Pandemic, Week 50 (To suffer fifty weeks of the year...)

This week, President Biden ordered flags flown at half mast this week in honor of the 500,000 that have died in the U.S. from COVID. The House passed its $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package, despite every republican and 2 democrats voting against it. The Senate Parliamentarian ruled that a minimum wage increase could not be passed through budget reconciliation. The Senate held confirmation hearings for the first transgender nominee. President Biden ordered airstrikes against Syria in response to rocket attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq. Despite a declassified intelligence report stating that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman directly approved the brutal murder of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the U.S. will not directly sanction the Prince. The state of Virginia voted to abolish the death penalty. Golfer Tiger Woods suffered multiple injuries from a car accident in LA. Conservative outrage erupted when Hasbro announced it was dropping the "Mr." from its Potato Head brand to be more inclusive.

The total number of COVID cases reached 114.4 million this week as well as 2.5 million deaths, with the U.S. accounting for 29.2 million cases and 525,000 deaths. More than 70 million vaccine doses have been administered in the U.S. reaching 14.2 percent of the population. That includes Grandpa and Grandma Z, who got their first does this week and Grandpa Don, who got his second. Ghana was the first country to receive doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through a United Nations initiative. Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, which requires only one dose and can be stored in a regular refrigerator, has been approved for emergency use by the FDA.

We had a pretty quiet week. The cold snap abated and so we managed to venture out a bit, at which point we realized Owen's feet had grown 3.5 sizes since September and quickly ordered new shoes. Nora and I belatedly delivered Valentine cookies and unicorn keychains to some of her friends. We met up with the Telfair-Chas as the Arboretum in order to visit the only Capitol columns we can get to these days, since the barricade erected after the January 6th insurrection is still up 53 days later. And then we headed up to Katherine's for a lovely family dinner before Grandpa Fawcett flew off to Texas (which is now a balmy 76 degrees), roughly one year after he originally planned to visit Jacqui there.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 49 (Polar Expressed)

The polar vortex turned deadly this week as several states suffered freezing temperatures, power outages, and water supplies were turned off. Texas was hit particularly hard, as it famously has an independent power grid (which means it can't use power from neighboring states when its sources are down) and a largely unregulated energy sector resulting in much of its power sources not being weatherized for historic lows. Governor Greg Abbott and several republican congresspeople oddly blamed the "Green New Deal" (which hasn't been enacted) as the cause of the suffering, arguing that frozen wind turbines in the state failed to deliver the necessary power. But as wind only accounts for 10 percent of Texas energy, they were later forced to acknowledge that frozen gas lines and coal-fired power lines that had not been fully winterized were the primary culprits. President Biden declared much of the state a disaster, allowing it access to federal aid as the Texas Insurance Council estimates claims from the event would exceed that from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. 

In the midst of it all, Senator Ted Cruz left the state with his wife and children for an impromptu trip to Cancun, Mexico to escape the cold. During a Pandemic. Once news of Cruz's departure leaked, he claimed that the trip was at the behest of his daughters and he was simply dropping them off before returning the next day to help the good people of Texas. His itinerary, a group chat of his wife's, and his staff appeared to disagree.

Meanwhile, Perseverance landed on the surface of Mars. The U.S. officially rejoined the Paris Agreement. The Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City, NJ was demolished. Rush Limbaugh died. 

The world reached 111.6 million COVID cases and 2.5 million deaths this week. The U.S. accounted for 28.7 million cases and 510,000 deaths. COVID infections actually fell 16 percent world-wide and 23 percent in the U.S. this week. 12.6 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the vaccine and 5.1 percent of the population has received both doses.

But while much of the country hunkered down amid the freezing temperatures and power losses, Allen embraced it. He and the rest of the  "Quaking Quakers" met at the Meeting House to don their swimsuits, pour ice buckets on each other and raised over $14,000 to support the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and #KeepWinterCold. Afterwards, Nora and I made gnocchi to warm Allen back up -- hopefully a warm front will do so for the rest of the country.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 48 (Less than Noble Gasses)

This week the Senate held the second Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump. Democrats linked Trump's incendiary rhetoric encouraging supporters to attack his opponents, his refuted claims of election fraud and his statement that he was going to march with the mob to the Capitol to "stop the steal" as inciting the insurrection on January 6th. They presented a video timeline of events that day, new footage of Capitol Police officers leading Senator Mitt Romney away from the mob and potentially saving his life, and argued that by failing to convict Trump, Senators would be granting a "January exception," where lame-duck Presidents could act in their final month of office with impunity. Republicans argued that Trump's speech before the riot was "ordinary political rhetoric," that Trump had adamantly denounced the rioters, and then presented a video montage of Democrats advocating "fighting back," which, they argued, mirrored the language of Trump. On the final day of the trial, new details emerged involving a phone call where House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy asked Trump to call off the rioters and Trump declined. In response, the Senate voted to allow witnesses be called, but then opted instead to merely have statements read into the record. In the end, the Senate failed to secure the two-thirds necessary to convict the President, with only seven republicans voting against Trump, 57 to 43.  Afterwards, Mitch McConnell addressed the Senate and declared, despite having just voted to acquit him, that Trump was "practically and morally responsible" for provoking the events of January 6th. 

In other news, a hacking attempt to poison the water supply of Oldsmar, FL was thwarted when staff quickly noticed the levels of lye had increased to 100 times their normal levels. Most of the U.S. was subject to severe winter storms due to a collapsed polar vortex resulting in freezing temperatures, dramatic snow fall and ice storms. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by 43 year old Tom Brady, won the Super Bowl. Hustler publisher and noted First Amendment advocate Larry Flynt died. 

The world reached 109.2 million total COVID cases and 2.4 million deaths this week, of which the U.S. accounted for 28.2 million cases and 496,000 deaths. 36.4 million Americans have now received at least one does of the vaccine and this week Grandpa Fawcett got his second. In addition, the Biden administration reported that it had purchased an additional 200 million vaccine doses.

The kids and Allen gathered at the Meeting House on Sunday to measure methane gas levels in the neighborhood. Using their trusty gas sniffer, First Day School detected a leak of over 50,000 ppm (CH4 atmospheric concentrations are 1.8 ppm), which is above the explosion threshold. They immediately reported the leak to Washington Gas, who promised to investigate, and then headed back to the Meeting House for warm apple cider. Allen was supposed to have his Polar Bear Plunge this week, but ironically, it was postponed due to inclement weather. I ventured into work for the first time in eleven months in order to renew my ID badge and retrieve some personal items (including candy). The whole experience felt a little post-apocalyptical, which probably wasn't helped by having to navigate the new barriers and armed National Guard along my commute all while the Impeachment trial was being broadcast outside of Union Station.

But it was at least reassuring to see that my office still exists, even if the Office I was part of no longer does (it was disbanded in July).

(To see all of this weeks pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 47 (Happy 46th)

The House stripped Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Green of her committee assignments this week, after videos emerged of her calling for Nancy Pelosi's death, harassing school shooting survivors, claiming the Pentagon wasn't attacked on 9/11, and posting that the California wildfires were caused by Jewish space lasers clearing the way for high speed rail. Congress passed the budget plan for Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package, though the final legislation will likely exclude the increase to minimum wage. President Biden declared that Trump should not receive classified intelligence briefings. Smartmatic, filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit for defamation regarding its election technology naming Fox News, its anchors, Rudy Guiliani, and Sidney Powell among others.  Newly sworn-in Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg became the first openly gay, Senate-confirmed cabinet member. A coup took place in Myanmar after its military seized control of the democratically elected government. Russian sentenced opposition leader Alexei Navalny to two years in prison for violating his probation while recovering from a poison gas attack. Hal Holbrook, Christopher Plummer, and Dustin Diamond (Screech from Saved by the Bell) died. 

The world reached a total of 106.3 million COVID cases and 2.3 million deaths this week. The U.S. hit 27.5 million cases and 474,000 deaths. The U.S. reached 2.1 million vaccines administered in a single day with nearly 10 percent of Americans having received the first dose. Meanwhile, Soul Cycle faced a backlash after one of its premier instructors bragged on social media about receiving the vaccine in New York because she was an "educator." Russia's Sputnik vaccine has demonstrated a 92 percent protection against COVID-19 in its trials.

For us, the big event this week was Allen's birthday. As a special present, the District's two-year snow draught finally ended after back-to-back storms resulted in over four inches of snow in DC (we're expecting even more this weekend). DCPS, which was scheduled to begin limited in-person learning on Monday (our kids are still all-virtual), delayed the start a day and implemented a 2-hour delay even for remote school on Tuesday. Allen, who is scheduled to participate in a Polar Bear Plunge next week to raise money for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, used the optics to promote the fundraiser (to donate, click here). Mom Mom baked Allen's favorite childhood dessert, a pineapple upside-down cake (he was a special kid), and dropped it off on his birthday eve. On his actual birthday, Grandpa Fawcett and the kids had take-out from Ben's before Allen and I had a lovely dinner from Rose's at Home, which was even lovelier after they gave us a couple of bottles of wine for Allen's birthday after a minor delivery snafu (who knew there would be multiple birthday dinner orders requested by Zimmermans in the DC metro area on the same night).

Hopefully, it's all a sign of better things to come.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)