"The transience of the blossoms, the exquisite beauty and volatility, has often been associated with mortality and graceful and readily acceptance of destiny and karma; for this reason, cherry blossoms are richly symbolic, and have been utilized often in Japanese art, manga, anime, and film, as well as at musical performances for ambient effect." (Wikipedia).
A cute cherry blossom baby.
A very pink rhododendron.
Today we walked around a bit along NW 23rd Ave. Found a place with yummies.
I got an iced lavender coconut milk tea latte and Julia got a Fruit Loops Smoothie with Boba. I will definitely go back for more. There is a lot of good stuff on the menu here - Tea Social on 23rd Ave in Portland.
Saw this interesting sign. The street sign is interesting as well.....
So several counties, 15 to be exact (including the one I reside in) in Oregon were put in the extreme risk category again as of last Friday. Which means no more indoor dining, no indoor bars and strict capacity limit on other businesses.
Last time this happened we were in the extreme risk category for three months.
I am not sure how long it will last this time. So from what I am reading over 300 hospital beds throughout Oregon are occupied. I am not sure if the hospital beds are occupied by COVID patients or with a mix of COVID and other reasons for hospitalization patients. And a variant of COVID-19 called B.1.1.7 is now the dominant strain here from what I read. This variant is supposedly more contagious than regular COVID. Over 3 million people in Oregon are vaccinated now (the population in Oregon is 4.27 million) but not all of the people vaccinated are fully vaccinated yet. As in, they have not received the second dose yet.
I have not been vaccinated. And as of now I am taking a step back and waiting. I am not saying that I won't get the vaccine ever, I am saying that I won't get the vaccine for now. Perhaps I should have Putin (my Volodya) send me over a dose of Sputnik V?
It is turning serious the who got the vaccine and who hasn't. I sometimes feel borderline interrogated by people asking whether I got the vaccine and when I am planning on getting it. So far my choice of not getting the vaccine has not interfered with any of my activities and yes of course I wear masks where I have to and I make sure to not be gross like cough in my hands or sneeze into my hands etc (things that I learned not to do as a child by the way).
Interesting though that a large number of people are vaccinated in Oregon yet several counties are back in the extreme risk category. I feel that there is a lot we do not know yet about COVID and the different variants. Reading cdc.gov is actually quite interesting, there is plenty to go through on there like Emerging Infectious Diseases and Data & Statistics.
Don Joe on :
I think that no matter what someone does that's their choice and they shouldn't have to feel bad about it.
TATIANA Post author on :
And I think it is great that people have the option to get vaccinated....or not. Or wait a while.