Our question for this morning: How long can we really survive without leaving our house?
Society is driven by the necessity of interacting with other people. The rhythm of life means leaving our homes for work so we can make money to buy necessities like food and booze.
Remember the good old days when the only food you could get delivered was pizza? Now you can basically have a house delivered to your house - maybe one of those tiny houses, but you get the point. Almost anything we need can be delivered to the man (or woman) cave.
I guess we already knew that, but it was still an eye-opener the other day to open my Tampa Bay Times and read that Publix will now deliver liquor to your home, provided you live in an area where the service is provided.
Yes, other outlets have provided this service for a while now but this is Publix - which loves to say it's the place where shopping is a pleasure. Is that still true if the store comes to you?
So we ask again: Do we really have to leave our house any more to receive life's necessities?
I say we don't.
You can get groceries delivered. You can even get the ingredients for recipes delivered for you to cook. If you don't feel like cooking, no need to drive to the Outback take-out lane.
Uber Eats will bring meals from local restaurants to your doorstep.
Battling the mall crowd to buy Christmas presents? Puleeze! A few clicks on your computer and your holiday offering will be delivered to your house or anywhere else. Gift-wrapped, too.
You can watch a thousand movies on your 4k Ultra High-Def television. No need to pay for a ticket to a sports event, either. Want to see USF men's basketball? Check out ESPN 3.
The same applies to shoes or clothes. Make like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz : click, and there it is. There's no place like home.
Ah, you say, what happens if you get sick. Doctors don't make house calls anymore, right?
Wrong.
Some insurance plans pay for medical people to come to your house to perform routine checkups.
Remember those ancient times where car problems meant a trip to the garage? Not long ago, my car battery died. I called AAA for a jump and the driver was kind enough to bring a new battery in his truck.
Instead of a jump, the man said he would install a new battery right there in my driveway if I chose - which I did.
You say your dog needs vaccinations or a checkup? No problem. There are mobile vet services happy to tend to Fido in your living room for a nominal fee.
Need to work off all those calories from Uber Eats? Order a home gym and follow an online workout.
One can only take so many TV episodes of Dr. Phil though, so we need some interaction with other humans. That means we leave the house, right?
Uh, ever heard of Skype?
You need a little intellectual stimulation? No worries. You don't have to physically attend some high-class and expensive university. There are hundreds of free online courses from places like Harvard, Stanford, Yale and so on.
Go Crimson!
Amazon will deliver any household good you need : cleaners, toilet paper, detergent to wash the clothes you ordered online, Cheerios, and supplies for that home office located a brutal 10-foot commute from your living room.
For at least the time being though, I'll still make that run to the market for basic supplies. Asking one of those impossibly cheerful Publix workers to deliver food or booze is not something I want to do.
Well, unless a ball game is on and we just ran out of wine. Gotta keep up with the times, right?