I'm sure people have noticed that I've been much less social since the start of the pandemic. That's in large part due to the fact that my wife has autoimmune issues which put her at increased risk from viruses such as Covid-19. To limit the likelihood of her getting infected, we both mask up whenever we're inside in public spaces. While this is acceptable for quick shopping trips, it doesn't work well for meeting friends in restaurants or at parties unless there's an option for outdoor dining.
The need for outdoor dining has limited when it's feasible to meet people to times of the year which offer reasonable temperatures to brave the patio. Those times happen to coincide with when I've got 5+ hours of weekly yard work to complete. The need for dry weather while mowing can make it difficult to find a mutually agreeable time to meet. Sadly, patios tend to fill up during prime dining hours.
It may come as a surprise to people that some of us need to be careful because the media offers so little coverage of Covid-19 these days. The common wisdom seems to be that Covid-19 is no more dangerous than the flu which is definitely not true. It's easy with an Internet search to find wastewater data which helps track infections through monitoring of sewage treatment (see link below). Sadly this doesn't always paint a completely accurate picture of infection levels in more rural areas such as ours where municipal water and sewer service are not available so we're forced to infer using the data from surrounding areas.
https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-currentlevels.html
My wife and I both miss seeing friends as often. We also miss live music and dining out. Hopefully we'll be able to eventually return to doing the things we enjoy without the need to be so cautious.
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