Notes From the Lockdown

The other day, here in San Francisco, I ordered a breakfast from Tad's Steakhouse of scrambled eggs and bacon.

To go, of course.

I have done this several times since the lockdown and then I take the breakfast into Union Square, a block-wide park in the middle of the city.

Before the lockdown, there would never be a time when the park was empty but now it usually is. I am the only one there, there aren't even homeless. It is a quiet pleasant place to munch on crispy bacon.

But this morning was different. The pigeons and the wrens wouldn't leave me alone. They were like mosquitos hovering around me. And the wrens wouldn't stop dive-bombing at my food. I finally had to get up and leave and take the breakfast home.

I guess city birds have been impacted by the lockdown and there isn't much food around for them.

Scene 2:

I was walking along Market St. in the city, in the downtown section. The streets are pretty empty because of the lockdown but there was a man about 100-feet ahead of me. I saw that he was being harassed by a beggar that just wouldn't leave him alone. The beggar stuck with him for a while.

I wasn't in the mood for the beggar. When I came near him, he said, "Can you spare a dollar?"

I put on a sad face and said, "I just got laid off. Covid," hoping that would end the exchange.

He looked disappointed, recovered and then said to me, "Oh, can you spare 50 cents."

-RW