Featured Refresh
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We’re seeing dramatic differences in rates of COVID infection, illness, and death in different places. What do you think about these differences?
This is a photo of our local emergency room with empty triage tents outside of it, taken from inside our car. We were passing by on our way home from getting drive-through flu shots which we could get because our insurance is really good and our doctors are very caring. Somehow everything about this picture sums up for me how we have access to ways to take care of our health that other people don't get. Black and brown and poor people are dying at so much higher rates. Even when wealthy white people like the president and his entourage get sick, they don't even think it's a big deal because they are already insulated and pampered, and can get expensive, cutting edge medical treatment with no problem. If all of us tried to keep each other safe, and if essential workers got excellent care and protection, we'd see a very different pattern.
October 7, 2020
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
This past week I put my dog in the car and went up to Empire, Michigan to take pictures and look for pretty rocks and fossils. I wanted to see how well [she] travels. She did fine. I was a bit anxious, though, I didn't need to be. She did accidentally lock me out of the hotel room. I went to the car, which was parked right outside the door, jumped up on the door, and turned the dead bolt. Inside the room were my keys and my phone. Other guests called the owners several times. As soon as they got the voicemails, they phoned to say they would be there soon. It was cold and very windy up north, but I got a few good pictures. It was too cold to do any serious fossil hunting along Lake Michigan's shores. But going up there marked a further nudge into normalcy. I woke up this morning to find we had had our first frost, so it's time to bring in the green tomatoes in the hopes they will ripen on the counter top. And I promised a friend that I would collect marigold flowers and freeze them. Her daughter makes dye from them. I wonder how long this bubble of normal will last before a new variant scratches at our warped sense of reality.
November 3, 2021