Pandemic, Week 105 (End Times)

This week, Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, addressed a joint session of Congress, requesting additional aid and that the US be a leader in peace – the result was an additional $14 billion in US humanitarian and military aid as well as armed drones. Two Fox News journalists (a cameraman and a "fixer") were killed by Russian fire in Ukraine. Dolly Parton was nominated, and quickly withdrew her name from consideration, for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, stating that the nomination may inspire her to actually record a rock & roll album at some point in the future. The NCAA Basketball Tournament began with a number of surprising losses in the first round.

The world reached 470.3 million COVID cases and 6.1 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 81.4 million cases and 998,000 deaths. 255 million Americans (77 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 217 million (65 percent) are fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, both Pfizer and Moderna are seeking FDA approval for a fourth booster shot, DCPS made masks optional in its schools, China and Hong Kong are having a surge in COVID deaths while a new and more contagious version of the Omicron variant is emerging in Europe, and the newly signed US budget omitted funds for COVID-19 aid.

Jeff arrived on Sunday night to briefly to crash at our place before an interview on Monday (after which he returned to NYC). Jacqui went home on Tuesday. Adam and Molly came over for dinner on Wednesday to inspect our new paint job. And on Friday, Nora stayed home and built a ukulele while the rest of went to Duke to hear the DC premier of William Levi Dawson's 1934 work, Negro Folk Symphony and then hear Owen play, with the members of the Duke and Post Classical Ensemble (PCE) orchestras, Louis Moreau Gottschalk's La Nuit des Tropics. Saturday, we returned to our regular routine with DCYOP for Nora and climbing for Owen (followed by a party for Owen and some gnocchi making for Nora).

But the big event of this week, was the decision to end our blog series on the Pandemic. Back in March 2020 when the initial wave of COVID was starting, there were suggestions that kids should journal about the Pandemic so they could later reflect on their experience. Knowing that neither of our children would elect to do so, I decided to write a weekly summary of what was going on in the world and how we were dealing with it. I naively thought it would last six weeks or so and that we might still make our Spring Break trip to Harry Potter World. 

I was mistaken.

A lot happened in the past two years. Schools closed and sort of opened and then opened some more. There were protests and elections and less than peaceful transitions of power. One war ended and another began. We lost someone we loved. And at times, we really struggled.

But of late we've shifted to a new phase of the Pandemic – the schools no longer require masks (though both our kids are still opting to wear theirs); the federal government is working on its reopening plan and Allen and I are figuring out our new schedules; we've flown twice for two separate ski trips and in a couple of weeks we'll be taking the train to NYC to take in some shows on Broadway. And while who knows if the Pandemic will ever really end, for now we're going to stop making it our main focus and instead return to our regular programming.

Though we will never forget.

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