Covid 19 Insanity

The above photos are of beloved paintings which we grew up with.  My memory is that my parents brought them home with them after one of their trips overseas.  They were in a layover in Nairobi and bought them at the airport. My brother and sister each have a different memory of the exact provenance. The one shared memory is that they were bought somewhere in Africa and put up in our home in South Africa.

My parents took them with when they moved from South Africa to Israel and put them on the wall of a room in their flat in North Tel Aviv. After my dad died my mother moved twice again and carefully wrapped them and took them with her. 

After she died my brother and I chose things we could bring back  to our homes on either coast of America.  My sister kept the 'heavy' things, like the furniture, cutlery, etc.  It was an amicable arrangement.

I kept these paintings in the same newspaper my mother had carefully wrapped them in until I moved to my latest home.  I put them on the wall in my study/den/guest bedroom/ office. I used command strips instead of nails.  I had bought them from Bed Bath and Beyond or Joann's or Ace Hardware - they all carry them, and they have been there for 3 years.  Yesterday I saw that two pictures had fallen behind the sofa. I retrieved them and removed the old strips and looked in my storage for spare strips.  Oh woe, I did not have any extras and I absolutely had to put these pictures back, NOW. I read on the Nextdoor site that Joann's was still open.  I checked online and they were open until 5 p.m. It was now 3.55 p.m.  And so began my frantic internal dialogue - 'should I risk my life by going to Joann's, or should I wait it out until?  ........ Who knows until when? It could be months still, years even, the rest of my life .....????'

I decided I had to risk my life and hopefully I won't endanger others. I will go to Joann's with gloves, my mask, hand sanitizer.  Off I went and drove to El Cerrito Plaza and what did I see  --

a long line - a very long line of masked people - it snaked almost back to BART.  My mind was made up for me, I turned around and came home and ordered some from Amazon!