“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
Last weekend, on Friday, I spent time with friends, celebrating a birthday on a pontoon boat on Lake Mendota in Madison, WI on a hot, beautiful, late summer day. The next morning, I had brunch outdoors with three Pod Squad members (some of my quarantine bubble of friends and family), and continued the birthday celebration of one of our members. On Sunday, I setup and staffed the OutReach Magic Pride Festival outdoors at Olin Turville Park. We watched the entertainment program and speakers on a Jumbotron screen while people picnicked.
When the weekend was over, I realized I spent more time with people than I have in over 18 months, many who I didn’t know if they were vaccinated or not, including Pod Squad members, friends, and members of my LGBTQ+ community, unmasked outdoors. There was no guarantee during the latter event that everyone was vaccinated.
On Wednesday, at the OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center and members of the Madison Fire Department (MFD) Local 311 visited us to deliver a donation from their sales of MFD Pride-Themed T-shirts. The center reopened on August 16th and this was the largest in-person group in my workplace besides staff. We require masks yet people may enter the center who are unvaccinated.
Madison Fire Department (MFD) Local 311 and OutReach staff.
Yesterday, I visited my father in my hometown of Racine, WI. He’s 100 miles away from my home in Madison, so I can’t just drop in on him for a quick visit, or to check on him. Instead, before the pandemic and now again beginning this past Memorial Day weekend, we restarted our once-a-month in-person visits. My bio family is all vaccinated except some of the children, so for the most part we’re protected, however, the unvaccinated children are wild cards if they get infected, and my elderly father would be vulnerable.
When we discussed the COVID-19 booster shot, he said he’d wait until the rush of people getting the booster shot has waned. He did the same with his first round of shots so he’s probably protected until the end of the year. I plan on getting the booster vaccine as soon as it’s my turn. I also scheduled a flu shot for this week.
Pandemic 2.0 Photo Credit: Getty Images
Labor Day weekend, I have plans with chosen family, friends, and my bio family beginning Saturday with the wedding reception of two beloved Pod Squad members and chosen family. Both their reception and honeymoon trip were postponed last year because of the pandemic. So, their wedding reception can also be considered a 1st Wedding Anniversary Party! On Sunday, I celebrate the 1st Birthday of my grandniece, Declyn, with family. Both events are indoors, though we may spend time outdoors at the birthday party, weather permitting.
Beginning Monday, Labor Day, and through the following Monday, I’m taking my annual late summer/early fall Staycation (stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on the subject). Three days after Labor Day weekend, I may get tested for COVID-19, just to ensure I haven’t contracted a breakthrough infection since I will have been in contact with so many people over an 18-day period and it is unknown whether they were vaccinated, or not, infected, or not. I don’t have any symptoms today, yet if asymptomatic I don’t want to infect others.
Reality Check
Dispatch from the Hideout Series
When I drafted the Dispatch from the Hideout installment on May, 31,2021, Dispatch from the Hideout: My Post-Pandemic Life, like many others who were fully-vaccinated as the summer approached, I was optimistic about the future. Those of us who were vaccinated took a maskless sigh of relief, believing we could resume our pre-pandemic lives. We seemed on our way to reaching President Biden’s vaccination goal of 70% immunization by July 4th— until we weren’t.
Two months later, things changed — again! When I drafted my most recent blog post in the series, Dispatch from the Hideout: Two Steps Back on July 31, 2021, COVID-19 infections surged, primarily among the unvaccinated and people were referring to it as the pandemic of the unvaccinated. Southern states with the lowest vaccination rates had the largest increase in infections and the lowest availability of ICU beds and ventilators. Oh, My!
A little background for those new to my Dispatch from the Hideout series:
I began my Dispatch from the Hideout as a one-off essay in July 2017 to describe my reaction to events in the world and my need to retreat. I was also grieving the losses in my life, the most recent at the time was my mother’s death in 2016. I introduced the series as follows:
Now, before I go any further, it’s important that I share with you that my hideout is a virtual one. I don’t have a cabin in the woods, or a bunker in the basement, I only have my home, a 645 square foot apartment. It’s where I wake up in the morning, retreat at the end of the work day, hideout on the weekends when I’m writing or feeling introverted, and end my days, often falling asleep on the couch watching TV. Yeah, I’m that girl. I live alone and most days I’m happy with that choice.
I discovered that the Dispatch from the Hideout metaphor was a useful vehicle for me to express innermost feelings, like grief and gratitude, moments when I faced my shadow, or questioned my choices, plus the times when I reflected on the larger world of which I’m simply a member, navigating things outside of my control, yet still have an impact on my heart, mind, and spirit. The Hideout metaphor served me and soon became a series.
Circling back to the end of February 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic I was forced to spend more time in the Hideout to protect my physical health, safer-at-home, I soon discovered that the isolation also affected my mental. emotional, and spiritual health. When the Wisconsin Historical Society launched the Wisconsin Historical Society COVID-19 Journal Project, I was all in and to date, including this essay, I’ve contributed eighteen installments, about my experience as I shelter-in-place, plus the four musings that preceded them.
There are links to the entire Dispatch series at the end of this essay plus related reading.
Pod Squad 2.0
Friend, chosen family and member of the Pod Squad, Dawnne, when we were discussing the surge in COVID-19 infections, due to the unvaccinated and unmasked, she commented it was time to reboot and launch Pod Squad 2.0. I agreed.
Illustration Credit: Pete Gamlin
The most troubling news was the deadly increase in children contracting the virus and the lack of pediatric ICU beds. Governors in the states with the lowest rates of vaccinations, had the highest number of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, and refused to mandate masks, or vaccinations for teachers and public employees. Some took it one step further and politicized their decision as personal freedom, when in fact it was for their own political gain. The timing is even more deadly, as students return to school.
While the Pfizer vaccine now has full FDA approval, anti-vaxxers, including Wisconsin’s own Senator Ron Johnson and other conspiracy peddlers, are promoting ivermectin, a drug used to de-worm large animals. From an op ed by Chris Cillizza, “Why, you ask, are people taking a medicine meant for horses and cows? Because some irresponsible Republican elected officials and conservative media have spent months touting ivermectin as an effective treatment for Covid-19.” Despicable!
Photo caption & credit for Texas ICU: Anne Marie Baker, a nurse at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, disinfects the room of a teenager who had just died from Covid-19 on Tuesday, August 10. With lagging vaccination rates and the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, Texas and some other states are seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases. Meridith Kohut/The New York Times/Redux
Dr. Fauci, who I turn to as a reliable source of medical information, predicts that we won’t return to any degree of normalcy until spring of 2022, if we live that long (my editorial comment), “As we get into the spring, we could start getting back to a degree of normality, namely reassuming the things that we were hoping we could do — restaurants, theaters, that kind of thing,” Fauci told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
As a result, after my summer weekends celebrating with family and friends, I’m launching Pod Squad 2.0. I’ll spend time in safe settings, outdoors whenever possible with my quarantine bubble of friends and family, chosen and bio, and trusted colleagues at work. When indoors, in stores, restaurants and other settings, I’ll mask up. Most of my presentations, meetings, and support groups will remain virtual on Zoom.
Not worth the gamble.
I will attempt to vet people I come in contact with in-person whenever possible (and allowed) to ensure that they are vaccinated. At work, at the community center, I will wear a mask, socially distance, and practice good hygiene. I’m prepared to request to work virtually again if COVID-19 infections continue to escalate in Dane County.
Wisconsin COVID-19 Update 8/27/21
My health and life, and those of loved ones like family, friends, and especially my elderly father, are my first priority.
Related Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!
Dispatch from the Hideout COVID-19 Journal Series
(In order of most recent to oldest)
Dispatch from the Hideout: Two Steps Back
Dispatch from the Hideout: My Post-Pandemic Life
Dispatch from the Hideout: Exit Strategy
Dispatch from the Hideout: A Shot in the Arm
Dispatch from the Hideout: Love in a Pandemic
Dispatch from the Hideout: The End Is Here!
Dispatch from the Hideout: Riding the Coronacoaster
Dispatch from the Hideout: Staycation Edition
Dispatch from the Hideout: Letter to Loved Ones
Dispatch from the Hideout: Quarantine Bubble Edition
Dispatch from the Hideout: What Was, What Will Be
Dispatch from the Hideout: Back to Life
Dispatch from the Hideout: Stirred Crazy
Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Easter Holiday
Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Edition
Dispatch from the Hideout: Pandemic Edition
Dispatch from the Hideout: Social Distancing
Additional Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!
Additional Installments of the Dispatch from the Hideout Series
Dispatch from the Hideout: Premature Hibernation
Hibernation & the Holidays: Retreat to the Hideout
Another Dispatch from the Hideout
Additional Reading on COVID-19 and the Delta Variant
What Will it be like to Live with COVID-19 Forever?
Fauci’s new 2022 timeline for Covid fight could be a political disaster for Biden and Democrats
Coping with the Stress of Pandemic 2.0
What the ivermectin debacle reveals about the hypocrisy of the anti-vaxxer crowd