"Life expectancy in the United States fell by a full year in the first six months of 2020, the federal government reported on Thursday, the largest drop since World War II and a grim measure of the deadly consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

Life expectancy — the average number of years that a newborn is expected to live — is the most basic measure of the health of a population, and the stark decline over such a short period is highly unusual and a signal of deep distress." CNN

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The weather was a bit warmer here today; with temperature high getting the whole way up into the teens Fahrenheit. One more bitter cold night (around zero) is still expected tonight. After that, outside tempts will rise to the 20’s outside & return to normal for Winter here over the weekend.

We will then start to return the very stressed plants to their normal Winter home in the Solar Room. I really hope my house plants can eventually recover from their ordeal, but I’m not counting on it. The plants brought indoors now look worse than the few plants, remaining in the Solar Room, that didn’t freeze to death. Sadly, many did freeze to death. It seems like I was fighting a losing battle no matter what I did during this cold spell.

Although we’ve had severe problems with our house plants from this unusual cold stretch, that’s still nothing in comparison to what our fellow Americans in Texas have been experiencing. Their current situation is almost like being in a Third World Country; not the USA.

Our area (with even colder temperatures) also had rolling black outs. But unlike in Texas, our state shares a power grid with other states. With the states working together, the rolling black outs in our Metro were temporary and not a total disaster. My heart goes out to those in Texas.

Although they have no heat or water, many in Texas are also afraid to go to a “warming center”: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/18/22289473/texas-freeze-covid-spread-hurricane-disaster.

COVID-19 doesn’t take a holiday.
As COVID vaccinations have come close to a temporary halt, because of weather and supply difficulties across the USA, coronavirus transmission still continues on.

2,366 more Americans died today from COVID.
I dream of a time in the future when that daily number is 0 and then remains at Zero.
Unfortunately, that time is not now, nor in the near future...