Keeping a slower pace on reopening than the nation, Shell Point is opening up more activities, with caution. While some states are reducing restrictions, apparently for the sake of business, others are trying to balance this with a appropriate guidelines. I don't think it is just the need to salvage restaurants; I sense that people are tired of being cooped up, and are experiencing stir craziness. One woman told me, "This is getting ridiculous", and I think she meant having to wear masks in our building. Judy can now go swimming, spaced-out at the aquatic center. Others are now playing golf and pickle ball, all outside sports. I don't feel constrained by the circumstances as much as Judy does. There is a lot to do indoors and on the screen porch, still cool enough most days. Glad we can take most of our meals out there comfortably.
From what good science I read, riding in the elevator here with another person with no mask, is risky because you can't get a social distance of six feet. However, I am consoled by the fact that most elevator rides are less than five minutes. As I read the science, one cannot get enough viral cells to infect if you are not in someone's breathing aura for more than five minutes. I hope that proves to be right, because it makes things a little more relaxed. We walk around here on narrowish sidewalks, where you pass someone walking the other way, and so are not really exposed. I still hoist my mask into place when I pass them, just to signal my concern for everyone's welfare.
I can't see that the country has ramped up yet for sufficient testing, which will be necessary for traveling. At present time, it does not look like any travel North for us to see kids and grandkids. Short of a vaccine, frequent targeted testing may allow safer air travel. It is unclear yet whether airplanes can scrub the air that recirculates, so if you test negative before you board, you won't infect others....maybe.
As we look back from some future standpoint, will we say this was just the beginning of the" war," or the middle? Where comes the turning point? Fort Myers and Lee County are still adding new cases of those testing positive, so in my mind the disease is expanding, though maybe at a slower rate. I want to see a downturn before I will feel comfortable going out to stores or any sort of gathering. I know I am in a high-risk category, just on age alone. I had to go to a couple of doctors' offices for procedures that can't be done with telehealth visits. I suited up with mask and gloves, and they seemed alert to the needed precautions. Can I put off my dental check up for awhile? I have put off the cataract surgery that was scheduled for late March.
I am sure the national elections and campaigning are going to complicate things during the next six months. It is sad that partisan politics affects our health as much as it does. The unemployed and poor people have it the worst. I keep wondering when there will be a jobs stimulus with infrastructure spending, like the old WPA of the Roosevelt era. There doesn't seem to be a need for" make-work", considering our highways and bridges in need of repair even before all this began.
There is a bit of symbolism in the wearing of the mask, which I do in the building that houses our apartment 9and in the elevator). Behind the mask, one's identity is so hidden, that outdoors where people wear hats and sunglasses, it is hard to recognize people that I know. I have mistakenly said hello on the path to Steve when it was Jon! If you have your ego tied to being recognized, you will be frequently disappointed. Facial recognition software of your brain is failing to keep us personally in touch. The symbol part is that residents of this campus of some 2,000 people lose much of their identity when they sign in. Whatever they once were prior to retirement or prior to being "institutionalized", they are all homogenized. A few people get their picture in the glossy monthly magazine, and that seems like a big deal, because you see what activities they are associated with, and in some cases what they did as a career. A very few residents attach "doctor" to their name, but most sink back into the great leveling with nothing distinguishable. As if they had donned the mask of plain vanilla.Others, like me, struggle to keep going at art or music to distinguish ourselves on those occasions that someone sees , not our career, but our lingering and maybe growing abilities. Shell point appears to draw little on the immense talents that people bring with them, seldom calling on the expertise of someone who could have been a college professor, dedicated scientist, or great legal mind. As if you lose it by coming through the gate. In my brief time here, it looks like they would rather hire someone from the outside for expertise. There is a teaching program for which I have made a couple of proposals, but nothing yet, due mostly to the fact that very few new classes are being taught on line at this point.
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