The Scottish Premiership is beginning to stir from its winter slumber, but it's still anyone's guess what awaits it when that first whistle blows.
Unless you've been indulging in some festive hibernation of your own, you'll know the top-flight's annual post-Christmas break was swifly rearranged in response to supporters once again being placed under heavy restrictions.
The 500 fan limit imposed by the Scottish Government, reacting to the threat of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, from December 26 onwards effectively turned most Premiership matches into a lockout.
There was an eerily 2020 feel about St Johnstone hosting Celtic in Boxing Day's televised clash, distinctly unwelcome given how much we'd all rather forget that particular calendar year.
Those scenes were repeated across the country and even clubs which would normally welcome much less than the tens of thousands who descend on Ibrox and Celtic Park turned to ballots to decide just who could attend.
The initial three-week time limit on the measures is set to expire on January 17 – the day the Premiership returns with Celtic hosting Hibs – and clubs are awaiting an announcement from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday as to whether they will be extended or relaxed.
Record Sport revealed last week that the SPFL and SFA's Joint Response Group had instructed clubs to prepare for the return of full houses from that date, but it's understood that, as of Sunday night, the FM is yet to make a final decision.
It feels almost pointless to speculate whether the restrictions will be lifted or not, given that national clinical director Jason Leitch, absent from his weekly Off the Ball slot ahead of the big announcement, had already confessed that the 500 limit was not based on statistics but rather that you "have to draw the line somewhere".
But with the restrictions estimated to be costing some clubs up to £2million a week, it's doubtful that a "no data, just vibes" explanation will suffice any longer.
The SFA and SPFL maintain they see no reason why the original timeline will not hold, but anyone who lived in Glasgow between September 2020 and June 2021 would understandably urge some caution there.
The "two-week" ban on household mixing, which also coincided with an exponential rise in the sale of magic beans, stretched on for an arduous nine months.
So, it's wholly understandable that fans are hearing "it's only for three weeks" and feeling a little sceptical, however justified the measures may have been at the time.
Things are much different now, obviously. Most eligible people have three doses of vaccine in their arm and there's plenty of natural immunity into the mix, too. Not to mention the availability of rapid testing and promising anti-viral treatments.
That's not to say Omicron, however milder it may be, is not causing significant strain on already overburdened health service.
Plenty of European nations have taken more severe measures than Scotland and the sense of frustration here is no doubt heightened by the fact football continues unabated just down the road in England.
But what's happening south of the border seems to be an outlier.
Elsewhere, Spanish authorities have limited La Liga attendance to 75 per cent, crowds have been markedly reduced in France, Italy's Serie A has a 5000 cap and some matches in Germany – which takes a regional approach to restrictions – have gone back behind closed doors.
So, perspective is, of course, crucial.
But the anger which flowed from the decision to limit football and big events in Scotland - and to take a more light touch approach with other sectors - was arguably unlike anything we've seen in the pandemic so far.
It certainly wasn't helped by Leitch's drawing of lines, nor by deputy First Minister John Swinney speculating that the Premier Sports Cup Final was a super-spreader event without any numbers to hand.
Part of the Government's justification for implementing restrictions was to better understand Omicron's impact.
Plenty of data has now been collated and if it's a "not yet" for football come Tuesday then it's not unreasonable to ask that the decision comes with a more in-depth explanation than before - especially since the UK's Covid dashboard shows that Scotland has a higher seven-day case rate per 100,000 people than England, despite our stricter measures.
Fans and clubs will expect to be told whether the restrictions to date have had an impact on Scotland's infection and hospitalisation rate, and any extension of restrictions would perhaps be better received if they came with clear criteria for being lifted.
The FM suggested at her last update that Scotland will have to move to a model of dealing with Covid that relies less and less on restrictions, and the reduction of the self-isolation period from 10 days to seven suggests that's already happening.
But leaving fans in limbo with nothing but another "wait and see" on Tuesday will only heighten frustration further.
We as supporters deserve better than that.
