It’s Time to Bring In the New Year
2020 has caused nothing but a lot of aggravation, devastation and headaches but we can be thankful that it is almost over. At the beginning of the year, nobody was wearing face masks yet in the U.S and normal life was sort of still here. I remember I was at a concert back in early February with the place packed to the walls with no one wearing masks and everyone was drinking and yelling. That was the last and only event I went to in 2020. It has been said that the virus was already in the country at the time but we didn’t know that until all hell broke loose about a month later.
The time when the pandemic started in March and everything shutdown, it was nothing we haven’t seen before to this extent. Nothing good was on tv to watch with no sports or entertainment and being stuck at home just doesn’t feel right. Our everyday routines have been disrupted and our whole way of living has been affected.
But now we look ahead which we can only hope is heading in the right direction but with lots of uncertainty. Frontline health workers are already starting to get vaccinated and vaccines may become available to the general public as early as next spring in 2021. We just have to be patient as well as the logistics of this vaccine need to be figured out even more.
As far as restrictions go for indoor dining at restaurants, going to sports venues, casinos, hotels, can ease up if cases significantly drop. People who traveled for the holidays has caused cases to rise dramatically and lines at testing sites to go crazy. Even going out to restaurants is a mistake right now. The action everyone should take now to minimize the spread even more, is not go out to places and do takeout instead. Although some restaurants are open for dining in, I don’t picture myself eating out anytime soon as I have not gone out for several months now to eat.
When I try to get out of the house to go outside for a walk, I always wear a face covering and never take it off because where I live it is mandated to wear one when out and about. If your state, county, town or city doesn’t mandate it, I absolutely recommend wearing one anyways like when going out to the grocery store. No doubt that we will still be wearing face covers well into 2021 and maybe beyond. But as more get vaccinated with no problems and number of cases/deaths drop, it will not be as mandatory anymore.
What 2021 could bring to the table, we can only hope that its not as comparable to 2020. I can say counting down to bring 2020 to a close is everyone's new years resolution because of how rough this year has been mentally, physically, emotionally and even economically. The idea of wearing a face covering, distancing and not traveling anywhere will not only help with ending this pandemic hopefully sooner but will put some businesses who have been suffering back on track before they go out of business.
Predicting what’s to come is so up in the air like we didn’t expect all this to happen when 2020 arrived a year ago. We must go onward and upward.
Happy New Year and see you in 2021.
