So many changes, and "Almost" normalcy

 We are all vaccinated in both my families, California officially re-opened as of the 4 days ago (the 15th), and my gym is dropping all Covid restrictions for the most part.Day to day life is resuming it's pace, but like many I am not yet ready to quit wearing my mask, and many businesses still require them. There is still a clear ideological divide; Republicans won't wear masks and Democrats won't take them off.  Around 71-73% of California is vaccinated, which means we have achieved "Herd immunity" along with about 15 other states. This is far from over though, because many southern states only have 30% of their populations vaccinated. Globally it's far worse, with wealthy countries being safer. the USA and other countries are donating millions of doses to developing and poorer nations, but it's not enough. Covid is going to be around for years to come.

This time last year I was thinking about how they said the virus would go away in the warm months, it didn't, but a year later we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Globally though it's a different story. Factories are still shuttered and supply lines disrupted, so what effects one area affects everyone. Cars are really expensive right now because factories that supply semiconductors are closed down, some groceries are really high priced, in part because there aren't enough truck drivers. Toilet paper is ironically abundant now after many months of hording. 

We as a family are going to survive this, but there are still echoes of Covid around us. Right now we are staying home mainly because of a summer heat wave, it was 109 yesterday and today will be similar. After being locked in our house for so long due to Covid, I am a bit irked at having to stay home yet again.

Overall we are lucky.

In exciting news our cases count number DECREASED for the first time since this all started! The numbers kept climbing for the sky, leveled off...but today we saw our first ever drop for our city!



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