Just Like Any Summer

Last weekend I was in KLU for a rather spontaneous long weekend. The weather was almost as unpredictable as on my last visit, but after an unsuccessful attempt that had me hide from a thunderstorm under an umbrella in the restaurant area five minutes after I arrived I eventually was able to take my first swim of this season in my beloved Wörthersee. In the water, I could briefly forget that this summer is so different from any other. The day before I had learnt that one of the few people I met recently suddenly became a potential Coronavirus "suspect" and took a test as precaution because one of their colleagues was infected and contacted them. Unless you lock yourself up in your own home indefinitely and only interact with people dressed in biohazard gear everyone of us can get into the situation that they need to change their plans, postpone holidays and appointments because there has been a "case" in their child's school or kindergarten, or they had dinner with somebody whose colleague's husband is infected. A disheartening prospect, but I refuse to live in permanent paranoia and choose to cherish those moments where you can pretend the "old normal" is a reality.