July is opening up into a social whirlwind. I will wear my mask, and avoid Gary for four days after each, but I have a date for a small outdoor social gathering and two dates to see two movies in a small local theater.
Movies are going to be the new Wes Anderson movie and Oppenheimer. Social gathering will be on a patio with three or four friends.
I'm spacing things out so I have the least chance of passing anything on to Gary. Gary is going to make me pay for this by avoiding me, but the numbers in my area are low.
It feels very odd to have plans. I feel guilty.
The trendlines are pretty good, honestly. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance
(still wearing an n95 mask, though, personally, when I go in to the doctor's office, because the last thing I need is another layer of body/brain malfunctioning and long covid is a bear)(although! I know a number of people who haven't had *indefinite* long covid. But still, as you can gather from my comments, I do not need a spare layer of brain fog/incoherence/incapacity for being concise even if it only lasts six months or something.)
You should 100% not feel guilty about having plans to see human beings. Viral levels are impressively low in the US right now, and deaths and hospitalizations are also on the decrease (yay!!!). And even if viral levels weren't lower, your events are smallish and are even spaced out somewhat so you won't be doing a socially-irresponsible catch-and-release like people who go [with zero masks] to a crowded concert two days before they go to a wedding.
That said, I get that it feels weird! But no guilt!
(would Gary's neuroses consider compromising by being in the same room but having a corsi-rosenthal cube between his air and your air?)
Posted by: KC | July 07, 2023 at 07:58 PM
KC - even with low levels, one of my six teammates had covid last month. But he visited New York where I imagine levels are worse than here.
Posted by: theQueen | July 08, 2023 at 04:55 AM
Visiting New York probably also included flying, and nearly no one is wearing masks on planes now, so, hey, airborne petri dish! Plus New York petri dishes of whatever sorts. Levels seem to also be low in NY, but yes, if you have germ-sharable contact with literally thousands of people via several planes and the subway and some gatherings in NY, then your odds are in favor of being exposed to covid, and then it's a matter of resistance/immune system capacity.
(of course you never know which random stranger at a movie has recently flown to NY and come back with a Special Prize. But the odds are still decently low instead of "oh, yeah, if you are in a movie theater for an hour and a half with 50 people and you don't have a really good mask, you will be walking out of that room infected unless a statistical anomaly happens" and I *like* this change)
Posted by: KC | July 08, 2023 at 09:59 AM
theQueen - first plan done as of today - almost no one was in the theater. Felt very safe.
Posted by: theQueen | July 09, 2023 at 06:43 PM