Probably a short entry today, as we are headed to New York, New York anon. It's a weekend without kids; the first one in a very long time. After our Covid-related misadventures in North Carolina last month, I'm a bit apprehensive about traveling right now, but we have to live our lives. We simply cannot shut down and shut in like we did last year. It's not feasible. It's unhealthy from the standpoint of societal functions (the economy, schools, religious/social groups, etc.), and it's unhealthy from a personal standpoint. We learned a lot about the mental effects of being mostly isolated for an extended period of time, and what we learned is that it isn't good.
So, at this point, I think we need to do our best to strike an imperfect, ever-changing balance between doing what we want and being safe. Concerning a trip to NYC, S and I are both vaccinated and we also both tested positive to Covid within the past month, so our levels of immunity should be sky high. We are staying with a friend who is vaccinated, and we will be outdoors and/or masked almost the entire time we are in public. Also, NYC has guidelines in place, and we've been instructed to bring our vaccination cards because you can't get into most places without one. That seems to me to be about as good as we are going to get for now.
In fact, I'm more worried about an October trip we have to visit S's parents in Florida than our NYC trip this weekend. But we will cross that bridge when we come to it. (A lot of family dynamics and feelings are in play.) I'm hoping somehow things magically (or scientifically) get better by then, even though that is totally unrealistic. We are in the midst of a Covid downswing, however. Cases have been dropping slowly, but steadily the past few weeks. Whether or not this is a blip or finally the beginning of the end (whatever that means) nobody really knows. I've heard smart, knowledgeable health professionals argue both sides of the coin. I find the "beginning of the end" argument slightly more convincing (the rationale being that the Delta variant is going to run out of easy targets at some point), but only slightly. And of course there are psychological factors in play, so I'm not going to get my hopes up just yet.
Okay, that's all I have time for right now. Until next time...
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