Commuter’s Corner #12: Pandemics and Lemonade
I’ve heard tell in Florida that the COVID-19 pandemic is kind of like dealing with a hurricane. There is a threat, so you have to change how you do some things. Floridians are pretty familiar with the drill: go get gas and water and batteries. Some stuff gets bought up at the store. Charge up your cell phone, tape or board up the windows, bring the plants and pets in, and then stay at home and wait.
Sounds generally familiar in the COVID-19 order of the day, except switch out the gas for hand sanitizer and bottled water for toilet paper and batteries for bleachy wipes. Oh yeah, there’s also that little detail that this pandemic is going to drag on for weeks or months, depending on which detail preoccupies you more: getting a haircut or maintaining social distance. Nope, even a hurricane that moves slowly or stalls and changes direction doesn’t take weeks, much less months.
So now we can’t go on group rides, because we’d become traveling bands of disease vectors rolling from town to town, spreading our sweaty hygiene from one quickie mart to the next. And we can’t go on organized benefit rides for things like Alzheimer’s care or breast cancer research, because we’d also be traveling bands of disease vectors, going from… well, you get the idea.
Thus it’s come time to take matters into our own hands: in a pandemic, it’s time to take a lemon of a situation and make some lemonade. No, this doesn’t mean go out on a big group ride of disease transmission. But it does mean go out on a ride, by yourself or with people in your house. This counts as exercise, remember? We still get to do this, daily! It’s legit, the feds and governor and county all said so!
For one thing, the weather has largely been beautiful, at least in Gainesville, FL. For another, there is somewhat less traffic. For a third, there just ain’t loads and loads of cyclists riding around. Plenty of room for social distancing! And as we should all know by now, a good ride relieves stress and puts the mind at ease, and those are especially good things during a pandemic.
Of course, it won’t hurt to take some hand sanitizer, especially if you’re one of those impatient types who waddles on their bike from the street over to the light post to push the button to get the traffic light to change. And if you’re going out for a ride to the store, you will of course also need to take your favorite mask or bandana to model for our fellow citizens and the surveillance cameras.
I have encountered plenty of happy people, keeping their distance, who see a cyclist and give a smile and a wave. This is not just people out to walk their kids or dog, and it’s not just people also running or cycling or skating and so forth. This is motorists too, obviously yearning for the greener pastures of the bike lane. Right? Right? That’s my interpretation. Maybe they also think cycling is making lemonade in a pandemic. Different metaphor, same thing. Go ride, and be safe! This pandemic too will pass, eventually...