Being on the road is USA 2020 is strange and strangely exhilarating. Strange because, like most of us, I have been living through the nightmare of COVID-19 that has changed all of our lives in ways big and small. Strangely exhilarating because it feels great to get out and see the word again despite the risk. Now I have to admit I have traveled a bit since March, crossing the nation from Los Angeles to New York a couple of times, arriving in the Big Apple and then Hollywood when both were spiking with infections. When I fly I wear a mask and goggles, I eat before I take off, stuff some snacks in my carry on bag and wash my hands regularly since I’ve found wearing gloves on a five hour flight makes me sweat like a demon. Happily I have residences in both cities so I can avoid unnecessary human contact.
This week I’m out of my bi-costal bubble, traveling to North Carolina and Georgia for work. So far I’ve had three rapid corona virus tests and have come out positive. Got the results within fifteen minutes. They put a cue tip up your nose, put in a device and the results pop up. Of course that made me happy. What made me crazy is that a test like this exist and its not widely available. Apparently this is what they are using in the NBA bubble. So why is this technology not more widely available? If the current administration was less focused on voter suppression and screwing up our mail and more on protecting out citizens, this kind of rapid testing would have been financed and made a national priority. But, instead, we’ve had a policy of ignorance and arrogance that’s made every trip out the door fraught with danger.
The good people of the growing metropolis of Charlotte are mostly wearing their masks and keeping social distance, while still filling the restaurants of the downtown district. In a week the GOP convention will be held here and the city streets are full of workers fixing the streets in preparation. They’ve cut the convention down since North Carolina’s governor refused to weaken the state’s safety measures. There’s an significant homeless problem here, but I’m sure they’ll be moved out of sight before Trump arrives to be crowned. Thankfully I’ll be long gone before the party of locking of immigrant children in cages arrives here.
But I digress.
It’s been good to be out of my NY/LA comfort zone. I’ve spent a lot of this trip in the country outside of Charlotte proper near corn and tobacco fields, seeing kids run across grass and breathing in clean air. It’s been a nice respite from concrete jungles and Zoom meetings. Been good to see people enjoying life, even in bits and pieces. Every doctor says the fall will be bring more COVID-19 mixed with the flu. How bad will it be? How will the election change America?
At this point in our nation’s history all our lives are TBD.