Like a lot of you here, I like to observe my fellow men. I like to see how people react to things and often marvel at how different I am than so many these days. Lately, one of my favorite topics is what I'll call the "reopening movement". It started when the talk of coming back to the office started up. Three times in our phone/online unit meeting (we were all working remote) the boss just casually mentioned, "We'll all be returning at the end of the year." This comment is out of character for this guy. I've gotten to know and like him. But...this was a statement not only out of character, but out of context with the conversation. So, in my mind it was being floated...a test statement so upper management could gage our response. Finally, in the third meeting when it was brought up I (troublemaker) had to say something. "So, what is that based on?" Response - "Oh, the vaccine should be available then." The response to this answer was a long moment of silence from all of us until the boss nervously said, "Of course that's assuming it's effective...hahaha". I pointed out that a coronavirus vaccine has never been effective, so..... (secret...I'll be working even more remotely...)

I can't get too detailed, but I have had a close view of political leaders struggling to reopen everything. I've seen the same ones employ geographic, and even racial metrics to guide reoppening. Then...another clusterf*&k last week. My wife had me listen to a video by my daughter's school director, about 15 minutes, explaining in detail how the reoppening of her school will go (spaced out, masks, if somebody gets sick we'll contact trace them...). Never once did this guy mention the pandemic statistics. Not once. Right after I got done listening to that my wife got an email that included a memo from the county health director. Get this...There's a street near us that puts up a huge Christmas light display and people drive through at night to enjoy it from their cars. The official is shutting that down. But...we're talking of reopening schools. Maybe these two people should talk to each other and compare notes.

You may have noticed. It looks like we're entering a third phase of this pandemic here in America. I work close to this pandemic and still think this is a bad bug. I lost my dad to it. And, I've learned a lot about it. Pandemics wreck things. That's what they do. And, as my grandpa used to say, "Death is kinda permanent." I DO think this could be handled a lot better, which includes more freedom of choice by individuals on how to manage their own person. I'd like to see us get back to science a little bit in this hemisphere...