We made it through the first full week of August without burning to a crisp, being washed away by raging floodwaters, or dying because our arrogance prevented us from taking basic measures to prevent infection by an out-of-control killer virus. And there’s your Gibberish for this week, too. Clever, I thought, particularly for around 1,600 words of nothing all that interesting. I did write about a dream I had that might make a good bit of fiction for someone with more skill with words than me.
Okay. It’s probably not something to worry about, but I’ve been exposed to someone who’s been exposed to COVID-19. Long story short, one of Momma’s fellow church members has been diagnosed with COVID and didn’t find out until after the last meeting. This was a week ago today, the older lady in question isn’t showing anything serious. She, Momma, and I have all been properly vaccinated, and here at Enon Holler World Headquarters, everything seems cool.
That all being said, the explosion of COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant and exacerbated by the dingbats who continue to refuse to get vaccinated is shaping up to ruin my fall. I was planning on visiting friends in Athens and New Orleans over the next couple of months, but that’s on hold. New Orleans must be getting bad, as they’ve announced that Jazz Fest won’t happen this year. It’s usually held in April and May, but they pushed it back to the first two weekends in October due to COVID. With Voodoo Fest scheduled for the last couple of weekends of October, that month promised to be a banger.
However, the city announced today that it was canceling the festival completely and hope to get back on the ball next Spring. The Rolling Stones were scheduled to play on October 13 but they announced Charlie Watts wouldn’t be playing earlier this week. Voodoo Fest has also been canceled. French Quarter Fest, which usually happens in April, is still scheduled for the last weekend in September. It focuses on Louisiana music has grown to massive proportions over the past 10 years. It’s still a good time, especially if you dig Cajun or zydeco music, but it’s also free and folks are packed into the Vieux Carré. So I wonder.
Athens’ music festival, AthFest usually happens in July but this year it’s scheduled for that last weekend in September. It’s still scheduled to go down and, right now, Athens isn’t having the COVID boom New Orleans is. But time will tell, and in any event, it’s probably enough to put a kibosh on my plans to ramble. Even worse, my brother’s planning on coming out at the end of this month. He’s already got his ticket and we haven’t seen him since the Thanksgiving before last. Again, who knows and time will tell.
The speed the Delta variant has overtaken things is catching a lot of people with their pants down, but they weren’t paying attention in the first place. Florida’s excuse for a governor, Ron DeSantis, is fighting any sort of mask mandate for schools even as his state leads the nation in hospitalized kids. He’s promising vouchers for schools that do as he says, which is probably at the root of all this. The GOP would love to get rid of public education or even access to public education for the “wrong sort.”
For the third time this week, Florida’s broken hospitalization records, ones that go back to the beginning of the pandemic. More than one right-wing journalist or GOP party official who’d spent the last year raving conspiracy theories about how it’s all a hoax have gotten sick and died over the past fortnight. It shows no sign of slowing down.
Y’all, get the damn shot. You’re running out of excuses and we’re all running out of patience and time.
Dear Y'all 