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Wisconsin is (Kind of) Easing Restrictions

It feels poetic that shortly after my previous post reiterated how bad an idea it is to relax self-isolation efforts, my home state of Wisconsin reported experiencing two weeks of sustained decline of new COVID-19 cases and subsequently the relaxation of restrictions on some businesses. For the most part nothing is changing, but small retail stores may now reopen for in-person shopping of up to five customers at a time with social distancing practices.

Of course, the fact that newly-reported cases are back down to below 200 per day for the first time since April 27th is a good thing and evidence that efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 are working. I'm just personally not sold on the idea that loosening restrictions is the best response to this development. That said, the extent to which restrictions have been loosened is so incredibly small that I can't help but wonder if this is just our governor's way of trying to keep his political opponents and the folks protesting the safer-at-home order somewhere between content and happy enough to play nice for the next few weeks.

In personal news, our Mother's Day weekend was quite relaxing and fun! I missed seeing my parents and celebrating with my own mom, but at the very least I was able to exchange video messages and surprise her with a delivery of some assorted gifts from my brother and myself. And in any case, I had a good weekend celebrating with my partner on her second year of being a mom, even though the poor weather foiled our plans to spend Sunday outside smoking a 5-lb brisket for dinner (that will have to wait for another weekend). We had some good food, relaxed, did some work around the house, and had a lot of playtime with our daughter, including letting her get messy with some finger painting.

That's another holiday in quarantine down. Memorial Day is next, for which we're still going to be going up north to relax at the family cottage. However, instead of the usual 10-15 total persons attending there will only be us and my in-laws who we already see every day, which I'm expecting to end up being a pretty relaxing result of an otherwise stressful time.

Stay healthy and sane!
-Ryan
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