This will be the last blog I publish in my 76th year of life. It has been a year of mental, emotional, and physical challenges. Most of these have been a result of living with this ongoing covid pandemic. It looked as though we were going to emerge from the worst of it when variants began to manifest. Not as deadly but an added threat to be sure. No vaccines provide 100% protection so even those fully vaccinated are vulnerable. Even so, the vast majority of those requiring hospitalization have been the non-vaccinated. 

This issue of getting vaccinated or not is a source of mental and emotional challenge for me, unless a person has medical issues that make vaccination unwise of course. When something is as widespread and deadly as Covid has been, why would any one risk it? When a person can contribute to more widespread immunity, why would any one refuse to do so? Would we be in a much better place nation-wide, as far as immunity and freedom of movement, if more people had...