Well, I titled this “Sacre Bleu” for two reasons. The first is that I always liked the expression. The second is that in these times it is hard to find something to write about that is positive. Thus, whatever I write is going to be a surprise not only to the readers, but to me as well. I could remark that I see people outside who are wondering around talking to each other without any masks on, and they are closer than six feet. Naturally, they are young guys so I guess that it is OK. It must be nice to be young. I sort of remember it.

Actually, I do remember being young. Heck, it just seems like yesterday when I was City Manager of Maplewood, MN and had my 50th birthday. (That’s young.) In this case a bunch of my employees went behind my back and put up a lighted sign in front of the city hall. The sign said “Ain’t it nifty, Barry’s fifty.” That night at the City Council meeting a guy in a gorilla costume showed up and sang “Happy Birthday”. They weren’t done since that night after the meeting they decorated our garage door with happy Birthday material. Our “vicious” golden retriever never said a word while they worked. She may have wagged her tail though.

Then, there was the time way back when I walked into a college dance, left after a while, decided to go back in and spotted the lady who became, “The Blonde in the House”. Now that did not happen right away as it took me four months to persuade her that would be a good option. So far, she has renewed my option every year. I haven’t even had to hire an agent. That’s good as agents are over-rated anyhow.

Then, there was the time some years ago when we took our first cruise with some friends. We cruised from Seattle to Alaska and back. It was a cruise that I did not get sick on, which was a great accomplishment for me – although I didn’t know that until subsequent cruises. Unfortunately, The Blonde did get sick and missed one of the days when there was a good off-shore excursion. They quarantined her in the cabin for a day which I guess was good practice for today’s world. We did get to see our youngest son and his family as they lived in Seattle at the time.

At this point, I will show how far I can go back. In this case, all the way to when I was six. I had painful ear aches, and the doctor determined that I should have my tonsils out. Not certain about the correlation but it worked. However, my parents read me books about going to the hospital. One was specifically about tonsils. It explained the operation and showed the kid in the book after the operation eating ice cream. Naturally being six years old I remembered the ice cream. Thus, when I woke up with a very sore throat, I waited for my meal with high anticipation. It came, and it was toast! I have never trusted hospitals since!

A couple of years after that I had my first experience in being quarantined when I developed measles and whooping cough at the same time.Either one was a quarantine offense back then. I guess I was lucky in not having them separately. I am not certain how much that isolation has helped in today’s world, but I do recall it.

Perhaps, the above will give you some thoughts that you can use to relieve any boredom. Once you do, you can always call the grand-kids and tell them all about it. They may not want to hear it, but I am a firm believer in equal opportunity boredom!

Columnist Barry Evans writes about “Life in The Villages.”