Good morning everyone, and how is your quarantine going?

What's that you say? You're not on quarantine?

That's strange. Everybody else seems to be.

Here's how this week's essay starts:

The text arrived on a Wednesday, from one of our neighbors.

Guys, I just got back from the doctors with [Axl’s best friend] - thought he had allergies but went for a strep test just in case - AND he has covid. Not aware of when or how he was exposed - hopefully all your kids are okay but wanted to let you know ASAP.

My reaction was something like well, finally. It had begun to seem strange, as close as we now are to the pandemic’s second birthday, that we had not received this sort of news yet.

Here's the rest. Thanks for reading!

-Otto