Today was the day that California officially reopened completely – the “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” was retired and its page now redirects to the “Reopening California” page. Masks are only required for vaccinated people in a few circumstances (including health care), capacity limits are gone, physical distancing is gone.

But businesses aren’t all jumping in with both feet, at least not the two I visited today. Lunardi’s had new signage: masks aren’t required of vaccinated customers, but they did request them – and we complied. And I gave other customers more room than I would have given them before the pandemic. Chipotle still had signs on the door requiring masks, so I put mine on before going in.

I know that the science says that vaccinated people are at very low risk of catching or transmitting COVID, but it’s going to take a while before I feel perfectly comfortable going maskless inside a busy store.

Not much to write about today – the new air purifier arrived, but I won’t use it tonight because we’ll have our windows open to cool down the house. Given the weather forecast, I will be using it overnight soon, though!

We stopped at Lunardi’s this morning to pick up a couple of things (it’s nice being able to go to the grocery store more than once a week again, though I want to avoid going as often as we did before the pandemic). While we ware there, I suddenly started to smell something (probably the inside of my mask).

When we got home, I could smell things fairly clearly – for about an hour. Then it went away. I’m guessing that the antihistamine I’ve been taking the last few days kicked in for a little bit and shrank a polyp – it’s an encouraging sign.

I also ordered an air purifier for our bedroom in hopes that it will help reduce the allergen load in there – we ordered a Blueair 311, which should be here tomorrow. Blueair’s model numbers are weird – the 211 is a bigger unit than the 311, which is bigger than the 411.

And Diane ordered a new camera for our upcoming trips, an Olympus TG-6 to replace her TG-4. The new camera is supposed to do much better in low light; they’ve also revamped the user interface, which is always a scary prospect.

Progress!

We attended services this morning via Zoom – it was fine, but not like being there in person.

I have a credit card which offers 3% back on travel and restaurants (4.5% if you redeem through their travel portal). It has had a quiet pandemic. But things are looking up for it.

Our Africa trip that didn’t happen last year has been rescheduled for a few months from now, so we had to pay for it and buy the airfare; I also bought the airfare for my upcoming 50th High School Reunion.

My card is exhausted from all the sudden activity – I will have to feed it before asking it to take on the Antarctica trip we also have planned!

Tonight was Board Installation Shabbat at Shir Hadash. I’d been looking forward to the service since accepting the position of Ritual Committee Chair, and I expected to attend in the usual way – on Zoom. But that didn’t happen.

Instead, tonight’s service took place on campus (outside), with a relay on Zoom. It was wonderful seeing people in person again, even without the bottom halves of their faces being visible – there were hugs and handshakes, too.

We always start services by singing “Hinei Ma Tov” (from Psalm 133), but the music that we sing changes from week to week. Tonight, the music was Elana Arian’s version – the English lyrics are:

  How good it is (How good it is)
  How sweet it is (How sweet it is)
  To be together on this day.

And it was SO good and sweet and pleasant to be with other people, singing together (quietly, with masks) on this day.

Shabbat Shalom!