Now that people are getting vaccinated rapidly, the slow return to normalcy is taking shape. My wife and I are planning to take the family on a beach vacation over for the New Year’s holiday. Where? We have no idea. We just want to get out of here for a week, and preferably somewhere that won’t require a passport. Focus: What do you want to do when things return to normal? Where do you want to go? Alt. Focus: What is never returning to the way it was?
If things work out financially, I want to buy another boat and at least do The Great Loop over the span of a couple of years. I need the bubble to burst on boat prices.
I just bought tickets to go see my first concert in September as well as made plans for a family vacation to the OBX in July. Don't tell my family, but I'm looking forward to the concert more than the vacation, but only because it's this guy...
what was a necessity during the pandemic, will now be major conveniences. Instead of setting up a booth at a job fair at a local college, today that job fair is online, in a chat room basically, where the applicants submit their resumes and talk to us either via text or video. Which is not only more convenient, but also like today where the weather is "oh hail no" territory, the job fair would have to either be postponed or canceled. That's just an example though. Other things like grocery, restaurant, and especially liquor delivery are never going away. There will be a certain segment of the population that wants to go to concerts and movies and sporting events for the experience, but those venues will have to reinvent themselves, or at least alter their business models in a major way, to keep up. I don't think colleges will ever go back to the way they were, and that's a good thing. I also don't think the concept of business travel, especially taking that red eye flight in the morning and returning for dinner, will ever go back. Again, a good thing. As for me, I'm just looking forward to returning to normal myself. I'll get there eventually. I just want to go on a run, or to the gym, without worrying that I'm going to die (tried a run once and I might have almost killed myself). I would like to have the stamina to be able to drive to our Austin schools and even just say hi, do a quick walk thru, and come back. Right now I barely have enough energy to leave the house, so I'm just looking forward to getting back to work in the physical sense like I used to.
One of the reasons that a lot of businesses didn't do curbside pickup, or online ordering, or delivery, was the amount of initial investment in a website/integrated payment system/inventory tracking. Now that many of them have gone through that, there's going to be the expectation that you offer these kind of services. Which I love, frankly. A lot of the time I don't want to have a sit-down dinner in a restaurant with drinks and interacting with waitstaff and tips. I just want some food at home that I didn't cook. COVID has definitely made it a lot easier to do that. I'm looking forward to being able to do some international travel again, but mostly I'm looking forward to being able to exist in public without anxiety. Right now seeing people who can't figure out how to wear a mask properly, or who have no concept of keeping some space, makes me viscerally angry.
People will go back into the office because face to face time does have genuine value, but I can't imagine companies will spend nearly the amount of money they used to paying for "business people" to fly all over the country to have "business meetings" to "do a business."
The minute I'm "allowed" to, I'm burning every single mask I have. Hated wearing them on day one and hate wearing them on day 380-ish. Other than that, we really don't have anything we're pining to do. We go out to dinner already, just got back from a trip last week, been working everyday etc. I have missed going to the movies though. I'll go back to the theatres once I don't have to wear a mask. I have a few close friends and family that are pretty hardcore mask/sanitize/distance people so it'll be nice to see them again.
I missed having friends and family over. I like cooking big meals and entertaining. I love sharing good food, drink and stories. I want to go skiing. Skiing is my favorite activity. I didn’t go this year even though I think it was safe. I realize I could have probably done both of these things. My professional life has centered around Covid for the last year and I have no interest in being called a hypocrite.
Majorly this. The rare couple times I've gone in a store, the number of people with chin diapers make me anxious with an icing of angry. And since I am in East Oregon antivax my freedoms country those people are usually doing so with entitlement or aggression. I want to feel safer in public around strangers. We will buy a second car. Mine died shortly into the pandemic and since I stay home except for doctor's appointments, it seemed an unnecessary expense. The hospital system has a van service I was using for pediatric follow ups and we did pickups on the weekend or when my husband drove home from work. No travel plans but we will accept vaccinated visitors. A friend is coming for the weekend in May and my MiL and her husband are coming for bebe's first birthday. We will see neighbors maskless and outdoors and probably celebrate July 4th with them. My parents are planning to road trip out here towards the latter part of summer. We had an invite to meet friends halfway for a hotel weekend but I'm just not comfortable taking the baby on extended trips yet. If our county risk assessment goes down and the library has in person story time, I am strongly considering attending. Some outdoor playground interaction would be good too.
Same here. I haven’t been to a theater since the last Avengers movie. It would also be nice if they started making interesting, non-depressing movies again. Bill Maher said it perfectly: “You couldn’t have a worse time at the movies if there was an active shooter in the theater.”
not sure if you could have done family gatherings without risk. I only recently found out I got covid from a family member. It was her son’s friend — whom he trusted immensely, but both of them play basketball together — and the friend’s mother (incidentally, she’s a cop) didn’t tell anyone he was positive because she didn’t want it to impact their high school basketball playoffs. So because she was a selfish prick, I almost died even though we were otherwise being extremely safe. Of course, they didn’t tell me. I found out through my mother who drunkenly let it slip. Lesson learned: even trusted family and friends will be pricks if it serves them or they don’t think something is a big deal. At this point I don’t even trust my family who says they are vaccinated unless I’ve seen them go to the appointment.
I went to Beaver Creek, CO last year and was there the last week they operated - they shut down due to Covid as I was leaving town. I went this year. Reservations for a lift ticket were required, which I secured back in November. Then there were safety protocols in place. (I had also had my first dose by then.) Riding the lift with anyone other than your group was not allowed. Lift lines were spaced out farther. Masks required. There were fewer people on the mountain.
Everything. Just everything. Movies: Going to the movies with my daughter was a great way for just the two of us to spend time together. We’ve been doing the dad/daughter movie night since she was 5. I hope she isn’t too old to still want to go with me. Restaurants: Prior to 2020 we almost never got takeout or delivery except for the occasional pizza. It’s great to have that option now but I want to go to a restaurant. I want someone to cook my food, bring it to me, and clean up after me while I relax. Business trips:Fuck I miss these. Years ago my job was much more active. Now I spend most of my time at a desk estimating, tracking estimates, checking work, etc. Business trips once every month or two made it worthwhile - just getting to a different city, eating good food and drinking. Now there’s no break in the monotony. Neighborhood parties: These will be back in full swing come the fall and I cannot wait. I’ve posted before about how great the neighbors are, and I’m looking forward to partying with them again. Kicking a keg is still fun even in my 50s.
Things aren't going to return to "normal". Under present approaches, Covid is here to stay, in much the same way the flu is. I mentioned as much in my lone post in the Coronavirus topic. The new mutations from South Africa and Brazil are far more resistant (over 50%) to any of the current vaccines, and will be the dominant ones here shortly, especially thanks to the insanity of international travel continuing on, unimpeded. That will mean fresh lockdowns, particularly whenever it's convenient for our overlords, and a need to develop brand-new vaccines in a year or less. Rinse and repeat! And that's not even factoring in the possibility of digital IDs being rolled out. Anyone able to look up anything and everything about you with a simple digital scan. Hope your sociopolitical views don't offend your server! And if you think China's social credit system sounds bad? HAHA, the West's version will be a thousand times worse, and not only because it will be heavily based on race, gender, and sexual orientation, or be an inversion of what China wants from its citizens. Look, our leadership isn't completely insane. They understand that even the most meek little bugman isn't happy about the "just 2 weeks" that has stretched into over a year, and there are record numbers of suicides and depression. So they offer a little glimmer of hope now, a little slackening of the restrictions, and the occasional article admitting that hey, what we drilled into you during the lockdown was bullshit. But rest assured, it's nothing more than a little bit of bread and circuses to keep the riff-raff in line and hopeful. Things aren't going to return to "normal".
I will continue to distance from the now apparent stupid people that were hiding in my life pre-COVID.
Even before COVID the only time I went to the movie theater was when there was a movie I needed to see ASAP lest it be spoiled (basically Marvel or Star Wars), or my dad was in town and we wanted to catch Dunkirk.
Except that that's not been the case at all. As for the rest of your post... that's a whole 'nother level of paranoid delusion.
Are we under the impression things aren’t still terrible? Sporting events are only kidding themselves by filling the seats and creating super spreader events filled with assholes who refuse to vaccinate. Ontario, Michigan and New York are being RAVAGED right now. I’m still worried about not getting sick to think about normalcy at all. Texas needs to remove the mask, shit is still bad. I’d love for things to return to normal, but I have too much faith in the irresponsible idiots that surround us to let that happen any time soon.