Don’t get attached

Over the next couple of weeks, The Record-Courier is going to be carrying stories about lots of events.

Fireworks in Gardnerville, lightings, caroling, the Parade of Lights and a variety of other celebrations of the arrival of the holidays are all on the docket.

We’ve often thought that our stories should include something like a reality check box. For every drunk driver arrested in any given day in Douglas County, there are literally tens of thousands of sober drivers, would be an example.

The reality check box in the instance of our Christmas celebrations isn’t quite so hopeful.

On Friday, Carson City Health and Human Services reported eight Douglas County residents have succumbed to the coronavirus over the course of a week, bringing the county’s total since August 2020 to 65 people. During the same week, Douglas had 109 new cases and 54 recoveries. Of the total cases just over a fifth are active as of Nov. 10.

Those numbers dwarf the surge that occurred just before Thanksgiving 2020, when the county went from reporting 39 active cases on Nov. 23 to 303 on Nov. 24. By the end of November 2020, there were 467 active cases, or less than half the current case load.

At that time only three people had succumbed to the virus, and yet on Nov. 30, 2020, it was announced that all four of the early December events had been canceled.

So, when we talk about Small Business Saturday, or the Minden gazebo lighting, or anything that shows up in the calendar, we’re betting that something will occur. Should we find out otherwise, we promise not to keep it a secret.

We write about the weather on a regular basis, though we know as well as anyone that it’s definitely a gamble. The same can be said for anything involving this contagion.

We don’t want to mislead our readers, but while the news on the coronavirus contagion has retreated to the background, that doesn’t mean it’s gone.

At some point, both the virus and we must adapt to one another. Until that day comes, it might be good idea not to get too attached.