AJ is getting ready now. Liz wants to stay upstairs and continue trying to reach her parents, something she is growing increasingly concerned about by the hour.
3:32 p.m.
We’re back from the pool a little earlier than planned – and not by choice. There was an incident.
So AJ and I were both in the pool, which I have to say, with the way the weather is right now, felt great. I started by swimming a few laps just to get the old blood flowing. AJ did some cannonballs, splashing his old man as best he could in the process. Then we tossed a small foam football around for a few minutes since no one else was in the pool. In fact, no one was in the pool area period, or the clubhouse for that matter.
The privacy was kind of nice, at least until about half an hour after we arrived. I had my back turned to the pool area entry gate when I heard it squeak open. At first, I figured that it was the girls, having decided to break from their seclusion to come down and join us. However, my hopes faded as I turned to see three people – two men and a woman – enter the pool area.
The three carried several large, dingy looking bags with them, and settled their belongings on a couple lounge chairs that skirt the pool’s perimeter. The people were dirty looking, their clothes worn, their hair frazzled and unkempt. But I did my best not to stare since I feel that even people who don’t fit my standards of personal hygiene deserve privacy.
As the newcomers began to disrobe, I realized that they weren’t wearing swimsuits. They were wearing regular shorts, which made me wonder. The condo has had incidents with the homeless coming to take their “baths” in the pool, and I began to think that these people weren’t guests of the condo association, but rather transients looking for a way to pair cooling off from the stifling afternoon heat while getting in a quick cleaning session. But I still wasn’t sure. Some of the renters the condo building has hosted over the years could be confused with the homeless, and I didn’t want to offend anyone. Therefore, I resorted to a tactic we tend to employ here at the condo to help determine guest from trespasser.
“Hi,” I nodded as the trio ambled over to the steps leading into the shallow end of the pool. Their nervous nods and low grumbles of greeting only furthered my questioning of their presence. “Hot one today,” I continued. My attempt at conversation at this point was not being received well. “You folks just get here?” I pressed.
“Yeah,” one of the men answered gruffly, really clarifying things.
I then asked them what unit they were staying in.
I watched their eyes carefully, seeing nervous flickers toward some of the front doors of the lower level units. It was yet another telltale sign – they were looking for unit numbers. “Five, six…” one of the men started, but then the woman interrupted him. “Unit one ten,” she said confidently.
I knew at that instant that they were lying. I quietly told AJ to go dry off. He knew exactly why and didn’t question my instructions. We both knew the three were full of it because the first guy started with “five,” and there is no fifth floor here. And I knew the woman was lying too because unit 110 is Angie and Dan’s place. But sometimes renters get confused, and I wanted to be 100 percent sure I wasn’t accusing someone of being here illegally when they had every right to be.
So I said, “Oh. Then you must be renting from Ken and Jackie…the owners of that unit.”
“Right,” the woman nodded. “Ken and Jackie…yeah, good people.”
At this point, I definitely knew that these people didn’t belong in our pool or anywhere on the premises since Ken and Jackie were names I’d just made up. No one in the building was named Ken or Jackie, and DEFINITELY no one associated with unit 110.
I didn’t want to be a jerk. I don’t particularly enjoy being the bad guy like some people do, but I’m willing to do it when I have to. Not only were these people trespassing illegally, but they were a liability to the condo association should they get hurt or hurt someone else. And over the years, we’ve learned that if you let one transient start bathing in the condo pool, you suddenly have 20 of them. And they won’t stop there. There are other issues they’ll likely bring with them – one of which unfortunately is drugs. And drugs typically lead to crime, and crime leads to diminished home values. It’s a slippery slope, one that I don’t want to traverse.
So at that point, I told them frankly, but as politely as I could that there were no people by those names at this building, that I knew the people in unit 110 very well, that those people were long-time friends, and that these three were definitely NOT staying with them. I then explained that they needed to leave, and if they didn’t, I’d have to call the police.
Two of the three trespassers had eased into the pool by this point in the conversation, and the third was standing near the pool’s edge, hand poised on the rail leading down its entry steps. I was at the opposite end of the pool, the deep end, and had floated slowly over to where a set of metal steps would allow me a quick exit should I need it. AJ had already gotten out and was toweling off.
I wasn’t really concerned at this point in the exchange. The three weren’t particularly intimidating. One man looked pretty frail, the other two somewhat overweight, and all of them appeared less than healthy. But you never know what people are capable of or what sorts of weapons they might have been concealing in their possessions. Therefore, I didn’t want to have them get too belligerent, especially with AJ around. But that’s exactly what happened.
The two in the pool started getting angry. They called my bluff, telling me to go call the police. “Good luck,” they said. “All the police are busy with the flu, or dead for that matter,” the woman sneered. “The police ain’t gonna do shit!” the other one said.
Now I’m not a small guy, but I’m not necessarily what you might call “an intimidating presence” either. I don’t have the physical bulk or bulging biceps that might back someone off with a glance. Therefore, these three, sensing the upper hand, started asking me about where I lived and saying that maybe they’d stay with US for a while. They said they’d like to see what living like rich people was like, which caught me off guard. I certainly don’t consider our family “rich” but I guess it’s all relative. When you’re using a pool for your bath tub, I suppose you see things through a different lens.
The woman began a lengthy tirade about how she hated people like me, how we were so spoiled and selfish, how we were never willing to help out another human being. She went on to say that people like me were exactly why the Su flu was doing what it was to the world, and that it’s what people like me deserved. It was our “comeuppance”.
I had no opportunity to interject any sort of verbal defense, not that I wanted to anyway. I really just wanted to extract myself (and especially AJ) from the situation in case it broke down further. I had noticed that one of the men, the scrawny looking one, had a nasty cough, which was of particular concern considering the prevalence of the flu. It has me kicking myself now for potentially having exposed us to such danger. While we stayed a decent distance from the strangers, I know just how contagious the flu is, so I’m not sure what exactly it takes to transmit it from one person to another…hopefully less distance than we kept from these people.
So at this point in the woman’s tirade, her voice had become so loud and irate that it must have attracted the attention of others. John and Gerald – the condo guardians – must have heard the woman’s raised voice and come down to the pool area. Even though they’re older, they can be kind of intimidating when they put their “angry old man” faces on. The sight of them must have been enough to rattle the homeless people, or whoever they were, and they quickly gathered their possessions and left.
Gerald said it was an ongoing ordeal with the area’s homeless, and our condo building wasn’t the only one that has had issues with them trying to bathe in their pool. Gerald and John have both called the police multiple times in the past and even recognized the three people who were here today.
It’s unfortu
nate that it happened, but in a way, it kind of makes me think about the flu and who is luckier – us or them. Who is going to have an easier time riding this thing out, people who are stuck inside their homes with others and who are used to the trappings of what we consider a “normal” lifestyle? Or those who are free to float whichever way the wind blows them?
I guess there’s no telling. The whole incident kind of freaked me out, and I’m pretty sure it scared AJ too. But in a way, I’m kind of glad that it happened and that AJ was there to see that this situation is not something to be taken lightly. I just hope that neither of us was exposed to the Su flu in the process.
9:02 p.m.
I’m pooped! AJ already went to bed after playing on the tablet for a while. I think the stress from the flu that’s swirling around us like a Florida hurricane has our bodies just giving up and calling it quits early tonight.
Liz is in a funk. She still can’t reach her parents. It’s becoming an obsession. She tries them almost every hour now. I feel terrible, and I wish there was something I could say to make her worries vanish, but I have to admit that it does look bad. If they were okay, I think they would have answered the phone or at least called us back by now. While at first I was willing to play the optimist, I have a bad feeling that things are not going to work out the way I’d hoped whether it’s concerning Liz’s parents or the flu situation as a whole.
I’ve been watching the news, and things just seem to be getting worse by the hour. I can only imagine what the world will look like when we wake up tomorrow morning. Frankly, I’m surprised that the news networks are still reporting. Many of the regular networks (especially ones that carry more live television events) have gone to movie marathons since sporting events have been cancelled.
Now the reports of famous people dying or being infected with the flu are starting to trickle in. From actors and reality television show stars to musicians and professional athletes, the list of the rich and famous succumbing to the Su flu continues to grow. It’s amazing just how sad all this is. What’s more amazing is what an effect a famous person dying has. It’s kind of weird. It might sound horrible for me to say, and it’s not that I’m not sympathetic to EVERYONE’S plight, but hearing that one of my favorite movie stars or athletes has died has a much greater impact than hearing that 10,000 people I’ve never heard of have succumbed to the flu. I feel terrible writing that, but even though I haven’t had any greater personal interaction with that actor or athlete than I have with any of those 10,000 people, the single death of that one famed soul touches me far more. I know it shouldn’t, but it does. I even found AJ crying earlier tonight, not because death estimates now range into the millions here in the United States, or because his mother can’t reach his grandparents, but because he learned that his favorite racecar driver died from the flu yesterday. It’s like some of these people who we admire have touched us in ways we never realized. It’s almost like their family, but more than family…heroes I guess, untouchable heroes. And I think that when they ARE touched, we realized just how fallible the rest of us peons actually are.
Then of course there is the economic aspect of the flu, never to be ignored by the news networks. In sports alone, the industry is looking to lose tens of billions if not more likely hundreds of billions of dollars in ticket sales and advertising revenue. I mean think about it, you have NASCAR getting ready for its final races leading up to a champion being crowned. You have baseball approaching the playoffs. NFL football is getting ready to kick off. I mean, these are HUGE money sports, and we’re looking not at event cancellations but lost contracts (as athletes die from the flu) and lower attendance rates as well after this thing is all said and done. Not only will there be fewer fans, but it could take months, years or even longer for the economy to bounce back. I don’t think priority number one for a lot of people will be going to sporting events.
Then of course there are all the movies and television shows currently in production or post-production that are being postponed or scrapped altogether due to their stars having died.
And of course there is the average American and Main Street America business owner who is being royally screwed over by the flu. Almost all businesses are closed now. Those that ARE open are struggling because business levels have fallen off a precipice or they have no workers because their employees are sick, afraid of getting sick, or have to watch their kids who are off from school.
It’s truly looking like there will be trillions of dollars in lost revenue by the time the flu is over. But then business could bounce back in a huge way since there could be tons of money flowing in from funerals, cleanup, rebuilding, estate finalization, and massive wage increases due to a greatly diminished labor pool.
And then, last but not least, there is the human side of all this, and by “human side” I mean people – bodies…a LOT of them. Bodies of those killed by the flu are piling up EVERYWHERE! Hospitals are overflowing with them. Morgues are refusing more of them until they can process the ones they already have, which is difficult since many morgues are without sufficient staff.
The government has tried to mount a campaign to get private waste management companies (assisted by the National Guard) to assist in the effort to clear the dead from neighborhoods. But these companies (the ones that still have employees) are balking not only because they aren’t trained or staffed for such work, but because they want exorbitant fees to assist with the efforts. Who can blame them? You couldn’t pay me enough for such a job.
Therefore, sadly, many places are simply hauling the bodies out into the street and burning them. It sounds horrible, but it’s either that or risk spreading disease from the rotting corpses. Some people are trying to bury the dead in back yards, a job that is time consuming and keeps people outdoors, which is a place many people (especially those in cities where crime is taking over) would rather not be. The problem with fires (beyond the smell and horrific optics) is that they draw the wrong types of people. Burning bodies mean survivors, and survivors mean supplies, which in many urban areas are already running short.
It’s all becoming one big snowball effect. And the snowball has quickly grown to an uncontrollable avalanche cascading across the country, burying it under a layer of disorder, uncertainty, and apparently, chaos. Right now, after what I’ve seen on television, I’m just thanking my lucky stars we aren’t in Chicago. While things aren’t looking great here, by the looks of things there, it could be much, much worse.
It will be interesting (in a macabre sort of way) to see how all this plays out.
September 4th
8:47 a.m.
Okay, it’s time to get organized. This morning is inventory morning. The whole family is helping out. I will be sorting and calling out information. Liz and AJ are going to write down our numbers.
Everyone appears to be ready to go, so I guess I’d better get moving before I lose my workforce. AJ is more of a captive audience, and I don’t want him to get bored. At least this will kill a little time in what are increasingly becoming LONG days – especially for him.
10:37 a.m.
Well that’s done with. It took a bit more time than I initially thought, but we finally got a tally of all the food and drinks in the condo kitchen.
Now it’s time to come up with a menu and a timeline for how to best utilize and consume our available resources. God only knows how long this flu is going to go on, how long stores will remain closed, and how long it will take once they’re open to re-supply, so we need to maximize what we have and keep waste to a minimum. I’ve released AJ for this part of our morning’s project. He’s sitting on the balcony playing with some toy racing cars he brought with him. I have to say, I’m very proud of him. He’s weathering this storm like a little trooper.
11:25 a.m.
Inventory is officially done, and we’ve come up with a decent meal plan if I DO say so myself.
I’d say that we have probably a week to a week and a half of easy meals. There are burger
s, hot dogs, chicken breasts, some Polish sausage, ground beef, and steaks in the freezer, along with assorted frozen veggies, breakfast sausages, ice cream, and other sundries. Our fridge is pretty well stocked, as is our pantry. There is milk, eggs, cheese, bread, butter, fruits, veggies, and lunch meats in the fridge, along with several jugs of juice, bottled waters, and soda. In the pantry there is an array of rice, potatoes, canned soups, canned fruits and veggies, cookies, chips, crackers, cereal, peanut butter, pasta, pasta sauce, and a variety of other snack foods and sides.
Come to think of it, it’s probably enough for several weeks of “easy” meals before we have to start coming up with some ad hoc options (things we typically wouldn’t eat as normal meals). So far, we’ve only developed a meal plan for the next week so that we’re sure to use up the stuff that will go bad soon – lettuce, tomatoes, fresh fruit and other veggies. Therefore, we’ll probably be eating a lot of salads initially, but that’s okay, I could use a healthier diet after some of the meals we’ve been eating lately. Then we’ll move on to and/or supplement those meals with more of the dairy products – eggs, cheese, milk, cottage cheese, yogurt – as well as lunch meats.
We’ll save more of the frozen stuff, along with longer-lasting items like noodles, crackers, peanut butter, chips, and canned foods for later.
We also took stock of the drinks we have in the pantry which include several 12-packs of soda, two 24-packs of bottled water, and a 12-pack of iced teas. We also have several 2-liter bottles of soda, and (acting on John’s advice) several more 2-liter bottles and milk jugs filled with tap water.
The Dystopian Diaries Page 63
