we're back in a Wild West scenario where it's varying quite a bit from store to store and neighborhood to neighborhood.

Yep. The numbers here on the island are great; I don't know if we're going to be able to see Hazel in a couple of weeks, as they're in Island County, she's 5 and Katja's being especially careful. This is good! But I would very much like to hug them all, it's been a hard year: Brook's mom died in March and the Whidbey school board is dealing with a handful of particularly obnoxious community members going on about the comprehensive sex ed additions to the school curriculum.

More and more folks are unmasked here in Los Angeles. I've been fully vaxed for months now, so I'm comfortable with my own safety. My big thing is trying to make sure I respect the wishes of the business that I'm entering. My default is to wear a mask unless I see a sign specifically stating that no masks are required for vaccinated guests. If there is no indication for masking requirements I assume that it is best to wear a mask. A huge part of it for me is trying to respect the business owners and their employees.

A huge part of it for me is trying to respect the business owners and their employees.

That's definitely a guidance for me as well. I know my bookstore (which has been hypervigilant to a fault) will not be relaxing their mask guidelines for a bit.

(I don't even lecture them about "there is no Fomite transmission!" over their insistence on hand sanitizer. Whatever lowers your blood pressure in a service function during the pandemic is fine with me. Well, sort of. At Whole Foods they make you put on rubber gloves before you use their newly reopened Hot Bar of food, which is definitely unnecessary when they aren't enforcing masks. You won't get it from somebody touching a serving spoon, but you could get it from an unmasked person. Oh well, not everybody's read all the scientific journals I've read on the subject. Period of transition and all that.)

I'm amazed at the people who don't seem worried about their kids getting sick. Running around and playing in tight quarters, no masks.

A huge part of it for me is trying to respect the business owners and their employees.

Yeah, this is basically how I gauge it now. Seems like grocery stores are still mostly masking up here. We joined a Planet Fitness a few days ago - it's a huge one, so plenty of space, which is more a comfort- level thing for me, really - and it's no mask sif you're vaxxed.

Feels weird sometimes, being unmasked out there. I really clung to it as a literal lifeline so hard that it got imprinted! Well, me and the rest of the world.

I had hot pastrami for dinner. No regrets!

I do have regrets that for the second time in six months I have borked up my shoulder at the outer gate to our apartment building by trying to do Too Many Things At Once.

With my coffee in one hand and my neighbor's groceries in the other, I had a passing thought to prop the gate open for my neighbor and tried to reach back with my foot to nudge over the brick and prop it. And then just as I was thinking, "Nevermind, that's not a good idea..." my other foot slipped, I was out of balance, twisted my shoulder, banged my knee and spilled my coffee (just a little).

The previous incident I was trying to prop a paper grocery bag up on my foot on a rainy puddly day whilst trying to get the gate open with two other bags, and...that also went awry.

Just go through the damn gate, David, and bring your feet with you, else your shoulder will pay the price.

ION, I watched the first episode of Shadow and Bone last night. Anybody into it?

Pix, please continue to vent as needed. It is good to hear that you have "...a bunch of next steps already lined up...."

Even though you don't need hand sanitzer for Covid there's lots of other things you do need it for. And with things like hot food bars or people frequently cleaning their hands in public I'm not going to have any issues with that.

I use hand sanitizer pretty frequently and wished we would clean frequently touched surfaces at work more, like we were doing the past year.

For one, this past year no one got the flu at work. This is the first time in a retail job where NO ONE has gotten the flu.

Also today a coworker went home because she was sick..some kind of stomach thing , maybe food poisioning but I know it took a while for her to stop vomiting long enough to have someone drive her home.

We sanitized the heck out of everything that she touched in case it wasn't just food poisoning.

And someone peed in the women's fitting room on Friday so that had to be all cleaned and sanitized.

So .. frequently sanitizing in public places is a good idea!

I seemed to be the only person at Kroger and the only person besides the staff at a Chinese buffet wearing a mask today. Oh well, at least my conscience is clear that I'm not inadvertently transmitting germs that could harm someone else.

For one, this past year no one got the flu at work. This is the first time in a retail job where NO ONE has gotten the flu.

That's a good point. My doctor said it was the first year in his professional career (he's 67) that he didn't have a single case of flu. And he tested more people than usual because it was bundled with the Covid test. That will keep me more mindful of keeping my hands clean.

Mask wearing here is very mixed. I tend to have one looped on my wrist and make a last moment decision based on signage, or compliance by staff, or a whim.

Went to Islamorada for dinner with DH yesterday. It felt good to get away. Didn't see masks but we ate outdoors.