BLOG: A socially distant walk in the park
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During the early days of November, as a brief break from the exhausting political news and the saddening pandemic news, we took an outdoor break on the weekend following Election Day.
I had just finished an on-call week for hospital consults. Since late October/early November, we have been witnessing a steadily increasing surge of COVID-19 cases in our two teaching hospitals. Because we are only two faculty members at MSU, we take hospital calls every other week, on average. Sometimes 2 weeks in a row, according to circumstances in our division. My associate did a 2-week call for the second and third weeks of November, as he likes to do that to be bundled to his internal medicine 2-weeks call. As a result, I was on-call 2 weeks in a row, through the Thanksgiving holiday.
That Saturday, Nov. 7, was a gorgeous warm day, one of few such days in the month of November in Michigan, with temperature over 70 degrees. We decided to spend the day at the beautiful Island Lake Park in the Kensington area by Novi. The park is a splendid outdoor public recreational spot with extended forests with miles of tracks for hiking and biking, waterfront with a beach, along with other recreational amenities.
It was a great outdoor activity for families, saying goodbye to Michigan’s summer and early fall, when warm days allow going to the park. While we have previously gone to his park, which is 40 minutes away from Lansing where we live, when the kids were younger, this time was different. With the COVID-19 pandemic, and while the park was moderately full of families, people were very adherent to the measures of social distancing: Everyone was wearing a mask, even the kids; social distancing was well maintained. There were no indoor activities within the park’s indoor buildings.
I smiled to myself when I spotted the signs for social distance (Figure 1). The sign said “Do Your Part: Stay at 6 Feet Apart” in three languages. I smiled because I am an Arab American.
“Wow,” I said to myself. “Arabic seems to be the third language in this part of Michigan?”
Deep into the park is the farm center, at least 10 minutes driving distance when driving at the marked speed limit.
The Farm Center is a great place to have fun in the outdoors for kids and adults alike. The tractor, year make, 1925 (Figure 2), was parked in a nice spot in the Farm Center, surrounded by areas for sheep, horses, chicken, and beautifully landscaped agricultural attractions.
The tractor reminded me of my first driving lesson by my late father. I was 16, working during the summer vacation at the large farm my father was working at. When I asked him to teach me driving, he chose a large tractor for the first lesson.
I did not expect he would choose a tractor to teach me driving. I had hoped he would use the Jeep or one of the sedan cars that were parking in front of the farm’s office building. I was scared.
“I can’t drive this thing,” I said to my father.
“Ride on, my son,” he said. “Don’t be afraid; it is easy to drive!”
Indeed it was so easy to drive! I felt like a NASCAR driver!
Now, December is here. We will brace ourselves for another bitter winter, which Michigan is known to promise and deliver every year.
But this year, staying indoor for the winter brings with it the fear of more and more surges of COVID-19 cases, as the scientists are predicting.