Leaving would be the last thing on my mind if I could turn back the hands of time.

  The News and what's been on my mind today meshes. That is, the explosion of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 and just how poorly we are prepared to deal with it. Plus, the planet's on fire. Jesus.

 The country finally reached Joe Biden's goal of 70% vaccination but considering how virulent this new strain is and how adamant the pro-COVID group is, as small as they are, one wonders if it'll do any good in the long run.

 And for the record, yes, if you're nutty about wearing a mask or getting a vaccination in this day and age, I'm saying you're pro-COVID. Like people who want to ban abortion are anti-choice, I'm tired of screwing around with you. The last couple of days, Twitter's been inundated with tales of right-wing disc jockeys, right-wing club owners, and right-wing politicians who've spent the past year screaming about their freedoms being curtailed because of said masks and vaccinations... dying from COVID. In some cases, they're expressing regret for not getting the shot.

 There's just no sympathy for these yo-yos, mainly because we're also seeing stories of kids younger than 13 having to be flown 150 miles because all the surrounding ICU beds are filled. There should be, or at least some empathy, but they put a lot of work into this and it's really hard to feel bad for them when it bites them in the ass. 

 Now, Sturgis is starting and Lollapalooza happened this week, and I swear before God, I don't understand people. I mean, I get being stir crazy and wanting to have a good time, but really, does anything think this is a good idea or something that's necessary? I wonder if I weren't in the position I'm in - middle-aged and disinclined to have anything to do with anyone - where I'd fall on this. It's like everyone always says they've been against slavery or for Civil Rights had they been alive in that era, when the truth is most of us go along to get along.

 Anyhow. This is pretty interesting. It's about voids, empty parts of space billy-uns and billy-uns of light-years across. And when I say empty, I usually mean empty. No stars, no gas, no galaxy, no nothing. However, by pure definition, the largest void in the universe is one we're more or less in the center of. It's a matter of density, really. There's less stuff in our area of space than in the rest of the universe. This means we have fewer stars in our sky than planets in other parts of the universe. It also means we're in what could be considered the backwaters of the Universe. Douglas Adams downplayed it.

 We really underestimate not only the incredible distances in space but just how isolated we really are. We've yet to leave our gravity well. The much-ballyhooed dick-wavings of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson cost a couple of billion dollars apiece and barely scraped the edge of space. We haven't figured out how to keep a human being in space for any length of time without their body being destroyed by radiation and lack of gravity.

 Y'all, get the shot and demand governments do something serious about climate change. This is all we got. Have a nice weekend.