October begins tomorrow.

When the pandemic started 6 months ago and we were essentially locked in our homes (in NY anyway), it seemed like time was standing still. Without work and school and a social life of any kind, hours melted into days, days melted into weeks, and weeks melted into months.

Things have slowly begun to reopen, and there is some faint notion of normalcy. September brought a return to school (sort of), and more reopenings (especially the gym!).

September seemed to be the month where we’ve made the greatest move in a positive direction.

Of course we are still wearing masks, the kids are only in school 2 days per week, and we are constantly being reminded to stay away from each other.

While the months of March through August seemed to bring painfully slow changes, September seemed to bring accelerated changes.

The people guarding the doors and limiting access to the local supermarket are gone. We can go inside a restaurant and eat, if only one limited basis.

Even the traffic patterns have returned to a more normal state, with a limited version of rush hour returning and the usual oddball accidents around town.

I’m sure more problems await. Flu season is close at hand. As winter sets in, we will be driven back indoors, and cold/sickness season will certainly follow (as it does every year).

But we see small signs of normal life popping up around us, even if our real version of normal is a long way off.