Not quite ready to leave the house yet

As the Covid news gets a bit better, it should be time to venture out more. At least for some of us who have been hermits for the past two years.

Last Sunday, Mr. Ken and I went to a talk at our local library. I was a little bit nervous going there since the room where the talk was held does not have the best ventilation. But I was wearing my super-duper N95 mask that I got at CVS. I did not wear my plastic face shield though.

No surprise, but the audience was mostly senior citizens. Now I know there is no longer a mask mandate, but I would think that this demographic would be much more careful. To be fair, most were wearing a mask. And I suppose those that weren’t had a good reason not to, e.g. it is too hard for them to breathe.

All that being said, I told Mr. Ken that is someone not wearing a mask sits down next to us, we will be moving our chairs away.

I tried to focus on the talk and not think about the Covid germs circulating all around me. And then someone coughed. Ack! I turned around to see how close this person was and decided to hold my breath for a few minutes so I wouldn’t breathe in any Covid germs. Whew…dodged a bullet.

But then the person directly behind me sneezed. Oh no, I was ready to run screaming out of the room. To be fair, this person had a mask on and sneezed into her arm.

By this time, all I could think of was when the end of the talk would happen.

I got home, disinfected my hands, took an elderberry gummy to boost my immune system and was ready for a nap.

What all this tells me is that I am not ready to go out in public into a group.

How have your attitudes about Covid changed?

Hermit photograph is that of William Andrew Murphy, hermit of Hat Hill Road in Blackheath. It is courtesy of Blue Mountains Library under Openverse licensing.