I did get to spend Christmas with my family, though it was a close shave. My youngest (4 y.o.) had direct contact with a Covid case, so the entire family got tested in order that I could join them on Christmas day. The day after Christmas, this same 4 year was exposed when playing with a neighbor at her house. My neighbor just tested positive. I'm now wearing my KN95 when I go grocery shopping. I feel like wearing a hazmat suit, but I know this is over the top.
Looking at a map of high infection, it is the entire country. Colorado has the highest number of cases it has ever had, even during the worst of the last wave. I did venture to the grocery store yesterday, and the woman ahead of me in the check out line didn't have a mask on. I don't remark on this at all in her presence. Why bother?
She was blathering on to the clerk that she wouldn't shop at her regular store anymore because they are constantly announcing that people can get their covid shot at their pharmacy. "I don't need to be told what to do!" When I got to the clerk he said, "Yeah, I think if you tell people to do something, they won't want to do it." I replied, "Well, yes, if you're an adolescent." He nodded. I'm just so tired of the debate.
I'm pretty much tired of everything. How long must we endure this pandemic? The days go by in a predictable way: meal prep, laundry, housework. Reading and sleeping provide relief, as does movie watching. I'm reading Michael Nesmith's "Infinite Tuesday," an autobiographical riff. Quite enjoyable and lighthearted. He lived in my old stomping grounds on the Monterey Peninsula, and the personal stories people related of him were all very complementary.
One of the things that keeps me going is my contact with friends. I always feel better after a phone call or zoom. We're all in the same space; we're all enduring this together. Some are not being as cautious as I am, but I have underlying conditions which keep me vigilant. So it goes. We all must do what we feel is prudent. I gape in amazement as some friends travel internationally. It's the airports that worry me the most. All that humanity crushed together, tempers running high, and bad behavior by many. A friend just returned from a trip and guy next to her on the plane had to be told twice to put his mask on. He was belligerent and invaded her seat and leg space many times, going so far as to jab her in the ribs. She took it much better I would have. She said he was just oozing hostility and she didn't want to engage and aggravate him any more. She was reading a Thich Nhat Hanh book, keeping her on the right path in those harrowing hours. Christ.
I hope you are finding ways of coping in these wacky bizzaro times. Send along any helpful lessons you have learned.
Happy New Year.
Who would have ever guessed that we would be living through a global pandemic? It's crazy. I am still relieved that we have been vaccinated and boosted. I suspect there will be more vaccines in our future. We double mask when we go to the co-op to food shop. We hardly go anywhere else anymore. Only on a sunny day will we go visit with the grandkids, so we can gather outside. It's getting really old, and the lunatics who won't mask up or get vaccinated just make it so much worse. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteHow long must we endure this pandemic? ...... one of the questions everyone is asking now. A little more co operation from all could have put an end to this long back. But ........
ReplyDeleteIt is a crazy time, indeed, but I am glad to hear you are recovering from your fall, and got to spend the Christmas with family. We are among the crazy people who traveled internationally over the season, to Belize, where I actually felt safer than I do in NYC. Our first flight was cancelled, and so we were indeed in the crush of people on line to be rebooked, it was insane. And then, on the way back we were in, count them, FIVE, different airports. We wore our masks, of course, but I was still shocked to test negative a week later, and shocked again to still be negative at the end of the season, when so many of my familiars and their circles were testing positive. Masks do work and perhaps booster shots are keeping us a little safer too. I only hope that future variants continue to be less lethal than previous ones, as omicron seems to be. Stay safe, my friend. You know what to do.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to be able to go to concerts and gigs again and I'd like to be able to travel on a train safely, but other than that I can happily live my life this way. Things like crowded shops and airports lost their charms many years ago for me. Look after yourself and try not to worry too much about what idiots do and say.
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