Personal Decisions

     With the easing up of stay at home restrictions in Minnesota, I have some decisions to make about how much and how quickly I feel comfortable increasing interaction. I shared that DH's work extended hours. I expect he has more person to person interaction than he is letting me know. and darn well has increased the risk he's going to come in contact with someone with the virus, and then bring it home. My sister has invited  us all out to her place. While we can safely distance as she has plenty of outdoor space and even her indoor space is large, it seem like a big jump since last weekend and only your immediate household. I'm more unsettled about going to the cabin even just for a day. I may go up on Sunday, and see the state of how others are handling the shared space. There's a lot of door handles, sharing of bathrooms, and kitchen going on there.

     My brother-in-law and sister-in-law have a much more, "We clean up when we leave" approach, than was supposed to be the norms for the cabin. My niece told my daughter last weekend when she was there with that part of the family, something along the lines of there are different opinions on the seriousness of the situation, and seemed concerned. She's the niece expecting a baby. I know he got very defensive a few weeks ago about not being able to follow his kids and clean  up after them. These are not people who are unclean or dirty, they just let loose when they are in fun mode coupled with being very self absorbed. They act to what they think is or is not fact. If they don't believe the risk of spreading the virus has merit, I can't see them doing much to make sure they aren't spreading it other than basic handwashing. I can have my hand sanitizer with me at all times, stay a room away or outside I suppose. I'd rather figure out times to spend with just my family for this summer, though with everyone's vacation plans gone, no summer sports tournaments, I suspect they'll be there every weekend and during the week. 

     I've almost given up on my mother-in-law and taking any responsibility for her welfare in exposure risk. On Tuesday when I dropped off her groceries she shared she went to a friends for brunch and it was so nice being with people and seeing them again. After probably seeing the look in my eyes, she added they were all outside and it was just six of them. Now I highly doubt they stayed outside late morning in Minnesota in May, as this is the lady that won't sit outside at the lake for more than an hour before it's too windy, or hot, or cold. When she asked if we would be up at the cabin and I said I really don't know yet if I am comfortable, she said,  well, we need to keep living our lives. She's 79! She also said she could probably start getting her own groceries again. I left her with, it's up to you, but I'm fine to keep doing it. Here's the thing about facts. It's hard to prove causation and particularly with something that didn't happen. We won't know if me shopping for her the past eight weeks was a reason she hasn't become ill. My guess is my BIL, who was pretty much apathetic about her shopping for herself, would say, "see, mom s fine-you were over reacting." Well if I was, so were the hundreds of thousands of other sons, daughters, and their spouses trying to help their elderly parents avoid exposure, and with success. How many that lost a loved one wish they could have done something different?

     As for the cabin, I do want to test if I can access internet and phone and perhaps work some part days there. What I'd like to be able to do is go up on a Sunday when others are preparing to leave, work a half day on both Monday and Tuesday, and basically unwind a bit from being stuck at home for so long. I have a floating holiday that needs to be used by June 30 and I accrue a day a pay period so to do this all summer long would only use six vacation days. Add some full days in there as well, and I'll still end summer with over six weeks banked. I'll let you know what I decide. Last weekend was the all hell broke loose at the bars in Wisconsin. I'd sort of like to wait out what the impact was in cases in another week. That's my thoughts heading into the weekend. How about all of you?