Sequestered in Seattle, Day 404

Monday, back to school and work after spring break, went smoothly. The weather was fine again, but not as warm as the weekend. Nicole and I watered the yard after breakfast. The new schedule is pretty leisurely. If only the sun, and the younger son, would stop waking me up so early.

I baked a loaf of bread this morning, then came up from my office about 11:30 to make lunch. That was enough time for Colin and Lydia to eat before their classes began, and Eric's sandwich was ready for him when he finished his class.

I made pizza after work. Lydia helped me with the toppings, while the boys went with Nicole to Ken's to pick up ingredients for Eric's classes later in the week. After dinner, I went outside to sit in the back yard and read a chapter of my book. A Steller's jay visited me briefly. Then after Nicole came out, too, we had a long visit from a spotted towhee, followed by a raccoon sighting.

The raccoon was walking along our fence from front to back when it saw us and stopped. We tried to get up to allow it to pass, since it seemed clear it wouldn't proceed with us there, but getting up seemed to frighten it, too, and it hopped back down onto the neighbors' fence. We went over to look for it a minute later, but there was no sign of it. This happened again a few minutes later. I thought perhaps if we stopped looking at it, it would proceed, but that didn't help. It eventually made its way along the other side of the fence. The dogs came out a few minutes later and seemed interested in whatever had left that scent.

Colin lost both of his front teeth today, the first during his class right after lunch, and the other during reading time, with help from his parents. His speech is noticeably affected. Tonight's family reading brought us further clues to the meaning of the title, Over Sea, Under Stone.

Nationwide COVID-19 cases have increased about 30% from their minimum in the last couple months, and in Washington State they have almost doubled. Meanwhile, three million vaccine doses a day has brought us to over 130 million first doses, almost half of the eligible population. Demand remains high in Seattle. There are few places reporting availability, and the appointments they have schedule quickly.

I saw an opinion piece on Slate today calling for an end of wearing masks outdoors. This might even be a good idea. But to write or publish such a piece at this moment without any mention of the variants seems irresponsible. The conclusions are drawn from old data. I don't know if anyone knows whether they still hold. The failure to mention variants gives me little confidence that the author does, either.