I’m going to have to look up “drive by party”.
people have been doing ‘drive by and honk/wave/yell/sing to the graduate/birthday person/happy couple’ hanging out in the front yard “parties”
Thank you! I’ve heard about drive by graduation celebrations, but I didn’t recall hearing them being called parties, and then the story suggested people are getting out of their cars, so I wanted to clarify.
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Well you’re supposed to stay in the car …
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Is there something in between? I work at home now, and have not socialized with anyone other than my sisters coming over a few times (usually trying to get my mom out of the apartment, because she’s Covid Careful to the Extreme) to have dinner together with some take out.
When we’re at my house, we are all masks off. We’re all very careful when we’re out, and my sisters are fastidious and always have been big hand washers even before Covid (as am I). We don’t have enough space for 6ft apart for everyone, or we would all be in different rooms or even different floors… We chat per normal, but we’re not huggers either.
I’m always masked when I hit the grocery store, and I avail myself of hand sanitizers and wipes when they’re available. I have gone to the chiropractor, hair salon, and the dentist with all taking proper precautions (I would go if they didn’t) so I’ve never felt any more at risk. I even took public transportation once! It was mid-day, but there were so few people on the train, I didn’t feel it was unsafe. We were all far apart. When two people tried to sit next to me, I did glare at them and move to an emptier section of seats. I don’t think I would take it during the worker commuting hours though.
I am appalled that I often run into people who are walking dogs without masks, and will take their mask right off as soon as they exit the grocery store. I have a (strange) neighbor who has been sitting on a lawn chair right outside his house – practically on the side walk – to cool down. He sits there for hours, no mask, just smoking, napping, or resting. He’s not in his front yard, because he doesn’t really have one. It’s two tiny patches of grass, not fenced, that spills onto the side walk. He’s 70% on the side walk with his lawn chair and I have to walk around him when I go out.
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It’s a complicated issue to be sure @kobuta; I think for some who are older, or have underlying health issues, it’s very scary, with an extremely cautious, even paranoid mind set taking over. Due to my health snag early in the year, age, and other factors, I admit I’m a bit over the top. I did have oral surgery yesterday, and felt quite comfortable with it, but I haven’t dared going to the nail salon. I don’t like to be in buildings for any length of time, but am relaxed with dining out on a deck with proper spacing. We’ve only done that once I think.
All that said, I wouldn’t get within 10 feet of my relatives or in-laws, even masked. Maybe not indoors either. Kind of sad, really. SIL & niece went to NOLA last week just for a get away, now SIL is complaining about having to go back and teach school. Meanwhile dad and gf, are keeping way busy running as many nonessential errands as possible, and dining in all over the place. Even in fast food restos. I don’t get that. OTOH, DD1 who is 34 and single, is starting to socialize again with her circle. Flirting? Romance? Don’t know, but can’t really blame the younger generation for wanting to live their lives.
She doesn’t want to come close to us for our protection, and we do want that distance from her.
It’s a very weird time, and I think the reality is a lot of us will get it, and many more will die. Still, there’s reason for hope, with new therapies showing success, and possibly effective vaccines on the horizon. Personally, I think the vaccines will be like flu shots, offering some good protection, but not total immunity, varying year by year. Maybe, since the virus is so transmissible, we’ll develop herd immunity sooner than later. So much we don’t know.
Meanwhile, I hope you and yours continue to be well and enjoy your visits!
Being unmasked indoors with visiting family is likely risky. Dr. Birx said as much in the last few days. As far as 6’ distancing goes, it’s an arbitrary spacing, generally recognized as the farthest that is practical and that people will even ATTEMPT to abide by. Experts in aerodynamics and aerosols suggest 10’.
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The Wifeacita had the covid and we were together all the time unmasked at home even in the car and I never got it, I guess that’s the luck of the draw but I do mask up and social distance if I venture out.
She also had Type A flu in January and we both had flu shots.
I never got it, go figure.
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You may be resistant, or you may have contracted either virus but been asymptomatic. You share a home, so of course are exposed to one another. My point to Kobuta is that even though they are family, unmasked visiting sisters are potentially as contagious as strangers you’d be reluctant to admit inside your home.
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Multi-year peer reviewed study just published in NEJM suggests 23-27’.
I know, that’s to cover the extreme sneeze or cough. But at that far a remove, you may as well be skyping! The 10’ allows, just about, seeing the other person clearly, and not having to speak louder to be heard. Also, I should have mentioned that it’s 10’ WITH masks.
But sisters are not random strangers, and if you trust that they are as cautious (or more so) than you, forming a “bubble” with them is not unreasonable.
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But family members who go to work have been sharing air with other people, who have been sharing air with other other people, and so on. I share my workspace with two people who have husbands and side jobs and go running with friends. Who knows how many people’s air we’re passing around between us.
I haven’t been the strictest, I’ve visited my Mom a few times, plus sister for Easter and Mother’s Day. But I decided to skip the party with mom, sister, brother who may have been exposed by a coworker and had quarantined and been tested but not received results, other brother and SIL who goes to work plus their children who I believe are back in daycare. I got a norovirus they brought home from daycare once, don’t trust them. Mom said ‘but (bro) has no symptoms’. Yeah, neither did Typhoid Mary. 
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Arghhhh! Calgon; Take me away!
Exactly!
ONLY if all of you strictly quarantine for at least 10 days beforehand. Otherwise, you endanger everyone involved. Even then, one or more of you could be asymptomatic and contagious. This is why the only way to deprive the virus of hosts would be a full month’s strict quarantine of all but TRULY essential workers: truckers, delivery people, grocery stores, hospital workers, other first responders. Some countries did this, successfully.
This is exactly what I see being ignored. “But they’re family!” people whine (including some in my family). Doesn’t matter.
CV-19 should be considered like an STD in this respect. When you sleep with someone you are sleeping with everyone they have slept with. With CV-19, when you share a space with someone you share a space with everyone they have.
Lockdowns in the US weren’t a real quarantine. Too many errands were considered essential. Groceries, pharmaceuticals, that morning latte at Starbucks, drive-thru, take-out, …
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Have in fact gotten verbal confirmations the last couple days, that close family and friends are mostly Covid casual. Surprises me with local BFF, as she has a not great chronic medical condition. But we all have choices to make.
In looking ahead to what can be gloomy winters around here, I’ve made some decisions. Lucky in the fact we don’t have extreme winter weather, and in fact live in a little jewel of a banana belt, relatively. But it is wet, and can be long and dispiriting. I’m hoping our restaurants can adapt, cover their outside seating with roofs to protect from the rain, and can position deck heaters around to make outdoor dining a year around reality. The heaters are also known up here as Canadian Palm Trees. 
Until this future scenario happens, I’ve decided to do outdoor meetups with friends while we’re still enjoying summer weather. With Covid careful people, of course. Have a coffee date set up for tomorrow, and lunch with a former colleague next week. Think this will greatly help with feelings of boredom, isolation and restlessness. In reaching out for these meetups, I ask straight up if they’re Covid careful, and then we plan accordingly. If they’re casual it’s a no go. Think it’s going to work out pretty well. I might even get the courage up tomorrow to stop at the grocery for 20 minutes, after the coffee date. Love living life on the edge!
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