BY MICHELE MILLER
What’s What New Port Richey
Life sometimes demands you take a break and so as it happens I have been spending some time away from the blog, tending to tasks of a personal nature during what looks to be a “Two Weddings and a Funeral” kind of summer road trip.
There has been a melding of emotions – joy, sadness, hope, and a wary relief – that we can finally get around to celebrating the delayed nuptials of our niece and our daughter and her fiancee, and the life of my father who died in October 2020.
Our well-trodden path presents a series of ups and downs, highs and lows. This familial trek has been just that as the old man and I traipse from the southeast to the northeast and finally to the midwest in our new-to-us Subaru Outback.
It sure is a beautiful country, I’m thinking, as we skirt Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and travel I-90 through the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and the Lake Erie Concord Grape Belt in upstate New York.
Along the way, we cross off one bucket list item with a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and stop to take a few pictures of the outside of the Christmas Story House in Cleveland, Ohio. While we typically would visit more museums and restaurants, it doesn’t seem prudent these days.
The Delta variant of COVID continues to rear its ugly head, giving rise to more infections, particularly in Florida.
Yes, I have been away, but I’m still keeping up, gaining insight into what’s happening at home while compiling the weekly “News Link Dump” for the blog that features an aggregated list of local news stories from various outlets.
If you haven’t heard, the numbers are horrendous.
Related
- Florida virus cases soar, hospitals near last summer’s peak, Associated Press
- Florida accounted for about a fifth of all new COVID-19 cases nationwide Wednesday Tampa Bay Times
- Florida reports another 17,589 COVID-19 cases Fox Tampa Bay
- Florida COVID update for Thursday: 17,589 new cases, 4th highest jump in pandemic history Miami Herald
- Another coronavirus variant has reached Florida. Here’s what you need to know. Washington Post
- Florida tops 16,000 COVID cases Tuesday, highest daily new cases since January, Tampa Bay Times
“You picked a good time to get out of Florida,” is an oft-repeated sentiment when I call to check in on the housesitter, friends and family members who are hunkering down in their homes again, or while conducting telephone interviews for an upcoming feature story I’m working on.
I’ve heard about breakthrough cases among the fully vaccinated. That hospitals are filling up…. again. That relatives working in the medical field are telling their loved ones to curtail social activities and get used to wearing masks…..again because they know what they see.
Fear and anger are added to the mix after fielding a long-distance phone call from my son in Tampa.
I can hear the anxiousness in his voice as he tells me how he and his wife are grappling with decisions over what direction to take. Our two granddaughters, ages three and seven, cannot be vaccinated at this time. Is it wise for the two flower girls to travel to Michigan for their aunt’s wedding? Would driving be better than flying? What to do about school?
The start of the school year is coming fast. The governor, who is gearing up for a presidential run, is going to great lengths to make sure everyone has a choice not to wear masks – vaccinated or not. That seems awfully counter-intuitive, to put it mildly.
Do parents keep kids home and enroll in Florida’s Virtual school program, or do they attend school donning masks with the hope that will be enough? The decision becomes more nuanced when kids have special needs as my granddaughters do. Going virtual could mean the eldest would lose her spot in a magnet school that has served her well for three years. Services she would benefit from would end.
How does a parent weigh options when there are no good choices?
I have no idea.
It’s discouraging – maddening – that we have yet to see common sense prevail in the bigger picture, as evidenced by the large swath of states feeding this pandemic with Florida leading the way.
“Try to stay in the day. Take a deep breath,” I tell my son, even as I try to quell my own anguish, disbelief, and anger that it has come to this. “But be sure to wear your mask.”
Looks like we’re in it for the long-haul……again.
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