I live in a senior complex that consists of 3 multi-storied apartment buildings. For insurance and safety reasons, our fire alarm system in the halls and inside each apartment have to be inspected and tested once a year.

Last year it was done in May. On Monday, we were notified that the annual inspection would be done on Wednesday. Huh? It had not been a year. They were here just 8 months ago.

The infection rate in this area is 20%. Hospitalizations and deaths are going up. Breakthrough infections with omicron are common. Some people in these buildings are not vaccinated. These inspections, going from one apartment to the next sounded like a spreader event to me.

Sure, omicron is supposed to be not as severe as previous variants - if you are young and healthy. But we are all over 65 and there are many who have the range of health issues you can expect among seniors - diabetes, asthma, COPD, cancer. Breakthrough infections among us could be very serious.

I fumed about it and then called the management office. They didn't know anything about it, said that the maintenance manager handles the inspections. I read off the local infection statistics and reminded them of vulnerability problems among us. The complex manager agreed that January was early since they were here in May. He said I could refuse to let them in IF I signed a statement that it was due to covid concerns.

I expected a communications SNAFU with inspectors demanding to be let in. I was prepared to stand my ground. I am tired of avoiding bare-faced people and naked noses in public. I am tired of people who violate my space in public instead of distancing. I am tired of people who say that omicron is mild as I watch death and hospitalization statistics rise among seniors. I am tired of my doctor's receptionist on Monday whose oversized, loose mask kept slipping off her face while I checked in. I am tired of the doctor and her PA who wore their surgical masks at the tip of their noses without fitting the nose clip for a seal.

I need ONE SPACE in this world where I can feel safe - my home. I do not want strangers coming into it who might or might not be vaccinated, who might or might not wear a mask or wear it correctly, who might have picked up omicron and carried it from one apartment to the next. I do not want to risk that some stranger might carry the virus and leave it behind in the air of my home for me to inhale when I take my mask off after they leave.

But, my phone call worked beyond my expectations. After speaking to me, the complex's manager told the maintenance manager to reschedule the inspections for May, like last year, in the hope that things will look better then. Whew. I am relieved. The magats who live here won't care that I got a postponement, but I didn't do it for them. I did it for the rest of us.

In 14th century Europe, the Black Plague brought out some crazy behavior that is reminiscent of the craziness we see today.

Flagellants believed that they knew a cure. Self-flagellation would show God that they were repentant and God would have pity on them and remove the plague. They marched through the streets of towns whipping themselves with sticks and straps, drawing blood.
Locals got caught up in the frenzy and joined them in the streets. As they went from town to town, they spread the plague with them.

The Church initially saw them as pious and encouraged them. But when people of the towns, and the flagellants themselves, began to see them as holy, they gained followers who thought that the Pope and Church no longer had God's favor, and they began charging into churches and throwing out priests to take over the mass themselves. The pope withdrew his support of them and ordered towns to close their gates and refuse admission to the flagellants. This was 200 years before the Reformation.

Today's covid miracle cures are Ivermectin, bleach, ultraviolet light inserted into the body, etc.

Some places decided that isolation of the sick would protect the healthy and boarded whole families inside their homes when a member got sick. They could not leave for food or water, and died of starvation.

Today's "solution" takes the opposite direction. Expose everyone and spread natural immunity, along with death.

Most malicious was the rumor that Jews had caused the plague by poisoning well water. Thousands of Jews were slaughtered. The pope issued orders for kings and princes to stop their people from committing these slaughters, pointing out that Jews were getting sick and dying, too. But some did nothing to stop the destruction of Jewish communities. People would not give up their fear and desire to blame someone.

Today, people beat up Asian Americans because covid originated in China and a former president called it the China virus.

After the plague subsided, surviving serfs and peasants refused to remain on the land of their overlords, as the law required them to. Why should they when they had faced the plague with their neighbors in unsanitary conditions while the lords fled to unaffected areas or stayed inside their walls, guarding their possessions while the common people died. Serfs and peasants left their assigned lands, took over empty businesses and tools, and set themselves up in business, charging what they could get due to the shortage of goods and services after so many had died. Or, they remained as tenant farmers, but went to work for whoever was willing to give them the best conditions, with some pay.

Today's front line workers are leaving low wage jobs for better ones, or are forming unions to demand better wages, conditions, and benefits.

Some things about human behavior just don't change, even centuries later.

With a large part of the country under weather warnings right now I am sure that many DUers are currently experiencing some bad weather or have very recently experienced it. Ice storms, snow, and power outages in the South, snowstorms in the Midwest and Northeast.

I am in western NY where we have a lake effect snow warning. We expect a foot and a half by Monday night and more snow on Tuesday. Right now, when I look out my window, all I can see is a white blur. Several inches on the ground and coming down so steadily that I can barely see across the street. The temperature is dropping and the wind is steady, putting the chill factor in single digits now and below zero F overnight.

What's happening where you are?

EDIT TO ADD: The battle of the snowflakes has begun at my place. I am on the 5th floor of my building. Updrafts, downdrafts, shifting winds send snowflakes swirling everywhere. My cat, Ember, feels called upon to take action. When they hit the window, she takes it personally and hits back. Back and forth on the windowsill, up on hind legs, then down again. Both paws in action. Faster than a speeding bullet, Supercat strikes in all directions.