The return journey

I'm really glad I went home for Christmas. Mom has been pretty isolated because her friends are largely staying away, to protect her. She's been a brick through it all and it was just really nice to spend time together.

We tried one day to get a vaccine, when they announced there would be 50 vaccines at the health department at 1 pm on Sunday for people age 80 and over. We got downtown at 10:45 and sat at the back of a line of cars a couple of blocks long. Mostly SUVs, all with engines running. For hours. Because this is Murka and we don't believe in climate change (you'd want to see the long line of cars with engines running at Starbucks all day, every day). Around 11:45, they let cars into the health department car park. We were the last car let into the car park, however we then learned that mom was #51. Bummer. Great system though. Not.

My flight from London to Dublin was canceled due to Covid. Instead of driving to Dulles and flying to Dublin via London, I drove to Columbus and flew to Chicago and then straight to Dublin. It was very complicated rearranging the flights and rental car but I'm just delighted I could get home. I had a fear of not being allowed back in to London or Dublin or Northern Ireland. Cases are spiking everywhere and travel becoming more restricted. The bummer is I didn't get to see either Dara or Kyle on my way to Dulles, as I had hoped.

I took routes 50 and 33 to Columbus from Parkersburg--spending the whole time in rural Ohio. I kept thinking of Chrissie Hynde's song about paving over farmland for malls and suburbia. Not the case here. However, I wonder what her lyric would be today? I passed billboards for: opiod addiction, ambulance chasing lawyers "Have you been hit by a truck?", and guns "All your ammunition needs." Kind of tells its own story.

Jan. 8-9