As difficult as other humans have been making things lately, a lot of people seem quite ready for a return to normalcy. Or as close to normalcy as we can muster at this point. Aside from the furor over masks and vaccinations, my own life has been basically... the same as it was pre-pandemic.
I suspect this is due to my location and social class. I live in rural Michigan. Now Michigan has been pretty stupid and more or less insane on the governmental level, but none of my neighbors really give much of a shit about Covid. My community and workplace pretty much do whatever is absolutely mandated, and that's it. Hell, I work in a tourist community, and we had a decent year last year and are literally breaking records for how much business we are doing this year.
I was deemed "essential" about a month into the pandemic. I didn't have the luxury of worrying about maybe catching a cold.
Recently a few people have started wearing masks again, but there isn't much appetite for it or any sort of forced compliance. The bulk of the people I know have already had the virus. None, not one person I know, has died from it. Most of my peers are serenely uninterested in getting vaccinated and regularly share negative opinions about it and the government's response to the virus. (My personal friends, liberal Democrats all, are another matter, as I mentioned in my last post).
Everyone in my close family, most of whom are a bit older, have gotten the vaccine. They have all been fine. I don't know anyone, not one person, who's gotten the vaccine and has had any lasting negative effects. They don't wear masks and don't intend to. They aren't psychos about the whole thing, they feel protected and don't worry about the virus anymore. [Unfortunately, this is no longer true, as a pro-vaccine friend has told me about serious side effects he's experiencing].
The reality is, for most of us around here, for all intents and purposes, Covid is over. Businesses are booming. There is a huge labor shortage, so jobs are plentiful. No hospitals are overrun. Most people don't really give a crap about any of this. When we hear about people cowering in their homes or see the occasional person driving around with a mask on in the privacy of their own vehicle, we laugh at them.
I see people wishing death on us unvaxxed people, and on people who have just moved on from the bullshit, and it makes me chuckle. They are so envious because they don't have the courage to live their lives. I'd encourage them to study statistics and get a grip if I was interested in talking to them.
I may get Covid and die. But I know one thing for sure. I'm far more likely to die from... almost anything else. Every day is a risk. Every day you roll the dice. You can die from just about anything, at just about any time. It goes with the territory.
As an old hippie poet and songwriter howled, no one here gets out alive. In the meantime, I intend to live. Until the end at least, life goes on.
I suspect this is due to my location and social class. I live in rural Michigan. Now Michigan has been pretty stupid and more or less insane on the governmental level, but none of my neighbors really give much of a shit about Covid. My community and workplace pretty much do whatever is absolutely mandated, and that's it. Hell, I work in a tourist community, and we had a decent year last year and are literally breaking records for how much business we are doing this year.
I was deemed "essential" about a month into the pandemic. I didn't have the luxury of worrying about maybe catching a cold.
Recently a few people have started wearing masks again, but there isn't much appetite for it or any sort of forced compliance. The bulk of the people I know have already had the virus. None, not one person I know, has died from it. Most of my peers are serenely uninterested in getting vaccinated and regularly share negative opinions about it and the government's response to the virus. (My personal friends, liberal Democrats all, are another matter, as I mentioned in my last post).
Everyone in my close family, most of whom are a bit older, have gotten the vaccine. They have all been fine. I don't know anyone, not one person, who's gotten the vaccine and has had any lasting negative effects. They don't wear masks and don't intend to. They aren't psychos about the whole thing, they feel protected and don't worry about the virus anymore. [Unfortunately, this is no longer true, as a pro-vaccine friend has told me about serious side effects he's experiencing].
The reality is, for most of us around here, for all intents and purposes, Covid is over. Businesses are booming. There is a huge labor shortage, so jobs are plentiful. No hospitals are overrun. Most people don't really give a crap about any of this. When we hear about people cowering in their homes or see the occasional person driving around with a mask on in the privacy of their own vehicle, we laugh at them.
I see people wishing death on us unvaxxed people, and on people who have just moved on from the bullshit, and it makes me chuckle. They are so envious because they don't have the courage to live their lives. I'd encourage them to study statistics and get a grip if I was interested in talking to them.
I may get Covid and die. But I know one thing for sure. I'm far more likely to die from... almost anything else. Every day is a risk. Every day you roll the dice. You can die from just about anything, at just about any time. It goes with the territory.
As an old hippie poet and songwriter howled, no one here gets out alive. In the meantime, I intend to live. Until the end at least, life goes on.