And then the ride back. Bonnie Raitt. A nice relaxing drive up through Maryland and into PA.

Too many people without masks though. Too many crowded bars. I feel better about being outside, safer, but? The calculated risk. I need to get used to this. There seems to be a spectrum with attitudes towards Covid, from completely cavalier (scamdemic) to completely paranoid. What’s the right answer? I think my situation and realities of my life pushed me into a 5-6? I’m aware, read a lot, believe it’s there but also know I need to be on the road, so I do what I must. My friend is closer to 9-10 on the spectrum scale, which isn’t an awful thing. We don’t know enough about this virus yet, or the true implications of getting it. Everything that I read points towards very bad outcomes, like the 17 year old that just had to have a double lobe lung transplant. Or the surprise party in Texas that turned into a surprise for everybody with 13 new Covid cases and three deaths. Someone killed Grandma and Grandpa.

But what can you really do? The person that I get all of my information from is the only person I trust on the topic. Chuck Thompson (Yod–Your other Dad) has been in healthcare for over 60 years. A retired Colonel in the US Army, he’s been a nurse, leader, educator, researcher and is now retired so has the time to really research all of the information coming out about Covid–and he knows how to read it. I’d love to go see him before I leave, but I can’t. Montgomery County, MD is a hot spot, with regular new cases and deaths. YoD and his wife are both immune compromised and older (he is the father of a grade school friend). They have essentially barricaded themselves in their home. It is an option that is not totally unappealing, but also impossible for me and most.