Over the weekend (7/24/2021), we went to our first art fair since COVID landed, the Geneva, IL art fair.

As part of our day trip, we had lunch in a bar – for me, the first time I’d been in a restaurant, or any non-shopping area, since February 2020 (except for work).

It was as hot as hell – 90° – but there was an occasional breeze, so it wasn’t unbearable.

The tents of art, because of COVID, were spaced about 10 feet apart, so the breeze was able to cut across the street on which the fair was parked. In the past, the three blocks of vinyl tents formed a solid wall on either side of the street, making any breeze a rarity.

The show was a little disappointing – the limited number of entrants (due to COVID protocols) made for less to look at. However, it was nice to get out there and just see something for a change. We enjoy just checking out what is there; always hoping to come across something different.

When I was looking for places to eat in Geneva earlier in the week, one thing that struck me was there were few – if any – places where you could “build” a burger. You know, “I’d like the [bar name] burger with cheddar and bacon” and so on.

Now, it seems like most places had a roster of burgers to choose from that were all tricked out. Odd, to me. To get what you want you have to get there by subtraction, not addition.

We ate at the Geneva Ale House, and they had a bunch of burgers, as well, but at least it had one – the Ale House Burger – that had what I wanted (bacon, cheese, grilled onions). I just had to subtract the fried egg (what is with all the burgers topped with a fried egg? I like fried eggs, but…).

Beer, burger, fries. Nothing exceptional but hit the spot.

As did wandering around Geneva and the art.

Not a great adventure, but good to get out and see things. It’s been a long time for me.

From CDC.gov

I was going to whine a bit about how the COVID vaccine has remained political – instead of science based — and because of that we’re starting to dig ourselves deeper into the COVID hole.

But over at Talking Points Memo, a TPM reader wrote in and spelled things out more clearly than I could:

It’s worth pausing every so often to admire (if that’s the right word) the sheer insanity of the pandemic situation in the United States. Specifically: despite the widespread availability of vaccines for Covid; despite the fact that the vaccines are free; despite the fact that they are astonishingly effective at preventing a disease that is frequently fatal and often results in long-term disability; despite the fact that mass vaccination is clearly the only way we’re going to get out of the Covid pandemic that doesn’t involve mass suffering and trauma on an unimaginable scale; nonetheless, the US vaccination campaign is failing.

And it’s failing because of politics (and stupidity, but that’s another entry…).

The same people wailing about how the Covid vaccine is just a way to inject a tracking microchip are probably clutching their smartphones, which are GIANT trackers that collect more information about you than most would be comfortable with.

Vaccines were supposed to be the silver bullet that ended the pandemic, allowed us to take off masks and congregate again. And in areas where people made the effort to get vaccinated, that has become a reality.

Yet in the other, primarily Red areas….

Here’s an idea – As the Republicans tried to scare people about the Affordable Cara Act (ACA) by calling it Obamacare, why not use the same trick for the Covid vaccines: Call them Trump vaccines!

Why not? To be fair, they were developed during his administration, and stroking Trump’s ego would probably get him to repeat the phrase non-stop. Suddenly, the vaccines would be politically acceptable.

Hey, it’ll never happen, but I can dream, can’t I?

Rain is never good in a Hemingway novel – it’s invariably portends something somber/sad.

But after I had got them out and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn’t any good. It was like saying good-bye to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.

— A Farewell to Arms, last lines

Similarly, pop rock songs about rain are often dark (Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s Going to Fall, for example).

But moving past the dark songs, it’s surprising just how many songs have (at least) “rain” in the title – some sad, some boisterous, some just, well, mention rain. In no particular order:

• A Hard Rain’s Going to Fall – Bob Dylan
• Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 – Bob Dylan (just a silly song)
• Who’ll Stop the Rain? – Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR)
• Have You Ever Seen the Rain? – CCR, again
• In the Early Morning Rain – Gordon Lightfoot (I heard an early version of this song – not the one on “Gord’s Gold” – and he sounds like he’s trying to do the Dylan nasal sound. Not pretty.)
• Rainy Day People – Gordon Lightfoot
• Let It Rain – Eric Claption (with Derek and the Dominos?)
• Rain – The Beatles (Not on any album; B side of Paperback Writer – not really well known)
• Fool in the Rain – The Beatles
• Like a Rainbow – Rolling Stones (OK – a stretch, but one of my favorite Stones songs. So peppy!)
• Fire and Rain – James Taylor
• Purple Rain – Prince
• It’s Raining Men – The Weather Girls (I had to look that up. Classic camp!)
• Here Comes the Rain Again – Eurythmics
• The Rain Song – Led Zeppelin
• Rainy Days and Mondays – The Carpenters (before I started listening to the radio: released in 1971)
• Rainy Night in Georgia – Written by Tony Joe White in 1967; popularized by Brook Benton in 1970.
• Raindrop Keep Falling on My Head – B.J. Thomas (you think he’d have those initials today? I only like this because it was in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and used effectively.)
• Red Rain – Peter Gabriel (solo, after Genesis. The “So” album)
• Famous Blue Raincoat – Leonard Cohen (yeah, a stretch, but a great song. Jennifer Warnes does a great cover of this song – and other Cohen favorites – on her “Famous Blue Raincoat” album.)

I deliberately left out Singing in the Rain just because…

Could also pad out the list with “thunder” references (You Love the Thunder, Jackson Browne; Thunder Road, Bruce Springstein), but I didn’t go there.

Also, off the top of my head I can’t think of any other “thunder” songs.