A Very Strange Year Even by Grand Lake Standards

Seen some pretty weird stuff in 40-plus years around the pond, but 2020 has set the bar where no other year has ventured. With the introduction of the initial efforts to get a handle on the spread of the Covid-19 virus, things like high water events, described at the time as hundred-year floods, record setting snowfall during boat show week, a Blue/Green Algae crisis that almost wiped out the busiest weekend of the year, droughts and tornados took a back seat in the catastrophe department. I had never witnessed a migration to Grand Lake occur in in March and April as though the calendar had been fast-forwarded to May and June. They were abandoning the metroplex like rats on a sinking ship. But likemany times over the last 40-plus years, Old Lady Grand was willing and waiting to play the role of the goose who laid the golden egg. Unlike main streets all across Oklahoma, and the entire country for that matter, where businesses were collapsing under the pressure of the most recent Public Enemy # One, many Grand Lake businesses were thriving…especially boat and real estate sales. Some even said, "This is amazing and I've never seen it better." There were others who definitely felt the pain of a hundred year threat to the public's health as many of their regular customers hunkered down thinking they would wait it out….and the wait goes on…and on...and on. Things didn't go as expected for many Oklahomans on many fronts. President Trump wasn't reelected, the virus didn't disappear with summers hot weather or the day after the election and has spreadat an alarming rate, there's been no secondary relief package, despite who you might prefer to blame, our governor is intimidated by any form of mask mandate,conspiracy theories have been proven false and the overall economy hasn'trecovered with Hell Bent for Leather re-openings. The good news as it turns outis Dr. Fauci isn't the villain the Donald portrayed him to be and the vaccine iscurrently on the horizon and distribution should get underway soon with military supervision as opposed to more gridlock at its worst. This pandemic has been politicized from the get-go, let's hope we can eliminate that from the distribution mission…. As legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden explainedto his championship teams countless times, "There's no limit to what we canaccomplish, IF WE DON'T CARE WHO GETS THE CREDIT."

See Ya' Around the Pond!!