Yesterday we set another new record for the number of Americans dying of covid-19 in one day: 3,275. It's only going to get worse as 2021 sets in. It's three weeks until the inauguration given that there is no Wednesday surprise on January 6 when the House accepts the Electoral College results. January 20 could be our first day over 5,000 deaths. Republican Congressman-Elect Luke Letlow from Louisiana, who was to have been sworn in on Sunday, died yesterday of covid. Father of two young children, he was only 41 and had no underlying conditions.
Google released data on things we googled during 2020. Excluding "coronavirus" and "election," the largest search of any single event was Kobe Bryant's death. The total number of searches for "coronavirus" over the entire year was more than 10 times the Kobe searches. And the spike in searches for "election" around November 3 was higher than any single "coronavirus" spike. My initial reaction to that was how could the death of a sports idol be more important than ... than ... I couldn't think of any other single event that might have competed with "coronavirus" or "election." It was a pretty weird year.
Workers are removing the parade reviewing stand that had been constructed in from of the White House. Uncle Joe will be sworn in outside, but it sounds as if there won't be the traditional inaugural parade and walk to the White House from the Capitol. It's going to be a mostly virtual day. I'm sure there will be complaints, but not from here. So much of Inauguration Day is for show, and this may not be the time for that. Still, I hope he and Aunt Jill, er, that is, Dr. Biden get to relax a bit and savor the day. I wonder if the couch in the family part of the White House is big enough for both of them as well as Champ and Major.
Argentina has legalized abortion up to 14 weeks in a pregnancy. I did not see that coming. And it's nice to see even if I don't expect many other predominantly Catholic countries to follow suit. I have not looked up how Pope Francis feels about this but probably well eventually.
We're taking down all the Christmas things tomorrow. Normally we do it on New Year's Day, but I'm in such a hurry to bid 2020 a not-so-fond farewell that I want Christmas 2020 over and done with before 2021 steps in. This means I need to get serious if I'm going to make any formal resolutions for the new year. Something other than get my hair cut and highlighted, call the hand clinic about my thumb and/or wrist issues, reschedule Monday's cancelled otolaryngology appointment, go to the dentist, and so on. The life things put on hold for the months of the pandemic do not equal resolutions for the new year.
2 comments:
My dentist cancelled in June and recently sent a "don't call us, we'll call you" text. My area has hairdressers closing from midnight although my hairdresser will still be open because I'm two miles from the county boundary and less stringent restrictions. I haven't seen her since February and it looks as if I might have to recharge the clippers before we are through this.
Have you seen our latest chapter in "making things up as we go along"? Last week it was going to be two jabs three weeks apart and now it's going to be twelve weeks. Let's make the manufacturers jump through all the hoops for certification, start the vaccination programme and then decide to do something different.
Wow on the vaccinations, Caroline. As for that, who knows when mere mortals (as opposed to some health care workers and politicians) will get them in the US, much less the second dose? More vaccines might be approved by then.
I need to make a dentist appointment, and a car appointment...maybe next year. ;-)
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