Mask Requirement Will Be Lifted

In one hour, when we go from Friday to Saturday the indoor mask requirement will be lifted here in Oregon. It is up to the individual if they still want to wear a mask and private businesses can also decide whether or not to implement mask wearing indoors. Some settings will still require that people wear a mask though, like on public transportation. Oregon has declared that the emergency phase of the Covid pandemic has ended. This of course can be reversed should some other Covid variant surface for example. Oregon had some of the strictest Covid restrictions in the US. Although I think California was stricter when I went there in September 2020. They wanted people to wear a mask outside when you got within 30 feet of each somebody.
I am not vaccinated and I am satisfied with that choice for now. You do not have to agree and I am not having any opinions on what other people chose to do as far as vaccinations go. Take three more boosters if you so wish. I can say this, one of my friends passed away within three weeks of getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from a blood clot that went to his lung. He seemed pretty healthy prior to that. And somebody else I knew was vaccinated and boosted, got Covid in December and passed away in January.
All of us probably have stories about Covid and how we got affected by it by now. It's been two years since the first shut down here in Oregon, if I recall it right on March 20 2020. The freeways were kind of empty for the three first weeks or so then people started moving around more. The unusual lack of human activity out in public was refreshing. I know people that did not leave their house at all for the first three weeks. Total isolation. Did not touch their mailbox for even longer than that in fear of contaminated surfaces. I disinfected most of the heavy touch surfaces in my place twice at the beginning.
And upped on the hand washing. But besides that I did not change much else. I am not in the habit of flying to various locations to get a tan or have a desperate need to dine out anyways. Of course I have been wearing a mask when needed to but not outside (except when I spent a few days in CA in 2020) and not inside my car when driving.
I think some people definitely took their fears to another level but it is their life, not mine.
I talked to my Mom today and I asked her what the situation is in Sweden nowadays with Covid and she was like, Ha Ha nobody talks about Covid anymore, all you hear about on the news is about Ukraine. Now that the medical companies made money on the vaccines.....the propaganda quieted down. There you go.
I wonder what the truth behind this virus is? Is there some sort of hidden agenda or is it simply another virus that happened to spread among us filthy humans and become a pandemic?
As far as wearing a mask goes....I feel that wearing a mask in public when you are feeling under the weather yourself is a considerate way to act towards others. I like various forms of consideration. Like they did and still do in certain Asian countries, prior to Covid. Just like knowing how to cough and sneeze in public out of consideration for others. And just like not littering in public out of consideration.
Stuff like that.
I personally get irritated when people stare at me, so the mask definitely removes some of that feeling. A face mask adds a level of privacy. I get stared at enough at work. Don't need it outside of work. And at work a mask adds a layer in between me, my private space and people's breath. Don't need any breathing in my direction and on me either. Yuck. I do not like that at all.
We had two about three month long shutdowns here in Oregon.
I enjoyed that. I love being at home doing "nothing" because I can get busy with reading, writing, taking pictures, communicating with friends, being outside, sleeping in, watching silly and interesting shows etc and still not have enough hours left in the day to do "nothing". Basically enjoying life. I could easily live with two three month long stay at home orders a year.
I totally understand why hordes of people left their jobs and that they do not want to return to spending meaningless soul destructive hours in some depressing office or other work space. Getting up early (I hate getting up before 9 am), having to squeeze into some appropriate office attire, spending sometimes an hour or more (!) commuting to a place of employment and then spending that same time going home. Humans are not made for living to work. And most people do not looooooove their work and should know that work does not love them back. Some are fortunate to love or at least like what they do for a living and that is great. But many don't and that must be a sinking feeling to feel on a regular. I am for a shorter work week for those that want it and I am also for universal basic income. There are ways to go about that and make it work. Just because a 40 hour plus work week Monday through Friday is the norm doesn't necessarily mean that it is the way it should be. Like what is the reason for that norm?
The history of that norm?
So yeah.....I do not have to wear the mask tomorrow in the grocery store or at work. And I can if I want to. It will be my choice.