Oaklawn

HOT SPRINGS—I walked from my car on Oaklawn's parking lot north and south on Central Avenue and then up to the press box for 39:55 at lunchtime today. On the outside chance any of my readers have wondered, I didn't do anything the last four days out of laziness and deference to a boatload of Oaklawn work for the paper.
Speaking of which, while driving home tonight, it occurred to me I had used the word calamity in one of the two race stories I wrote this evening. Wait a minute, I asked myself, are you sure you know what calamity means? You know, specifically? Fuck.
Here's what I wrote: Oaklawn has not allowed anyone other than horsemen, essential track personnel, and media on its racing grounds since March 13 in an effort to stem the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic, the same calamity that has kept Amoss at home since his roundtrip to and from Oaklawn to watch his filly Serengeti Empress win the Grade II 1-mile-and-1/16th Azeri Stakes on March 14.

It was with a nice sense of relief that I read this definition:
ca·lam·i·ty

/kəˈlamədē/

noun

• 1.an event causing great and often sudden damage or distress; a disaster:"the journey had led to calamity and ruin"

Sure, that's what I thought it meant, but I ran with it without knowing. Seated in my car in circa southwest Little Rock, I thought, "Oh shit. I don't know"