Anybody else have that feeling...just woke up from a bad dream?

[fatdog]

I am taking vacation this week. First full week off since Aug. 2019. When the pandemic hit we went into overdrive at my company to try and preserve the company and jobs, and thankfully succeeded, adapted, etc. etc. So it has been 15 months of "all hands on deck" at work.

AL was not one of the first states to release all restrictions, but certainly not the last. All of ours are gone. As far as I know only health care facilities are now requiring masks. Several of our hospitals are reporting zero Covid patients for the first time since since March 2020.

In the last week, all retail establishments have started following the state guidelines on no mask policies, although for the last month or two nobody has tried to enforce them. We are all in the aisle saying hello again and wise cracking about what version of Frito's the store is suddenly out of, or bitching to each other about the high prices of hamburgers or ribeyes for grilling this weekend.

I went to my small town barbershop this morning for the first time when the place was full, nobody with a mask, we are all laughing, telling stories, having normal conversations, nobody worried about jack shit. I think everybody there had probably been vaccinated except the 5 year old kid getting his haircut for his family vacation to the gulf. And his Mom clearly was not worried at all.

When I go back to my office on 6/1 we will no longer have a mask or social distance policy in place.

I am glad I was able to get the vaccine. I am glad there are truly effective treatments now for this Covid bug, because I have had 3 very high risk friends get the antibody treatment over the winter, and turn out just fine. Two others perished last summer because of underlying conditions when they got the damn thing.

I am not happy Biden and his semi-communist cadre are in charge in DC, but fuck them. It will change. I am really glad to have my normal life, my community, and my regular routines back without the inhibitions, impediments, and absurdities of the last 15 months in place. I am in the "never again" mindset on this. I think "flattening the curve" turned into a neo-facist wannabe marxist control experiment of which we are all victims, but no more. And from my point of view never again. Even if the godless chinese commies unleash another round of their biowarfare on the world to put down the next democracy rebellion they are faced with in Hong Kong or at home.

It was an awful dream, but it is damn sure over down here.

That feeling of "it doesn't matter and it is not real" you have when you wake up from a nightmare is making this one of the best vacation weeks I have had in a long time. I hope others get this feeling too very soon.

[Tensaw]

Well fatdog, you didn’’t say whether you headed north or south for your vacation, but I just got back from three days at Gulf Shores. That place is freakin’ jumpin’! They are definitely open for business. Lines at restaurants sort of thing. I did see the odd person every now and then walking alone all masked up. And hotel and restaurant cooks were masked, but mostly things were very normal. So yeah. Feels good.

[HeavyDuty]

To my way of thinking, the reopening you described was possible due to the pain of what you derided at the end.

[Oldherkpilot]

To my way of thinking, the reopening you described was possible due to the pain of what you derided at the end.

I don't understand what you mean by this. Clarification, please?

[HeavyDuty]

I don't understand what you mean by this. Clarification, please?

That the reopening and return to normalcy are a direct result of “flattening the curve,” masking, vaccinations and the other pandemic responses. They will be picking this one apart for years, and will have a better idea of what actually worked and what didn't the next time we are faced with a global pandemic of this nature.

[AKDoug]

I kind of had the opposite feeling, which goes to show that through this whole thing we were all in different boats in the same ocean. Alaska never had a state wide mask mandate in public places. Certain cities did, but our state left most decisions up to local governments. The state did shut down "non-essential" businesses last year that only lasted a couple months. We were basically back to business last summer and I can remember last August traveling throughout the state relatively unrestricted. Going to Anchorage was like going down south as they kept their restrictions on the longest. Fairbanks didn't have as strict of rules, but they had a large compliance among citizens that chose to mask up.

We did some random sampling through the months of COVID so far and we never really exceeded 50% of customers wearing masks. Most months hovered around 20%.

I took my first vacation since March 2020 in mid-April 2021. We visited friends in Maryland and Delaware. It was like going back a year in time. I wore a mask on that trip more in one week than I had worn a mask in the entire previous year back home. Delaware was even weirder to me with their mask even on the beach rules.

I'm in a new nightmare of high prices, low consumer confidence, and personal stress related to the finances of both things in regards to my businesses. Alaska saw it's honeymoon faze of dumping money on local travel and purchasing last year; we are not seeing that same wave this spring. Our state is all opened back up again this year and the tourists have started to come, so that'll be big for my tourist town.