Restaurants reopening, but will you dine in?

I understand that youth, with their limited life experiences, may not take it seriously, (kids ALWAYS think that whatever mom and dad are warning them about, it’ll never happen to them. until it does.) but what excuse do 40+ adults have? I saw 2 different people in the grocery at Thanksgiving, both were 50+ and both were driving their automated wheeled shopping carts. I assumed they had some sort of compromised breathing problems. Both were obese. Neither were masked. Honestly all I could wonder was how difficult it must be to flip either of those people over on their stomachs in order to insert a respirator down their trachea. Not fun. Worth a day of scooting around in public? Wouldn’t be for me but I can’t speak for them.
Sure, let’s take into consideration the death rate, but let’s not forget that the long term aftereffects are pretty limiting, especially if someone considers wearing a mask for 1/2 hour simply too demanding. And the health costs.....

Yeah, the overweight, high risk folks 40+-50+ who refuse to comply are an enigma indeed. Its too bad an overall view towards masks tends to conflict with many folks' image of what is and isn't de rigueur in Western culture. Many in the far east have dealt with various levels of viruses in the past that made them less resilient to the idea of distancing, wearing masks, and to a higher degree of sanitization. In our case, it has been almost surreal from the get go. Heck, I couldn't even find a mask or hand sanitizer early on. My youngest son crafted our first masks from old socks that he cut up (note: I'm trying to avoid politics in the above. Its not worth going there)!

Its a tough season in life for everyone---for some more intense than for others. But nonetheless, we've all had to deal with some level of sacrifice. I am optimistic that as we role into the spring season that the change in weather, and our capacity to dine and hangout more outdoors, will converge with increasing numbers of vaccinations and even folks with antibodies from a previous covid infection. With this thought in mind, it could be a pretty awesome late spring, early summer. I sure hope so!....hang in there a few more months.

I genuinely appreciate your words of encouragement regarding the return to some sort of normalcy. We’ll beat this virus, without a doubt. My concern is what will remain is this ugly spectrum of selfishness coupled with willful ignorance. Yeah, it’s always been there, it’s just become so painfully obvious as of late.

NPR this evening, interviewed an American Expat writer living in China, who writes for Chinese newspapers primarily and she said the Chinese have had emperors of one sort or another for 5000 years and their culture is all about the collective vs. the west and especially the US's obsession with individuality above all else.
When the goverment there says you will wear a mask then you wear a mask. Makes a lot of sense and also explains our gun laws or lack of them and the false by your own bootstraps mentality that keeps people from acting as a unit. ( we are all humans living on the planet and need to help each other to survive, vs. I am an island unto myself and no one can tell me what to do).
My daughter is living in Istanbul and they also have strict curfews with severe penalties if you decide to break the law (fines and jail time). Universal masking and no inside dining at all. 8pm street curfew. Nobody is protesting that either.

My daughter lived in New Zealand for a while where the attitude was also for the collective good. Not in a communist or socialist way, but rather as a giant family acting to promote the family as a whole. Because of that unselfishness their lives are pretty much back to normal.

“I just had a craving” for butter chicken curry, and other (kind of amusing) acts resulting in arrests and serious fines around the globe....

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/worl ... pe=Article

.... but not here, certainly.