Injuring my back is my biggest accomplishment of the Pandemic. I’d rather that it had not been. Having the nerve to your right leg cut off is not something I’d recommend putting on your bucket list. However, My right leg continues to get better. I no longer have any sharp pains. The muscles ache a lot because of working hard to rebuild them. With the great physical therapy I am getting, I am making progress.

The best part of this sheltering in place has been having our eldest’s family living with us. I have gotten to observe and enjoy my Granddaughter for almost half her life. She brings such great joy.

I had an interesting view into the election campaign as I receive texts, emails, and snail-mail materials from both parties as it hasn’t been that long since I left the Republican Party and in 2018 I contributed to a few Democrats candidates. I am grateful that we will soon have a president who doesn’t call people names like an elementary school bully. I miss the days when we could discuss differences in political views without resorting to insults and telling someone they were being influenced by Satan.

Covid19 is surging again. Last week every state had a rise in cases and most had a rise in deaths. Over 1,000 Americans are dying each day. We did get the good news that a vaccine is on its way, but widespread use won’t happen until late spring. So in the meantime, the most effective thing everyone can do to stop this is to wear a mask. To not wear a mask is to effectively be doing all in your power to ensure the economy and jobs don’t come back.

I see people posting that because Fauci first wasn’t supporting masks, but later that he did, that he cannot be trusted. I feel sorry for people that cannot see that being open to more facts can result in a change of opinion.

We are fortunate that medical science has advanced greatly since 1918 otherwise we’d still be experiencing the same high rate of deaths we did at the start of the pandemic – when we had a lower number of cases. In the Spanish flu pandemic, we lost 675,000 American lives.

The most interesting COVID19 website I have found this month is Georgia Tech’s COVID19 risk assessment site. For every county in the US it will determine for the size of a gathering the probability that someone has COVID19. I am still going through their backup, but it is interesting.

https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu

We are currently at 250,00 deaths – which is over 19% of the world’s total deaths from COVID19 even though we have only 4% of the world’s population. So many families have lost a loved one.

This Pandemic will come to an end. Its effects have been terrible, but it will end but we have a long way to go and many tens of thousands will still die from it. To modify a Churchhill quote; This is not the end, It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning

We will gather together again. We will travel again. But our society is forever changed and we will be discovering over the next year just what is our new normal.

Take care, stay safe, wear a mask.

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