats which we do for several days. The good news is he could reorder a free hearing aid (saving maybe $800) from Costco on a one time basis which comes with the warranty for the hearing aid. The caveat is if you find it, you can’t cancel the order so be sure you lost it.
Certain that his hearing aid was lost, he put in the order. The next event was losing his car keys. He had come home from a fast food stop when the person handing him the food sneezed though covered his mouth. Nonetheless my husband was totally rattled and came home shaken. That was when his keys disappeared. Then the hunt for the keys began. We looked everywhere…in garbage cans, in every pair of pants, under the bed, in sofas, turned the house upside down. They were just gone. I decided to look in his jacket pocket one more time digging way in. What do I find? Not the keys, but the hearing aid. Yes, this is the truth. However, you guessed it. Though we tried, we could not stop the re-order of the hearing aid.
Anyway, we are trying to not be distracted but it doesn’t always work. I lose my cellphone maybe once a day. I lost it at home one morning and spent a half hour going upstairs and downstairs looking for my phone under beds, in furniture, in all the bedrooms. No phone anywhere. I go out to my car and it looks like it is in the car based on my Bluetooth message. I’m frustrated, Out come the flashlights again and my husband is helping me look under the driver’s seat.
Guess what he finds? He sees his old car keys though he has no clue as to how they got there. I blame this disquietude on the Covid-19 crisis. And do you know what feels good and soothing? Pancakes for dinner. There is nothing like mindless carbs to soothe and comfort one when life feels out of sorts. Moral of the story, try to put your keys and phone back in the same place and get a case for your hearing aids and keep a box of pancake mix on hand for emergencies.
Joanne Jagoda 