Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the pandemic shut down our world as we knew it. I was packing my car to drive to Colorado to present The Newly-Dead Game® at the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival in Nederland. With the announcement of the pandemic by the World Health Organization, Nederland’s Town Council voted to cancel the festival two days before it was going to start.
Gail Rubin masked up for a walk in April 2020.
I remember how shocked and confused we all felt about how the virus was circulating and its growing numbers. We had no defenses against a new respiratory disease that was killing hundreds, then thousands of people. Remember stocking up on toilet paper, pasta and beans? The whole question of masking, the emphasis on washing your hands and avoiding touching your face? Here’s a picture of what I looked like going out for a walk early on in the pandemic.
Frozen Dead Guy Days was suspended in 2020 and 2021. The festival is back this year, but when it was time to decide, I wasn’t ready to participate in indoor events with hundreds of people coming through. Since 2011, I’ve been presenting The Newly-Dead Game and showing the comedic documentary “Grandpa’s in the TUFF SHED®” at Frozen Dead Guy Days. The Newly-Dead Game is like the classic TV show, The Newlywed Game, but the questions focus on how well couples know their partner’s last wishes.
However, my friend Martie McNabb, the founder of Show & Tales, will emcee The Newly-Dead Game® at Frozen Dead Guy Days for me this year. She will be hosting two games at the Very Nice Brewing Company, 20 Lakeview Drive, #112 in Nederland. The games will take place at 12:30 and 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 20. If you’ll be at the festival and want to sign up to play, email a note to verynicebrewing@hotmail.com and let them know your name, cell phone and email and which time slot you want to play.
Traveling Again in the Pandemic
I’m fully vaxxed and boosted, and have a supply of KN95 masks. I am planning to go to the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association’s annual convention and expo in Las Vegas March 22-26, 2022. I skipped last year’s National Funeral Directors Association convention because the infection numbers were still too high for my comfort level. But I will be there in Baltimore this October, because I am presenting a break out session on holding Before I Die Festivals. Fingers crossed, at ICCFA, I will do lots of videos about new developments in the industry and not get sick. I look forward to seeing all of my funeral industry friends at the convention.
My prayer is that the current drop in numbers continues to stay low. Last summer looked so promising, until Delta and then Omicron slapped us upside the head. Wishing you health, wealth and success as we rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.