CARLTON FLETCHER: Longing for a time when …

“You may still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.”

— Cat Stevens

I don’t want to jinx anything — and, yes, I’m kind of like Michael Scott, not superstitious but a little stitious — but with continued cautious good coronavirus news from Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, I’ve found myself lately thinking about things I want to do once we get some kind of all-clear … oh happy day.

It’s amazing how much I’ve missed all these little things that I, like most of us, had grown so accustomed to that I took them for granted. And I daresay when/if we do get that all clear and start to work our way back toward some kind of normal, it won’t take most of us very long to start taking them for granted again. Still … as I sit in isolation, my mind starts thinking about:

♦ Going into a fast-food restaurant, ordering the biggest, greasiest pile of French fries I can get, and eating every single one of them, taking time to dip each one — individually — in a great big pile of ketchup I squeezed out of 12 or so of those little tubes;

♦ Hugging people. Not just people I know and/or love, but strangers. Whether one of those awkward half-handshake bro hugs, a sideways good to see you pat-on-the-back hug or a full-on bear hug and embrace, it will feel good to make contact with people again without worrying that they’ve been sent by Russian election-fixers to pass on some life-threatening bug;

♦ Wearing socks again. I know, I’ve never been a big fan of these annoying feet-warmers unless our “new normal” winters actually allow temperatures to dip into the 20s, but it will feel good to put on socks and shoes that do not have a little strap that goes between the big and second-biggest toes;

♦ Interviewing people face-to-face. Yes, conversations on the phone are just as reliable as face-to-face meetings, but I always get images of interviewees rolling their eyes or making mocking hand gestures after I ask one of my particularly probing questions. Plus, I don’t like the idea of interviewing someone who may be sitting around in their PJs or tighty-whiteys … like I am;

♦ Seeing the lower half of people’s faces again;

♦ Not reading/hearing accusations back and forth about who started the virus … and that goes for nation and worldwide as well as locally. Instead of pointing fingers, maybe we’ll just be thankful we’re still up and kicking;

♦ Not hearing these blow-hard politicians — and their sycophantic followers — use a worldwide pandemic to try and make brownie points with voters. You can also throw these idiotic conspiracy theorists in with this item. (Best line I’ve read along these lines so far: “Man eaten by shark, dies of coronavirus. Pelosi blames Trump.”)

♦ Not having to hear all these TV commercials — with appropriately sad and contemplative piano music playing in the background — talk about how bazillion-dollar companies really care about the people who have been negatively impacted by the virus, when in fact, their ad campaign is, basically, “Y’all get back out there and spend money with our company”;

♦ Going into my favorite convenience store, fixing my favorite gas station sausage dog and eating it without considering first dousing it with hand sanitizer;

♦ Not having to sit through another Zoom/teleconference/mass call;

♦ Chatting with people while standing in line to make purchases;

♦ Never using the terms “sheltering in place” or “social distancing” again;

♦ Having different days of the week actually seem like different days of the week, not just today, yesterday, tomorrow and pay day;

♦ Reading and writing stories that do not include the following words or terms: virus, pandemic, China, stimulus, Trump, Biden, Pelosi, Pence, Kemp, testing, recession, depression, Wuhan, unemployment, facemasks, PPE, deaths, Congress and margarine;

♦ And, most of all, going back to the library.