Emerging from the pandemic

[apl68]

We've been fully opened for all normal day-to-day services at work for the past year, and I've never stopped going to the grocery store and so forth.  So life has seemed fairly normal here for the most part for a long time now.  This Saturday and Sunday we have our first groups meeting in the library's community room now that we've been okayed to open at limited capacity.  Our outreach visits to area preschools and day cares have just resumed.  Week after next we will begin hosting in-person story time groups.  We still won't have the big summer program events that we used to host.  But our facility is large enough to host small programming activities.  I still wear my mask inside the building at work when I'm out in the public areas and there are members of the public present.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

The summer is still virtual for me, but fall will be face-to-face with masks only if you are unvaccinated.

[mamselle]

We've been fully opened for all normal day-to-day services at work for the past year, and I've never stopped going to the grocery store and so forth.  So life has seemed fairly normal here for the most part for a long time now.  This Saturday and Sunday we have our first groups meeting in the library's community room now that we've been okayed to open at limited capacity.  Our outreach visits to area preschools and day cares have just resumed.  Week after next we will begin hosting in-person story time groups.  We still won't have the big summer program events that we used to host.  But our facility is large enough to host small programming activities.  I still wear my mask inside the building at work when I'm out in the public areas and there are members of the public present.

Along those lines, both the second comment on this article:

   https://www.cambridgeday.com/2021/06/04/in-deciding-to-keep-its-library-buildings-closed-cambridge-chose-safety-for-staff-and-residents/

And the statement , "It's not like a light switch," in this one:

   https://www.boston.com/food/restaurants/2021/06/03/restaurateurs-reflect-on-new-reality-without-covid-restrictions/

seem to answer each other....

I'm amazed at the way so many different libraries has maintained service levels at whatever capacity possible given their specific circumstances.

The "second commenter" who "wants what he wants, and wants it now," sounds to me like a spoiled 3-year-old with no sense of humanity or gratitude for others' hard work.

I hope you don't have to deal with many of his sort, that's just so rude.

M.

[apl68]

We've been fully opened for all normal day-to-day services at work for the past year, and I've never stopped going to the grocery store and so forth.  So life has seemed fairly normal here for the most part for a long time now.  This Saturday and Sunday we have our first groups meeting in the library's community room now that we've been okayed to open at limited capacity.  Our outreach visits to area preschools and day cares have just resumed.  Week after next we will begin hosting in-person story time groups.  We still won't have the big summer program events that we used to host.  But our facility is large enough to host small programming activities.  I still wear my mask inside the building at work when I'm out in the public areas and there are members of the public present.

Along those lines, both the second comment on this article:

   https://www.cambridgeday.com/2021/06/04/in-deciding-to-keep-its-library-buildings-closed-cambridge-chose-safety-for-staff-and-residents/

And the statement , "It's not like a light switch," in this one:

   https://www.boston.com/food/restaurants/2021/06/03/restaurateurs-reflect-on-new-reality-without-covid-restrictions/

seem to answer each other....

I'm amazed at the way so many different libraries has maintained service levels at whatever capacity possible given their specific circumstances.

The "second commenter" who "wants what he wants, and wants it now," sounds to me like a spoiled 3-year-old with no sense of humanity or gratitude for others' hard work.

I hope you don't have to deal with many of his sort, that's just so rude.

M.

No, we haven't had too much trouble with rude patrons specifically over the pandemic response.  People were awfully importunate about re-opening the community room before we finally did so.  It helps that our building is as large (for the size of our community) as it is.  It hasn't usually been too hard to manage social distancing for normal day-to-day activities.  We've also enforced mask rules with a light touch.  I'm still trying to set an example at work, but there's very little masking going on around town at this point.

We did have the one perennially rude patron who had to be banned temporarily for harassing a staff member about masking during the depths of the pandemic.  He didn't pull that again, but hasn't really mended his ways.  This morning I heard that he had been arrested due to a neighbor's complaints of harassment.  He's not the last person I'd believe that of.

[hmaria1609]

I thought I'd share some travel news.
The "Washington Post" Travel section has its "Sign Language" feature back in this weekend's print edition. Yay! Readers send in photos of funny or strange street or building signage from their travels.

Avalon Waterways is resuming European river cruises on select routes:
https://www.avalonwaterways.com/travel-update/

[Sun_Worshiper]

I've basically gone back to normal: Since late-May I've traveled in planes, trains, buses, and automobiles, eaten in several restaurants, and visited with family for the first time in well over a year. I went to a grocery store without a mask for the first time yesterday, although still wearing masks in stores that require it and in planes, trains, buses, Ubers, etc., which also require it.

I've been fully vaccinated since February.

[clean]

I got my first hair cut since October!!  I have avoided going because of the mask issues.  Well, it is too hot and my hair was just too long for me.  (And Im not sure if my wife is complaining or jealous of my natural curls!)  I usually get a haircut when the curls start to break but as the hair left my head some looked like they had gone 2 full loops! 

I started to take off my mask because mine is technically a respirator that has straps that go around your head, not your ears.  She jumped back and said that the mask was required, but fetched me one when I showed her my mask and I complimented that they required masks and told her that IF I had known that they were requiring masks, I would have gone in months ago! 

Otherwise, it is starting to look like the maskless are outnumbering the masked. 

Fortunately, my county is down to 28 in the hospital, but only 4 in the ICU.  Just a month ago the ICU number was closer to 20! 

Anyway, I wear a mask, and will for some time to come I think.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I'm fully vaccinated, but I still wear a mask whenever I go into a store. When I work in the community garden, I don't wear a mask since we're all supposedly vaccinated and we can spread out. I still have not eaten inside a restaurant, but I have eaten (twice) at a restaurant that has an outside eating area.

[jerseyjay]

Today, I have a in-person meeting including the university president.

So I put on dress pants and work shoes for the first time since March 2020. I also tried to put on my watch, only to find its battery died sometime in the last two years.

It is not that I'd been naked or even teaching in sweatpants, but I have been wearing a dress shirt with nice jeans since March 2020, since all my teaching has been from my living room, via Zoom. Nor is it like I've been a recluse. Over the past period, especially since I have been vaccinated,  I have done many of the things that I "normally" do: go to the gym, eat at restaurants, take public transport, ride in taxis, go to bars, and, of course, go to the post office. I have even stopped by campus several times to get some work done in my office and go pick up library books. My university has been "open" the entire lockdown, but its "openness" has been related to the fact that almost all classes have been online since March 2020, staff schedules were staggered, and almost nobody worked from campus.

[Harlow2]

Finally made the dermatology appointment I was reluctant to make as long as it was unclear how masks were being dealt with. Probably silly, but it was my nose after all.

[mamselle]

Not silly.

Iatrogenic infections and illnesses are the most perfidious things.

M.

[hmaria1609]

The DC City Council voted to extend protections for renters and debtors:
https://wtop.com/dc/2021/07/dc-council-approves-measures-to-protect-debtors-renters/
Posted on WTOP Radio (7/13/21)