a blind woman in a pandemic

 Andrea Barnhurst is a woman who is blind in this pandemic. when asking her a few questions over the phone she says that shes coping okay with this pandemic its stressull but shes doing the best she can. Its hard along with challenging people don't really understand that the guide dogs don't know how to social distance nor what the marks mean on the floor. She hasn't been in a situation where people are treating her any differently than when the pandemic wasn't around. Now with the pandemic people arent helping her find things she needs in the stores now  they just point and say " its over there." Whats getting to Andrea is the lack of socialization and the fact that she cant recognize anyone she knows in the masks, its also hard trying to wear glasses with the masks with the fact that they get foggy all the time. She fears going into a store alone with the struggles of social distancing with her depth reception gone, the lack of exposing her guide dog Bali in the stores. With walking outside with her guide dog there's less people around, she also says that the outside feels like indoors with the amount of people. her fears with this pandemic is  catching COVID-19, getting exposed to someone who has COVID and not knowing it, exposing others. she feels like shes losing her independence because she cant go to stores and places like she did she always needs her daughter or husband to drive her there. She worries about the lack of activity level with her guide dog when the numbers get higher. She worries about her friends and family more than herself when it comes to COVID-19. She feels that there is a different energy in the air when shes walking with her guide dog, She doesn't exactly know what this energy is but she can tell that Bali is feeling stressed and concerned just by holding on to the leach. Andrea says its not easy trying to figure out where people are in the stores, maintaining  social distancing is hard with her and the guide dog, and wearing masks makes her senses different than what they used to be. Her family is worried for her more than usual. what she is doing differently to keep her and her family safe is to wear a mask in public, work remotely, when she goes into a store she doesn't touch everything, washing her hands frequently, and minimizing her time in the stores.