New Year, Same Old, 15. The Progression of Things.

It seems that contagion is getting worse and worse. Hospitals in Galicia have stopped all unnecessary surgeries. Hospital administrators are expecting to fill even more beds with Covid patients. No relief is seen until the end of February, or later and many are saying that we are now in a worse situation than we were back when we went into lockdown in March.

There are calls for another general lockdown. Some are calling for a hard one, like in the first two weeks of last April, when only essential workers were allowed to work, and everyone else stayed put at home. I'm thinking that it might be a good idea. I would lose money because I wouldn't be able to give classes, but it would mean that contagion might be brought down earlier rather than later, and we could save lives and get out of this faster. 

On other fronts, there is malaise toward the local and regional governments of Madrid for not having marshalled snow plows and salt when the snowstorm started. The mayor of Madrid, a conservative, argued that the meteorologists didn't give warning that the storm would be so bad. The meteorologists response was that they did, but nobody listened to them. Yes, they did say on the newscasts that it would be a historic snowfall. But I suppose the habit is ingrained to blame the scientist who works an imperfect science. Only, they have been nailing forecasts more often now than they did ten years ago, because knowledge of the atmosphere and technology have advanced. 

The weather is warming up a little in our corner. We didn't have frost last night, and the forecast is for rain to move in tomorrow night, and to stay with us most of next week. So, we're back in the line of sight of the Atlantic storms. It will be warmer, but also grayer and more depressing.

The good thing is that January is moving on, and with that, spring and longer days advance in tiny steps. Already night moves in after six in the evening, and the sun is appearing a little bit earlier. 

Last year we had a concert in June for which we bought tickets. Then, the lockdown came about, and the concert was pushed forward to this March. Today, I got an email that the concert has been pushed forward, again, to October. Whether or not that will stand will most likely depend on how vaccination goes. Maybe we'll get to attend two years after we were supposed to have gone. Maybe. At least it hasn't been cancelled, since it is a farewell tour. 

Life continues.