Storm Clouds Are Gathering

Storm clouds are gathering.

I expected things to settle down more during the summer. I was wrong, they have not. I will say I am glad I took action to move out of California when I did. Where I lived in California currently has the worst air quality in the world, surrounded by fires from  3 sides and ocean from another. I am glad I left as I don't see the fires or any other other problems in California getting better any time soon. The University of California now requires an annual flu vaccine for all students and staff by November 1, 2020. Other states like Massachussets are also pushing for mandatory vaccines in order to attend school. 

​"Massachusetts will require all schoolchildren to get influenza vaccines to stay enrolled in public schools and day cares. The mandate makes it the first state to require flu shots for children over the age of 5.

These steps are all preparation for a covid vaccine in the near future. I have said it won't be required unless you want to do any number of things that will involve the public space. Truth is, I haven't been following this very closely lately. I see the direction things are going. I have taken the steps I can. Because I am not on social media and haven't been for a long time I am not hit with the constant back and forth of opinions and heresay out there. I'm preparing for winter. I'm trying to get everything ready. I don't know if Caden will be able to go to school or not. It was set to start and now is canceled for a couple of weeks due to an elevator repair necessary for the "social distancing" protocols. We'll see what happens. It will be interesting to see the development of school age children while all of this is going on. Online schooling will inevitably push society towards more advanced and invasive technology. 

I expect September 11th, Halloween and especially the election in November to be extremely chaotic, by design. I originally thought that by next spring things would settle down but I don't think things will ever go back to pre- covid "normal". ​I can't imagine that Christmas or New Years will be calm or peaceful in places that aren't cold. 

I spoke to a woman the other day. I mentioned that I had moved from California. She said "Rats! I have a daughter there that can't get out." Rats I asked? She told me that the homeless populations in southern California is now so bad that there are severe rat infestations. This is one of those things you don't think about. Everything feeds something else. I see that 5g, Covid, and fires will all increase homelessness in CA and in turn rats will have their time to shine. Strange.
 
I thought our airbnb would take a while to get steady bookings with everything going on, but we are booked solid, every day, for weeks. People want to get back to nature and out of the cities. I see this trend continuing. 

The day that covid hit Angela and I got food poisoning. We were sitting in our old home in CA, puking our guts out and I remember saying "plan on our wedding and honeymoon being cancelled." We had to quickly shift to get out of there. We look back on it now with some humor as we made our initial plans to save ourselves amidst multiple trips to the bathroom. 

The move has come with many sacrifices. In some ways it has been very hard but there have also been so many rewards. I remember saying "if we hit August 31 and still haven't left, we leave it all behind and drive away." I'm glad it didn't come to that. We had a major court battle to be able to move with Caden which was very costly but thankfully worked out in our favor just in the knick of time. We worked multiple jobs while juggling with Caden at home, and as great of a kid as he is, I was really looking forward to a break with him at school. I'm sure he was excited about more socialization too. Now that it's delayed we are back to the drawing board to find more margin. Even with all the curve balls that have been thrown at us, I am still so glad we made the move when we did. 

I urge you not to fall into the trap of going directly from "it's too soon" to "it's too late." Many of the people I've said this to directly have 5 or more times the wealth and access to resources we do, but even as bad as things are now, they can't seem to let go. Be flexible. Don't get attached to things. Find ways to enjoy the little things in life that you can while all this is happening. There have always been struggles in life. What you do with those struggles defines the life you have. Storm clouds are gathering. Winter is coming.

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