Good evening my Corona friends and hop all is well. On day 81 on life in the time of Corona, and I think we are beginning to get the hang of this whole pandemic thing.  I feel like people are really getting in the groove.  Maybe they are feeling a bit more like stepping out. Hey we were out till 10pm this evening and it is a school night after all. My roommate has his first day on the water with his crew. They even attempted to do some racing tonight but I think it was more than a bit chilly. Also a heavy fog rolled in to call it an early night. Generally they all convene at a bar in Charlestown but it closed for renovations last year, and still has not reopened. Luckily for the crew, Howie and Lisa live right nearby with a nice patio to host post sailing evening. I was lucky enough to crash the BBQ, all safe distance apart. We still have two dinners in the box waiting for chef Boyardee to get to it and I knew this would happen as soon as we had alternatives for dining besides our own kitchen, these would go wasted. I am going to have to scale back to two dinners as that for sure would make it more likely to make it to the frying pan. Today was a good day as I made it to a few stores and visit with my colleagues who have just returned to work, and so much fun to catch up. We all feel like it has been a very long snowstorm, and happy to be able to venture out even if we still have to mask up. Great to be out and about among people that you haven’t been with 24/7 for the past few months. I love how some of the local restaurants in different towns, are adapting to the new phase of openings and setting up their outdoor seating however and wherever they can find a spot. Some of the local craft breweries are putting picnic tables around their buildings and partnering with a hot dog vendor to sell some food. These picnic tables are sprouting up on little side streets in the city and for once it looks like the people who make these decisions about who gets to serve outside are tacking a more lackadaisical attitude, and I for one applaud it and hopefully it will continue, as I have gotten used to taking my cocktails in my own sippy cup on my nightly stroll. Today down on the south shore I found a local pub set up quite a few round tables and picnic tables right out back in their parking lot, and were doing brisk business. I even spotted a makeshift bar at the end made out of plywood. A few ladies were just bellying up to the bar enjoying a bit of day drinking.  It must be their first few days out of hiding, and very excited about actually finding a bar, albeit a plywood one, that was serving on a nice sunny day. I definitely get the vibe that loosening the restrictions slowly has made us all more appreciative of all our new found freedoms after having been grounded. We are all going to have to take some time to figure out how to navigate the world during and after Corona and how to address the issues of racial inequality, and first just by acknowledging it, speaking about it and understanding. Just like these restaurants are trying to reinvent the way they can still be relevant and succeed, we can find a way to talk about it and try to heal all the hurt we are feeling today. I hope this has not been in vain and living under the shutdown has given us more time to think about it and I know there is a way we can build our way and it could start with some plywood.

Just sayin…