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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

We decided to have a friend come north to stay with us for a few days, for solstice and his birthday. He recently tested negative and is careful, but not really quarantining. This raised the whole eternal question--who is "safe," and who is "safe enough?" This is the underlying issue of all social interactions--are you on the same page as someone else about staying safe, what is that page, and is that safe enough for (what kind of) interaction? We wonder how long it will take for our reaction to other people to shift from "oh, no, another person--duck, run for cover, leave, avoid them" back to "Hi, other person, how's it going?" How long until the panicky feeling you get when you have to wait in line at the pharmacy--"C'mon, I gotta get out of here, it's an enclosed space, hurry up!" goes back to "I'll just look at the headlines on the paper while I'm waiting." And the impatience/rage with government! From those who aren't doing enough to liit spread (almost everyone--hello, Governor Baker? If I come from New Hampshire, I have to quarantine for 14 days, but everyone else can go to a restaurant with five other people of various households and dine for 90 minutes? Because it's only infectious at minute 91??) to those (often the same) who aren't doing enough to help those who are laid off, evicted, hungry, in jail... And what should I, retired MD/Psychiatrist, age 71, be doing to help? Contributing to food banks, check. Lobbying for more relief, check. Volunteering to help at a hospital? (No relevant skills 40 years after medical internship, but I could learn to be a unit clerk pretty quickly.) And the people demonstrating about not wanting to wear masks--give me a break. THey seem to be OK with having to wear pants. What's the difference?