Winter? What Winter?
To say this region's winter has been "mild" is almost an understatement for the 2020-2021 winter season.
The weather pattern that affected our area's weather is the same basic pattern that has been developing for the last few years. No longer are most of our storms coming from the Northwest and Alaska directions as they used to. Yes, a few storms still make it but most of the storms have shifted and are warmer and wetter as they blow from the Southwest and blow over from the Northern California and Oregon coasts.
Yes, there has been some snowfall too, the most at one time this year was about 8 or 9-inches and as with all the snowfall, within a few days of any snow the weather warms and the rains come washing the snow away. Or, as also happened, the weather would become pretty cold, we had a week of near and a couple of days of just a bit below zero temps but mostly lows in the 20s and low 30s at night and mid to upper 30s in the daytime. Then again it will warm and snow during the night only to turn to rain during the day with the highs getting into the low 40s.
Record cold was all over the news regarding the eastern and southern states? Those kinds of events used to be the pacific northwest and across the northern plains. Well, not so much anymore. The real snow went from Canada through central Montana and all points south and east from there this winter.
The vaccines are out!
Due to our job we were able to get our shots in January, the first dose, and February, the second dose of the Moderna vaccine. Getting their shots before us were nurses, law enforcement, and the assisted living facility.
It was quite a relief to get the shots. Instantly, well, after two weeks anyway, knowing we have a light at the end of the tunnel to the pandemic was a great feeling. The availability for getting the shots has really been ramping up the last few weeks and even here in Idaho, as of next Monday, April 5th, any adult in the state can start to get an appointment for their shots.
I know there are quite a few people that won't get the shots, that's stupid! But we know a couple at our office that are among those. One often talks about getting to the magical "herd immunity" without thinking that herd immunity will happen much faster if that 70 to 80% of people will get vaccinated!
The other is concerned that a vaccine was developed "too fast"??????????? As was said and was even in a documentary I saw from 2017, the basics for the vaccine used has been in development for almost twenty years! And in the TV documentary I saw, it was discussed that in 2017, there would be a "major" vaccine development in "about five years." Which would time it just about right for our collective adventure!
Oh well, this is also the area that a couple of weekends ago had a group of the idiot residents standing on both sides of the highway on a Sunday afternoon, and it is the main drag through town, with US flags waving, and signage about "Free Idaho" and "Burn the Masks." Stupid, just plain stupid! First, even with the recently canceled "mask mandates" no one has been enforcing the mandate except certain businesses. And those businesses still are requiring masks too. But almost no one, except those who really care about not getting it or taking a chance at spreading the virus, wears masks anymore anyway. So, free Idaho from what exactly?
Oh yes, here's one, under guise of "protecting resident's rights" the idiot trumper members of the state legislator have worked up a bill preventing any "Politician, Governor, Public Health Department, or Public Health Board" to mandate any mask order ever again. Yeah, that would have worked well over the last year. But, maybe the next Pandemic, and it WILL happen again, masks won't even protect people anyway? Then what?
The most interesting thing to me about crap like this is how it almost echoes what happened during the last world pandemic from the "Spanish Flu" (that originally started in Kansas in the USA) from 1918 to 1920. Businesses were closed, schools closed, million's died worldwide, masks were mandated and required. There are several good TV documentaries and books about the subject. A good audio book I've listened to is "More Deadly Than War: The Hidden History Of The Spanish Flu And The First World War" By Kenneth C. Davis. The short book (audio version) is around 4-hours and very informative and written years before our current Pandemic.
Yes, history does repeat itself. Or, as was well said in the early 2000's version of "Battlestar Galactica," "everything that's happened has happened before, and will happen again."
That does seem more real than it did before with just a little reading about history!
What are we planning for this summer?
Well, no real trips again until 2022 although Stacy and I will be taking our 5th Wheel to have some work done to it for a week in June. This last year after we had a weekend trip up to Canada in February, we didn't take any trips of any kind with the summer mostly locked down for the pandemic.
We did get a lot done on our property last summer and we have a slate of things to do this year too. We have quite a few trees to take out for various reasons but mostly for the health of our chunk of forest. Projects, Projects, Projects!!
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