A Minute with the Mayor

Thank you to all of our locals who are supporting our downtown restaurants and cafes by ordering food to go! This is a great and practical way that we can do our little bit to support them! Maybe this very difficult time will help us strengthen our connections to our local businesses and grow in our appreciation of what we have here – the breadth and depth of our options that is a direct byproduct of our tourism economy. (Always good to remember that when we want to complain about tourists). My only plea and caution is this – Please do not use the time you pick up food as a social time! Do not stand around after you have received your food to visit with your neighbors. I have witnessed this happening, and I know how tough it is to just pick it up and leave when you run into someone you know. We are starved for those connections that are a significant part of our lives. But, now is not the time. We don’t want to lose our ability to keep curbside service open and available because we just have to mingle…. Instead, I suggest that perhaps, after you pick up your food, you could arrange to connect with a friend or friends to have a “virtual lunch” online. Visit over lunch, just from a distance. Last Friday, my wife and I attended a “virtual happy hour” using Zoom. I have to admit, it was not as much fun as a real face-to-face happy hour, but a lot more fun than not socializing at all!

This is the time to be creative. I know that we have a very creative community. Do what you can to lift your spirits, and those of your neighbors! I also had the opportunity to play a couple of online games of spades last weekend with my three grown sons who live in Seattle, Spokane, and Wenatchee. We each had a computer set to the game site, (we used Trickstercards.com- my techie/nerd Seattle son knew about it, as it is a Bellevue company), and then used our iPhones to Facetime each other. It took us a long time to play two games, not because the app was slow, but just because we got so absorbed in our Facetime conversation that we kept needing to remind each other to play a card. Slowing down might also be a nice byproduct of this forced distancing time.

Share your thoughts and suggestions with one another. This morning on NPR, I heard of a mom who wanted her daughter to have a birthday celebration, but of course, in this time of physical distancing, a traditional party was not possible. So, she invited all of her friends and classmates to a drive-by party. Sixty cars came parading by the house at the specified time decorated with balloons, signs, and horns honking. Her daughter was thrilled! New ways to party!

Above all, take care of yourselves and your community by staying safe, and staying away…. Physically!