Reminding Myself of Life During COVID - Day 356

 Things are becoming more normal, but still not there. Life has changed the last few weeks in Colorado, but as I approach a year, I'm still feeling the weight of COVID.

Colorado lowered our COVID restriction dial a few weeks ago. Restaurants opened more, and we could start more volleyball activity. We postponed the restart of our volleyball season, but a few days later things opened, and we had an official Power tournament a few days ago. We won, which was nice, but it was strange, with no parents and the gym was very quiet.

We wore masks all day, except for this picture. Slightly annoying, but I'm getting used to pulling down masks and raising my voice.

This was in contrast to a few tournaments in February up in Weld county. There parents could come in, albeit limited numbers, but it was nice to have them there and cheering. The downside was I had to get on a parent that wasn't pleased with one of my girls referring and missing a call, but it worked out well.

Tia and I have also been to more restaurants. We've stopped to eat after coaching, and have been able to get a table pretty quickly for a few weeks. That started to change last weekend, though maybe it was the weekend. It seems more people are starting to go out, so there are more crowds.

Masks everywhere, still, and I just purchased a few more. I need to keep them around, I wash them regularly, but I also am starting to stash a few more in cars and vehicles. In the last few weeks, I've driven 5 cars around, and a couple times I didn't have masks. I put a spare for me in each of the vehicles, but I need more.

I've been wearing one at the gym basically since June, though there were a lot of swimming and outdoor workouts that didn't need them. Weight lifting is fine, but I've struggled with some of the yoga. I'm slightly claustrophobic, and hard breathing in a hot room is hard. I have to pause my yoga way more than ever to pull my mask away a little and get some deep breaths. It's getting annoying, though I am happy to wear them if I can go to the gym.

Last week I took a cycle class in the gym. While it was hard, and good to work out, I really had a hard time breathing. I used a big mask that has some shape and integrity to give me space away from my lips, but when I breath really hard, it's tough. I hard time breathing there, but I'm going to give it a try again, perhaps looking to give myself a few more breaks. They talked about moving to the cycle room, which I'd dread. A smaller space, warmer, less air flow. Ugh.

Most of the rest of life is the same. Same. same. same. That seems to be how the world will be, at least for a few months. No events scheduled. As we try to reboot SQL Saturday, most everything seems to be virtual for this year. No idea if I'll be able to go back to the UK, or where we'll fly.

We are scheduled to go to Philly in a month. We booked a trip for the fall in Mexico. I'd like to take a few more, but we'll see. Vaccinations are speeding up and improving, so maybe we'll be able to do more in the second half of the year than I expected. 

I hope so. As we close on a year, I'm really tired of the COVID world.