My last trip was to San Francisco in February 2020 as a Medical Advisory Board member for a healthcare tech startup. Masks weren’t yet a thing, but elbow bumps had just started. So, effectively, I haven’t traveled out of state for over a year, and I am getting restless.

Unfortunately for me, my wife called dibs on the first trip—in her case, a few days off to visit Carmel-By-the-Sea. (We both can’t go, because we feel our cat is still a little too young to be left with a stranger!)

But does calling dibs count in “Times of Covid?”

Well, I think it does.

Look, I don’t think Covid19 is over. I think because of vaccine “hesitancy” we are opening a door to the evolution of worsening variants, and my expectation is this winter there will be another surge. I don’t quite know what the qualitative nature of the surge will be. Perhaps it will involve children, perhaps it will require booster shots, or perhaps it will be some presentation other than respiratory.

I simply don’t know. But what I do know is that Mother Nature has an uncanny way of getting the last word. Remember, to her, we (humans) are just one of a million children species. She had no problem letting the dinosaurs die out after a 165 million year commitment, so I doubt we can call the Universe’s Child Protective Services on her if she decides to let us modern humans go after a paltry 200,000 years because of out own ignorance.

Therefore, I think it is important to treat these Covid19 lulls as something very precious, and honoring rules like calling dibs does count.

Which is ok—because I’ve called dibs on Hawaii this fall!