The Last Handshake – Prologue
On Wednesday, March 11th, my professor emerged from the conference room where I had just spent the previous 90 minutes defending my dissertation and said,
“Are we still shaking hands?”
“Yes,” I said, “for now.”
My professor then extended his hand and said, “Congratulations, Dr. DeWitt!” and gave me a hearty handshake. It was one of the more gratifying handshakes I have ever had in my life. A lot of sacrificed time and effort had culminated into that moment and I felt a simultaneous sense of accomplishment and relief. I then went back into the conference room and gave another handshake to a committee member and then finalized some paperwork with my professors.
After leaving the building, I immediately called my wife to tell her the news. My wife, Amy, was on the road with her job and so instead of heading home, I decided to meet up with her for dinner and then watch the opening round of the Big XII basketball tournament on TV.
While watching the games that night, news began to emerge about the March Madness tournament being played in empty arenas and then suddenly, the NBA called its season off. We didn’t realize it at the time but we were watching our last college basketball game this year.
And as the Coronavirus pandemic began to escalate, I would soon come to realize that I might have also given my last handshake of the year too.
March 13th, 2020
Friday was the last day of Spring Break and at the time, we were planning on starting back to school on Monday. However, as news throughout the day brought more stories about the COVID-19 virus and the impending spread of the disease, more and more events began to close up shop. The NHL. Then MLB, The finally, and sadly, the NCAA. Then the message from the school district came – schools would be closed until March 29th. Friday became a day basically spent processing all of the news that had developed up until that point. I also sat down and started drinking some of the craft beers I brought back from Arkansas. I was going to save these for a party later on this year but it was slowly starting to sink in that “I’m not sure when later on this year” is going to be.
Day 1 – Saturday, March 14th, 2020
Today I got up with the dog at 6 AM and after he came in from doing his business, I put a roast in the crockpot. The reason I put a roast in the crockpot is because when I went to the store on Friday afternoon there was no hamburger, no chicken, no sanitizer, no toilet paper, no paper towels, no frozen vegetables, no rice, but they did have a few chuck roasts left, so that was going to be dinner for Saturday night.
Then I laid on the couch and watched NCIS New Orleans (which made me really wish for a Quantum Leap reboot.). The wife joined me later that morning and we decided since we had all of this newfound time, we would find a Netflix series to watch. We settled on the 1990’s nostalgia series, “Everything Sucks!” It was OK. I would only give it 2 out of 5 Doc Martens, but it did have me missing the 1990s, which were much, much simpler times. (And to explain why the 1990s were much, much simpler times would need a whole new blog all to itself.)
Around noon I made brunch for the family which has now been increased by one because one of my daughter’s friends was locked out of her college during Spring Break and could not return back to her campus. We are now on lockdown with four teenagers.
I looked through Facebook and Twitter and made a post or two, but neither of those platforms are as fun as they used to be.
About that time it was time to clean up from lunch so we turned over to Netflix again and put on the “Twilight Zone,” because there is absolutely nothing (meaning NO BASKETBALL) on television right now.
Seeing I was going to need something to do with all of this idle time, Amy and I cleaned up and headed to a home improvement store for paint and other supplies so I could start painting some rooms in the house. Since the store was close to Wal-Mart (AKA The Thunderdome,) I convinced Amy to go in there with me just to observe the only March madness happening right now. It was a wild scene inside – hard to articulate – but people were kind enough getting around but items were disappearing quickly. No toilet paper. No sanitizer. No eggs. I took a chance and checked the meat isle. There wasn’t much, but I scored a five pound log of hamburger. I never buy the logs. Yes I am boujie and like to buy it wrapped by the pound, but none were available and I was craving grilled hamburgers this weekend and the log was manna from heaven. We got some buns and got out of there.
The roast was done by the time we got home. I had cooked it with some onions and barbacoa seasoning so we had some delicious tacos. Some friends dropped by the house to chat, just like any other normal night, but as we sat and talked about the last 24 hours, we knew the next several weeks were going to be interesting.
The kids went and bought ingredients to bake a cake. We learned that Disney+ had released “Frozen II” so we watched that movie together. It was OK. I would give it 3 out of 5 snowmen, Then Amy and I, because I guess we were looking to elevate our anxiety and still nostalgic for the 1990s, turned on “Outbreak.”
Current Mood:
Since we are going to have to get used to being at home for the foreseeable future, I might as well just get used to it.
Home Sweet Home – Motley Crue
#ucandewitt 