Eric’s Blog

I’m so angry right now and there’s not a thing I can do about it…or is there?

I got home from work to find out that the Governor of Virginia is increasing restrictions in the Hampton Roads area due to the reported rate of COVID-19. Now bars have to close at 10pm, restaurants have to be closed by midnight and can only seat 50% capacity. Gatherings can be no more than 50 people. Based on what he dictated today, you’re more likely to contract COVID-19 if you’re consuming alcohol in public. He claims that this is the most virulent disease he’s ever seen. He’s a doctor. A pediatrician, not an epidemiologist.

Three months into this whole thing, our Governor decided it would be good to implement face masks. Three months! That’s like bringing condoms to a baby shower! This was after the weekend where he was seen in Virginia Beach (part of Hampton Roads) on the boardwalk, closer than six feet away from people, not wearing a mask taking selfies.

He did write an escape clause into this executive order. If you have a medical condition that prevents you from wearing a mask, you don’t have to wear one. No one can ask you what medical condition you have, and you do not have to disclose that information freely. This guy is a real piece of work. Anyone who has a governor or mayor saying similar things is right there with him.

It has been five months and I’m tired of being cooped up!

The only reason we were supposed to restrict everything was because this was supposed to flatten the curve. Flatten the curve, not cure the virus! I’m about to go lick every lightswitch and doorknob I see just to get the virus and move on with my life.

I’m sick of COVID-19, Coronavirus, Dr. Fauci, masks, the CDC, the WHO, Trump, Pelosi, Schumer, Mcconnell, China, Wuhan, and anything else related to this pandemic.

It’s even worse for me. The military has to ensure that it’s most valuable resource (people – yeah right!) don’t get sick so we can complete the mission. I’m not allowed to go anywhere or do anything that could be considered non-essential. Instead of listing the things I can’t do, I’ll just tell you what I can do. I can go to work. I can go home. I can go to the gas station. I can go to the grocery store. That’s it. If it’s not essential, I can’t do it. We’re discouraged from getting take-out because of the possibility of interacting with other people that handle the food or money.

Here’s a funny one for you. The gyms on base are open now. But the locker rooms aren’t. We have to wear a mask in and out the door, we have to bring our own water because the water fountains/coolers are off-limits, and we have to maintain social distancing. No heavy lifting because that would require a spotter. So in the mornings…yeah, I don’t go because there’s no where to get a shower after a work-out. In the afternoons when I’m done with work…yeah, I don’t go because there’s nowhere for me to get changed. The gyms in the local area are open also, but I can’t go to those. See some of the problems here?

Then, there are mixed signals. If you watch the news (at all) the virus is getting worse. Yeah, okay, I’ve not been worried about the virus since day one. What worries me are the people. Did you notice how fast society broke down at the beginning of this year? There was no toilet paper for weeks, the store shelves were bare. It made me realize how fragile our supply lines really are. That was the scary stuff. Wondering what we were going to eat, where the food was going to come from, if we had enough supplies, how long the supplies were going to last, if we would be able to get more supplies when we ran out, etc. That terrified me beyond the capacity for rational thought. But on the other side, everything is fine. Open up the gyms, open up the schools, let’s get the economy open again, you don’t have to telework every day now, just once per week. Now that we’re opening up again, let us take your temperature and ask if you’ve been exposed to COVID-19 before we let you on-site. What!?

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. This isn’t about a virus. This is about control. What controls people better than anything else in this world? Fear. If someone is afraid, you can manipulate them to extremis. Some sinister plot is going on in the background that we, the average people, catch a rare glimpses of now and again before we’re misdirected to something else. Whether it’s outrage at social injustices, or continued fear over a coin shortage and the government tracking our every move though the use of electronic money, or the plan for schools and our children this coming school year.

I’m sick of it; and I’m done. I lost a vacation I’d planned for an entire year. Now they’ve taken another year from me. I want to go out to eat. I want to travel. We’ve been stuck at home staring at each other for five months and now the kids and teachers are getting ready to go back to school. That’s an entire summer gone. We never went to the beach. I never made it to the pool. The stuff I bought for our cruise is still sitting in a box under our bed still in the original packaging. Watching my family have to put up with this is worse.

I’m not condoning violence. I’m not telling you to go out and riot because our freedoms are being infringed upon. I’m telling you to open your eyes and think for yourselves. Common sense isn’t really common; otherwise, everyone would have it. The guy at the gas station didn’t have it today when he said I could use the ATM next to him, but they weren’t six feet apart, so I decided to wait behind him instead. That’s just one example. Open your eyes and ears and engage some critical-thinking skills. Just ask questions and see what kind of responses you get. I plan on writing my representatives and asking where the line in the sand is and I can’t wait to see what their responses will be. Those responses will determine who I choose to elect to represent me come November. That will let them know how I think and feel about their performance as my representatives.

Are you sick of all this crap too? Let me know by hitting the like button and in the comments section below!

Post-Script: I try to keep the blog positive. It’s not always easy. Especially so on this post when I’m tired of being cooped up at home and sick of being pushed around. I feel like I’ve been grounded for the last five months. There were several re-writes of this post, to include no profanity, and it wasn’t easy. You may not agree with everything I wrote, but that’s okay, we don’t have to agree on everything all the time and we can still be compassionate and merciful towards one another, I hope that my efforts don’t go unnoticed.