Earlier in the summer, I envisioned September as being a time to return to a semblance of normal. My daughter was in summer camp again (after missing it in 2020,) the office was making plans for us to come back (although they are now offering different levels of telework – something that never would have been a thing pre-COVID), and we were looking forward to ending the summer at the beach.
What a different six weeks makes. School, with all its attendant risks, might be the least affected of all things in our world. That’s only because they approached this school year knowing the kids wouldn’t be vaccinated and planned for classes that required maximum efforts to keep the kids safe. The delta variant makes us more cautious, but the school always planned for masks, testing, pods, and social distancing.
Vacation sucked – to be a bit grumpy. I admit, I live in a bubble of sorts. Where we live, people (mostly) all wear masks, they are cautious, they recognize the real danger to our unvaccinated kids. Most of my friends don’t eat inside, they limited their shopping trips, and they wear masks even around each other, and we know were safe. Every restaurant where we live has take out. Most have curbside pickup.
Then we went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and it’s like no one thinks there’s a pandemic raging. Most places were completely devoid of masks (other than the ones my family wore.) Some places had a mask here and there, but the overwhelming majority of people and places were maskless. Most restaurants didn’t do take out, or if they said they did, they would say they couldn’t handle it at that time. Most stores either didn’t have a mask mandate or didn’t enforce it. Even the grocery store employees didn’t wear masks.
To balance out the less than relaxing vacation, my work came through and did the right thing. We were slated to return to the office on Sept 13. This was a cause of a lot stress for me. I would end up coming in contact with hundreds if not thousands of people every day. I wasn’t sure I could keep my 9-year-old safe.
Yesterday we got an email telling us that due to the risk to children under 12, our return was pushed back to January 10, 2022. Unless required by some court obligation, we were not to return to the office without permission. If we had to come to the office, we needed to notify the bosses. It’s not perfect, but it’s as good as they could do for everyone. Everyone is required to get vaccinated (unless you fell into a very limited list of exemptions,) wear a mask at all times unless in your office with the door closed, document your time in the office to allow for contact tracing, and had to do a daily health check before coming to work.
As I said, I probably live in a bubble, but that’s an employer doing everything they can to protect its people and still get the job done. It’s also why hospitals were I live aren’t bursting at the seams with COVID cases.
Like just about everyone else, I’m anxiously waiting for the real new normal to take effect. I want to be able to go live my life again and not worry if it’s safe to go to the playground or let my child have a friend over. That date keeps getting pushed back, but at least we’re all healthy. I’d like to see my kid make it through the pandemic without getting COVID. That gets harder every day lately, but I’m staying hopeful the end is in sight.
Until next month, stay healthy and safe.
~Andy
Andy Gallo:
Andy prefers mountains over the beach, coffee over tea, and regardless if you shake it or stir it, he isn’t drinking a martini. He remembers his “good old days” as filled with mullets, disco music, too-short shorts, and too-high socks. Thanks to good shredders and a lack of social media, there is no proof he ever descended into any of those evils.
Andy does not write about personal experiences and no living or deceased ex-boyfriends appear on the pages of his stories. He might subconsciously infuse his characters with some of their less noble qualities, but that is entirely coincidental even if their names are the same.
Married and living his own happy every after, Andy helps others find their happy endings in the pages of his stories. He and his husband of more than twenty years spend their days raising their daughter and rubbing elbows with other parents. Embracing his status as the gay dad, Andy sometimes has to remind others that one does want a hint of color even when chasing after their child.
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We’ve currently moved our US office return from Sept 13 to no earlier than Oct 11. It seems like it’s a day by day evaluation – which is OK with me.