The Point of Contact

I click my car alarm as I exit the sports center because 30 minutes in the gym is enough to disorient me, and all of the cars in the parking lot are either silver or gray - like most of the members. . . everything is the same and yet everything is very different.

We’re in an ominous post-Covid world where every point of contact is slightly off. I struggle to remove a disinfectant wipe from the jammed dispenser to no avail. It’s like they’ve purposely over stuffed it because they know they don't have enough staff to refill it later. There’s very little staff - just little signs everywhere reminding us to wipe down the equipment. Have you smelled the disinfectant wipes? Their odor is similar to the substance I had to use at my after school factory job, where I printed tiny tile circuits for airplane headphones. If you had the misfortune of smudging a tile you would have to use this clear liquid in a spray bottle which if it landed on your skin, would leave a white chalk mark and a dry patch. Eventually the substance was banned and deemed cancerous. So every time I wipe down the equipment I wonder if I’m preventing Covid or getting cancer. I guess it really doesn’t matter when the intention of this protocol feels as half-hearted as its enforcement.

They have these sliding glass doors now - touchless and germfree. No one has to open the door for the next person. There’s a new app for check-in - just scan, bleep and you're in. You don’t even have to say "hello" or thank anyone for anything. The staff looks happier but I guess they don't realize they’re going to be bleeped out of their job in a couple of months. My accountant calls my name from a few benches away as I press the dumbbells over my head. It’s shocking to hear my name aloud and when he looks at me and asks how I’m doing, I’m practically brought to tears, but then I refrain. There is no more towel service. Everything is the same and yet vastly different. We are in an interim state - the state before there is no point of contact - and the ultimate intention to render all contact pointless.