Leap Day 2020 retrospective

It is difficult to believe that four years have passed since the last Leap Day. That particular day in 2020 was a strange day. By that point in late winter 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was well-underway. I probably was not the only one doom-scrolling the developments in China, the EU, and NYC by that point. Although I lived and still live in a somewhat more isolated portion of the US, we do sit at a crossroads when it comes to the Interstate and US highway systems, and we do have our own airport which at the time had flights to and from Atlanta (if you flew Delta) and Dallas (if you flew American Airlines). There was certainly some business tourism into my city at the time, even as the proverbial storm clouds drew near. I was still a couple weeks away from passing by a fraught meeting administrators would be holding, and was already getting a lot of advice from my parents (more directly from my mom) about what to stock up on. 

Although there was already plenty of reason to want to avoid being out in public by February 29, 2020, my elder daughter and I decided to go bowling that evening. We had gone to one of the local bowling alleys on and off for a few years. Both of us are competitive, and she especially so. Often I had no idea how a few games would go. She was reading Station Eleven right around that time, and already the news she was getting reminded her too much of the novel. So that evening, we talked as I was preparing dinner, and decided "f*** it, let's go bowling." 

The bowling alley was packed. We could tell before we even got inside, as the parking lot was pretty full. We agreed that we should probably minimize our time and exposure, so when we got inside we went to the register, payed for two games, and got our shoes and found a couple bowling balls that would be good enough. The scene was surreal. If you've ever been somewhere knowing that something terrible was about to go down and everyone around was completely oblivious, you will understand what we both experienced. Think of the series based on Station Eleven, in the opening moments of the opening episode. People are going about their lives as a novel virus is in the news, and is clearly raising some concerns. And yet they are still crowding theatres for Shakespearean performances, they are still crowding public transportation, etc. The world around them is ending, and they just brush that aside for just a little while longer. That was our experience in the moment in that bowling alley. We were already there, so we played our two games. Neither of us is that great, and I think each of us won a game. Regardless, it was close each time. And we had a good time. Arguably it was one of the best times either of us had experienced together. But we also looked around, and realized it was late winter and people were inside who clearly had at least the usual seasonal viral infections, and very quickly exited the scene, returned our shoes, headed to my car, and doused our hands with Germ-X before heading home. 

We talked about the whole unrealness of the experience as we drove home. We both agreed that getting out when we did was wise. I would go back to doom scrolling Twitter and refreshing the page Johns Hopkins had set aside to track the caseload, hospitalizations, and deaths in each country across the planet. I was glad to share that moment with her, nonetheless. In a normal year, we would have just enjoyed the idea of bowling on a Leap Day and that would have been the end of it. We had hoped to reprise that this time around. Unfortunately, she decided to avoid the flu vaccine this past fall and caught the flu. She'll be fine. I still ended up at one of my favorite diners, except on Leap Day. 

I still think back to that moment, knowing that it was only a matter of time before all of our lives were changed drastically. That month of February, I had been shopping at Kohl's for clothing with both my daughters (I got a Rick and Morty t-shirt I wear to class periodically) as well as one of the thrift stores. Those experiences would be taken away from all of us for a while within a matter of weeks. But for a brief period on the evening of Leap Day, there was bowling.