Historical Record

17 May 2021

 

Soon.  Very soon. In the near future I will be closing this blog down.  The plague year is drawing to a close.  What I wrote will simply become another historical record of the past 15 months.  With the CDC dropping mask requirements, and with state governments rapidly abandoning their own Covid rules, things will arrive at a new balance point. The term balance point makes sense because what comes next will not be the old normal and it may a bit of time before we come to know what is the new normal.  We will however come to a point of acceptable living and working norms.

 

What will be gleaned from this particular “historical record”?  Not much, just one old retired male’s take on what he experienced with a world largely shut down. Hopefully the kindnesses I experienced with various neighbors and friends will show up clearly.  There were people who called and contacted my wife when they were going to stores we liked just to see if we needed anything. There were couples we managed to work into our life with social distanced movie nights out on the deck.  For the cost of three trips to a regular theatre we were able to create a projection theatre on warm nights. There were the long e-mails, texts and messages that talked about the pandemic, politics, life and everything. I found myself back in touch with people I respected and loved.

 

I hope the connections forged in this year don’t disappear.  I hope the banal small talk cloud doesn’t reappear. You know what I mean, all the filler conversations we used to have at the office. I hope we all realize how fragile our respective holds on these moments of life are. Flowers are a little brighter right now and bird songs are a little bit cheerier.

 

One thing I know I will remember is the value of a good back yard.  When a year passes where you cannot socialize in communal settings like parks, libraries, bars, restaurants and concerts, having a nice table, comfortable outdoor chairs, a good canvas umbrella and pleasant surrounding flora matter. Without my backyard I would have gone bat sh*t crazy over the last year.  

 

With the New Plague Journal gone where will I direct my creative juices. In the best of all possible worlds, I would drop back to my old blog. But no. Facebook has determined those writings to be against their standards. Despite my repeated attempts to get Facebook to revisit the ban, they still won’t let me post links to what is written there. I guess I will be creating a new blog.  I am not quite sure what it will be about.  Best guess?  How about my upcoming three-month trip to Europe?  

 

A Shuddering and Stumbling Return to a Normal World

 

Friday is here.  May 14, 2021 is the date to be exact.  We are at just about 1 year and 2 months from the date the pandemic became serious as a heart attack real. Seems like forever.  Seems unbelievable. Change however is coming.

 

Yesterday the CDC released new guidelines that basically remove mask wearing requirements for most of life’s activities…if you are vaccinated and if you are not living in a den of anti-vaxers. This point has been coming in increments. 

 

Three weeks ago, I ate at restaurant on the deck at a table ten feet from any other table.  We talked and had beers and had our masks off except when we were talking to service staff because everyone at the table was at 2 weeks plus from their second shots. For about a month I have been walking without a mask on my solitary jaunts for exercise.  Last weekend we went to an outdoor party of about 25 people, all of whom had been vaccinated or who were wearing masks.  People actually hugged. Also last week we held a dinner party for 8 people here on our deck all of whom were vaccinated.

 

Grocery stores are still requiring masks.  Most still have delivery/pick-up options available. Courts and city governments are still doing Zoom and Teams meetings. People for the most part are still practicing social distancing. Travel is nowhere near back to normal no matter how much people are wishing it was. The world is not reopened and with good cause, just look at India.  But the door to the post-pandemic world is cracked open just a bit.

 

According to a daily hospital blog a third of all Americans are fully vaccinated.  Closer to 40 % of my fellow Michiganders have been vaccinated. Makes me proud Michigan, makes me proud. Mississippi and Alabama are dragging far behind with barely a quarter of their respective populations vaccinated fully. Whether it’s the clarion call to “Freedom” or the fear of being injected with Bill Gates DNA I must shake my head at the risks these folks are taking.

 

My guess is that we will be entering a new normal come late summer. I think that there will be vaccination requirements for travel without quarantine, for continued admission to colleges, and for work in jobs where densely packed staff are the norm.  My guess is that schools will be more hard-nosed about student vaccination proof for kids 12 and older.  Personal space and seating arrangements will be different.  We may not be keeping everyone at a distance of six foot but my guess is that three feet will be the new hard line personal space zone for Americans. In addition to flu shots each year we will probably be getting Covid vaccine boosters.

 

By fall my guess is that outdoor patios will be full but not packed.  Concerts will resume but with smaller density than in years past. College football will resume but again I think there will be an increased spacing between patrons and fewer seats sold. We will stumble forward toward a new normal and by trial and error will we come to a point of acceptable boundaries.

 

Make no mistake this will not be the world’s last pandemic, and the next one may be deadlier.  But it well may a turning point in our health behaviors.  Hand washing will occur multiple times every day, every time we return from a group gathering/setting.  Mask wearing on public transport will continue.  Mask wearing might be seasonally mandated. Humanity has a short collective memory but maybe this time will be different.