Arbitrary Steps

 An online friend of mine died today( Kim Jakum from facebook ). I did not know her well but we did message eachother from time to time. May she RIP and may her family find comfort. I think that's the 7th person I know who has passed this last year

 So much of what we do feels cobbled together in rules we made for ourselves: 1. Tiny towns seem safe 2. Specific places feel safe (my gym, Target, the grocery store) 3. We wear masks anywhere. 4. We laugh a little bit (height of the pandemic we didn't laugh and just went through the motions) but it's nothing like the silliness we used to have in our daily interactions. Thankfully ALL of our family (minus my nephew) is vaccinated so we can reasonably gather safely together. The south east US? Not so much; Louisiana, Texas, and Florida are doing awful. I just can't wrap my head around the idea this might stick around...5..10 years, and vaccinations will keep going.  I miss my Mom. I wonder not if I CAN go home for the holidays but if I SHOULD go home. Life has changed permanently. I'm trying to accept that

 I knew it wasn't over, my family knew it....but society at large decided they were done with Covid restrictions and decided to reopen. One problem: Covid isn't done with us, so as exhausted and annoyed as we all are, we are officially in a 4th wave. My gym dropped all mask restrictions a month ago, they are back. Also all the southern states that mocked the blue states when they shut down? Yeah, they are being over run by Covid cases and the hospitals are full. 4th wave...here we go again. The first 2 waves? Enthusiasm, and "We can do it!"...but the last wave just seemed to kill this country's spirit and we are just DONE. The areas that mocked us for mask mandates are now being hit hard by covid and now want the vaccine badly, other areas think that vaccines are evil...it's all so bizarre and tiring. One constant theme is fatigue: We are just OVER people mocking masks, we are OVER all the shut downs, and all of this is just on our LAST NERVE. Months ago they ...

 It's so odd. I know in daily life people come and go, but there's always a core group and then those that float in and out of your life. I find myself wondering lately though if those that I haven't heard from perhaps died  of covid and I just haven't heard

 I suppose I can unpack my bag I set aside for when Dan and Doug had covid and I might need to separate from them

 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 ...

   Over the last year people have been planting gardens ( I tried and failed at that), baking treats ( I succeeded TOO well at that), and some have even taken to raising chickens in an urban farming starvation prevention method involving eggs. I avoided that, until today when it was thrust upon me. Not knowing the chicken raising trend is "so 2020", a chicken showed up at our house today. I was asleep and my husband woke me up holding this wildly silly black and gold bird saying "This is Jake!". My only response was "Holy crap!"...and we now have a chicken. In true form this bird clucked around our yard, ate everything in sight, and is obviously someones pet because it keeps trying it's best to come indoors. Oh, and it laid an egg in our garden, so I guess since something is technically growing in our garden that I didn't fail after all. The bird is Jocelyn, I think the egg shall be Nugget.