Pandemic life 2021

2/3/20 - US Declares Public Health Emergency 

3/11/20 - WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic. 

3/13/20 - US declares a National Emergency

The world shuts down. Countries seal their borders; sports teams cancel seasons; schools close and employees go home.

April 2020 - Businesses shut down, leading to massive job losses. By the end of April, 26.5 million Americans have filed for unemployment. We were told that if everyone just stayed home for 2 weeks, we could flatten the curve. Since then, we've been told so many different things.

June 2020 - The curve is not flattening. 5 million people have lost their health care insurance. Life is pretty much canceled. And it will continue through the end of the year.

July 2020 - There's a significant uptick in mental health cases/issues.

And on and on it goes and goes. Here we are, JUNE 2021. Most mask mandates have been lifted now. You're still required to wear one on public transportation, prisons and hospitals. Sometimes I wonder why. Did it help? How about social distancing? Did that help?

Still, after a year and a half, I see a lot of this; 
studies suggest
the CDC worries
we now believe
there could be

it might mean
a new study predicts

All of which just means the same things as, I/we think. Does that make all the precautions worth it?

In my life, traffic on my daily commute has picked up significantly. Drivers are worse than ever! Mostly because there haven't been so many cars in their way before now so they've forgotten. 

There are more and more people outside downtown. Portions of the mall are still closed though. Some restaurants are still only doing take out - labor shortages prevail. In general, we're going more places. That's nice for sure. 

Where I work, we've all been told to be back in the office by July 6th. I was really enjoying the quiet and the drama free environment. Most of these people are not happy about coming back to work either. For over a year, they've gotten to sit in the comfort of their homes, barefooted, in sweats or leggins and dorky t-shirts, temperature controlled to their liking, listening to music, smoking when they want, eating when they want, doing their laundry, playing with the dog, visiting with other family members who are home, saving a TON of $$ on gas and eating out. Yeah, it's been a pretty sweet gig for a lot of folks.

So, what's it going to be like for all of the people, everywhere, that have to go back "in" to work? They have to get use to each other again, seeing faces. Their routines are about to change drastically! It's going to be just as hard as when they all had to go home to work. I only have to give up 2 days at home and I hate it!!! I'm seriously going to miss that extra hour of sleep, loud music, a home cooked breakfast! and chatting with my fella when ever I wanted. Poop

It's been a helluva road, hasn't it? So much anger and sadness and loss. So much negativity and resentment. 

sigh