Monday Musings - February 22, 2021

1. Welcome to the last Monday of February. Hopefully the weather will begin to moderate and get warmer from this point forward. 

2. Daylight Saving Time will return on March 14th. I can almost feel the warmer weather.

3. Chris and I have received our second COVID vaccine! We are happy to join the growing number of Americans, now up to 18.9 million, who are fully vaccinated and committed to eradicating the coronavirus as a threat to our society by developing herd immunity.

4. I have just finished a week of "taking it easy" after undergoing a surgical procedure--I am looking forward to getting back to work and resuming life while I finish healing. Hopefully, I will be fully healed and ready to get on the racquetball court and golf course as the weather improves. 

5. Roses really brighten the day. The ones I purchased for Chris to celebrate Valentines Day are still making the room bright. 

6. I am ready to start traveling again. I realized that except for Florida and a quick trip to New York, I have not traveled anywhere in over as year! I need to add more images to my Out the Hotel Window series.

7. Today in History. February 22, 1980-- The Miracle on Ice. In one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeats the four-time defending gold-medal winning Soviet team at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. The Soviet squad, previously regarded as the finest in the world, fell to the youthful American team 4-3 before a frenzied crowd of 10,000 spectators. Two days later, the Americans defeated Finland 4-2 to clinch the hockey gold.

Boeing Tells Airlines to Ground Some 777s After Engine Failure - The Wall Street Journal

China Deploys Covid-19 Vaccine to Build Influence, With U.S. on Sidelines - The Wall Street Journal

How Texas’ Drive for Energy Independence Set It Up for Disaster - The New York Times

A Ripple Effect of Loss: U.S. Covid Deaths Approach 500,000A Ripple Effect of Loss: U.S. Covid Deaths Approach 500,000 - The New York Times

Impeachment is over. But other efforts to reckon with Trump’s post-election chaos have just begun. - The Washington Post

In a gray, empty Paris, this corner shop’s colorful posters transport you wherever you want to go - The Washington Post

Strike grips Myanmar, anti-coup protesters defy junta's lethal warning - Reuters

Boeing 747 cargo plane drops engine parts in Netherlands, investigation launched - Reuters

Ronald Reagan Quote for the Week

But let us turn briefly to the international arena. America's leadership in the world came to us because of our own strength and because of the values which guide us as a society: free elections, a free press, freedom of religious choice, free trade unions, and above all, freedom for the individual and rejection of the arbitrary power of the state. These values are the bedrock of our strength. They unite us in a stewardship of peace and freedom with our allies and friends in NATO , in Asia, in Latin America, and elsewhere. They are also the values which in the recent past some among us had begun to doubt and view with a cynical eye.

Ronald Reagan's Second State of the Union Speech, January 25, 1983

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD