HOLIDAY TRAVEL BENEFITS AVOIDED BY STAYING HOME

Avoiding holiday travel is one of the joys of getting older and living near the kids.

Helicopter parents who haven’t driven their grown children to the other side of the continent, state, or town, rejoice. But it’s a respectful rejoice.

Respect means replacing the whirly bird with a jump jet, a Harrier. Get in, do things, get out, but still keep the hover potential.

If avoiding holiday travel during the covid pandemic feels like the final straw, try and adapt. And remind yourself of the benefits of staying home.

1.

You won’t find your seat in the back of an airplane next to a seedy looking character welcoming you with, “Have a seat, I have no borders.”

The question of lowering the arm rest the funky guy lifted is a question you won’t have to ask yourself.

2.

You won’t be subjected to the passengers on the bus.

A foreign exchange chaperone for French middle school kids (Hey Q) took a bus to Seattle and back. I asked how it went when I picked him up on the North Park Blocks.

He said on the return that he sat next to a guy going through heroin withdrawal.

I didn’t ask about any borders. I’ve seen French Connection part 2 where Popeye Doyle goes through withdrawal.

3.

You won’t pack the car so full there’s not a square inch of extra room, then get a flat tire.

On a bridge.

In the rain.

Holiday Travel Benefits To Staying Home

It’s a pandemic. Still a pandemic, a covid19 pandemic, a covid pandemic. It’s covid and it’s gone hot. Don’t turn up the heat if you can avoid it.

Stay home, wash your hands, wear a mask in public, don’t touch your face, still goes.

The travel image at the top is the inauguration of the interstate bridge across the Columbia.

This is a world record traffic jam in Beijing.

Fifty lanes wide in 2015.

This is the food line in San Antonio.

Holiday travel means different things to everyone, but hunger is a common thread among us all.

Q: Have you ever worried about your next meal?

A: I cut hard weight during wrestling season.

Q: That’s not the same. You could have had a meal if you wanted.

A: Good point. I had neck cancer treatment and could barely swallow.

Q: Still not the same.

A: I made a mistake when I joined the Army and created an allotment account. I sent all of my money home for college since I planned on living the Army life on base where everything would be free.

Except I got assigned to a satellite clinic in another state and my finances didn’t catch up for a month. I lived in a clinic recovery room and depended on the kindness of strangers. Every meal came with a question.

Is that what you mean?

Q: You weren’t married. Have you had food insecurity as a husband and father?

A: No. But I’ve been lucky that way.

Q: Yes, you have.

Holiday Travel Spreader

Hunger is one thing. Hunger and illness adds a dimension of desperation that borders on doom.

In a world of need, make an effort to back off a little for the sake of others.

Holiday travel is a wonderful joy in normal times, but these times are not normal. Don’t be a spreader by accident, don’t catch the virus on accident.

Wash hands, wear masks, social distance. Is that asking too much?

Whether you believe the virus is real or not, it is. It’s as real as small pox.

Don’t be a spreader.