Pandemic, Week 76 (Summer's End)

This week, a bomb exploded outside the Kabul airport, killing 92 people including 13 American service members that were assisting with evacuation of American and Afghani citizens. President Biden said that the US would continue its evacuation efforts through the August 31st deadline and had the Pentagon conduct drone strikes, taking out two leaders of ISIS-K, which has claimed responsibility. The January 6th Select Committee requested documents from the Executive Branch, particularly communications by Trump, his family and his senior advisors. Meanwhile, seven US Capitol Police officers are suing Trump and "Stop the Steal" organizers over the January 6th riot. The House passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Act while the Supreme Court reinstated the Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy for asylum seekers. The man photographed naked as a baby for Nirvana's Nevermind album cover, is suing the band for sexual exploitation, 30 years after the album dropped. Charlie Watts, the drummer for the Rolling Stones, died.

The world reached 216.7 million COVID cases this week and 4.5 million deaths, of which the US accounted for 39.6 million cases and 654,000 deaths. In the US, 204 million people (61 percent) of the total population has received at least one dose of the vaccine; 173 million (52 percent) of the the population is now fully vaccinated. In addition, the FDA gave full approval to the COVID Pfizer drug, which is now known officially as Comirnaty.

Our focus this week was on the end of summer and the start of school. On Monday, both kids had their first dental appointments in a year and a half, and despite some questionable oral hygiene practices, neither child had any cavities. Owen also had his annual physical where we determined that he is officially taller than me, yet weighs less. Friday Allen and Owen rode the D6 to Duke Ellington and back so that Owen can finally get an appreciation for what his daily commute is going to be like (hint, it's going to kind of suck).

But the big event of the week was Owen (finally) had his birthday party and got to hang out with four of his closest friends. We headed up to Sandy Springs Adventure Park for an outdoor – and COVID friendly  – outing. Initially, Nora and I were on our own while Allen joined Owen's crew for a blue, but when the boys decided to do a black course followed by a double black diamond course (aka the "Gauntlet") after lunch, Gabriel and Allen decided to join Nora and I on the more user friendly blue courses before Allen went on his own to shadow the other kids.

None of the kids go to the same school – Adam's at DeMatha, Gabriel's at Basis, Hayden's at Gonzaga, Patrick's at Wall and Owen is at Duke, with Nora at Stuart-Hobson – and they haven't gotten to spend a lot of time together over the past 18 months (particularly en masse), so it was great to see them hanging out, ribbing and encouraging each other, just like normal times except 30 feet in the air. They were pretty tired and didn't smell so good at the end of the day, but they all managed to finish and they did it together, which is probably some metaphor for the past 18 months.

And hopefully is a sign of good things to come.

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