Love's Real Stories

I have a conflict with my music-playing buddy, Brino, a band-member. It’s a conflict caused by the Coronavirus.

Brino is a long-time Contractor and a hard-working son-of-a-gun. He’s a front-line hero in a crisis, and he’s always been there to help people in their time of need. You should have seen him after the Camp Fire jump into construction mode and provide housing for family and friends. For free.

But, see, Brino is situated in his life where he can shelter in place, as required, and survive on his own dime, as a result of a lifetime of hard work. 

So, lately he emails me videos and he texts me suggestions for movies to watch. He sent me a link to a website full of old classic Humphrey Bogart movies and lots of foreign films with subtitles.

“Oh, man,” he says, “those old foreign films are great. Check ‘em out, man, I think you’d really like ‘em. I turn those movies on, and I sit and play my mandolin. I don’t need to listen much, because it’s mostly subtitles, or classics I know anyway.” 

Therein lies the conflict. My life right now is not sheltering in place, watching movies of my choice, keeping up my musical chops. I wish.

My life? I’m crazy busy with Real Estate, despite the Coronavirus shut down. I’ve been at work every day throughout this pandemic event, figuring out how we’re supposed to operate with Buyers and Sellers in a world of social-distancing and constant sanitizing. 

To give Brino some consideration here, I also told him I’m mostly by myself all day in a two-story darkened office building with only a handful of people around. So, I can understand how he might think, “Hey, if you’re in a darkened building all day, and no one is around, how in the world could you be busy at all, much less crazy busy?”

If he would put down the mandolin long enough to listen, and pull his eyes away from his home movie screen long enough to focus, I would show him the picture of the Real Estate business and tell him about my job. 

“Hey, Brino,” I would say, “we’ve been declared an Essential Business under the Governor’s Stay-at-Home Order, so we are working hard, even though we are staying apart. We’ve built new rules on how we’re supposed to do this job of Real Estate, like:

One) We wrote up a 30-page Best Practices Guidelines for Real Estate which calls for working electronically only, if possible, showing a property to a Buyer by video through Zoom or Facetime. But if a Seller agrees to allow a Buyer to come to their house for a real-life showing, the Best Practices advise the use of protective gear, allow no more than three people in a house at the same time, specify the six-feet rule of social distancing, and require Buyers to view the property online first and sign forms declaring they are not sick, have no fever, and have not associated with sick people within 14 days.

Two) We made contract forms that Sellers and Buyers sign before a Buyer enters a home. Sellers are to sanitize the property after the Buyer goes through. No joke, and we take it seriously. Listing Agents provide a welcome basket in the home for Buyers, with face masks, rubber gloves, hand sanitizer, antiseptic wipes, and plastic booties.

Three) Every property showing and sale is approached with extreme caution. We micro-manage every step of every client, inspector, appraiser, repair person, until close.

The result is, we are still doing business- very carefully- and we can’t miss a detail. We must keep everyone healthy and safe. This is serious stuff.

So, I’m working. Every day. All day. But really, no conflict with Brino. He is the greatest guy. I love him. Besides being the best Contractor you could call, he builds musical instruments and plays them like a pro. Any conflict between us is more like a difference in the Coronavirus lifestyle. He gets to hang out more than I do. A lot more. I should hate him. Do I sound jealous?

Don’t get me wrong. I love my work, no matter how crazy busy. And I’m not exactly a first-responder, healthcare worker, or grocery store worker, the true heroes of this pandemic. I’m lucky to be working at all through this shut-down.

But one of these days, when things settle down, I’ll take my turn. I’ll click on that movie website link Brino sent me. I’ll watch Treasure of the Sierra Madre while playing Deep River Blues on my guitar. Sitting on my couch.