My friend Paine, on the autism spectrum and on the frontline, continues his observations on our peculiar times:

It’s strange, there’s all this glum stuff being said on the news, so much in fact that it would make someone want to give up on our country and head for Canada.

There’s two problems with this though, 1) Canada won’t take anyone trying to cross the border and 2) running away won’t solve any problems, either nationally or individually. Yet I still see a lot of things that give me hope.

I saw a lot of people shopping at Wal Mart the other day, a majority of whom were wearing masks and gloves. There were even lines on the floor either telling people to go one way down each aisle or to stay 6 feet or a carts length apart from everyone else. I didn’t notice what any of them were buying but it was good just to see people out and about.

I also saw kids around my neighborhood playing outside again which is great to see given the current climate. There were even some people sitting on their front stoops outside their houses, some of them talking to some people, from a distance of course, Some of them sitting in a chair having a drink.

I even saw more cars on the road then before, not too much more but more than there’s previously been. There’s even been more people heading to the supermarket, Target, Wal Mart or getting take out from local restaurants. So, things are starting to get back to some semblance of normal, at least they are where I am, I don’t know about anywhere else.

What I do know is that when everything opens up again I hope that both businesses and people act responsibly because the virus is still out there and it’s not going to go away just because everything is open once again.