Three cats

Dear President Biden,

I don’t have much for you this evening but will share a couple of things.

First, we are waiting to find out the results of Laura’s COVID test. She met with a new work colleague on Monday at a coffee shop and since they are both vaccinated, they didn’t mask-up. Unfortunately, the person emailed this morning to let Laura know that her husband just tested positive for COVID. The new person hadn’t yet been tested (that’s tomorrow, apparently), but Laura was able to snag a testing appointment this afternoon at the old emmissions test site – which actually seems pretty apropos when you think about it and not just because they have a sweet set-up for drive-in swabbing.

I know this wait-and-see situation is playing out all over the country, but I figured it was worth telling you about since it’s a crummy, super-close-to-home, deal for us and for that man who’s sick with the virus. I don’t think I told you, but one of our leaders at work recently came down with COVID (he’s ok now). He’s probably among the most careful people on the planet when it comes to COVID exposure, and of course, he was vaccinated right away back in the winter. So even though all hell is going to break loose (or already is breaking loose) over returning to mask mandates and serious social distancing, the stance that you and the CDC are taking sure seems warranted.

The second thing is way lower key and I’m just telling you because it was an odd, amusing occurrence. On my walk this morning I was a couple of blocks from home when I came across three longhair black and white cats I’d never seen before. One was lying in a driveway and looked like it was feeling rather princely or princessly (note 1: “princely” is a word but of course “princessly” is not – arg!) as it surveyed its little kingdom (note 2: of course it’s “kingdom” and not “queendom” – arg again!). The other two were down the block a bit engaging in a half-hearted (as in very slow) chase game.

What was so weird is that they looked like they were cat clones, so much so that I had to check three times – deliberately looking from one to the other to the other – to make certain that they were three individual cats. I felt pretty silly doubting myself like that, but they were crazy similar to one another. Even though they probably didn’t even notice me, I couldn’t help but feel like they were messing with me.

That said, it’s kind of nice that I’ve now got cat triplets to look out for on future walks.

May we all be safe from mutating viruses and the vaccine holdouts among us.
May we all be willing to step up for the common good.
May we set strong contingencies to encourage the reluctant to step up for the common good.
May we accept, and get it through our thick skulls, that divided we fall – hard.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson