Stamp cake to Lauren (complacency + enduring hardship)

Paul Antonio update: He is home from the hospital. 

He will need to recuperate before he reschedules his classes. 

Why do I have two pictures? I guess I forgot that I took one at home. Clearly, the second one was taken in the car, sitting in front of Bauder's. It's an old-time soda fountain within walking distance of my house. They also combined their business with a guy who had a very popular local donut shop - and he lost the lease on his building - so the soda fountain took him in. Now, I have to figure out ways to talk myself out of chocolate long johns. The soda fountain makes all of its ice cream on site. They have been featured in national publications more than once. If anyone cares to drop in for a visit, I will gladly take you to Bauder's to celebrate. Next year, for Lauren's birthday, she might want to just hop on a plane and visit Des Moines. I bet she's never been here. Just kidding Lauren, California is way cooler than Iowa. Although, we're way out of the range of forest fires. Floods, tornados, and derechos - not so much.

I was disappointed in how this envelope turned out, but, I will refrain from listing all the things that are wrong with it. It's all pandemic related.

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The daily rant. 

More of a plead.

Geesh I hope none of you are becoming complacent. It's pointless to relate some of the truly discouraging things that a person can find to read these days. If I were to go back to the early days of the pandemic, I recall re-posting a commentary from someone who had been somewhere in Europe during some kind of lockdown that lasted a couple years. It was not health related, as I recall it was political. He wrote about the types of things that people did to get through it and explained some of the feelings people went through. Maybe I should go back and find it....  

It seems like complacency keeps sneaking in. I know I have to give myself a little reminder from time to time. It is so tempting to think that it might be OK to venture out and do something. But, it's not. Be vigilant. If you just feel like sending me a really long rant, go right ahead. I am currently sitting in a pied-a-terre - in the middle of winter in Iowa, filling a lotta hours with the blog. 

Maybe I should learn how to insert an accent on pied-à-terre.

That was a copy/paste.

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I found the post that I mentioned earlier. If you have lots of time to kill -- you might want to read it again. I did  - and it has a lot of information. I imagine most of us can relate to some of the things the man talks about - his ordeal was 4 years.

Link to a previous post  about enduring hardship.

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Real time P.S. 

Complacency nailed one of my son's friends. He had a small gathering of 8 people on New Year's eve and one guest had no symptoms, but exposed everyone and the host has tested positive.