In just sheer volume of people affected these past two weeks have been the highest, heaviest numbers of close Covid cases for us. Entire families have it. People who have already had it have it again. People who had avoided it the whole time have it. I was going to get coffee with a friend this morning and she woke up with a sore throat, which in the before times would have been "eh, up to you if you feel up to getting coffee" and now it was, "yeah, no. Stay home. For sure not worth the risk." Brent was supposed to be traveling for a conference that went from three days to two days to cancelled. Friday was supposed to be an in person event at work that was cancelled. Tomorrow's hockey game has been moved to Sunday to give time for players to clear Covid Protocols, last weekend two out of three games were cancelled.
It's been a lot of Covid.
The good news is that most of it has been fairly mild. A friend back in New Mexico was hit the worst. Her daughter caught it and two of her grand children. The babies ended up in the hospital with fairly serious issues. But they have gotten better, everyone came home. So that's a good ending. A few others are still in it right now and we are hoping it all stays on the very manageable side.
So more Covid for sure but much less severe outcomes. It sucks, but it's not terrible.
So we have gone into sort of a hybrid pandemic mode. Not as locked in as we were two years ago, not as free flowing as we were a few months ago. We went out to eat on Friday, the restaurant was serving a limited menu because of the call outs on staff. We got our haircut on Saturday and picked up our new car on Saturday so now we are home bound. My coffee date today was going to be outside and masked. Coffee to go after the visit was done. I just did Target and the grocery store on line again for the first time in months. If we are out and about for things, then we are home and watchful for symptoms for a few days after that. The cycle continues.
We also upgraded our masks. No lightweight cloth covers anymore. Now we are wearing the tighter fitted, sealed off, snug, sweat bombs. N95 and KN95 style. I found some that are fairly comfortable even though they look completely ridiculous. They are fitted on the sides like you want, but there is a lovely bit of space in front so it's not pressing right against your nose and mouth. Super nice. Except for the part where you look like a duck. But other than that...
And honestly I think we've all let go of a lot of vanity these past two years. I mean, clearly not all of it. And some of it came back after a brief hiatus. I led the charge in my group of friends on dying my hair again, but now probably half of my "let it go gray!" group is back to "color those roots!" And I'm not sure when I will go back to doing makeup on the bottom half of my face. I mean, I'm only hitting the top half about every 6th trip out places. So what I'm saying is; what's a little duck face?
But here we are in the middle of a storm of Covid germs just sort of waiting for it to get us. Which is a different mindset as well. Before we were just doing everything we could to make sure it didn't happen. Now we are looking at it and saying, we're vaccinated and boosted and healthy overall so WHEN we get it, it shouldn't be too bad.
Fairly resigned at this point.
Which is good. It keeps us from becoming hermits I guess. Though we aren't treating it as a joke either. See the above, new masks, new exposure protocols.
The experts are saying that this variant is as contagious as the measles and will blaze through all of us fairly quickly. It might even help get us to endemic levels with milder versions of the virus floating around but not as much to worry about.
That would be nice but I'm past the point of "this is next" with this whole thing. What happens is what will happen. And we will adjust when we need to. And continue to hope that soon we will be living a fairly normal life again. Or adjusting enough to this version that we think of it as normal.
Good luck to all of us.
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