163. A Perfect Day

The sun is rising out my window, and Chief Joseph Mountain is bright against the sky. There is snow on it, lots of snow, as there is in my yard and on the yards and fields of neighbors. Plenty of snow means plenty of water later in the year.  The air is as clean as the new snow. No hint of gaseous poisonings. No noise, no rumblings of engines, sirens of ambulances, police cars or fire trucks. The dog went out at 5:30, when I got up in the dark. She’s waiting patiently for our walk with the rising sun. It’s about 10 degrees, right for this time of year. I’ll wear a warm jacket and cleats on my feet for the walk. She’ll chase real and imagined cats and deer, and I’ll rein here in with a noise collar.

 

I’ll go to work in my other home, the Josephy Center. It’s a beautiful log building full now of “Abstract Landscape” art. And, of course, full of books in my enclave, the library. I’ll work there from 10 till noon, and then host friend John Frohnmayer for a noon zoom “Brown Bag” discussion of Sport and Philosophy; Ethics in Golf; Skiing and Mysticism. 

 

It could be a perfect day… but there is the undercurrent of Covid lapping at us. The news from a friend that his daughter’s heart surgery has been postponed in Portland because of Covid; another friend waits with a painful knee to get it fixed, waiting because of Covid. And there is news in the local paper about retired veterinarian Sam Morgan falling, breaking his back, going hypothermic, being life-flighted out. Boise had too much Covid to keep him there in recovery. I think he’s in Seattle.

 

Wallowa County’s Covid numbers surged last week, as did the State’s. They might be coming down, but hospitalizations and deaths lag behind numbers. And, once again, most of those being hospitalized and dying are unvaccinated. Even though there are “breakthrough” cases of the vaccinated, in Wallowa County and in the State, about 70 percent of us are vaccinated, and we account for maybe 30 percent of the infections. Oregon Health Authority reminds us that the odds against hospital and death are much higher for the unvaccinated.

 

It’s increasingly difficult to be generous towards those who refuse vaccinations, become sick, and take up hospital beds that others need.