Cellphone replacement

Earlier this year I had mentioned how AT&T are rendering my Moto G8 Power Lite obsolete, by turning off 3G early next year; my cellphone's 4G LTE bands do not match any of AT&T's. I have chosen to replace it with a Moto G 5G Plus, though I also considered the OnePlus Nord N10 5G. With my Moto G8, I am finding reception to be poor in my current office on campus so it seemed worth going ahead with the replacement now, perhaps its successor will fare better. Both have only 4GB of RAM but it is not as if I use it for anything that requires more.

Remaining cautious in the pandemic

Initially I was enthusiastic when Scotland dropped the quarantine requirement for vaccinated visitors from the US but, on reflection, booking travel feels like too great a risk. In initially coming here, it was me moving away from the family and living alone, if I arrived infected then I would not pass it on to them. Now we have the delta variant, contagious and dangerous, with cases rising, I cannot be bringing it into their household. Having received my Pfizer vaccine some months ago, I don't know how effective it was originally nor if that may have declined since. After multiple flights in current circumstances, it feels plausible that I could still become contagious after the journey. Given past form, I also don't trust Her Majesty's Government not to reintroduce quarantine requirements, and for my airline to be unsympathetic to my then rethinking travel.

Maybe once the positive case rates look better, or after further vaccinations or whatever, I will be able to visit family members again. Perhaps even this year, especially if shorter-notice airfares are reasonable. For now, it feels responsible to continue my relative isolation. No longer do I have an officemate when I do work on campus: given current trends, they had us adjust our schedules to not be on site on the same day.