Diversity Rules Magazine

Her most recent book, An American Queer, a collec on of "The Amazon Trail" columns, was presented with the 2015 Golden Crown Literary Society Award in Anthology/Col- lec on Crea ve Non Fic on. This, and her award-winning fic on, including The Raid, The Swashbuckler, and Beggar of Love, can be found at h p://www. boldstrokes- books.com/ Author-Lee- Lynch.html. It's finally here. The end of total lockdown. Am I ready? Absolutely not. I like my bur- row. I don't wanna play with others. We've fashioned a comfortable li le rou- ne. Week days, work. Evenings, spend me alone together. Weekends, yard and house work and, some mes, an adventure. The adventures are mostly food and view re- lated. They require us to travel along Highway 101 thirty to forty-five minutes south. Which is a mini- vaca on in itself. People come here from all over the developed world to drive this highway. My sweet- heart and I, we just buckle up and go, the li le dog in her back seat safety perch and the cat at home, guarding the house from whatever intrusions he fears. Probably a bug. Talk about privileged lives. We ain't got much but we've got it all. Former neighbors gave us the idea. They liked to go to a certain restaurant, get takeout, drive two min- utes to the ocean, and watch the waves while they ate. As it happens, that modest restaurant makes the best fish and chips on the coast. No soggy beer bat- ter. No fancy coleslaw. No s ngy por ons. We worried that this ins tu on might be lost to the pandemic. When the first Covid cash arrived, my sweetheart suggested we use some of it to help keep our small local businesses afloat. Wow. What a very pleasant patrio c prac ce. And it hasn't all been food. Over the months we've helped keep America strong by shopping at Grandma's Greenhouse, the feed stores, the locksmith down the street, a roofer, the hard- ware store—though that's a franchise operated by a local. Of course, these happen to be the places we've always shopped, but now we could pat ourselves on the backs, all noble in our consumerism. Ice cream had been a for- bidden fruit for health rea- sons, but we couldn't let the nearby ice cream pal- ace or the iconic creamery in the next county suffer economic ruin, could we? Pounds for a purpose and a treat for the dog, who we are trying to convert to a pet who loves the car and travel and her safety seat. So far, ice cream isn't enough of a bribe. We weren't hiding under a rock. We knew the pan- demic was taking a terrible toll; the sheer numbers of deaths assured that. Mul ply each death by a family, friends, work colleagues, perhaps students, clients, pa ents, the losses became staggering, and the for- mer administra on's decep ve, money-grubbing, in- competent response was revealed as criminal. Covid has forever changed our lives. We follow the guidelines and make our drop-in-the-bucket contri- bu ons and stay sane with our li le rou nes. Then we found Chubby's. Is there a more effec ve method of funneling Covid cash into a rural county's Amazon Trail - Con't on page 12 The Amazon Trail Notes From A Homebody By Lee Lynch (c) Can Stock Photo Inc. / grsphoto Diversity Rules Magazine|June 2021|11

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