One of my favorite sportswriters (and Pittsburgh media icon) the late Phil Musick would occasionally pen a piece entitled Things I Think I Think when he didn’t have enough copy for a full article on a subject. He would refer to these ruminations as his Shirt Pocket Notes.
With all that’s going on in our world today, several random thoughts have crossed my mind in recent days. While none of these thoughts contain enough fodder for a detailed write up, I feel they are worth sharing and hope they bring a smile to your face.
Last week my family and I attended our first “virtual wedding”. I received a text from a friend in Ohio saying that his son and future daughter-in-law had initially planned their wedding for mid-April. However, due to Ohio’s shelter in place order the country club where the wedding was to be held had cancelled the event. The couple came up with a novel Plan B. Why wait? As a result, they got married last Saturday evening in the groom’s home in the company of their immediate family a close friends and live streamed the event so folks from around the country who were unable to attend in person could participate in the festivities!
Cole and Caitlin Bowers
March 21, 2020
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Thanks to the Coronavirus I’ve spent more time on FaceTime and Zoom in the past week than in the past six months. Under normal circumstances I have a half dozen or so virtual meetings a week. That nearly tripled last week as I spent time online with grandkids, other family members and friends.
My Wednesday morning men’s bible study met on Zoom for the second time in two weeks with a dozen men showing up from 6:30 – 8:00 AM with coffee in hand.
Our community group at church that usually meets every other Sunday evening in our home, met via Zoom last week. Going forward, realizing the importance of fellowshipping with one another during this time of physical separation, we decided to meet weekly until further notice. Additionally, we’ve encouraged folks to invite others to our group who might enjoy this type of interaction.
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Good friends from out of state called us asking if we’d like to meet them for Happy Hour that evening on FaceTime. At 6:00 PM we connected with them and spent the next 90 minutes visiting over wine and cheese.
Even though hugs, kisses and handshakes were not possible, it felt like we were sitting across the table from them at one of our favorite watering holes.
We liked the idea so much that we reached out to other friends in Florida, Georgia and Ohio to schedule Happy Hour dates with them on subsequent evenings that week.
So far, our April Happy Hour schedule is wide open so if you’d like to meet up virtually over cocktails just let me know!