Perspective: Fridays with Doug

Being quarantined means I have noticed a lot more things than I normally would. It also means I have thought about things a lot more than I normally would. Which leads to the conclusion that I should share those thoughts. Please take them with a grain of salt or endorse them wholeheartedly.

- Remember when you wished the weekend would last forever? I think that is very close to what is happening for a majority of the population.

- Be sure to appreciate anyone you know working in the medical field. Give them a phone call and thank them.

- With the closing of salons, long hair could become the new style.

- Are people just washing their hands and arms, but not the rest of them?

- Comfy clothes and no showers could mean the rise of the hippie once again.

- I stepped on the fancy scale I got for Christmas and it said to please remember social distancing. Only one person on the scale at a time.

- A warrior is not a warrior because they always win, but because they always fight.

- Reading books is more rewarding than watching television. I am currently halfway through 'Mr. Basketball - George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers and the birth of th NBA.” Shaquille O'Neal is quoted as saying, 'Without George Mikan, there'd be no me.”

- Since people are buying up toilet paper for a respiratory disease, will they buy up nasal spray for a disease that causes bowel problems?

- There is a ‘plant' that can help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. ‘Plant' yourself on the couch at home and stay there.

- With the change of policy of now being told to wear masks in public, be sure you don't come home with a random stranger.

- Who would have thought it would take a pandemic to learn about the insane world of tiger cub petting? Or that there are more tigers in captivity (5,000 to 10,000) than there are in the wild (4,000).

- I thought the only people on the show 'Tiger King” that weren't bonkers were the guy (John Reinke) with no legs and the girl (Kelci Saffery) with one arm. Both lost their appendages from their work with the cats. Unlike everyone else, they didn't blame anyone for their situation.

- Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, wrote a book called 'The Fireman.” The novel, his fourth, tells the tale of a deadly spore that has infected most of the world's population.

- I first learned of Joe Hill after buying his book, 'Heart-Shaped Box,” in a secondhand bookstore. It is a story about Jude Coyne, an aging rock star, who buys himself a dead man's suit. He acquires it online, lured by the promise that the dead man's ghost will be included in his purchase.

- I think Joe Hill's books are better than his father's. Although King's 'The Stand” was a good ‘prediction' of the coronavirus.

- I remember when Ozzy Ozbourne bit the head off of a bat, but it just started a lot of talk that he was crazy. It did not start a virus.

- Until the virus, I never had heard of a pangolin until reading that some Chinese ate them for food.

- I have two uncles that are truck drivers. Both were in the service during the Vietnam War. Both are more worried about the possibility of dying now than they were then. That may have something to do with age - feeling invincible as a teenager and very mortal in one's 60s.

- A great idea for a mask is to distress some new underwear then put a chocolate stain facing out. This is a sure plan to enforce social distancing.

- Counting on Facebook for valid information is not viable. Counting on Facebook for ideas and humor is priceless.

- Will it take this pandemic to get people to realize the simple things in life are the best?

- I hope when it is all over, we have realized how special life is, how little we actually need, how much we have and the value of interpersonal relationships.

- The one thing that is going to keep us safe in these uncertain times is common sense. Please use it!