Dave's Fiction Warehouse

I used to not mind grocery shopping. But now every trip to the store involves a certain amount of resentment and homicidal rage. That’s one more effect of the pandemic: It makes me uncomfortable with my thoughts.  Here in Jacksonville, the Republican mayor has finally decided that maybe masks aren’t so bad after all, and recently announced a citywide requirement that masks must be worn in any enclosed public space. Well, he didn’t announce it, preferring to decamp while aides got the word out. I assume he wanted no video evidence of him saying such a thing. Trump worship is a cruel mistress.  Still,  praise be. Tremendous breakthrough. If such a rule had been in place two months ago, maybe Florida wouldn’t have hit 10,000 cases a day last week. Maybe we’d be looking at the end of this, instead of the beginning. But better late than never, right?  The problem is, the extreme Trump wing of the Trump party remains determined that mask-wearing is an affront to God. The m...

F or us, the pandemic started March 13. We went out for pizza. No masks then, but no hugs or handshakes either. Seated well apart. Talking about the coronavirus, I opined that we might get together again in a month or so, when things eased up. I thought we’d have a clearer picture on how long this thing might last. More than three months later, a clearer picture has indeed emerged: It’s not as bad as we feared. It’s roughly 20 times worse. All these monotonous weeks since, hunkering down, avoiding crowds and stores and freedom-loving mouth-breathers brushing past in the Publix aisles, and we’re not just back where we started; we’re several steps behind. Daily covid cases in Florida today were pushing 10,000 for the second day in a row. To think we were freaking out not so long ago when the daily number reached 1,000. We only go to stores where they mandate masks. Around here that’s down to Costco and Trader Joe’s, although yesterday Trader Joe’s seemed to be shrugging it off. ...