When you coming back?

[BillyMac]

... or are you just happy to see me?

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

And when you need to report or otherwise speak?

I've been wearing my surgical mask in the presence of my adult children and grandchildren and they have no problem understanding me, nor do I have any problem being understood while masked when I venture out of my bomb shelter to hunt and gather food once a week.

It would certainly be less than ideal to officiate a basketball game while masked, but it can be done. I'd prefer not to, but I will if it helps to keep the players, coaches, table crew, and my partner safe.

We have a veteran official on our local board who is deaf and doesn't speak. I've worked with him a dozen times and he has no major problems with communication, game management, etc. Pregame is tough, but once we get onto the court he's a great official, a good partner, and is well respected by coaches and players.

Masks. Electronic whistles. Gloves. Bottles of hand sanitizer in our pockets. I hope that it doesn't come to that. Hopefully we'll be in better shape when school starts in September.

On the other hand, if things get worse, we may have bigger things, more important things, to worry about than how we'll officiate kid's games, like the delicate balancing act of preserving both our health and our economy (I'm lucky, I'm retired).

Luckily I only officiate basketball. I'll leave it up my fall sports official friends to work out any safety protocol bugs before I start officiating in late November.

Fortunately, I don't count on basketball officiating for the income, so sitting out a season, by state decision, or by my own personal health decision, won't have a major effect on my wallet.

My daughter is expecting in a few weeks, so I have made a personal health decision not to got to church (reopened with restrictions last week) and not to go the gym (reopened with restrictions yesterday) until after I see my new grandson.

Even then, I will still wear my surgical mask and maintain social distancing, better safe than sorry.