Sometimes it's the little things that get me down.

[bladespark]

My favorite growler fill place has gone out of business. I had their little app, so I would have expected a text saying something, but nope. I just turned up there with my growler a week or two ago, and the place was cleaned out.

I liked them because they had a dozen or so taps for cider, hard soda, mead, etc., whereas most growler fill places have just three or four, and the rest all beer.

OH NO, I have a slightly worse selection of cider available! Talk about first world problems, right?

But I miss the little things, sometimes.

I just dropped the goober off at school. Last year, when I did that, I'd then nip over to a really awesome little coffee shop where I'd gotten to the point that the barrista would pull out a cup and go "12oz house coffee with lots of cream, right?" and I'd nod, and the day I was so absent-minded I forgot to tip, I could just tip her double next time I came in, and she was all "You don't even have to do that, you've left so many tips at this point" and she knew about my kid and I knew about her clothing business, and we both gushed about great places in Hawaii after my trip there because she'd lived there for a couple of years and just...

It was so nice. It was such a great way to start off my days that I was totally willing to kill 45 minutes of my precious goober-free time doing it, and I don't even have the option anymore, because the place is closed, and even if they were open, they'd be pickup only, you know?

Right in Feb. I'd been making plans to treat myself by going to a specific tiny little restaurant that's too small to do socially distanced seating. I don't know when they'll be able to open again or if they'll even exist when they can!!!

The trans UU support group was going to keep meeting after our formal church-organized term ended, but we're all so burnt out that nobody's stepped up to organize it, and zoom calls are so exhausting anyway, but I know if we'd been meeting in person we probably would have!

And the goober loved going to church so much, but of course she gets nothing whatsoever out of zoom church.

So many little things!

It matters more that people are dying and suffering. It matters more to the owners of those businesses closing down than it does to me. None of the above stuff is really a big deal.

But there are days when I drive home from dropping off the kiddo and I miss that little coffee break so much it makes me want to cry.

Comments

[the_siobhan]

Little things matter. Little things keep us sane and functioning especially when we are dealing with so much stress and uncertainty.

[thewayne]

I really hate it when places go out of business without contacting their customer base! My dentist retired and the practice did FA to send out a postcard saying Doctor Bob has retired, let's wish him fun in his retirement! I hadn't been happy with that practice since he closed his private practice and went with these jerks, so I left the jerks and went somewhere else.

Likewise, out of the blue back in June or so this year I received a bill from my orthopedist in Las Cruces whom I hadn't seen in 2-3 years. It wasn't much, maybe $40? At the point that I saw them, i.e. late in the year, I would have had zero copay, so there shouldn't have been an office copay. Called them up and they also had gone out of business, didn't survive the COVID shutdown. They were trying to scratch out as much money as possible from their accounts, and thought they could squeeze some more out of me. I told them to double-check it and send me a detailed bill, never heard from them again.

I would consider it a shame about the cider, a good hard cider isn't always easy to find. But you are in a major city, I am not.

[annofowlshire]

I also totally miss the going to a cafe after dropping off the kiddo. I had a writing buddy I’d meet up once a week or so for tea and writerly companionship and, yeah, we haven’t seen one another since... March?

Of course it’s more important to beat Covid and lower the amount of sick and dying (we’re on Lockdown again in England right now, as are increasing European countries), but we are still allowed to miss the little things that used to bring us so much joy (even if we didn’t know it at the time).

[alexcat]

I miss eating out - hubby and I love to eat out, but nope... And here, everyone is pretending Covid doesn't exist and it's spreading like wildfire.

And we love to go to the movies! It's been SOOO long!

[silveradept]

The small things are there as signs that things haven't gotten completely terrible, and their absence only contributes to the stress. (Because there are way too many people that don't care about their health or yours going about for us to have a care or a prayer of getting things under control. Not that those people actually care, even if they pretend to so they can gaslight their followers.)

[erulissedances]

It missing life - life as we had known it, and realizing those small things that really had filled out our days. I'm sorry about your growler, and know that there are many small businesses that won't survive the pandemic.

- Erulisse (one L)