Kind of been there

Since we are supposed to be staying close to our humble abodes through this crazy virus, have any of you decided to do any trash talking to significant others such as, “This is my house!” or “Not gonna happen in my house!”

Yeah, I haven’t decided to get that crazy, yet, either.

These are unprecedented times, for sure. About the closest thing I can compare it to is when Mount St. Helens erupted May 18, 19080, and dropped a whole lot of ash in our area.

We were confused as to what this stuff was going to do to our land, the paint jobs on our cars or how it was going to be filtered through our vehicle air cleaners.

Not real well, we would soon find out.

I remember listening to a radio broadcast that afternoon. At the time, we were getting a snowfall of ash and been getting their share of the gray stuff. I heard them say, “Don’t wash it off, it could destroy your paint. Blow it off your vehicles.”

Later, we would find out that it wasn’t going to be a problem to wash the ash from cars.

There was so much information that would be difficult to maneuver kind of similar to what we are going through now.

The more we know, the more confusing it gets and much of the information is scary and is probably meant to be.

The ash fell on a Sunday and we found out that driving was a problem because the fine ash was seeping through the air cleaner into the carburetor and getting inside the cylinders and ruining engines. We didn’t leave our house until Thursday the 22nd after a nice rain.

My wife was really into drinking Pepsi then and we needed to make the grocery store run to get a few items — but mostly Pepsi. I don’t remember there being a huge run on toilet paper then. There was no social media and we needed to get our information from radio or TV news, but mostly by making phone calls to friends and neighbors. And we made a lot.

We did wear masks to filter the fine powdery stuff for at least a day or to until the dust settled, so to speak. What was interesting back then was the fact that you could wear a face mask into the bank but once you were in the bank you needed to remove it during transactions. I don’t think that is as much of a problem during this pandemic.

Since there was about 3-4 inches of ash everywhere it needed to be cleaned up. And as it usually happens, friends and neighbors leant a helping hand to.

Out on the farm with low water pressure, it was difficult to do that, but we eventually got things back to normal.

School was canceled for the rest of the year, but spring sports did return. At that point in time, it is anybody’s guess as to if and when the spring sports season would get started. We also don’t know about restarting the school year.

This week would have been the week that schools in Washington would have been on spring break. As of Monday, this year’s break looks like it’s been extended to next fall.

Just to let you know, I am still working on the windbreak because we have a rather large one and there is a lot of work trimming these plants. The lopping shears I am using really do a fine job and I think we bought them at the local hardware store a couple of years ago.

Interestingly, on the lopper’s handle in small letters is the “Corona.” I’m not making this up. It’s strange to have used this tool that long and only just noticed that.

The weather is going to be nice this week, so a little fresh air will do you good. The sunshine is also very important to your health and well-being.

Open your doors and windows and let your house breathe. The fresh air will do you good, too.

— Dale Anderson is a local sports columnist. Email him at [email protected].