Category Archives: travel

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sweep

sweep through the woods
sweep past the forest
the car winds along the road
we are warm inside

new broom sweep clean
new years starts again
old broom used and worn
old year illness torn

new broom brought to floor
new year contemplated
old broom set aside
old year must abide

new broom awkward feel
new year challenge real
old broom may have use
old year research truth

__________________________

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt.

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hollow

The Ragtag Daily Prompt today is hollow. Hollow, halloween, hollow promises, and hallowed promises. Which is it?

My friend in Michigan was teaching his three children to use a fire extinguisher at Thanksgiving. What a wonderful use for the hollow rotting Halloween pumpkin! They each got a chance to use the fire extinguisher and put out the fire. Emergency preparedness on Thanksgiving Day! That is an example of wonderful parenting as far as I am concerned.

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freezing level

Yesterday a trip to Forks is in order. There is snow around Lake Crescent and you can see the freezing level part way up the mountain. It is beautiful as we rise into the pass between the Elwha Valley and the Sol Duc Valley. In the Sol Duc Valley there is less snow at road level, but it’s still in the mountains. A gorgeous day.

In the Sol Duc Valley.
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Covid-19: omicron

So far, it looks like the Omicron variant is more infectious and less virulent.

“This is good, right? you say, “We can all just get it, then we are immune, move on with our lives.”

There are three, no, four major problems that I can think of right off the bat.

1. Long Haul Covid. We do not know if Omicron will cause Long Haul Covid. This is a big deal. The numbers right now are suggesting that one third of the people who get Covid-19, even a mild case, still have problems at six months out and twelve months out. Are you willing to take a one in three chance? Not me! We do not know how to fix Long Haul Covid-19, we don’t know what it is (even though I have suspicions) and some people can’t even get out of bed. This is bad.

2. Omicron will be happily playing with Delta and trading genes and making NEW babies. As one math joker says, “hey, don’t screw up Pi for us.” We could get a version with the infectious capacity of Omicron and the virulence of Delta. This is also bad.

3. We don’t know what it will do to small children and babies and the very old and the immunosurpressed and Covid-19 turns out to infect fat cells which is theoretically why overweight and obese people in their thirties are dying with it. The doc group I am in on Facebutt is reporting a 5% survival with long term ECMO (heart lung bypass machine) and that people may need to be on the machine for months. Like, eight months. This requires two nurses at all times, not to mention a specialist. A few places report 30% survival, but they also say that they say NO a lot and refuse people they think will not survive. Might as well pick the ones that might survive, right?

4. We don’t know if the drugs we have right now work against it. Some may, some may not. Starting over.

So, I still say get immunized if you haven’t and get boosted if you have. Get your influenza shot too. The masks are helping with influenza this year too, but if flu really got a hold, flu in post-covid would be a very very effective killer. And if you are 65* you should get your prevnar vaccine, for pneumococcal pneumonia. It used to be called “the old man’s friend” because it’s such an effective killer of people 65 and up. The new shingles vaccine, yeah, get that too. Do you feel like a pincushion yet?

No word yet from my immunologist. If I am not making antibodies to Covid-19, do I cancel my Christmas trip? Dunno. Will wait to hear.

Happy whatever you celebrate.


1. https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/02/world/south-africa-omicron-origins-covid-cmd-intl/index.html?utm_source=fbCNN&utm_medium=social&utm_content=2021-12-02T13%3A31%3A02&utm_term=link&fbclid=IwAR0NySrFr-I_ieYmVMQawstw6-oEGlxf32MgcbKyLz8RvpdHHGfzZ678XTY

2. https://robinschoenthaler.medium.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-omicron-that-we-dont-know-yet-d85bdd64d76e

3. https://longbeach.gov/press-releases/omicron-variant-of-covid-19-virus-found-in-long-beach/. Yep, in my state.

4. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/omicron-variant.html

* Or are younger and have heart disease, lung disease or anything really complicated, like cancer, lupus, autoimmune stuff, etc, etc.