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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
This sign outside a small convenience store in western Massachusetts loudly proclaims that “Masks (covering both mouth and nose) are Still Required in our Store.” This sentiment is unusual now though here in this state with its very high vaccination rate (55% fully vaccinated; 67% one dose). We arrived here in the Berkshires a few days for our first real vacation since Covid struck. It is beautiful and wonderful to be somewhere different! But I was so surprised on our first day here to go into the large local chain grocery store and see that many of the employees were not wearing masks. Oddly enough, most of the customers were. I’ve chosen to believe that these employees are fully vaccinated, and our following the advice of the science and medical professionals who keep telling us that fully vaxxed folks can skip the masks! In the past few days, we’ve gone into many smaller shops that cater to the tourists and there also, most of the staff aren’t masked and many of the customers aren’t either. At the restaurants, staff are masked, but diners aren’t. And outside, most people aren’t wearing masks, but some are, especially pre-teens. It is a real hodge-lodge of rules and behaviors. We went into the public library and there a sign was posted that said masks were still required in government buildings. As we walked through the neighborhood of our rental home, we passed many people - no masks at all. Mostly, though, people seem happy and are glad to see others. The store owners are thrilled to have people coming into their stores again. “Help Wanted” signs compete with all the new signage about masks! In just a few days of being in this new environment, I feel myself loosening up with regards to my own behavior. We’re all fully vaccinated and I’ve started to follow the lead of the store owners, if they aren’t wearing a mask, I often take my off, too. They’ll often request that we use hand sanitizer that they have put near the door. Of course, we comply. I just hope that more people continue to take the shot, and that these changes are lasting! I feel that a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, now that we can visit with family and friends, hug each other, eat together, and just be together, again.
June 6, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Well, I'm sorry I didn't post on my normal day. Everything in my "work room" was put away for Thanksgiving, so I happily lapsed a bit in all my responsibilities. We stayed at home, of course, and zoomed with my parents and sister for the holiday. Drank too much just like usual, felt like crap the next day, like usual. Got into political arguments like usual. It was honestly a pretty normal Thanksgiving, but of course, still in this same house with the same people. The sunroom I work in has become unusable for a pretty big portion of the day now due to too much, well, sun coming in. This irritates me much more than it reasonably should, but lots of things are doing that now. We put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. We were desperate to do something special, something that would make the house look different and more cheerful. It's nice, but I wonder if it will just make the wait for more time off work and school seem longer. While I kind of anticipated having some emotional problems back when lockdowns were first being discussed back in March, I've mostly been doing OK up to this point. But yesterday into the very early morning today is the first time I've felt like I might actually want some help. It's like there's this dark, sunken feeling in my chest, and nothing is interesting, maybe that's not the right way to put it. Nothing is *satisfying,* nothing I do gives me that feeling that you usually get - that it clicks, that it feels correct, that finishing it gives some sense of completion or accomplishment. That feeling you don't ever even notice until you can't feel it. I think it's the fact that COVID numbers are shooting up extraordinarily high, and they're almost guaranteed to accelerate even further with this holiday, and the next ones. I just heard that the Supreme Court ruled that religious gatherings couldn't be restricted, just in time for the coldest holidays of the year. It's murderous. And while I hope the Biden administration will improve things, when I think of all the damage, the acceleration of spread that will happen in the meantime, and the fact that he has repeatedly signaled his opposition to M4A, to locking the country down, etc., I truly don't have much faith in his leadership, either. Leaders in both parties are afraid to disappoint business interests, so more innocent people will die because we don't have the courage or the sense to do the only rational thing - pay people to stay home and give generous hazard pay and safety equipment to essential workers. On top of the failed leadership, there's the indifference that everyday people have developed. And what's even worse, in my opinion, a performative approach to disease prevention that doesn't actually respect the biological realities of the virus. "Bubbles" whose members associate with other people, masks sagging below the nose, school sports happening at all, and so on. The individualist focus that Americans have disgusts me. Maybe I'll have more organized thoughts on that subject at another time. I just can't find much reason to think there's something good on the horizon.
December 1, 2020