La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

Oh, how the pandemic has kicked me in the head, let me count the ways. I was just about to start a tour guide business, when COVID-19 kept the tourists from the tulips and daffodil fields, which was probably the safest place to breathe.

Nope, couldn’t even peacefully breathe out on a deserted bayside dike, got quite harshly booted by a minion from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, “didn’t” you read the sign!? Yeah, nobody within a half a mile, I guess it’s best that my at-risk ass, go get closer to the virus, that I thought we were supposed to avoid.

I spent the tourist season, practicing for the future when we would be able to breathe fresh free air once again.

I spent some significant time trying to get some outdoor music events to occur, but the fear of the known and unknown kept even the smallest of events from happening. Yeah, my little part time gig as a dancer in a rock band disappeared, thanks to the cloud of COVID-19 caused uncertainty.

As a trained public speaker, my attempts to be an inspirational speaker, were dashed at every turn. Trying to convey a complex concept via zoom, Boom! Doctoral dissertations are not meant for such strategies.

My town council race was a disaster, nobody wants to come out of their fear-based cocoons and who could blame them, people were dying all over the place! Breathing became a fearful act, we couldn’t think for ourselves that walking along a deserted road, might be safer than a stroll around our suburban block. We couldn’t imagine a socially distanced event, music out in an open farm field: we’re all going to die!

So, yes, COVID-19 has cost me dearly and I so far have not contracted the thing. My sister, brother-in-law and nephew all caught it, coughed, wheezed and sneezed, which kept me from visiting, so sad for them and me.

Glen S. Johnson

Skagit Valley