Pandemic Diaries: 2-3 months in
The first few weeks I kept quite a detailed diary about every pandemic development to organise my thoughts and in case I needed to refer back to it. Then I sort of settled in and waiting while we passed a peak.
Now, things seem to get uncertain again. I was fine hiding inside for 2-3 months but now it's getting to me. Partly, I was fine hiding in winter, but sad if we have to give up summer.
Partly, I'm starting to miss seeing people in person. And partly, the uncertainty is hard: if I was just waiting and didn't have a choice I'd just avoid thinking about it. But now, the government is urging people to relax their caution when the peak has gone down... a fair amount, but not enough to be reliably eradicated by thorough testing and tracing. So, will we get lucky and that will have been enough anyway? Or will it lead to a second wave and another 6 months of lockdown? Or will it go up a bit and the government change tack quickly and it'll be somewhere in the middle? Not knowing what to hope for makes it hard to plan.
According to the government I can meet people outside at a distance. But doing that indiscriminately is going to raise the infection rate again. But how much would be safe and responsible? None? Some? More? I don't know whether to look forward to seeing people soon-ish? Or just accept that things will get worse again and I don't want to be "that guy" rushing out to make things worse between the first and second peaks.
I think I need to explicitly imagine what I look forward to, whether soon or in a year, to have something to focus on. Which is, seeing people, somehow or other. Eventually hugs. Going to the sea, or even just the towpath! Pubs. Crowds, coffee shops, people watching. Hugs are waiting... You can also comment at https://jack.dreamwidth.org/1121937.html using OpenID.
comments so far.
Now, things seem to get uncertain again. I was fine hiding inside for 2-3 months but now it's getting to me. Partly, I was fine hiding in winter, but sad if we have to give up summer.
Partly, I'm starting to miss seeing people in person. And partly, the uncertainty is hard: if I was just waiting and didn't have a choice I'd just avoid thinking about it. But now, the government is urging people to relax their caution when the peak has gone down... a fair amount, but not enough to be reliably eradicated by thorough testing and tracing. So, will we get lucky and that will have been enough anyway? Or will it lead to a second wave and another 6 months of lockdown? Or will it go up a bit and the government change tack quickly and it'll be somewhere in the middle? Not knowing what to hope for makes it hard to plan.
According to the government I can meet people outside at a distance. But doing that indiscriminately is going to raise the infection rate again. But how much would be safe and responsible? None? Some? More? I don't know whether to look forward to seeing people soon-ish? Or just accept that things will get worse again and I don't want to be "that guy" rushing out to make things worse between the first and second peaks.
I think I need to explicitly imagine what I look forward to, whether soon or in a year, to have something to focus on. Which is, seeing people, somehow or other. Eventually hugs. Going to the sea, or even just the towpath! Pubs. Crowds, coffee shops, people watching. Hugs are waiting... You can also comment at https://jack.dreamwidth.org/1121937.html using OpenID.
comments so far.