In A Parallel Universe.

In the parallel universe where the Corona virus never transferred to humans, I'm bouncing around right now, packing the last bits and pieces into my backpack, and probably preparing food and coffee for the journey to the NESAT conference. I guess there's quite a bit of chaos in the study as well, more than usual, as I've only come back from the fair in Karlsruhe on Monday, and the list of post-fair homework (apart from "carry things back inside to empty out the car") is still untouched.

Instead, I'm sitting here at the home office desk, with the Most Patient of All Husbands sitting at his home office desk on the other side of the room. The tickets for the journey have all been cancelled or the dates moved to next year (when there will be a NESAT), and we'll be staying home, doing the social distancing thing.

It still feels weird.

There are a lot of things that have changed here in Germany, due to all the restrictions. For me, personally, it feels like things have already settled down a lot into a "new normal", not all of it brilliant, but mostly it's fairly comfortable. Our favourite market stall for Saturday grocery shopping is back after taking a break for a few weeks due to the situation, shops have re-opened, and we've established virtual meetings with some of our friends, so we do get some social contact. It's not the same as meeting like in pre-Corona times, but it does help to see friendly faces via videochat.

Germany is probably not a bad place to be in at the moment, even though there's rising stupidity here as well - people protesting against the restrictions, falling in with conspiracy theory groups, and generally not taking the virus too seriously anymore (because it wasn't so bad after all...) I just hope that stupidity of any kind, including the "race to be the most liberal in taking back the restrictions" that some politicians now seem to engage in, won't destroy the fragile success we had in slowing the virus spread. The smart thing, as far as I can see it, is still to stay at home as much as possible, keep a good distance to other human beings, and try to not get sick.

So that's what I'm trying to do - plus seeing the good things that come from the changed situation. We don't have to worry about our catsitter situation, for instance (as we're not going anywhere at the moment...). We're having boardgaming sessions with international participation. There's more digital events now, allowing me to easily and quickly connect with other colleagues from around the world, straight from my own living room. There's more people buying things locally (which is always a good thing). Some bad things in our society now come to light, and there's a possibility that some of them might be remedied. Of course this can't balance out all the deaths, and all the negative impact that the virus spread is having on everything everywhere - but we might as well try to make the best out of it!