Here and there...

Are you getting tired of COVID? I am. That's not to say that I'm not still taking prudent precautions (wearing a mask in public and practicing social distancing) and I have yet to visit a restaurant or bar now that they are able to reopen. The gym we go to just reopened Monday and they put up some pictures of the occasion. Not a mask in site and social distancing seemed non-existent. Class size is however limited to a maximum of 9 participants in rooms that used to accommodate 30 plus. While that may be nice for the 9 folks lucky enough to get in it raises inevitable questions of the value of maintaining our memberships for the rest of us.

The Red line represents Google 
searches for COVID

The airwaves and social media are still crowded with COVID this and COVID that, but as tends to happen with any news item it inevitably is forced to eventually make room for other news events. Of course, the predominant other non-COVID item that is front and center right now is the phenomenon of the George Floyd death at the hands of police and the resulting, and continuing protests. Google statistics on COVID show the drop in people searching for COVID-related topics since the peak in March while those for George Floyd continue to skyrocket even surpassing, I'm sure to his chagrin, searches for Donald Trump.

Which will we be talking about a year from now? COVID, Floyd, or Trump? Or none of the above? I hope COVID is not still dominating the headlines in June 2021 and there's a chance that November might take Mr. Trump out of the spotlight. On the other hand, if in 2021 we're not still talking at some level about the repercussions of Mr. Floyd's death then perhaps shame on us.

Meanwhile life goes on. I'm still waiting, thanks to - guess what - COVID- for my cardiac rehab to begin. While miniscule in the grand scheme of things my little heart event in April was a big bump on my road through this thing called life and I'm treating the fact that I'm still alive as a second chance at living it to the fullest. I continue to be a walking fool as it's the only exercise (other than my wife's Honey Do list) that I'm ok'd to do. I've had the chance to get up to the High Country in the last week and surprisingly feel very good at 10,000 feet. In part its due to it being cooler up there than the hot temps Denver has been experiencing but I also think the repair they made to my heart by removing the 99% blockage in one of my arteries has actually made it easier for me to breath 'up high'. 

And when I say it's cooler up there, yesterday we woke to four inches of fresh Rocky Mountain powder. The day before we did a 5 mile hike through the Leadville Mining District on a picture perfect Colorado day with temps in the 60's. Here's a short video recap of some of that walk (I'm not allowed to 'hike' yet so between you and me we'll just consider it a wee little stroll). There's even a short clip of a young lady participating in my favorite activity of mountain biking and perhaps from the clip you'll understand why I miss it so. 

I had also put up a video detailing what actually happened to me in April that landed me in the Intensive Care Unit at Littleton Adventist Hospital. The video above is certainly a more happy subject but somebody might at some point go through what I experienced so thought I'd share...

I'm certainly looking forward to making more of the happy type of videos that I usually put up. If only 2020 will cooperate!