September 18, 2020
I have diagnosed myself as having covid fatigue. Not the kind you have from catching the virus, however. My fatigue stems from an overload of non-stop COVID information. Do you ever get tired of being tired? I am noticing the shifting sentiment in people’s attitudes. My attitude is also slowly wavering. We all seem to be tired of taking precautions. Here’s how life is slowly starting to change in Valencia.
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Spain Second Wave: Tired Of Taking Precautions
I never saw the movie Network, but l am close to grabbing the television (well maybe not, it was costly), perhaps the unused DVD player, and chucking it out the window while screaming “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore” :-). Enough already with this new normal. We are constantly being bombarded by the numbers which are on the rise again for sure.
I’m used to one of the dogs waking us every morning about seven, whining because he is eager for his walk. It stinks, but it’s expected. What l have started to notice lately is that l am having trouble sleeping past five. At first, l thought it was because l was anxious about my cataract surgeries. That is now behind me, but l still had trouble staying asleep.
There was a restlessness that l had been feeling since the coronavirus pandemic began a few months ago. It was always in the back of my mind, but never actually bothered me. In fact, l welcomed the staying at home for a while all the time vibe. Now though, I am itching to get out.
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I’m not talking about travel by any means, still not ready for that. I’m talking about simply going out to restaurants, bars, hanging out with friends in outside spaces. We had limited ourselves to grocery shopping, and essential outings for so long, it was taking quite the willpower to push me out of the house. A friend had mentioned the inner hermit emerging, and she was right.
Aside from the morning walks to the park which is always empty when we go, I have now been making the effort to go out. Federico and l have not only started having friends over, but we have been making the effort to actually mingle with people (not in your face kind), but be out there, opting for indoor sitting as it’s usually less crowded than the outside.
Observations on life in Valencia: Second wave reactions
Lately, though, I have seen, not just us, but others beginning to relax more. You can’t see people’s features under the mask, but the eyes? that you see! I have noticed that the fear that used to lurk behind them seem to have disappeared. Last week, on a visit to the center, the streets were as packed as they’ve ever been. To the gills even. All masked as required.
The streets once again are filled with masked abuelas (the most vulnerable demographic), masked and chatting away just like before on the benches, on walks, and old men arguing over a beer or two or seven at the sidewalk cafes. Normalness is creeping in.
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In talking to friends, we all seem to be quite tired of the constant fear which seems to be exacerbated by the media. It’s almost like they want to keep everyone fearful. Everyone is wearing masks, but not really social distancing. Even l occasionally slip and not use the sanitizer at the front of the stores before entering and the workers have to constantly remind people, we included.
I see more tourists rolling their suitcases on the sidewalk. They are slowly, very slowly coming back. They might be from America, but that’s a thing l hadn’t seen in months. It’s kind of obvious that people are ignoring the “don’t go to Spain” precautions with a grain of salt. I think as the days go by, it will pick up steam, what with college students returning to school. We start our Spanish classes in less than three weeks, and l am looking forward to it.
The restaurants are getting full again, at least the ones that survived. It’s as if we all feel like if this is not going away any time soon, we have to suck it up and get used to it. It’s nice to see, and l am ready to start getting out there again. Time to shake the malaise. For the record, the new normal bites! :-). Take me back to the good old days.
Listen to the podcast here. I talk about this covid fatigue, what l am seeing, and how we can all deal with it.
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Other podcasts of interest:
I’m happy to say that my sleep has improved since l wrote this post a couple of weeks ago. Now if could only get the dog to sleep late :-).
How are you doing in the new normal? Are you suffering from covid fatigue and tired of taking precautions too?
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You might be tired of the pandemic- but it’s not tired of you. Be safe, not sick.
I like that saying. Rest assured, safety is number one. I don’t want to get sick. Hope you are well.
Kemkem, this pandemic has been like nothing we have ever experienced before, certainly not in our life-time. It took a while for us all to realise that this is not something that is going to go away any time soon. People are definitely weary and tired of it all, hence why so many are getting complacent and not following the rules any more. Infection rates appear to be on the rise in many countries, including the UK. We are currently in the North of Italy and I think in general people here are quite good at wearing masks and using the hand sanitizer. We are staying away from large gatherings and being careful to follow the rules. A vaccine can not come soon enough, but who knows if that will even be possible? Keep safe 🙂
Yep! It has been like no other. I think that’s a big part of why the various governments have no clue how to deal. I don’t blame them much. It’s unprecedented. I do however blame them for opening the borders too soon as money trumped everything else. The people are tired. I’m glad masks are compulsory here, and most people wear them. The only idiots that don’t are the young kids coming or going to parties early in the morning when l walk the dog. It’s weird ‘cos the clubs are closed, yet there they are. Kids! Haha!
It is definitely better to be cautious these days. I have a fear of a ventilator shoved down my throat and all the residual illnesses that seem to follow. Keep enjoying your trip. It looks marvelous from the pictures. Stay safe!
Thanks for the Valencia update. It’s always good to have a boots on the ground recap instead of a newscaster.
My plan was to be in Oregon this week, so it sucks that the land borders are closed between Canada & USA. If I fly, when I come home, that means 2 weeks quarantine. So I’m getting tired of not just being able to drive south whenever I want. Now wouldn’t be a good time to be in Oregon due to the wildfires. Evacuees need hotels to stay in. As I found out 2 years ago in Coos Bay. I had a reservation and arrived at check in time only to be told I had a one hour wait because they were behind cleaning rooms from being fully booked due to firefighters and evacuees taking up spots. There was no fires around Oregon then, but these were Californians. You’d think they could find closer hotels in towns south of Coos Bay, but maybe they were all booked too. Good thing I’d made my reservations about 3 weeks ahead of time or I might have been really stuck.
I’m still really cautious about going out. Not leaving the area. Not shopping any more than I need. I actually went into a mall a few days ago, first time since February. I needed a refill air freshener from Bath & Body Works. Apparently I also needed a caramel apple covered in Skor bits from Rocky Mountain Chocolate too!
This pandemic has definitely ruined a lot of plans. Sorry that yours didn’t happen either. I keep wondering if we are ever going to have anything resembling the old normal, or if this is in fact it for the next few years. It would have sucked to have to quarantine for two weeks. It must be frustrating not to have that freedom to just get up and go. Incredible about the fires. I know they always get firemen from different places to help, that was probably the case of the Californians. Maybe they weren’t needed and then housed there.
Caution is wise. We have also been to the mall just once to a Carrefour supermarket but it was pretty quiet. I think a caramel apple covered in Skor bits is always a good buy, even more than the air freshener.. haha!
I recently read an article stating that the entire world seems to be suffering from this type of fatigue. It is also probably part of the reason why the numbers of new infections starts to go up. And I also don’t think that there’s a single person on this planet who isn’t feeling tired already.
It’s good that we’re not still in a complete lockdown – that would’ve driven a lot of people crazy! I’m using this to keep things bearable. Plus the fact that we can still go outside, have a walk, explore nature… things are changing indeed but we still have some options. I don’t think that giving up on precautions is the way to go right now.
I know I was about to throw the towel soon after the Romania lockdown ended. I was exaggerating, I thought. But then cases started to go up almost the next day and we’re still breaking records here. I decided that it’s not worth the risk – no reason to let the guard down after braving it for so long. Sure, it’s not pleasant and it’s difficult, but I am one of the optimists who believe that it will be over sooner rather than later. I think that maybe even next summer things will be “more” back to normal than now. Sure, it’s still a long time to wait… but I will personally keep taking all precautions.
However, I don’t consider it fear. Fear will definitely burn out sooner rather than later. Plus, it does a lot of harm (I had my nightmares early on and I realized that my son was feeling the effects also, even though we tried to keep it away from him as much as possible). That’s the reason why we don’t watch the news anymore – just tiny bits each day to see the numbers. Media loves to make things seem horrible: when we have very few cases, they focus on the number of deaths, the low number of people who recovered or anything bad. It’s like they simply don’t want to share good news. And that is a very poor strategy for the long term.
Instead, we opt to take all the necessary precautions: we wear masks, we keep our distance, we go out as little as possible. But we also started to meet friends and interact more with others. Still haven’t been to a restaurant and I don’t think we’ll go anytime soon (even though there were no outbreaks connected to restaurants here so far). This is a common sense thing to do: we don’t have to completely cut ourselves off, but we can’t get back to the old normal right now.
I was telling this to my wife: we were doing something similar during the flu season. We never wanted to catch the flu and as a result, we did everything we could to reduce those risks. We’re doing the same with this new virus, but with the added precautions that probable work: face masks and physical distancing. And as soon as we have a safe vaccine (probably none of the first release), we’ll drop our masks. But not until then, even though it’s really difficult.
I can definitely understand that this is a thing that is happening all over the world. It´s hard to realize just how lucky and carefree the world has been for so long. Now we are reaping the consequences of our actions. It is so hard to keep being optimistic. I´m also glad that the lockdown hasn´t been for everyone, just in the hot spots of places like Madrid.. they have about 37 towns in complete lockdown, which must just suck. Another reason l don´t want to travel is getting stuck where you visit.
Yeah, it´s frightening when you see the numbers continue to rise even though it is really exaggerated by the newspapers etc. It´s really great around here that everyone wears their masks. The fines are big, but l think people do it anyway for the common good. I can see Eric feeding off your feelings, it´s obvious to everyone, even kids that something sinister is and was going on. Glad you´ve turned off the news and keep negativity to a minimum. I am trying to do the same, that plus politics…yikes! This has been one hell of a year!
It´s good that you are doing the best you can with the new normal. It sucks for everyone, we just have to do our part and hope everyone does theirs too. It certainly isn´t welcome, but important. We will beat this if we all step up. Haha! Definitely not the first batch of vaccines :-).