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July COVID thoughts
Jul. 20th, 2020 12:27 amWhen our area went into lockdown mid-March, I thought "okay, this is probably going to last a month, maaaaybe to the end of the school year," and sure, having both of us work from home while Miss Rutabaga is running underfoot kinda sucked, and it sucked to have to postpone her 4th birthday party, which I was really looking forward to (I'd postponed it to late May, optimist that I was), but whatever, it's just a month, maybe 3 months tops.
In June I was like "okay, this may last until September, maybe December." And now, I think it's fair to stop thinking about this as a temporary thing, but something on the time scale of 1-2 years. So I need to shift from thinking of it as "a temporary situation to get through" to "How will I live in these situations for the next 2 years."
Thankfully, mask-wearing + social distancing seems pretty effective. I'm still trying to find a good fabric mask, but for the time being, those blue surgical masks seem to work all right. We need to start teaching Miss Rutabaga to wear masks more consistently. We also live in a place where outdoor gatherings is very doable for much of the year, and Zoom meetings fills up the rest of the socialization gap.
I think my basic rule of thumb will be:
- social distance of >6 ft
- mask if walking downtown (where sometimes I'm walking by someone <6 ft distant) but if just walking around the neighborhood, no mask when passing someone of >10 ft.
- mask if talking with anyone outside household, especially if >5 minutes interaction
- avoid situations of >10 people, >30 minutes if possible, especially if indoors.
- mask if indoors
Now, the problem is that when work starts in August the situations of >10 people, >30 minutes will not be viable. Even if my school doesn't open in person, I don't think the both of us working + Miss Rutabaga at home is sustainable. It was doable, barely, for 3 months, with both of us trying to squeeze 40 hours of work into ~20 hours a week. It's not sustainable for a full year or more. Right now, her preschool is technically reopen, in 10 people stable groups, and with the class practicing social distancing and a lot of independent play. It's... not the best, because she won't be getting a lot of socialization, but we need to be able to actually work.
Which... I wish we as a society can have a conversation about. I feel like part of what's making America be so bad at this whole lockdown thing is that so much of our livelihood depends on continued work. Or at least, we think it does.
Anyways, August is going to be a lot of increased risk for us (unless one of us quit our job), so the next step is to sit down with Hoosband and plot out exactly how much time we can put into work and child care that is sustainable and doesn't have either of us constantly at the edge of a meltdown.
In June I was like "okay, this may last until September, maybe December." And now, I think it's fair to stop thinking about this as a temporary thing, but something on the time scale of 1-2 years. So I need to shift from thinking of it as "a temporary situation to get through" to "How will I live in these situations for the next 2 years."
Thankfully, mask-wearing + social distancing seems pretty effective. I'm still trying to find a good fabric mask, but for the time being, those blue surgical masks seem to work all right. We need to start teaching Miss Rutabaga to wear masks more consistently. We also live in a place where outdoor gatherings is very doable for much of the year, and Zoom meetings fills up the rest of the socialization gap.
I think my basic rule of thumb will be:
- social distance of >6 ft
- mask if walking downtown (where sometimes I'm walking by someone <6 ft distant) but if just walking around the neighborhood, no mask when passing someone of >10 ft.
- mask if talking with anyone outside household, especially if >5 minutes interaction
- avoid situations of >10 people, >30 minutes if possible, especially if indoors.
- mask if indoors
Now, the problem is that when work starts in August the situations of >10 people, >30 minutes will not be viable. Even if my school doesn't open in person, I don't think the both of us working + Miss Rutabaga at home is sustainable. It was doable, barely, for 3 months, with both of us trying to squeeze 40 hours of work into ~20 hours a week. It's not sustainable for a full year or more. Right now, her preschool is technically reopen, in 10 people stable groups, and with the class practicing social distancing and a lot of independent play. It's... not the best, because she won't be getting a lot of socialization, but we need to be able to actually work.
Which... I wish we as a society can have a conversation about. I feel like part of what's making America be so bad at this whole lockdown thing is that so much of our livelihood depends on continued work. Or at least, we think it does.
Anyways, August is going to be a lot of increased risk for us (unless one of us quit our job), so the next step is to sit down with Hoosband and plot out exactly how much time we can put into work and child care that is sustainable and doesn't have either of us constantly at the edge of a meltdown.
