Murphy's Law of Reopening

In New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy has allowed movie theaters to reopen and restaurants to reopen for indoor dining in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic - with restrictions, particularly with reduced capacity.  Restaurants have no fewer than 58 rules for indoor dining.  As Georges Clemenceau would have said, even God Almighty has only ten.

For many restaurants and movie theaters, this news comes too late, as several of them have closed their doors for good.  But I commend Murphy for the way he's handled the COVID-19 shutdown in this state, moving slowly, and cracking down on any "knuckleheads" his word who break the rules.  And some other popular places, including an art museum near where I live, are also opening.  But I'm not ready to go to any of these places just yet.  Not for another year, anyway.  I imagine it will take that long for the pandemic to play out, and I'm just not comfortable going out to places I don't have to go to.  

It;s because I'm still comfortable going to places I have to go to.  Many Americans believe that the worst of pandemic is over and we have less to fear.  Right.  If that's the case, why do we still have to go to supermarkets and hardware stores looking like ninja warriors?  Why do we have to go to a bank looking like we're about to rob the place?  And what if one of the customers in the bank is about to rob the place?

Until we can stop going around looking like we're about to pull guns out on each other, I will continue to keep close to home, no matter how much I hate to.  I had plans for 2020 to do a lot of things and go to a lot of places, and I hadn't ruled out another attempt to travel abroad.  Now I can't even leave my home county.  I only hope it's not too late to go to the places I'd wanted to go to but hadn't visited yet.  But even though Murphy says it's all right, I won't go to the movies (especially when I can see movies, both old and recent, on TV) or eat out for the foreseeable future.

And quite frankly, I can't afford to.