Release

Driving up 95 today, headed to DC for a funeral, I decided to get back to listening to "The Magic Mountain," which I had left off back in December when I got back from my road trip to GA and SC. You just can't listen to a book this long in the 20 minute chunks that come with commuting.

The plot -- I will refresh your memory -- is young Hans Castorp coming to the sanatorium at Davos to visit his cousin Joachim is being treated for tuberculosis. In a shocking turn of events, it turns out that Hans too has the dread disease and must stay to take the cure. When I rejoined the novel a few hours ago, his three week stay had been extended to a year.

Of course, driving north on 95 between Richmond and DC I hit -- you guessed it -- traffic. A bunch of it. It was stop and go for 45-60 minutes. Like Hans Castorp and the other patients, I tried hard not to focus on the passage of time.

And then, 18 months into his own stay, Joachim tells the doctor of his firm intention to leave the mountain and go to join his regiment. The doctor hems and haws, but Joachim will not be swayed. Just about then, the traffic began to ease, and I had this full sensation of opening and moving forward.

Are we doing the same with this whole COVID thing? It's very hard to say. I can tell you for sure that in the rest stops along 95 most people think it's done for sure. Only about 25% are opting in to the now optional masks. Here in DC, where Omicron seems for sure to have turned the corner, things are of course different. Indoor mask wearing seems to be pretty consistent and expected except in restaurants and cafes. I'm in one myself now, having my afternoon pickup. We'll see.