State of Affairs

Yes, I know I owe you guys a blog post.  Good gravy, I haven't written one since mid-February.  Of course, not a lot has changed since then.  There's a pandemic, we're working from home, we're both still employed and the cats are still happy.  I heard someplace that people are losing touch with their friends because they're getting tired of having the same conversation over and over:  "What's new?"  "Not much, what's new with you?" "Not much."  

Well, there are a few new things.  One of them is that Joan and I have now been vaccinated against COVID-19, at least theoretically.  And that was an adventure.  The county of Dallas sent me a text message the night before the day I could get my shot to let me know.  The same county of Dallas sent the same text message to Joan, telling her that her first shot could be had the day after my shot.  Now, Joan can't drive, so I would be driving her to her appointment.  So it would make sense, would it not, to have them both on the same day?  Well, there was no convincing the county of Dallas of that.  And I tried.  I worked my way up through levels of bureaucracy as only a former Federal Government employee can.  But I got nowhere.  I was actually a bit depressed about this, because I'm good at cutting through layers of bureaucracy.  However, when the smoke cleared and the dust settled, I was having my shot one day and Joan was having her shot the next day and that was all there was to it.  So I got to drive down to the big mass vaccination site twice, thus missing two afternoons of work instead of the mere one.  Thanks, county of Dallas.  

  

Still, we got our shots.  Last week we had the second round, and by Tuesday, I should be as fully immune as science can reasonably make me, which is to say, if I do get it, I won't get very sick.  (There are no absolute truths where any of this is concerned.  We hope it works. That is all.)  Dallas County's case numbers have dropped back down to about 270 new cases a day, and stayed fairly stable around that number, so there's some indications that the vaccines are making a difference.  They've also opened up vaccinations to anybody over 18, which is a good sign that they think they have a grip on this thing.  The troublesome part is, nobody seems to know how long the COVID vaccine will last.  A year?  Six months?  Until the current strain mutates again?  Will we have to get it every year like the flu? Nobody knows.  It may be years until we know the answers to those questions.  

However, one thing is sure.  With two shots in my system, I can go back to the pool. 

Not back to my swim team, because my swim team is no more.  I will have to content myself with making up my own workouts and swimming at the gym.  (Or joining the Tom Landry Fitness Center, which has a coached swim practice, which is sort of the same thing, kind of, minus the four swim meets a year.  That might be an option.)  During the summer, I was swimming at Lake Lavon and in a friend's outdoor pool, which was great.  When it got cold, I started swimming at the gym, but then the COVID numbers went off the charts and Joan and I sort of mutually decided that going to the gym, in any capacity, wasn't safe anymore.  So, considering that swimming has long been an important pillar in keeping me generally stable. this is really good news.  And don't think I'm forsaking the treadmill; I'll still plod along for a mile or so on the days I'm not swimming.  

Mind you, there are precautions to have in place about this thing.  I'll have to wear a mask while walking through the gym to the pool, and back out again.  I don't wanna shower there or otherwise put myself into contact with folks unnecessarily.  It has to be one person to a lane.  But other than that, I can go back to the pool.  I'm doing that this morning, in fact, as soon as I finish this blog post.  

The other news is that our governor, Greg Abbott (and Lou Costello) opened Texas "100%." Which means all the bars and restaurants are open, business are supposed to reopen and the Lone Star State is supposed to go charging back into the world economy, puffing and snorting and leaving big hoofprints.  Now, not all of us are buying this.  Those of us in Dallas County are still wearing masks, for the most part, and avoiding large gatherings.  But things do seem to be opening up, and if the vaccines really are making a difference, we can maybe dodge a fourth wave of this thing.  Maybe.  

 But maybe even more important than that, we can have dinner with Tammy and Tracy again.  It has literally been a year since we've seen them.  They've had their shots, too, and if we can find a restaurant that's suitably open-air, we can maybe get together.  This used to be a weekly thing, or almost a weekly thing.  And I miss them.  And I'm sure they miss us.  

And is my law firm opening up again?  Well, maybe.  We were supposed to open on April 5 but that's been pushed back again.  (By "open," I mean, "we allow non-employees into the building".  Regular staff have been working, both at home and in the office, for some time now.)  I was supposed to return to the office on Monday but that's been pushed back too, which is Just Fine.  (I like working from home, though there are some drawbacks.)  The libraries are still not open.  You can still get any book you want through their curbside service option, and the reopening plans are in progress, though no date has been announced.  So Joan is still working from home too, and in her case we hope it will be  permanent.  More on that situation as it develops.  

I guess the most important thing is that we're all still here.  Some people in our family and circle of friends got sick with COVID, but they didn't get a really bad case of it and recovered quickly.  Nobody died.  Nobody even went to the hospital, as far as I know.  We've all been very lucky.  And I can go back to the pool.  So the news is all good.  

I hope your news is good too. Cheers!