As if this day wasn't bad enough being it's the anniversary of my father's passing, I just got word a close family friend is in the hospital clinging to life sick with Covid, most likely Delta variant. More directly, he's my one uncle's best friend, and a good man he is but extremely stubborn. Tried to convince him to get vaccinated knowing he's pushing 70, even brought up his President (John is a diehard Democrat and Biden supporter) had said in the past getting vaccinated was the "patriotic" thing to do, but to no avail. Now John's on a ventilator and his family believes that he won't be able to pull through, lost consciousness and shortly before that some of his last words were that he wished he had gotten vaccinated, perhaps his suffering would not have been as severe then.

Times like this I feel helpless, and I'm reminded of my own physical limitations as one mere human being in a great big universe. Sometimes it seems some things in life cannot be helped enough. Yet another reason for me to disdain this time of the year...