Chapter 7: Who Opened Pandora's Box?

Psst! Have you Met the Family yet?

Holy moly. Welcome to level six of Jumanji, I guess. Senseless murders, looting, rioting, destruction of property, and I think somewhere in there there’s still a pandemic going on. So if whoever opened Pandora’s box could kindly shut it now, that’d be great. Thanks.

              On the upside, we’re now in advanced phase 2 of reopening. (Most) restaurants are open for dine-in at 50% capacity, or something like that. Although as I found out, Taco Bell is not. After having spent 20 minutes in the stupid long drive-through line, I realized upon leaving that they hadn’t handed me the drinks. I had paid extra for two freezes, so I wasn’t about to let that money go to waste. I turned back around, only to find the drive-through line even longer than before. So I parked and attempted to go in, but found the lobby was closed. I ended up calling them and they brought the freezes out to me, so it all worked out, but it added probably another 15 or more minutes on to the total time. Oh well, it’s all done and we’ve eaten and enjoyed our freezes.

              On top of restaurants opening, churches are allowed 50% capacity (instead of just 50 people), so Mom and Dad are happy. And best of all? Public pools may now be open. The kids are thrilled (especially Megan), and I hope we will get a chance to go swimming soon. I’ve started babysitting my boss' niece, though, so it makes it harder to schedule things like that. But it helps with the income issue since I’ve been knocked down to 14 hours a week.

 I’m still pretty miffed about the way I’ve been treated at work after everything I did for them, but honestly, now was the absolute best time for it. Not only was it super easy to get on unemployment, but Mom hasn’t been feeling well (not Corona, don’t worry), so it’s allowed me the extra time I need to help take care of her.

So I guess in some ways, things are looking up. More and more of our usual fun activities are opening up and things are just starting to feel normal again, sometimes. I mean, there’s still the social distancing BS and the mask-wearing and whatnot, but at least we can go out to eat again. And go swimming; plus we can play in the brand-new wave pool they just built/opened. And there’s a new bike park that just opened, too. So all of that is pretty cool. I’m trying to stay positive amidst all the other madness going on right now.

It’s truly a tragedy what happened, but I can’t believe there are actually people out there who feel the appropriate action is more violence. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Neither do three or four, or hundreds. All it does is make you no better than the criminal who murdered poor Mr. Floyd. I can only imagine the heartache his family is experiencing right now, but do we really think they want their community—and their country—destroyed over it? I don’t think so. I know I wouldn’t. It’s not fixing anything, and it certainly won’t bring him back. The last thing I would want is more turmoil and stress to have to deal with on top of what I’m already dealing with, but I guess far too many people don’t see it that way.

But, what do I know. I certainly don’t know what it’s like to be black in America (or anywhere else). But I do know that peace is more pleasant than war. I do know that looting and destroying a store owned by someone who had nothing to do with what happened to Mr. Floyd makes no sense. I do know that there are even more people left jobless because of these riots; of both races. So what is this really accomplishing?

              Anyway, here we are entering level six of Jumanji. Brace yourselves, and as always; stay well, my friends.