I never really thought about it, but quite possibly. Although women were really forced in during WWI (in Europe and somewhat in America) and WWII (Europe and America) and never chose to leave. Their choice, and if they didn't want to, I'm fine with that. Not that it wouldn't have happened anyway with the social trends in place, I'm thinking; both my grandmothers and all my great-aunts had at least a bachelor's-- a bit unusual for my generation. Nowadays it's much more normal. My mother didn't choose to stay home after my formative years and more power to her. As to why we're so resistant to stay-at-home fathers is another story. :-) On the other hand, I learned to cook (clean, wash, sew, and so on) at quite appropriate ages, and did so for the family as I grew. Simple meals aren't time-consuming and can be pre-prepared with some assistance. But we're really drifting off the base subject now. :-) I did see on the NYT that 1.3 million were receiving the vaccine daily: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html But those would be first doses.

@terezosa / terriks we got our shots at walgreens. They were on top of it - but there was some kind of computer glitch. I had to set up appointments for each of us using a seperate email address. I got my confirmation and then cancellation - about 4 times. LOL The Mr got confirmations and no cancellations. I called the store and they were SO nice. Told me to come on in with him. Which I did, no problems. And, I still have confirmation of my second appointment. It never cancelled that one. (You scheduled 1st and 2nd appt. at the same time.)

Well Arcy my best friend's niece (yes just one person) infected her entire family, including her aunt and 80 year old grandmother, when they moved an outdoor party indoors BRIEFLY due to cold. The niece infected almost everyone, including her grandmother, and the grandmother infected her daughter who did not go inside, but drove her home. All asymptomatic at the time of transmission. So I would respectfully disagree, now is not the time to let go of responsibility about Covid concerns, particularly if you are mixing people who are unvaccinated and don't care about transmission and never have and don't follow science, with those who do, or if you have no way of knowing who is vaccinated and who is not. For a social gathering, asking or requiring folks to indicate their vaccination status brings up a lot of issues so I would try to avoid. Given that, and given that I was hosting, I would err on the side of caution. As a general principle, I rarely regret erring on the side of caution, but have been in plenty of situations where I didn't have a solid backup plan and deeply regretted it. Back to the subject at hand, which is a rain backup to an outdoor gathering. That I do have extensive experience with, having been an outdoor education professional for 30+ years, and also three years ago I was planning my outdoor wedding and had to have rain backups, and actually used them. In addition to having attended some events utilizing the above described tents. It was chilly and rainy for my first outdoor wedding reception, which was uncharacteristic for Aug. in MI but not unheard of. Our reception took place in a pavilion that we rented at a county park. We were worried about having enough space so we rented a tent to put adjacent to the pavilion. The chilly weather did put a damper on things. A significant portion of our guests excused themselves early, even though they weren't getting wet under the pavilion. The park had a swimming beach, which was supposed to be part of the party, but in the end, only the most intrepid ventured down to the beach. Also since it was unseasonably chilly for August, no one had really expected it to be that cold and didn't dress accordingly. My second experience was a friend who had to move her outdoor wedding inside for the reception when it rained in Oct. Again it was a temperature thing, not a rain exposure thing . . . which is the same issue that got to my friend's family during their outdoor gathering to welcome a new baby. I wouldn't use my home as plan B. I would try to figure out if I could find gas fired heaters to space around inside the tent. I have been in tents using them and they provide quite a lot of warmth. That's best of both worlds, ventilation and heat. Recently I had to do and extended work project outside in the cold and damp, and we set up our portable fire pit nearby and it gave off a lot of heat to the surrounding area and no one got chilled, even though it was a damp, windy, chilly day. When Wegman's groceries remodeled about a decade ago, they put in new outdoor dining spaces under a roof, with a large gas fireplace providing ambiance and heat. Worked very well to extend the season. A second option would be to try and find a large, well ventilated community room nearby. We have quite a few of those. Or a restaurant that would rent you a space. Your home sounds too tight. I hosted what I thought would be an outdoor screened-in porch luncheon last year for an old family friend visiting, not one was vaccinated, and it was in summer and again got unseasonably cold and the guests were old so I had to balance exposure to cold vs covid. I ended up setting up two smaller tables widely spaced in my dining room for the two families. The space was open to the porch area, so the wide screened in doorway provided the ventilation. And that was a stretch, even with four people! In July, in your house, with a lot of people gathered, its likely that if you move it indoors, the air conditioning is going to be on with that many people in the rooms. Even without a pandemic, I would prefer a larger space designed to accommodate that many guests, not turn my house into a banquet hall. I have done similar things for small gatherings, rented small gathering spaces. Such facilities exist. Maybe if you're using a caterer, they could advise you of one. Also ask the tent rental company, they may also rent the gas heaters and they can advise you on how well they work. Edited to add that you need to be sure that the tent is properly suited for plan B, to avoid having something like what happened to Joanie's friends. That sounds like poor execution from the set-up team for the tent . . .

We just returned from our overseas trip and we did have to take antigen tests (there were other options, but I wanted fast results) before leaving and before returning. Leaving it was because we were transiting through the UK and they required it, and coming back it was for both transiting through the UK and also to enter the US as they require it from all. I highly recommend checking the requirements of any transit airports as well. I had my daughter do the test because the rules of the end country wasn't clear if she needed it or not (I did not due to citizenship), but I took one anyways as my daughter was scared so I let them do it to me first. I'm so glad I did because we didn't understand that we had to do it for the UK even though we wouldn't go through immigration there at all. We got to the airport and it was required before they let us on the plane. Honestly though I wouldn't go overseas right now unless you're staying for a while or need to for family reasons (we did) as it was just uncomfortable to be in the mask for 20hrs straight except for eating which really wasn't a long enough break, and our masks are comfortable. On the plus side I did really like the British Airways way of unloading the plane. Everyone sit in their seats until their rows are called. That was not done on the American Airlines flight, but it was such a smoother exit the plane process and something I wish they would continue on all airlines. If you are a person worried about catching the C-virus then I wouldn't go either. Even though masks are required at the airport we saw plenty without and nobody is distancing even though there are labels clearly marking where to stand and signs everywhere.