Time To Plan The New Year Party! (Managing risk)

It is not embracing reckless risk-taking; you can do it safely. And you need to.

Risk assessment and management are crucial to having something that remotely looks like our previous social life. Before the dark days, before the pandemic engulfed us.

I had three Christmas parties this year. My parents divorced in my early teens, and I married 20 (something) years ago. I hope my wife skips this one, or I may be in trouble (albeit I will probably get out of it unscathed; risk assessment and management already). So Christmas eve lunch is with my mother, dinner with the wife side of the family, and on Christmas day, it’s the father side for lunch.

In each get-together, everyone was fully vaccinated/boosted and tested. The arrangement was that if anyone, including kids, had any symptoms of Covid, or a cold, we would cancel the event.

On Christmas day lunch, I felt the risk was higher, there were a couple of really young nephews present, so my wife and I wore a mask the whole time. Not pleasant, but none of us is interested in lowering our guard.

I am throwing a karaoke party for New Year's Eve, inviting three other couples, and planning to have a ton of fun. Safely. Using infrared heaters (those heat people, not the air around them) on an outdoor space (an open garage) is a good option.

You can read about the Karaoke setup (using Ultrastar Deluxe with all my favorite music) here.

The whole point is that we are social beings. We need to socialize. We have to deal with the pandemic and learn how to have our psychological needs met safely.

If you are fully vaccinated, it is not so much a matter of life and death at this point. It is more a matter of managing the risk of either being sick from Covid or clinical depression. I have not gotten Covid yet. I want to avoid having it as much as possible. However, I believe it will become endemic, and the likelihood of avoiding it will be similar to preventing the common flu.

I am not a doctor; my evaluation of our circumstances may be tragically wrong, so please talk to your MD about the subject.