The weather this Spring has been typical of Indiana, a day of lovely sunshine and temperatures anywhere from warm to chilly followed by a day or two of clouds and rain, on the cold side moe often than not.
Usually, I greet Spring with joy, delighting in the return of green growth and warmth. This year? I'm not so happy. I don't trust it. Events have let me down -- the promise of 2020 became ashes before that Spring and turned ever more bitter as the year wore on, protests and unrest kept growing, and people turned away from science and facts in favor of whatever nonsense they found most comforting.
That trend is continuing. A substantial minority of Americans are avoiding coronavirus vaccines for reasons that vary from mistaken through spurious to risible. They will serve as a pool of infection and mutation that preserves the threat, especially if they stop social distancing and stop wearing masks for face-to-face interaction. Okay, government is a hammer, even if the problem is swatting flies or threading needles -- but it is the sharpest hammer we have, and the pointy end consists of thousands of your fellow citizens working hard to the stem the tide of infection, not eeeevil Bill Gates chortling like a silent-movie villain.
In the first part of this month, I wrote that another wave of infections was likely. It is now underway. I'm sick and tired of staying six feet or more away from people and limiting individual interactions to fifteen minutes or less. I'm tired of wearing a mask and more than irked that over the past year, I have only been to work (alone 99 percent of the time), the grocery store (not more than once a week), my doctor and dentist (twice each) and the home-improvement store (three times, early on). Everything else except one outdoor meal last Fall has been delivery, drive-up or virtual. I want this to be over -- but wanting does not make it so. It's not over until it's over, and that's not just yet.
The world keeps on getting greener out there, and the flowers keep unfurling and looking towards the sun. I keep hoping I'll find some reason to think things will get better.
At least you got your first shot out of the way.
ReplyDeleteBased on the data, you are now very unlikely to catch the ‘Rona and as close to definitely as makes no nevermind are not going to get a serious case if you do.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/29/health/pfizer-and-moderna-covid-19-vaccines-work-wellness/index.html
Hopefully the Snow we had here in Montana today is NOT headed your way
ReplyDeleteI offer clichés, being all I have. Hang in there. One day at a time. Things get better despite our fears.
ReplyDeleteI find comfort in small things. An accurate rifle. A repaired hot tub. Decent booze. Moo-cow steaks. Things such as these break my focus on the Godawful crap masquerading as modern life.
Amen. My only remaining parent is 84 and lives far from me. I finally just decided to get train tickets (where she lives, and I live, that's easier than flying would be). We've both been fully vaccinated. But I am heartily tired of all the silliness. I was quite pushy towards my students about the "there is an on-campus vaccination clinic for you all today!" because even more than eating in a restaurant or shopping for shoes in person and with impunity, I want to be able to do my job the way I want to do it and am good at it, not as some half-online half-life where I never see the faces of 3/4 of my students.
ReplyDeleteMy last parent is 85, and fully vaccinated. I got my first of 2 last week, and second in 20-odd days.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way anyone could keep me from getting it, I had a nasty flu in my mid-20s that nearly took me out. A solid week of the 'shake-n-bake', teeth chattering chills followed by how sweats 101 fever non stop. And the 'recovery' was nearly as entertaining - Utter exhaustion, no matter how many hours I slept. For about a month after. No. Thank. You. For. That. Again.
And they accuse me of being a 'science denier'.
*mutter*...