Bill Elliott famously once said, “I’m not much of a sitter” in an interview or a commercial and I for sure am not. With the onslaught of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) our American way of life that we have taken for granted for so long has been turned completely upside down. This is not at all what I wanted to write about this week but how can you really focus on anything else? I know I can’t. This is big, this is 9/11 or Pearl Harbor to this generation and it is far from over.
April is one my favorite times of the year as there is so much anticipation in the air with warmer weather, green grass, leaves on the trees, and the start of racing season and MLB opening Day. The start of the racing season and opening day have come and gone with neither racing or baseball. I realize that sports and entertainment is a very very distant second to life and I fully take the seriousness of the virus to heart but for me, it is my livelihood so it is life or death possibly.
Thankfully, I am able to work from home as I always do but with our company travel cut, businesses suffering that we would normally be more engaged with and no end in sight to start our seasons for our Lucas Oil Motorsports it is very difficult. We are postponing, adjusting, making changes and we don’t even really know when it will end so that is very difficult. May 9th sounded like a long time out when we made our initial postponement but now it doesn’t seem so far away although I remain optimistic that we can get going in some fashion by then. I hope we reach the apex of this and get things going again but this won’t be an overnight restart unfortunately. We are a tiny cog in the wheel of the world but for each of us, our part is our whole part so it is important.
My family and I are doing all we can to support our health experts and elected leaders like President Donald Trump and Missouri Governor Mike Parson by staying at home, social distancing, etc. but it is hard to just completely change your entire routine literally overnight. We have watched every show on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Fox Nation. We have drank too much, quit drinking, drank again, mowed grass that didn’t need it, golfed a time or two, started taking mile long walks two times a day as weather permits, anything we can do to pass the time when we aren’t working.
It has not all been bad though I guess, I have seen some things that may not have happened had we not been “social distancing”. We have actually reconnected as a family, not that we weren’t connected but it is different. I haven’t been gone traveling to events like usual, Dylan is home more as he does all his SBU classes online. Denae and Dylan Allen can’t really do much either in the form of entertainment at night and on weekends so we have done more together. We have kind of developed a new routine of getting family take out meals from area restaurants and just hanging out alone at home, just the five of us. Well, except for Cameron Carr, he is a welcome regular also. We got so desperate Saturday, that Dylan even organized a family “Tiger King” party. We dressed up like it was Halloween, had a couple cocktails, ate way too much Italian food from Kathy’s Pasta, played UNO and listed to music for hours. I guess that’s not all bad.
When we first started getting these social distancing guidelines and started seeing the orders come down for social distancing and stay at home orders in early March it kind of felt like a power outage to me. It was like OK, we can do this for a week or two and it will get contained and we’ll get back about our business but then April came and the orders were extended or expanded including in Missouri where we are now under a state wide state at home order through April 26th. Now it feels hard even though we are fairly sheltered here in rural Missouri.
I watch the news every day, primarily Fox News, but even as conservative as I am politically, I also watch CNN or other so called liberal media to be sure I am getting a different perspective on things as I know that even Fox can slant to the right. It got so bad today, that I watched Meet the Press with Chuck Todd but even then, I gain some perspective that I might not see otherwise nor agree with but I always believe you should have several angles and make your own decisions.
I had to go to Home Depot to pick up an online order on Saturday morning and watching people there really felt like watching “The Walking Dead”. It was so bizarre as people were moving slow, staying distant, looking down, some were wearing masks, everyone looked at you like you had the plague, I don’t know it just felt really really weird. It reminded me of watching “Chernobyl”.
Driving through Springfield on Saturday morning and seeing all the stores and restaurants closed was tough. I feel for those business owners that are trying to make ends meet. I hope the stimulus helps them but I know it won’t all of them, many will lose everything they’ve worked for due to something completely out of thier control. I started trying to find positives as I drove home and several thoughts came into my mind.
Aside from people being sick or dying which is awful, is it bad to have a “reset” for people to reconnect and change some of their ways of life?
Will violent crime rates go down in inner cities where people aren’t out as much as they normally are?
Will people learn to be more prepared in the future for this type of pandemic or any other natural disaster?
Will parents be able to bond more with their young kids as they are restricted to home school for a duration?
I worry about things too.
Is it worse for people that suffer from domestic or child abuse being trapped at home with a monster?
Will things ever return to normal? What will be “normal”?
Is it is going to be America 2.0? What are we in for on the other side of this?
Will a vaccine or effective treatment be found?
Will it get better only to come back again in the fall?
There are just so many unanswered questions.
In closing, I ask all of you to stay safe, follow the CDC guidelines, stop the spread, flatten the curve, take care of your loved ones and keep your chin up. America is a resilient nation and we will overcome this.
DR
RacerDan’s Ramblings 
Nice read!
I enjoyed reading your perspective on how things feel and felt within your experiences during this difficult time.