Saturday, February 27, 2021

Weekend Reading: The Hanging In Edition

Back when my kids were in the baby and toddler years, I had a rule: No major life-altering decisions could be made while I was sleep deprived. I had to at least get a weekend of good naps in before I could make a decision.

I think I need a similar rule now. No major life-altering decisions can be made while... and here's the problem. I don't know what the second half of that rule should be. Until we get at least a weekend away somewhere to try to really relax? Until I'm vaccinated? I don't know. I am tired and burned out but I know that a lot of the reason for that is due to things that I cannot change and so making any decisions to change other things is unlikely to either help or be the right long term move.

But still, I am tired and burned out and it will probably be at least a couple of months before I can be vaccinated... so I need to figure something out. 

I am trying to focus on the good things: We have started vaccinating teachers here, and if our case count continues to go down our schools will reopen on April 12. Petunia is oscillating between being super excited about that and being so worried we'll mess up, case counts will go back up, and it won't happen that she can't sleep. 

Our weather has been beautiful lately, so hammock time is a possibility again.

The next Annorlunda Books release comes out Wednesday! Early reviews of Lagoonfire, by Francesca Forrest, have all been good, and I am excited for release day.

So, there are good things! But pandemic fatigue is real. The Germans apparently have a word for it: coronamüde

Even New Zealanders, who have been dealing with fewer restrictions than we have, are feeling it, I think. They are having a hard time getting everyone to follow the rules in their latest cluster, and so Auckland has had to go back to their Level 3 lockdown. Reading the pandemic news from New Zealand is a good reminder that even with a government who handled it well and circumstances that allow for fairly normal life to continue, the pandemic is exhausting. I hope they get this latest cluster stamped out soon. Vaccinations have started there, but are currently focused on border workers and the staff at the managed isolation hotels. 

On climate change... I wish everyone would really understand this:

Ezra Klein's interview with Leah Stokes and David Wallace-Wells had another way of looking at this that really struck me: we can choose to avoid climate change, adapt to it, or to suffer. It is really upsetting that we seem mostly to be choosing to suffer. That suffering is not evenly distributed, and so I think a lot of well-off, comfortable people think it won't eventually come to them. But they are wrong, and by the time they realize that it will be largely too late to avoid climate change (although we can always make choices to stop it from getting worse!) and the costs to adapt will be much higher.

The entire interview is really good, and I recommend it.

Josh Marshall had a really good essay on why we need a commission to investigate the events of January 6 and why we can't let Republicans derail it. (I just discovered I can get shareable links for the members-only articles at TPM and am trying it out...)

And here are some things that made me smile this week:

Musical tourism (sitting on the sofa watching music videos from around the world) continues to be something we enjoy. Over at Adjusted Latitudes, I wrote about one of my favorite of our recent stops: Latvia.

Every time one of Xavi Bou's photos of bird flight comes across my feed, I am struck by how beautiful it is. Here is an article about how he makes these pictures.

This cat!

This adorable hamster!

Here's your bunny of the week:

Have a good weekend, everyone!

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