Who moved my cheese?

 

“It’s been a hard day’s night,

and I’ve been working like a dog,

It’s been a hard day’s night 

I should be sleeping like a log.”

The rat race is coming back. For many it is now holed up in apartments, condos, and homes, and slowly but surely, some are returning back to their offices. If you need to re-read this, I don’t blame you. Never would I have suspected we would not trudge to the office and/or see many of us work out of our homes forever,

A few years ago, the word, “Corona,” was best known as a beer—-then in a short period of time, it was transformed into one of the most feared terms of the day. Now, I think it has returned to a beer.  After the Corona brand was decimated, “Delta” soon became the next feared word—I suspect it could not have been good for the airline or the faucet manufacturer, and “Omicron” which is best known as the 15th letter of the Greek Alphabet. (No one has feared any letter in the alphabet as far I have known.)

On March 12, 2020, I believed we would be away from the office for a week maybe two as this mysterious virus was now “the talk.” For many of us, we didn’t go back to the office that year, and for some, we never went back at all. I was one of those who never went back.

One of the daily adventures I missed, and still do, was the walk from the train station here in Chicago. It was approximately a mile+ each way, and combined with the other paths I took, I was walking 4 miles a day. Not an astonishing number, but when you stop abruptly, it takes its toll. I am sure there are many shoe manufacturers who have suffered from my stopping and the millions of others who no longer commute.

Working in the city was really fun; it was part of my life.  I had “train friends” and since that final day, I have never seen most again—the pandemic really changed our lives and I am sad to say, it looks like forever.

The photo above was taken from an open patio area 11 floors up on the building I worked in—it overlooked a busy section of Chicago. The day I took it, I knew it was the right moment. It was sunny and as I walked east, I saw the shadows lay forward to the West. It was one of those days where you might try and outpace your shadow, but at my age I knew it was not possible. It only made sense, because in the maze we all were a part of there was a constant race to get ahead.

Thanks for stopping by.