Maybe this is the way it's going to be. [View all]

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

I got to thinking about how much I miss some things these days, like going to a restaurant for dinner, or just hanging out in a coffee shop. These businesses are starting to open, but they won't be like they were - servers in masks, people distanced, then you go home and worry for a week or two whether one of the other diners was infected. It won't be much fun, not for a very long time. Many restaurants will go out of business. There might be a way to permanently convert to a pickup/delivery model, or some form of relatively safe home catering for the upscale crowd, but it won't be the same as before. Those who pretend they can re-open and do business like they used to, as well as those who go to re-opened establishments and act like everything is the same are kidding themselves.

And then it occurred to me that there are a lot of things in my life that aren't like they used to be, and I have accepted those changes and adapted. For various reasons (e.g., age, bad knees, expense), I can't do some things anymore that I used to enjoy very much, and I miss those things, but I accept that I can't do them and have found other things to take their place. But we don't like it that so much has changed, and especially so suddenly, and many people are in denial and think that it's all going to be like it was now that we are "re-opening." But we are not really re-opening and we won't re-open, and it won't be the same. So we will have to adapt, like it or not, and move on.