Welcome my friends to social distancing central. I come to you from the heart of the get out of my space movement, where it's just gotten much easier to cope. But more on that later.
A week or so into this new way of living, things seem almost normal around here. This social distancing thing comes naturally to some of us. You could even say many were born to it. Think about your great great grandparents.
It's easy to forget, in the age of internet, how isolated we've always been from the rest of the country. A couple hundred years ago, moving your family into the central Appalachian hills was the ultimate form of social distancing.
If you think about it, they weren't just "going west". If so, they could have gone on to central Kentucky where things would be easier. But there were already too many people there and more coming.
These deep dark hills would keep people away. The mountains were just something to cross on the journey and for decades hillbillies watched the world pass by.
Even now, with rail and highways and cable and internet, we're still an isolated part of the world. It's still hard to get here and even harder to get out. And, as of this typing, the pandemic that's sweeping the planet has barely touched us.
Unfortunately, that gives us a false sense of security. We tend to think what happens out there won't effect us. We treat it like harmless entertainment to distract from the harsh realities right here.
We might be isolated, but we aren't uneffected. We've never been uneffected.
The hills won't keep the coronavirus away. The hills don't keep the actions of others from effecting us. Thankfully, today we have a governor who saw the train coming and didn't try to tell the public it was a cruise ship.
The governors decisive actions effect us. Our state has lower coronavirus numbers than most surrounding states because he reacted to facts. He did not see the problem coming and try to tell everyone it was a figment of the media. Like the stain in the White House did.
Like our own Senator Poodle-Do, too, who scoffed at social distancing. He is the first US Senator to test positive for the virus. He doesn't care if he infected anyone else, he said so. It's not his problem.
He made that clear when he voted against the first round of federal pandemic aid. He does, however, want to remind you we're all in this together. It's unclear if he knows the meaning of 'together'. Perhaps we should consult AquaBuddah.
And speaking of coping, there may be some who just aren't built for social distancing. I feel your pain and there is some relief.
It got a lot easier for social butterflies suffering in Elkhorn City this week. You can at least now drink alone. On Wednesday, the Double Kwik sold the first legal beer in town in over 60 years.
In the land of social distancing that's a good reason to celebrate.