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Steve Krause’s new normal is anything but
By Steve Krause | May 2, 2020
You’ve undoubtedly seen the cartoons and the other memes that reflect our growing frustration with social distancing and self-quarantines that have become what is now tiresomely called “the new normal.”
My favorite one — mostly for its simplicity if nothing else — is the one I saw last week that says that from here on out, all days of the week will simply be shortened to “Day.”
That kind of explains it. We’re stuck in an endless tape loop of working (if we still have jobs) from home, and then going to the next room to eat, or watch TV (I’m guessing we do little else anymore). Even playing on the computer is taxing because — for most of us — we’re working on that same device all day.
It does get old.
And it also challenges your sanity. And I’m wondering. What do people do to preserve that sanity? In what ways do we carve out some sense of individuality, or variety, in our lives?
I can only speak for myself here. When this pandemic shutdown started, I picked “my” TV shows to watch religiously. Every hour of the night was taken up with something, whether it was first-run TV or reruns from as far back as 1957 (my beloved “Perry Mason”). Here’s what I found out.
All these shows have formulas, and watching them every night, for weeks at a time, unmasks most of these programs as stunningly unoriginal. The one I was hooked on for a while was “Ghost Whisperer,” which gave us basically 45 minutes of a convoluted plot, and 15 minutes of a wrapup where the disturbed spirit resolves his/her issues, walks into the light, and everyone goes away happy. Until the next time. Rinse and repeat.
They’re all like that. Even Perry. So I’m less inclined now to watch the old shows in favor of other things. Monday is the best night because “Bull” is on, and I kind of like the concept. I never watched it until this year, so I’m still new to it and haven’t grown tired of the formula. Wednesday is “Chicago” night, with hospital, fire department and police shows. I only like the hospital one, so I’m stuck with free time after that.
As has been the case in my life since I was old enough to breathe, sports comes to the rescue. The MLB channel has taken to rebroadcasting old games for reasons only it can figure out, but at least they’re there. The network re-aired all those “best MLB games ever,” more than a few of which involved the Red Sox, and I watched them all. It has put the Ken Burns baseball documentary on; run “The Sandlot,” “The Natural,” “Bull Durham,” and “A League of their Own,” and I’ve watched them all.
I don’t care about the NFL draft, but I understand it had its highest ratings yet. I’m not surprised. With nothing else going on, at least the draft was current and relevant (at least to football fans). New England Sports Network (NESN) has been running old Red Sox and Bruins games. It reran the entire 2011 Bruins postseason, allowing me to see the Game 7 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens (I hate those Canadiens more than even the Yankees and Lakers), and the Stanley Cup-clinching win over Vancouver. If you’re stuck inside, it’s nice to have those memories to relive.
The NFL channel, before it got preoccupied with the draft, reran the last two Patriots Super Bowl victories endlessly, and what used to be the SportsChannel (I don’t even know what’s it’s called now) rebroadcast the Celtics game against the Pistons where Larry Bird stole the ball, got it underneath to DJ, who laid it in. Another great memory.
These are the things that keep me sane — realizing that I may be old, and would not be the best candidate ever for catching this virus, but I can appreciate the things I’ve seen in life.
I read the other day that profits for Frito Lay and Quaker Foods are going through the roof. The former I can understand. Lays Potato Chips are to meals what blue jeans are to a wardrobe. They go with anything — and most of the time they do.
Quaker’s a little harder to understand until you discover that the company makes Captain Crunch cereal. That explains it. Chips and Captain Crunch. The Diet of Champions.
On the other hand, I’ve made a very real attempt to stay healthy. I have to, for a number of reasons. A couple of medical setbacks before all this foolishness started affected my legs, and the only way — since no gyms are open — to strengthen them is to walk. But I cannot walk for very long without some kind of mobility aid, so I use ski poles (I’ll pause for the laughter to subside). There are plenty of places to walk where you won’t be bumping into people who may be carrying the virus around without their knowledge. My two favorites are around Flax Pond and on the campus of St. John’s Prep in Danvers, and I always wear a mask and some kind of gloves.
I do not binge-watch. Even with “Monk,” a show I love, and which is now on all the time, I get bored easily. Though if you know anything about the show, Tony Shaloub was prescient. We’re all carrying wipes around with us now — if we can find them.
I guess the bottom line here is that for those of us sitting around, twiddling our thumbs, complaining about boredom, things could be a lot worse. We could be intubated, or on ventilators, or in induced comas — or worse than that, even. It’s important to keep all this in perspective as we’re complaining about our sanity — or lack thereof.
So … what do you do to maintain your sanity and perspective? We’d love to hear from you, and you can email me at [email protected].
Thanks in advance.