Simple

What a difference a year makes.

In 2019, on the occasion of the first Thursday in August, which for more than a decade, has been an occasion to mark another occasion, something like a hundred bike-riding revelers gathered in Seattle’s favorite old-growth tree city park to load up on grain alcohol-infused juice boxes before throwing themselves down a basketball court-sized sheet of plastic amidst countless plastic glowstix and wrestling with each other in a tub of vegan-friendly goo.

In 2020, barely a handful of riders pedaled to the same location, simply to mark the occasion by standing around a fire quietly drinking beer and reflecting on the efficacy of vaccine trials and the prospect of someday being able to enjoy the sort of grand shenanigans that are mere memories these days in the days of the pandemic.

Nonetheless, a reasonably good time was had by all, which does beget the question, “Why not?”

It’s hard to understand how quickly things have changed and one can’t help wondering where everyone has gotten to and if they will someday return.

I, for one, keep doing pretty much the same things I’ve always done, albeit with a bandana wrapped around my face, so I’m a little bit surprised to see how the behaviors of friends, acquaintances, and relative strangers has changed so much.  I’m sure they have better things to do, which is just another illustration of how easily I’m satisfied by inertia and habit.

Still, it’s still grand be outside on a cool summer’s evening in the Pacific Northwest and while it’s too bad you aren’t able to enjoy the wonderful excess that has characterized the date since back in the early days of the Obama administration, these days, it’s almost, relatively speaking, just as excessive to be hanging out with three or four people who don’t live in the same house as you do.

A person can get used to almost anything; but almost anything’s unusual via bike.