Since my last newsletter in August, it feels as if we’ve entered bizarre new equilibrium. In the United States, roughly two thousand people a day are dying of Covid-19, a rate about as high as the first peak in spring 2020. Unlike back then, this new round of devastation is unfolding in a country where 65 percent of eligible people are vaccinated. If you had told me a year ago that this is how things would stand in September 2021, I don’t think I’d have believed you.
Despite these terrible circumstances, I have been traveling, something I have not done for ages. My family has hit the road to see relatives and friends. Although we’re all vaccinated, we still take precautions such as masking in indoor public spaces and taking rapid antigen tests before spending a lot of unmasked time indoors with other people. My wife and I dropped off our kids at college, where they are having a semi-normal school year, a thankful change from endless Zooming. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, October 1, 2021”