Week One

Call me Geoff. Some weeks ago, never mind how long precisely, having little or no concept of world-wide contagions–other than the Dustin Hoffman movie where they walk around in hazmat suits and eventually save the earth–I thought life was pretty sweet.

Retirement seemed just over the horizon. Refinancing promised to lower my monthly mortgage payments $500 a month. A 2019 bonus and 2020 raise had just shown up in my paycheck. I felt good. Spring had come to southern Arizona. All was sweet and right with the world. Or so it seemed.

Sure, there were news stories from China about people getting sick, and the government locking down entire cities with millions of people. Those wacky Chinese. This all registered a vacant “hmm” from me, after which I scrolled down in search of the three foods gut doctors are begging me not to eat.

Then at some point the Internet chatter regarding global pandemics started simmering like a cauldron of beef barley soup. President Trump blocked all travel from Wuhan China. “Hmm, makes sense,” I thought. “Now where is that thread about cats being jerks?”

Eventually, people on the west coast started getting sick. Hey, Arizona has only the Mojave desert for social distance. Californians can drive here in six hours if they really push it. The pot went from simmering to bubbling merrily.

Fast forward to today. I sit here at the dining room table typing. In the past five days I’ve only been out of the house a couple times to get essentials and stare suspiciously at strangers in Safeway. I worshiped online at my church this morning, as did most Christians in America. My employer has asked me to work from home–which if you knew my employer would blow your freaking mind.

The next month (possibly several months) promises to be the same. Over 200 Americans have died, and the numbers are predicted to rise dramatically. I’m praying God spares my wife and I from COVID-19.

Here I sit in a bold, new, pandamndemic world.

The purpose of this blog is to document the journey. We will see where the trip takes us. The only certainty is that I am a clueless traveler. By the way Geoff is not my real name. That’s how paranoid I’ve become.

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