Pandemic, Week 74 (August and Everything After)

This week, Taliban forces gained control of most of the major cities in Afghanistan in the south and two-thirds of the country overall as American forces prepare to remove all troops from the conflict. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a study that finds human activity affects climate change, the Earth's temperature has risen over 1 degree Celsius since 1900, the past 5 years have been the hottest on record since 1850, but that the rise in temperature and sea levels can be limited by reducing carbon emissions. Haiti experienced a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, killing at least 700 people. The Senate passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan and a $3.5 trillion resolution regarding education and health care, which will now face scrutiny by the House. 46 Republican senators signed a letter pledging to not increase the debt limit, which expired on July 31st.  Andrew Cuomo announced he would step down as Governor of New York after multiple claims of sexual harassment and will be replaced by Kathy Hochul, the first woman to hold the office. Jeopardy announced it's new host, Mike Richards, a producer of the show.

The world reached 207.8 million COVID cases and 4.4 million deaths this week. The US accounted for 37.4 million of the cases and 637,000 deaths. 198 million (60 percent) of the US population has received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine with 168 million (51 percent) fully vaccinated. The CDC gave final approval for booster vaccine shots for immunocompromised Americans. DC joined California and other localities to require teachers to be vaccinated or else be subject to regular COVID tests this school year.

We re-acclimated to life post a month of trips. Nora went to the pool with friends, got a haircut and had a less than great Panther Pride morning at Stuart-Hobson. Owen started back with in-person cello lesson and had his friend Adam over for some lego and video games time.  Allen and I worked. We had planned to head up to Katherine's on Friday in order to go tubing on Saturday in West Virginia for Lee's birthday, but the weather meant that the outing was delayed, though the meet-up continued. Allen's cousin Joe was in town for Naval Reserve training so he met for dinner on Friday. On Saturday, Katherine decided that we all needed activities before we converged for "pool party" and dinner. Allen and Owen opted for miniature golf and batting cages while Nora and I joined Katherine and Makayla (after borrowing hiking clothes from Katherine – who knew Nora and Katherine wore the same size?) for a "fun" little hike in the woods. While it started out lovely, we diverged from the trail into uncharted territory. There was uneven terrain, and long grasses with prickly things and a whole lot of mud. We ended up having to forge across a river twice (once without shoes), just to eventually be able to double back. The children were not pleased.

But after returning to Katherine's and cooling off in the pool (along with some cocktails for the adults and cheese and crackers for this kids), we mostly forgot about the afternoon, and instead enjoyed the evening and the local fauna.

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