It appears we are slowly creeping back to normalcy in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. More and more things are opening. In-person court hearings such as district court and municipal court have resumed. Libraries are opening their doors and yes, you can go to the probate judge's office and get your boat registration renewed for another year.
But all of the openings still come with restrictions. The courthouse is limiting the number of people who can go into an office at one time; the libraries are not only limiting the number of people they are limiting the hours one person can sit at a computer to make room for the next person.
We have been doing this 'soft opening' for a few weeks now. Most restaurants can now allow people to come inside and eat – with restrictions. You can go get your hair cut or your nails done.
Every news release and every interview we've conducted as we started the soft-openings still stresses social distancing. The recommendation is 6 feet, but we still don't know who came up with that distance.
Coaches are itching to get their players back on the baseball diamond and back into the weight room. It's coming, but it will come with restrictions.
Listen to any sports talk show for more than 2 minutes and the question of whether we'll be playing football this fall will be asked.
That question can only be answered after the people in charge see how we handle the current soft openings.
People ignoring the social distance guidelines and an increase in coronavirus cases can put us back into a virtual shutdown as quickly as those shutdowns were imposed.
We've used this phrase before a few weeks ago but it seems to fit: The ball is in our court, how we play with it will determine if we get to keep playing.
Whether things will ever return to normal is only a guess. But if we act like the virus is gone we'll never return to normal.
