Worcester county, where we live, is thinly populated and rather rural. Small town, not much in the way of big public gatherings now or ever. Yet our COVID population shot up from almost zero to 258% of the previous number -- in a WEEK. It's not (mostly) the residents, although there are more unvaccinated people than there should be. The biggest problem are tourists because in the summer, Cape Cod is a huge draw -- even with a lot more sharks than we used to have.

We've been vaccinated. All three of us were vaccinated as soon as we became eligible. But this new variant has been spreading so fast and we've gotten rather mixed messages about whether or not the vaccination will prevent infection or merely limit the seriousness of any infection we got. All things considered, I don't want any infection at all.

So we haven't been out much. It has also been raining almost every day for the past two months. Today we seem to have had a dry, warm but pleasant day without any rain. This may be the first fully rain-free day in a long time. I was outside early in the morning. I fed the birds and hosed down the deck to get the old seeds off it. I was not as completely overwhelmed by mosquitoes today as I have been earlier this week, but they were bad enough. I don't know if these are mosquitoes or some other biting flying bug. Something got inside last night and chewed up my back, but the bites are very small and not nearly as itchy as mosquito bites are. Flying jaws?

Byb-bye red Cardinal!

One more dry day and maybe Owen can mow the lawn! It's about a foot high and it's really green! About as green as our lawn has ever been. The rain has made everything green. We are being strangled by vines -- at least three different types that I recognize and a couple more that I don't recognize.

The idea of having to go back to masks is demoralizing. We just took them off!

So we are mostly lurking at home. I feel like we should be getting out more. We should be doing something, but mostly, we aren't. We have a couple of long weekend vacations with friends coming up to which I am looking forward.

Maybe August will be better.