Three years ago

Didya ever think we would be at the cusp of a New Year with 587 deaths from a trash piece of RNA in little ole Larimer County, once COVID arrived on our shores in March 2020?

Three years ago, we were welcoming the New Year in complete ignorance of what was brewing in China, soon to arrive in the U.S. Well, most of us were. I wasn't. But it is hard to convince people that something is vastly different from risks overblown before. People are skeptical of anything that they can't see with their own eyes, or have presented to them as real by someone they viciously dislike. I would say most people reading this would belittle the number 587, as if it was no different from deaths due to car accidents or strokes or heart disease or pneumonia. Of course, our life expectancy in the U.S. has decreased since 2020, our replacement rate in various states of the union is at risk of further tottering into negativity (meaning more people are dying in Alabama, for example, than birth occuring to replace them). But whatever. Look the other way and be happy. The vaccine was a death shot, and while it most assuredly didn't kill 587 people in Larimer County like avoiding the vaccine did, it probably killed someone, if you are drunk enough or stupid enough or search through 4chan enough to convince yourself. Joe Holtzman is still on the Board of Adjustment. Joe Holztman posted in social media that the vaccine was a death shot. The reason we are where we are in the course of the vaccine and the course of SARS-CoV-2 is because, luckily, only a few morons believed him. Of course, these 587 deaths mean "something" to the families of the 587 dead, but whatever, you can ignore their anger or dismiss their puzzlement or ask them when they are going to get over their grief from something that could have been prevented, not by them, but by you, by wearing a mask and getting vaccinated and taking a pandemic even somewhat seriously. Were any of these things too great an ask? Welcome to 2023. As long as you aren't dead, you can still believe anything you want. Except for that slight problem of passing a disease on to someone less capable of fighting it off, you are golden, and your dooky don't smell. But I'm guessing selfishness and how to avoid it was never one of your strong points. May your funeral be attended by people obligated to attend, like close fmaily living in town who could come up with a quick enough excuse.