Oregon's numbers are way lower than either state. It's been like that since the beginning, and continued, even with the recent quadrupling of cases that have actually halved since Thanksgiving.

As you know, aside from really the Portland metro area, we just don't have large urban centers, like California or even Washington. Our population is smaller, our people more spread out, and so we're just not seeing the numbers.

That said, as of this morning, 29 out of 36 counties are still considered at extreme risk, which means, bars and restaurants can't have indoor seating (though they can have outdoor if patrons want to freeze now), malls and retails stores in general are supposed to be at 50% capacity (though I haven't really seen anyone monitoring that anywhere I've been), and we're back to where most businesses need to have some kind of work at home model, if they ever left it from earlier in the year.

I've been waiting on the new metrics report, which is supposed to show up on Monday, but still isn't posted, to see if any counties came out of the two week extreme risk purgatory. My guess, probably not many, since most were still peaking as of last week.

However, the noise now is, of course, all of the travel that took place pre-Christmas through New Year, so I guess we'll see how well everyone did in spreading the virus around after that.

We do have the vaccine making the rounds. Since my wife is in housekeeping for the hospital, she's been given the option to take the vaccine now, and has an appointment tomorrow for the first dose, with the second following about mid-January.

I'm still laid off, though I've worked about 32 hours in four weeks. I didn't work at all last week. This week, I already have a little over 8 hours in. Might get a few more after that.

So far, we're holding serve with our bills and other responsibilities. Sounds like the federal government will be pushing us further into debt with this latest round of "stimulus", and even more so if Trump and Democrats get their way.

I've not been overly concerned yet. Amazingly, we seem to be in a decent position, and if the government keeps throwing money at us, we'll be good for a while longer. I'd rather our state just lift the restrictions and get back to reality.