One of the first things I noticed about myself in the Los Angeles airport is that I have COVID-19 precaution fatigue. I was less obsessive about using hand sanitizer and paid less attention to what I touched. Part of that is because I spent last week being deliberate about everything I touched, all the time. My brain really can’t handle the precautions necessary with being in public much more. -_- However, the other part of it is that I knew I had two more COVID-19 tests in my future. Paradoxically, I think it’s making me less cautious.

On the American side, it was horrible, as usual. People were wearing their masks below their nose and having long conversations while sipping at a drink, just to avoid wearing a mask. I would say I was astonished, but I wasn’t. I was just disappointed.

The airplane only had about 15 passengers on it, yet they still managed to sit over half the passengers in the late teens and early 20 rows… at which point many of the passengers disagreed with the seating arrangements and picked their own seat. Myself included. I realize that if one of us tests positive for COVID-19 it will be harder to figure out who we were sitting near, but so be it. They shouldn’t have sat us all together to begin with.

On the Canadian side, everyone was masked appropriately and no-one was trying to skirt the rules. The machine couldn’t read my paper declaration, so I was waved on through to the line waiting to speak to the boarder officials. When I got to the front, I was directed to one of the non-Canadian booths. The official there was… unpleasant. He made me answer his questions without my mask on, and made it very clear that it was looking for mistakes in my paperwork. I get that the Canadian government is trying to discourage travel, but if I was coming into Canada for the same reason that I left, my travel would be exempt from COVID-19 travel restrictions. That didn’t seem to matter to him.

After that, everything was fairly smooth. They didn’t charge me anything for Grandma’s computer, and the COVID-19 test on this end was far more pleasant than the one I took in the US. (However, it was still an anterior nasal swab, and I remain uncertain how effective that is.)

The wait for the shuttle to the hotel was boring, as was checking in, but such is life. Dinner, as expected, contained gluten, so I had to call the front desk to get it sorted out. I’ll be surprised if tomorrow is much better.