When I went out Saturday morning to put up a remote at Andre’s for the Drive and the River radio stations, I did not realize winter had descended on the city overnight.
OK, maybe not winter, but it was distinctly chilly. I decided fairly quickly that I was going to go up a notch on my clothing scale and wear something more associated with fall.
Even with that on, I felt a little chilly at times. I also found that the combination of colder weather and wearing a COVID mask made it even harder to see through my ever-fogging glasses.
Just as we finished setting up the tent and our equipment outside, the store manager took pity on us, and invited us to bring the tent inside.
It took a little bit of jockeying around with the tent, but we managed to get it set up again inside, and I’m sure it made life for Carol, the on-air person, a lot more bearable.
By the time I came back to take the stuff down in the afternoon, I was able to wear my late-summer gear again with no problem.
Something I noticed, especially on the way back to the station to unload the gear, was the number of vehicles on the road. It was more than there would have been at the same time a couple of months ago, which I guess means things are slowly picking up again.
Of course, it was nowhere near as busy as it was just before Christmas, when it took me almost 30 minutes to get between spots that would normally take 20.
I will be interested in seeing how busy things are this Christmas. I’m sure it won’t be as busy as previous years, but as long as people up here continue to be smart about COVID-19 safety, we should be able to do things at almost the same level.
One thing I have already noticed about my shopping patterns is that I tend to do a lot less browsing. I know what I’m looking for, I know where in the store it is, and I get it.
I sometimes do spend a few minutes wandering around, but nowhere near as long as I used to.
The next month is going to be interesting, to say the least, so let’s be safe out there.