Back in March of 2020, I did a blog series of my character Corina Covida. In April she actually had her own blog, then mid March I shut it down, because I was pretty much over it... the pandemic "lockdown" I mean. Then, at my daughter's urging, I brought it back on The Radula with the idea of making it a set of useful resources of things to do to keep busy at home during the pandemic.
The image above is a screenshot from the March 28, 2020 post. It feels like it's ages ago.
Today the average number of new covid-19 cases in Sonoma county is 20x higher than it was back then, yet people seem to think the risk is over. Last week two people died from coronavirus here in Sonoma County. We are in a "high transmission tier" in the state, despite a very high vaccination rate and mandatory masking.
There are places I feel fairly safe going (Parks, hiking trails) and some I feel nervous about going to (restaurants, grocery stores) and some places I won't go at all (movie theaters, parties). But the weird thing for me is that I am still very much thinking in terms of risk when I decide what to do outside the home.
Today, however, that isn't an issue. It's grey and rainy and miserable outside (we very much need this rain because of the drought, so while I'm not feeling terribly perky today, I do appreciate that this is something good) Today, perhaps I could use some Cornia Covida style inspiration.
It's not that I don't have things to do. I have my new spinning wheel and loom, a stack of blank canvases, some new sketch books, and a box of flatpack shelving. However what I really want to do is just curl up on the couch with a good book, some warm brownies, and some hot tea and pull my fleecy throw around my shoulders and hunker down with a good book for the day.
The world has changed in the last year. The nation has changed. Working has changed. Not working has changed. People are waking up and deciding that they've put up with too much for too long. Industry strikes, stores and restaurants closing because frontline workers no longer want to be fodder for the pandemic or the company profits. I see more homeless now than before the pandemic. A lot of them are working homeless, living in trailers and RVs parked along the roads. Gas prices have reached all time highs last weekend, and are now sitting at $5/gallon around here. I remember thinking $1 a gallon was a lot, and that people would stop driving if it ever hit $3...
The pandemic has become background noise. Politics, labor, and education has all been thrust to the forefront in everyone's minds. Corina Covida is not staying home, she's out crushing the Patriarchy, or protesting with Black Lives Matter, or walking away from low paying drudge jobs, or devising new side hustles.
I feel somewhat left behind in all this. The Gen Xers and Gen Z running ahead with torches and pitchforks ready to tear down society and build back better, while I sit and scan the news, watching hospitals fill and people die, like watching the backdrops and scenery and missing the actual play unfolding on stage.
Today's "official" death total for the US is 755,273. We're averaging about 1200 new deaths per day, which is down from a few months ago, but still a lot of death. I really don't think there's much we can do about it at this point. More people will catch this, regardless of what we do. Less people, hopefully, will die with higher vaccination rates and new treatment options, but Covid will be the backdrop for everything that happens for the next few years, like it or not.
As appalled as we have been at the government has weighed the economy against human lives, we seem to be finding ourselves as citizens accepting that people will get sick and people will die so we can regain some sense of "normalcy"... that what we've been doing is unsustainable in our current social/economic system. Right now I'm sitting in my apartment, looking out through the rain at the plaza next door, and the cars of people going in and out to the restaurants (which there are many more of then stores in this particular plaza) and probably thinking a lot less about the 1200 people who will die today than what a pain in the butt it is to have to wear a mask into the building, when you are just going to take it off to eat anyway.
Today, however, that isn't an issue. It's grey and rainy and miserable outside (we very much need this rain because of the drought, so while I'm not feeling terribly perky today, I do appreciate that this is something good) Today, perhaps I could use some Cornia Covida style inspiration.
It's not that I don't have things to do. I have my new spinning wheel and loom, a stack of blank canvases, some new sketch books, and a box of flatpack shelving. However what I really want to do is just curl up on the couch with a good book, some warm brownies, and some hot tea and pull my fleecy throw around my shoulders and hunker down with a good book for the day.
The world has changed in the last year. The nation has changed. Working has changed. Not working has changed. People are waking up and deciding that they've put up with too much for too long. Industry strikes, stores and restaurants closing because frontline workers no longer want to be fodder for the pandemic or the company profits. I see more homeless now than before the pandemic. A lot of them are working homeless, living in trailers and RVs parked along the roads. Gas prices have reached all time highs last weekend, and are now sitting at $5/gallon around here. I remember thinking $1 a gallon was a lot, and that people would stop driving if it ever hit $3...
The pandemic has become background noise. Politics, labor, and education has all been thrust to the forefront in everyone's minds. Corina Covida is not staying home, she's out crushing the Patriarchy, or protesting with Black Lives Matter, or walking away from low paying drudge jobs, or devising new side hustles.
I feel somewhat left behind in all this. The Gen Xers and Gen Z running ahead with torches and pitchforks ready to tear down society and build back better, while I sit and scan the news, watching hospitals fill and people die, like watching the backdrops and scenery and missing the actual play unfolding on stage.
Today's "official" death total for the US is 755,273. We're averaging about 1200 new deaths per day, which is down from a few months ago, but still a lot of death. I really don't think there's much we can do about it at this point. More people will catch this, regardless of what we do. Less people, hopefully, will die with higher vaccination rates and new treatment options, but Covid will be the backdrop for everything that happens for the next few years, like it or not.
As appalled as we have been at the government has weighed the economy against human lives, we seem to be finding ourselves as citizens accepting that people will get sick and people will die so we can regain some sense of "normalcy"... that what we've been doing is unsustainable in our current social/economic system. Right now I'm sitting in my apartment, looking out through the rain at the plaza next door, and the cars of people going in and out to the restaurants (which there are many more of then stores in this particular plaza) and probably thinking a lot less about the 1200 people who will die today than what a pain in the butt it is to have to wear a mask into the building, when you are just going to take it off to eat anyway.
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