Cold and COVID

Today we got our first shot of COVID vaccine and welcomed the opportunity.  My buddy, Charles, says he’ll wait awhile, it’s too early.  His hesitancy is reinforced or perhaps rooted in the counsel of his older sister, a lifelong nurse who believes the vaccine has not had enough time to be proven, its potential side effects yet unrecognized.  I try to explain that it can only work if we all participate, but my words are for naught.  He can ward off sickness with his mind, he says, and has 69 years of experience to back him up.  Such facts are not to be tampered with.

It’s ten degrees this morning, twenty in town.  Our house is in a hole, a natural frost pocket where cold settles on clear and calm winter nights.  I once ran a test and found a ten degree difference between the house and the county road up the hill.  It’s oddly satisfying being in the hole.  There is something purifying in deep cold and we welcome it, but only for short spurts.  If it lingers too long it seeps through walls and across the floor so our feet get cold and pipes freeze and the appeal is lost.  But for now it’s good, and the long term forecast says more is coming. The cross country ski trails we broke a couple days ago will be slick and fast today, so my stiff, overworked triceps need to get over it.  Exuberance awaits.

We went to grad school in the snow belt of Lake Superior where the attitude towards winter was markedly different than anything we’d experienced.  There, winter would arrive and it snowed frequently and substantially, perhaps 300 inches before the season called it quits, and life would go on through the thick of it.  There were no mad dashes to the grocery, no rush to stock up on bread and milk.  The stores would be open, the roads reasonably cleared, school would be in session.  There was a level of calm expectation and preparedness as the season arrived, where outside the snow belt there was uncertainty and apprehension.  Maybe those living further south only think they dislike snow when in fact it’s the lack of predictability and reliability that’s the problem.  Not knowing if winter will be snowy and cold makes planning more difficult and less certain.

The vaccination process was smooth and efficient.  Lee and I had appointments ten minutes apart, showed up early, and were out the door before our appointment times expired.  We’ll go back in a month to complete the process, then we wait and see if the world complies.  Finding a remedy to the virus is like every other problem— each has a solution. We needed a vaccine and developed two in record time. Then we needed to get it administered, which got off to a dismally rocky start so there are now COVID mutations and hybrids and the finish line might be moving backwards.  The virus struggles to mutate when it lacks hosts, so we need total participation. Does this not make sense, Charles?

I’m not a good skier but I get through the process so long as the turns are on fairly level ground. Today the blazed ski trail did not disappoint.  The glide was good, the kick secure.  I stopped midway and took my pulse just by being still and listening to my heartbeat.  By the end of the second lap I could feel sweat rolling down my arms.  The sun was bright, the snow covered in diamonds. There was no sound but the squeak of poles pivoting in icy snow and the swish of skis moving through a world of white. Exuberance.