As Saskatchewan adds more restrictions, mostly on retailers in the post-Christmas period, I’m thinking a lot about how everyone is somewhere different on what I think of as the “Covid Continuum”.
I’d say the range for this starts with anyone who’s absolutely minimized their outings since March – maybe only leaving the house to buy groceries and nothing else while either working from home or possibly retired and not having to go out anyhow.
On the other end of the spectrum, are those who act as if nothing has changed at all and continue to live their lives as they did pre-Covid as much as possible – not wearing masks except when forced, still having large gatherings in violation of the rules, and pretty much ignoring most or all guidelines meant to keep the virus from spreading.
Comfort levels will likely change for everyone over time too – people who wiped down their groceries after an outing in March might no longer do so now. People who said they would never wear a mask in May feel embarrassed when they forget their mask in the car in November. And so on.
All of this also happens within a set of ever-changing government guidelines that leads to all sorts of weird contradictions:
* extended families can’t gather in a home right now but if they rent a couple poolside rooms at a local hotel, they can freely visit while sitting in a hot tub.
* people in the city worry if parking their third car in the driveway will trigger a call to the police by a nosy neighbour but people on a farm have very few concerns that extra visitors might invite scrutiny.
* Hypothetically, I’d imagine a person may even feel like a criminal if he were to slip into his parent’s house to use the bathroom while doing an otherwise completely outside, socially distanced surprise visit.
On a completely unrelated note, we’re grateful that we can still gather outside in groups of 10 or less even if we can’t gather with family indoors.
Since the weather was cooperating, we did a road trip today to surprise Shea’s parents in Weyburn then my parents in Indian Head, knowing that Christmas has been especially tough on them not being able to be with their grandkids.
