Pick up the Pieces

Well the big news of the day is that I’ve scheduled my first dance lesson in over two months. Still not entirely sure how the whole “lesson with a mask” is going to go but after three weeks of allergy shots, they are a little better controlled so I guess it is time to give it a shot.

JoNY is actually still out of town. When all lockdowns were starting, she bugged out to be back with her parents and family. And that makes perfect sense given that there wasn’t going to be much to do around here during that time. So I’ll be with Mini – although it isn’t completely confirmed yet. She’s also out of town but still in state and could still get to the studio. So we just need to confirm that she’s OK with coming in.

There are other signs of things opening back up. We moved up to another stage in the plan. Larger gatherings are allowed and more places are allowed to open. My gym is opening on Sunday but with some changes. Bring your own towel and water since they fountains will be off. They will have limits on people who can be in the facility and there are no classes. I think I will start off slow going back – maybe one day a week just to see how it works. There is equipment there that is better than what I’ve got here at home and here I don’t have to wear a mask.

Of course, our city is still not going at the same pace as the state which creates confusion. My branch of the gym is in the next county (I live near the county line) so it is open but the gyms within the city are still closed. Same with stores. I was picking up birdseed yesterday and they had to turn away someone who wanted to go into the store. Later, they had to send out an email to say there are still doing curbside pickup only. I suspect the confusion is that there are locations of this store outside the city limits that are probably open again.

There’s other news out there as well. We have locked in on the six feet as the appropriate social distance but then I saw a couple of studies that said this was really just a best guess. Of course, the rest of the world uses a different measuring system so they would use two meters which is a little longer than six feet. Don’t know if the virus goes by our system or the metric system though.

Then again, there are countries that were using one meter and not seeing their world come crashing down so that’s where this study was saying nobody really knows what the best distance is. Some time ago, I made a comment to my wife that the people on bicycles who race through us walkers in the park should be wearing masks. The logic is that they’d leave a trail of virus in their wake should they cough or sneeze while blowing by us. Then I saw a study suggesting that as well. So who knows.

I think all we can do is use some common sense. I think if this thing could easily spread just by two groups walking by each other, then we’d see a lot more cases than we do. The risk is really around coughing and sneezing in close quarters. There a mask more helps to contain the person doing the coughing and/or sneezing. So you just don’t stand right next to someone.

The CDC has also now said that the risk of contracting this through contact with an object is low. But they still want people to exercise caution. I think it means that if you are using bleach wipes on Amazon boxes, then maybe you are going a little too far. But you do what makes you comfortable.

Should I mention that I’ve got a pulse oximeter? OK, I’ve already mentioned it. I saw a doctor from New York talking about “silent hypoxia” where your body adjusts to lower and lower levels of oxygen (like living at high altitudes). By the time you get to shortness of breath, you can be in serious danger. Not that I’m high risk but the family history of lung related illnesses on my Mother’s side does concern me. Right now, all is good. See, I’m not ignoring this whole thing – I’m just trying to take what I see as reasonable steps.

Plus, I try to look for other sources of news to get away from the “doom and gloom” we get here. For instance, it is taken as fact that we will see a second surge in the fall. Nobody really knows this but because the scientists say it will happen, then it must be true. Then I read a different scientist who doesn’t see it happening. Again, he admits this is just his opinion but isn’t that what everyone is doing these days. The models are just projections based on a set of assumptions – they aren’t facts or certain to happen.

I guess that’s enough about this for now. Again, it would be nice to be able to have rational conversations about what we know without it devolving into a political food fight.