Yesterday, I took Girl Child out to the slopes here in town for what was probably the last good skiing day of the season. Later this week we’re supposed to get a few days of 60-degree weather, which is going to melt most of the remaining snow and kick-start my least favorite season in New Hampshire…mud season. (The four seasons here are Winter, Mud, Bugs, and Fall.)
The wife got her appointment invitation for the COVID vaccine because the 50+ age group is next in line. I’ll be 50 in October, and this is the first (and probably last) time I found myself wishing I was there already. But at this pace, everyone in the country who wants the vaccine will be able to have their shot by May, so maybe we can all start going back to a semblance of normal life in the second half of the year. Social isolation isn’t a natural state for humans, and even my hardcore introvert friends are all like, “I want to travel and hug my friends!”
The new normal will be a lot different from our pre-COVID lives. I think masks will be a part of our lives for a long time to come, at least in public settings. The virus will remain, and we’ll get updated shots for it every year just like we do with the flu. But we will return to getting together in person because that’s what humans are wired to do. I know I can’t wait to see my friends and family in real life again, not just in a Muppets Show/Brady Bunch arrangement of video tiles on a screen.
Stay safe, wear your masks, get your shot, and then let’s cautiously plan for shenanigans again.
Second Moderna injection 3-6-21; estimated date of “full” protection 3-20-21. No adverse reaction to either jab.
Isolation sucks.