Pandemic, Week 101 (Loverly)

This week, tensions escalated on the Ukrainian-Russo border after Vladimir Putin oversaw major military exercises of Russia's nuclear forces and shelling began in eastern Ukraine. A U.S. District Judge denied Donald Trump's petitions to dismiss civil suits regarding his role in the January 6th Insurgency. NASA and NOAA released a report which found sea levels on the coasts will rise, on average, 10-12 inches by 2050. The Diocese of Phoenix has declared thousands of baptisms (and any subsequent rites) "invalid" due to a priest mistakenly using "we" instead of "I" when actually baptizing individuals for years (the priest has subsequently resigned). The Women's Olympic ice-skating final, which has been embroiled in controversy over allowing a 15-year old Russian skater who tested positive for banned substances to compete, was held with the disputed skater finishing fourth and calls to revisit both the eligibility and scoring rules. The Los Angeles Rams won the Superbowl.

The world reached 423.2 million COVID cases and 5.9 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 80.0 million cases and 959,000 deaths. 253 million Americans (76 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 215 million (65 percent ) are fully vaccinated. Disneyland and Tysons announced that they are loosening mask requirements as has DC.

This week we briefly celebrated the Superbowl at Katherine and Lee's (which means we were there long enough to eat and submit our Superbowl quizzes, but not long enough for Allen to collect his winnings), before heading home to finish packing up the house for the painters and ourselves for our stay at an Airbnb. Valentine's day was spent eating leftover hamburgers in the new flat while we watched Olympic curling. That's pretty much how the week went: the kids would sleep in a bit (both of their commutes were 10 minutes shorter from our temporary digs), Allen would turn on Olympic curling as we all left (the kids to school and myself to Steve & Megan's as a proxy home-office) and it would still be on when we returned. In between, he would pop-in to see how the house was shaping up.

On Wednesday, Allen, who had been lamenting the aging process and the degrading of his eyesight from 20-10 to 20-20, got glasses! Thursday, John (who'd been staying at Katherine's to avoid the painters) headed to Dallas for a planned visit with Jacqui. And on Friday, we moved back in among the drop-cloths for one night before heading to Portland for a week of skiing (assuming the 20 inches of expected snow don't prevent us from making it to the mountain). It will be interesting to see what the place looks like when we return...

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