Pandemic, Week 92 (and the Ensembles Played On...)

This week the House voted to hold former representative and Trump chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in contempt of Congress for failing to appear before the January 6th Committee. Meanwhile, a trove of text messages and other documents sent to Mr. Meadows regarding the the January 6th insurrection were made public. Former Minneapolis policeman and convicted murderer Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty to violating George Floyd's civil rights in May 2020 when he knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck for nine minutes. A NASA spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe, flew into the sun's atmosphere and produced recently released images of the sun's corona. Supply chain issues has resulted in a shortage of cream cheese, prompting Kraft to offer customers $20 to forego making holiday cheesecakes. Noted author and feminist bell hooks died.

The world reached 274.5 million COVID-19 cases and 5.4 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 51.7 million cases and 827,000 deaths. 241 million Americans (73 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 204 million (61 percent) are fully vaccinated. A number of colleges (including Cornell, Harvard and Stanford) announced that they were returning to online classes due to recent outbreaks and Omicron surges. Prince George's County schools also announced they would be virtual until January 18th.

This was our week of musical holiday celebrations. On Sunday, we joined Allen's colleague Jeb for the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC's Holiday Show. Jeb, as both a member and supporter of GMCW, scored box seats for us where we enjoyed  tap dancing elves, a cappella carols, and some impressive (and exhausting) choreography to the 12 Rockin' Days of Christmas as we were wished a Merry Everything. On Thursday, it was Owen's turn for his first in-person concert at Duke Ellington since he started going there last year. Mom Mom and Grandpa Don joined us to hear Owen perform in both the String Ensemble and the Orchestra, as he was cheered on by some very enthusiastic friends in the balcony. Owen celebrated the successful performance by wearing the Union Jack trench coat that Allen made for an old Halloween costume for school the next day. We were a little nervous that Nora's DCYOP concert, just two day later, would be cancelled due to Omicron concerns, but we managed, with Mom Mom and Grandpa Don joining us, to get it in on Saturday afternoon (by showing proof of vaccination and sitting socially distantly in the audience) just under the wire. Now we just have to see if they make the last three days of school before break and heading off to Iowa...

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