Gator And The Art Of Social Distancing
Today I didn’t something I haven’t done in months. I visited with my friend Gator. Gator and I don’t have a lot in common. Sure, we both live in Utah county. We both attend the same church. But, I’m married, Gator is divorced. I have 13 kids. He has one. I have grandkids almost as old as his daughter.
For whatever reason, Gator and I hit it off from the first time we met. Part of the issue I think is that we both have severe ADD.
Have you ever watched two people with ADD try to have a conversation? We don’t have one. We have a hundred conversations at the same time. Sometimes we take a side road, and forget where we left an earlier topic. Sometimes we take a side road, talk down it for 20 minutes and jump right back to where we were before.
Our conversations can take hours. And in those hours we bounce all over the intellectual map. It’s exhausting. But, it’s exhausting like a rollercoaster is exhausting.
Gator and I used to go to lunch once a month. I worked for Gator on a job once. I was out of work and he was remodeling a house for a friend. He paid me way more than it was worth to him so that I could have some gas money.
If you ask him, I’m sure he could name things that I’ve done for him. Honestly, I’m not sure what they were. He’s my friend and you help your friends when you can.
Gator had COVID back in January. He recovered, obviously. He’s one of the most interesting people I know. Humble, but surprising.
You realize I know the guy who wrote the study on hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness in treating H1N1, right. I mean, I MIGHT be a little biased in the discussion.
Anyway, Gator came by to do me a favor, as he often does. I have a bunch of junk that I need to haul off to the city sponsored cleanup day tomorrow. Gator has a trailer.
He drove it up from Provo to Pleasant Grove behind his car. Then he offered to load up the trailer and pull it, again behind his car, down to the drop off point.
We aren’t going to pull it with your car! We’re going to hook it up to my suburban.
Once it was hooked up, we decided to just chill in the backyard. We talked about anything and everything.
I realized that COVID, while it spared him and didn’t hit my family, had robbed us both of something.
It was nice to sit for a few minutes and remember what we used to do and hopefully can get back to again soon.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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