It does. It seems that our uneasy truce with the pandemic is ending. The news is full of dire warnings about hospital capacity and new case and death records every day, both in CA and nationwide. A full lockdown is pretty much in effect starting tomorrow for Socal. More than 200K news cases in the US every day now, and more than 2K deaths each day. It’s grim.

So I may have to rethink the “rules of engagement” that have worked for me so far. For months I’ve managed to keep life mostly normal by mask-wearing in public, using hand sanitizer after shopping, avoiding any prolonged stays indoors (other than where I’m living), and figuring outdoor activities like golf and hiking are safe. But with positivity rates skyrocketing everywhere in the US…it’s time to consider some changes. Maybe it’s as simple as hunkering down even harder from now to Christmas. About the only place I come into contact with friends is on the golf course (outdoors!), so that’s pretty much the activity that would suffer.

I sure wish the US had pulled a Melbourne months ago. Thousands of people would still be alive, and we wouldn’t be in this no-win situation. But as POTUS 45 says, “it is what it is”. He’s a real philosopher, that one.