I am the first to recognize that spending time at the beach and in the water is a version of therapy for Amanda.  So, with that in mind, I finally agreed to spend the morning at the beach. I knew she needed the time in her favorite refuge so it was hard to say no. We got there early and headed to the umbrella stand we like and found some chairs. Amanda went down to the water for a soak and I only ventured to about ankle deep. The hours past and the beach started to fill in and it finally dawned on me as to why the whole time we had been there I’d felt weird. No-masks. We may have walked from the car to our beach chairs with our masks on we took them off when we sat down and in the went in the water. I leave the house for work and spend the better part of the day wearing a face mask.  It felt weird to be out side of my car or the apartment with out one. The number of people also began to weird me out, the number of people who seemed to be acting like there was no public health crisis was unnerving.  The last six months have conditioned me on what to expect when leaving my home and being at the beach was a departure from that. I can’t even remember seeing people walking up and down the main drag of Clearwater Beach and not wearing masks. I honestly felt like we were on another planet.

I know Amanda will be disappointed by this but it will probably be until after Christmas before we return to the beach again due to the health crisis.