Real Estate with Anessa Cohen

If there is one thing this COVID situation has accomplished these last five months, it is that it changes people’s perspective about what they are prepared to argue about and what they decide they just don’t want to be bothered with.

It’s like coming outside on the past few boiling-hot days and taking into account that:

  1. I will feel the hot temperature twice as strongly since I also need to wear a mask, so do I really need to leave the very good air-conditioning that is permeating my house? Inside the house, not only is it comfortable, but I can remove my mask and talk to myself.
  2. Although I might have been considering going to Costco or Trader Joe’s, both stores probably have lines that are miles long anyway, and there is nothing I need so desperately that I must put myself in the position of standing in the 95-degree heat, with a mask, waiting to get in. Life is too short.

The other positive side is that if I decide to stay in my house with the air-conditioning and take off my mask and talk to myself, I might actually have an enlightening conversation, since I am an interesting person and have a lot of interesting things to say. The choices are endless!

In the end, I opted to stay home and was glad I did, since look at all the aggravation and heat stroke I avoided, while being heartily entertained by all the vitally important things I needed to discuss with myself.

Yes, this is what decision-making during COVID has become — “not sweating the small stuff” while trying to stay healthy!

My next major decision will be where I will hear Eicha on Tishah B’Av. I assume it will need to be in someone’s backyard — if it does not rain. Although with all the social distancing required, not to mention that anyone doing the reading of Eicha will also have to be wearing a mask, I wonder if I will even be able to hear him read Eicha, especially because G-d only knows how far away they will seat the women in trying to comply with social distancing. It might give one reason to consider an alternate solution, such as joining a Zoom reading of Eicha so you can really hear the reader! In a Zoom reading, the reader does not even need a mask. Hmmm…

After Tisha B’Av, all thoughts will be centered on the next Jewish-calendar hurdle that needs to be figured out, one that no one wants to talk about and everyone pretends is not soon around the corner. It’s the elephant in the room, the question that everyone is avoiding discussing, as if hoping that if we all ignore it, life will figure out the answer for us on its own.

Where and how is everyone going to daven on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? There — now I have voiced it and it must be discussed. If we cannot all daven together in the shuls then what is the plan? Closing off streets and erecting tents? Cordoning off Cedarhurst Park and putting the aron in the pagoda? How about the baseball field at HALB or the Costco parking lot?

Think I am getting a little ahead of myself? Maybe you are right, but I hope that soon we will start to hear what creative plans are in the works in preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, because two more months in the scheme of things is not a lot of time.

In the meantime, it is late in the day and it has cooled somewhat; it is a good time to go out for a walk to get some exercise and catch up with the neighbors! n

Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a licensed real-estate broker (Anessa V Cohen Realty) and a licensed N.Y.S. loan officer (FM Home Loans) with over 20 years of experience offering full-service residential, commercial, and management real-estate services as well as mortgage services. She can be reached at 516-569-5007 or via her website, www.AVCrealty.com. Readers are encouraged to send questions or comments to anessa@AVCrealty.com.

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