It’s the coldest part of the winter for us here in the White Mountains. In years past, we’ve seen negative temperatures quite frequently this time of year. That’s not happening so much this year. It seems to be a pretty mild winter. We haven’t had a lot of snow, either, although right now I am watching a few flakes fall out of the sky. We had about an inch or two overnight. I do like to see the light snowfall. It makes everything look so pretty.

Our COVID numbers reflect the spread that’s happening within a community that’s more closed-up as we are this time of year. There are currently 1401 cumulative positive cases in the county with 156 active at the present time. There are still only 4 deaths in the county linked to COVID.

Our vaccine rollout seems to be slow. We moved into phase 1B which allows the vaccination of persons 65 or older, the medically vulnerable, intellectual and developmental disability residential facilities, correctional facility staff, and remaining health workers and first responders. I corresponded with my son’s healthcare providers and they are recommending him for the vaccine in this stage. Right now, that means waiting for a phone call. I’ve heard some people over 65 already can’t get appointments until April, so I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be waiting. The woman I spoke with at the COVID unit of the hospital seemed to think it would be a lot sooner than that.

To go back to work after traveling to Florida, Danny had to have his first COVID test. We did that Friday. He hated it. I asked him which was wore, getting the COIVD test or getting the infusion of remicaide he gets every 8 weeks to keep his Crohn’s disease in remission. He said the COVID test. It was negative, as I expected it to be. I will breathe a sigh of relief once he’s been vaccinated though.

I have to get my third COVID test this Saturday. It’s a pre-op test. Next Tuesday I get another botox treatment on my bladder and I have to have that done and stay out of the general public until Tuesday. I am not looking forward to it. I went through a bout over the weekend of being very tired. I know it wasn’t COVID, but I’m not sure what caused it. It could have been physical from cutting the carbs out of my diet again, or it could have been depression setting in. With no real trips anywhere in my future, it’s kind of depressing to look ahead at the next year.

I was anxious to get home after nearly 3 weeks away. I wanted to see my granddaughter and my dogs and cats and everything else, but with nothing else on the horizon I feel trapped. Travel is how I’ve coped with the depression that settles in my soul at times. Even looking to spend a long weekend anywhere right now runs up against travel restrictions. Maybe it will change once it warms up, but with there being snow on the ground I don’t go geocaching so I am pretty much stuck in the house. I’d have to drive quite a distance right now to get to where there’s no snow on the ground and it doesn’t make sense to do that for one day. I’d end up too tired to do much geocaching.

On the good news front, January 26th was the anniversary of the premier of Babylon 5. Yesterday, on the 27th anniversary of that premier, they dropped a remastered collection of the five seasons. They are available to stream on HBO Max and for purchase from Amazon Prime and Itunes. I can tell you they are amazing! The picture is so much better than it was on my DVDs. The effects are good; not perfect but very much improved. When I played the DVDs the picture on my wide-screen television showed all of the flaws that weren’t that easily seen 27 years ago on a much smaller television with a lower resolution. I had subscribed to HBO Max for Wonder Woman 1984, and I’m so glad I didn’t cancel it yet (I was planning to this week).

Watching the series again made me realize I never finished reposting my reviews of the DVDs of Babylon 5. I’m going to try to make sure I do that over the next couple of weeks. Once I’m done going through Star Trek: The Original Series I’m going to start on Babylon 5. Epinions never had that series listed by individual episodes, so I never reviewed it that way. It’ll be great to take a break from Star Trek and do that.

Here’s hoping everyone stays warm and well for the next few weeks, at least!