The World's Common Tater

It was announced yesterday that Governor Hogan was having a press conference at 3pm today. As much as I say I am trying to keep hope alive, I wasn’t expecting there to be much change. I look at the numbers every day when they are released. I’ve seen the trends flattening. Deaths are down and more than 50% of them are from nursing homes. It is still sad but is something that needs to be considered when making decisions. Hospitalizations are down from a week ago and ICU numbers are flat. There have been announcements about how we have increased our ability to handle a surge in hospitalizations.  We made the news for buying half a million tests from South Korea. We have upped our PPE stock. We are ramping up contact tracing. Everything that needs to be in place to slowly reopen is in place. Still, I didn’t expect any major announcement.

Hogan then surprised me. He announced that non-Covid medical could start back up immediately. As of 7am tomorrow we can golf, play tennis, fish, boat, and camp. State parks and beaches are reopening. If the numbers continue to trend in the right direction we might be able to start to ease into opening some businesses. All positive news.

My life won’t really change. I still will work from home. I doubt I will be participating in any of the above activities. My outside exercise will still be walking the dog in my neighborhood.  Somehow, though, knowing I could do all of those things if I wanted will help my mental state. It’s a little bit of hope. A glimmer of the way things used to be.

I know there is a chance of a setback with a spike in numbers. I know people expect a second wave. I know it will be a while before life is anywhere near normal. For now, though, I choose to mask in the slight glimmer of hope we were given today.