Pedaling around Peoria during the pandemic, March of 2021
It's March of 2021, and I just got home from pedaling around Peoria, which is a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. It's the same thing that I did yesterday, and the day before, and the week before, and last year, and hopefully I'll be able to do it for many more years to come!
If you're following the story of the pandemic and vaccines being developed for it, I'll tell you my age: my age group was just qualified to get it. If you don't believe that a pandemic is really happening, and it's all just an elaborate hoax, hang on, I'll get to you, too. There are a LOT of people in Arizona who are in that category, many of whom are my close friends. I'm still close to them, but just not physically.
And since this is a history blog, you may be wondering why I'm writing about what happened just a few minutes ago, while I was out riding. It just has to do with how I define "history" - all you have to do is look at the word "happened", not "happening", and it should be self-explanatory. Or if you prefer, I can show you a picture of myself when I was younger - because ALL pictures of me are of when I was younger. Time flows like a river.
The Sundance Elementary School, which is on 71st Avenue north of Peoria, is open. I see the school buses, and kids walking (the kids are pretty good about wearing masks!), so I stay away from the area until a little after 8. Once school starts, the neighborhood streets get quiet again.
My main route going north by northwest is 73rd Avenue, which is a very quiet little residential street that curves gently. I wave to everyone I see, and make a special point of greeting the dogs, who seem pleased to see me. They would wave if they could! It's often so quiet that the loudest sound I hear is a leaf rustling on the street, and of course the sound of birds. I sling my mask under my ear when I'm distant from anyone, but when I approach a busy corner, and see people walking, I mask up. I have a lot of cool masks that were given to me by the Woman in My Life, including one with wiener dogs, and I alternate them. The one I wore today has gotten many compliments, and I wear a mask the way that I wore a tie when I was a corporate man.
I don't really go into too many buildings, although I do stop at the Jack in the Box on Cactus Road, and I stop at various parks to, ahem, wash my hands. I carry sanitizing wipes, and I don't touch anything. And since I've been doing this since before the pandemic, it seems like a good idea, and something that I'll continue to do.
The picture at the top of this post is the Walmart on 79th Avenue and Peoria, which is about as far west as I go. Crossing Grand Avenue isn't exactly "non-car friendly", so I just turn around there, and the same with the 101 Freeway. There are so many wonderful places for me to travel that I don't need to go where the cars go, unless I want to stop somewhere and get some coffee. I've always enjoyed sitting outside, and the area around the Walmart where people used to hang around is now mostly empty. The loudest sound I usually hear is the coo of the pigeons. Reminds me of hanging out at the beach in California with the seagulls, who would poop all over everything, too! No, I don't feed them, that would just make it worse.
OK, as promised, I'll talk about people who are on the other side of the equation from me, and they've been very visible for a long time. To them, this pandemic is just an elaborate hoax, perpetrated as a conspiracy to turn people into mindless sheep. There's a wide range of beliefs, and I get a chance to see it in action every day. Last Sunday I found myself going past a big church in Peoria, which I had gone by before, with lots of cars in the parking lot, and not a mask in sight. These people have great faith! I sometimes wish that I could have that level of faith, but sadly I don't.
The shredded American flags started appearing last month, but I'm seeing less and less of them. Those were put out by people who believe that the American election system had completely failed when their candidate didn't win the presidency. Speaking of which, I still see flags with the name of the former president every once in a while in Peoria. I follow the story on social media, and there's always a particular date when something is supposed to happen, March 4th being the latest one.
So there's my report for March of 2021. Thank you for pedaling around Peoria with me!
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