Tri County Sentry

THE TRAFFIC AND THE SHORTAGES

Frosted Thoughts


Chris Frost

Chris Frost

Oxnard– This week has been interesting, to say the least. You may have noticed that this week’s paper is smaller, thanks to the revenue loss caused by the Omicron variant.

THE paper is also glossy this week, thanks to, what I am being told, is a big paper shortage. The printer said that the paper shipment is being held up in Canada, and the only paper they have is glossy paper.

Does the glossy paper look great? No doubt it does. Does the glossy paper cost way more money, even in the smaller format? It sure does. So, now I am facing shortages and inflation at work and the grocery store. With that said, I’m going to do the same thing that millions of Americans are going to do, vote!

One thing I was not expecting today that I encountered was lots of traffic. As you know, much of my day is now spent running errands, printing invoices, delivering the paper, and going to the bank. This means getting caught behind a train on Channel Islands Boulevard, between Victoria Avenue and Ventura Road, then when you finally break free from that jam, you encounter a giant line of traffic slowing Ventura Road down to a crawl because everyone needs to turn into the military base. Ultimately, I wiggled my way into an open lane to keep moving, but what I don’t get is how do these soldiers enjoy being out for lunch if they’re stuck waiting in a giant line waiting to turn? It can’t be a lunch hour. You’d be stuck in traffic the whole time.

There haven’t been too many community events to cover since the latest variant hit, but I found a couple of things. I’ve noticed that they’re ending the lockdowns in England, which makes me wonder what they did to put an end to this nightmare, and why aren’t we copying this formula if it’s working. Let’s hope this is not politically driven; you know, fear of a variant with mild symptoms and minimal lung damage compels obedience.

In the meantime, if I’m home, I’ll keep doing the things that make being married to me a genuine nightmare. Here are some notes that I’m making to myself as I walk through my day.

It’s a bad idea to add vegetable juice to the J-Train’s coffee. I guess she doesn’t see the value of adding a single serving of veggies to her breakfast beverage of choice. It’s okay to spread margarine onto my waffles in the morning, but the J-Train gets unhappy when I try to spread it on her. The dogs love it when I spread margarine on their fur, but more about them in a minute.

Evidently, while it’s okay for the J-Train to leave a giant blob of hair in the bathroom drain, but it’s not okay for me to hide that hair under her pillow. To me, it’s just as good as getting a quarter from the tooth fairy when you’re a kid.

My best fake friend these days is Buddy, the J-Train’s dog. We get along okay, but he’s my best friend if I prepare myself anything to eat. He can go from a dead sleep in bed upstairs with the J-Train to at my feet wagging his tail with his patented, oh please, can you share your meal with me in the living room in less than six seconds.

End the lockdowns as soon as possible, not for me, for the J-Train. Hasn’t she suffered enough?

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