Amazingly the humidity has disappeared from the air this early morning. Temperatures as I set out have dropped a good 15° from what they were yesterday. Walking in short sleeves and nylon shorts the first 100 yards of striding are crisp.
August is traditionally Michigan’s transitional weather. Often fall creeps in shortly after the 20th. Cool mornings, mild days and the hints of leaves ready to change color were common in years past. Not so much recently; real summer warmth has lately been lingering until after Labor Day. I won’t be here to see which is true of August this year.
Spent time yesterday online rearranging some details of my airline tickets to Europe. With the kafuffle that is air travel this year, each segment of my flight has changed several times. With each change in departure time or routing the airline has unilaterally imposed new seat assignments. Grabbing decent seats with less than two weeks remaining before I travel is not a pleasant experience. Everything I read says nothing about flying this year is pleasant. I note my family’s ultimate destinations airport will be suffering the effects from a two-day general strike when we get there. Sigh. Repeat after me, “I am one with the universe”.
It doesn’t take long to feel comfortable walking in this cooler weather. ‘Tis a moment of joy after days and days of oppressive heat and humidity. I don’t believe I’ve ever experienced such a long a stretch of both high temperatures and high humidity in Michigan. Floods, fires and heat waves are engulfing the world. Gaia seems to be working through some not so pleasant changes. Climate scientist say these various extreme weather phenomena are the signs of a rapidly warming planet. The changes are not over, they are accelerating. We need to take action to mitigate what is happening. At least I believe so.
After more than two and 1/3 years COVID-19 made its way into our house. The youngest brought the disease home from his workplace. Luckily, he had been vaccinated and boosted. His symptoms were similar to those of a bad cold or a mild flu. A very strict isolation was enforced. After five days of isolation no one else tested positive in the household. After eight days he is testing negative now and will return to work today. It will be just in time to give his two weeks’ notice.
My son’s Covid case will not show up in any federal database. I am assuming that he like millions upon millions of other Americans have self-tested at home and then not reported positive numbers to a health department or the CDC. I would guess very large portion of our population has now had the disease; a number far greater than has even been estimated. The pandemic is not over. At least we have antivirals and other medications to ameliorate much of the devastating consequences of the disease. But there is always the next variant… I plan to keep wearing my mask in larger group settings.
An additional note, the land around me is green again. What broke the hot and humid weather was a series of thunder and rain storms. Never felt so happy to feel drops of rain on my face. Michigan looks good in green.
A final note. 48 years ago this day, I travelled to the old Atlantic City Raceway to see a triple bill. I believe the opening act was Jesse Colin Young. Santana came on next and finally Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young took the stage. The day was momentous because President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation became official. The crowd was ebullient because a dark cloud over our democracy was lifting. I was there with Larry Dougherty, Kathy Logiovino, and Dot Huber. We endured rain and lightning to get to that moment at the end of the concert when CSN&Y broke out an incredible version of Ohio. 50,000 people were singing at the top of their lungs, “Four Dead in Ohio,” again and again. It was a hymn; it was an exclamation mark marking the end of years of darkness. Now if only the Florida raid is the dot drawn first at the bottom of a soon to be finished exclamation mark marking the end of another era of darkness.
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