Rain

The rains have returned, and it is dark when I get up in the morning.  Summer is definitely over.  Our longest journey, in miles, over the summer was 80 miles north to spend the afternoon with our daughter and her family — masked and socially distanced.  We have friends who went to the coast and even farther, but we’ve been reluctant to expose ourselves.  Timidity or reasonable caution?  Who’s to tell?

Each of us has decided our risk tolerance.  We have shopped inside grocery stores but are reluctant to go in a department store.  We visit Andrea’s brother in his house but won’t go inside others.  We get takeout but won’t sit inside a restaurant.  We spent a week with our son during the fires, but we each got a test before we started the week.  (Of course, we have learned in the last few weeks the limits of relying on tests.)

I’ve learned that the air quality index only goes to 500.  During the wildfires here I saw a reading of 508.  The air was very bad.  We’re glad to be over that and now have the rain to wash the air.  Too many people, though, lost their homes in the fires.  We were lucky to have only bad air for a week and a home to return to.

Yesterday was beautiful, perhaps the last fine day this season.  Today it rains.

We dream of road trips but will remain home for now.  Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Wisconsin all have surging covid cases.  Even Oregon, which has done a very good job of limiting infection, has had a concerning increase in new daily cases.  We remain home.  Perhaps the dark and rain will make it easier to stay in.