I was talking with my friend, who runs a hotel management business with her husband. Needless to say they're hurting; not a lot of business or vacation travel coming to our area these days.

She looked at me and asked plaintively, "it's got to get back to normal eventually, doesn't it?".

Sadly, I'm not sure it will. I've been thinking about how fundamentally our lives may change because of the pandemic. Commercial real estate is going down the toilet because retail stores are closing and businesses are not likely to use office space as they have in the past. I think a lot of restaurants will close. It's a tough business to do well in when times are good, and times are definitely not good.

I was recounting this exchange to another friend who lives in Washington state. She mentioned a restaurant in Seattle that was known for it's fine dining. It's owner apparently figured out pretty early that he needed to reinvent his business rather than waiting for the good old days to come back.

https://abcnews.go.com/Busines...ic/story?id=70788179

We're a resilient species. We're gonna survive, and thrive, in a post-COVID world.