Covid, vaccines & Dunbar

We’re back to working from home full time again. Partial lockdown is in effect here as new Corona cases soar to an unprecedented high and deaths are rising too, although thankfully those numbers are not as high (yet?) as they were last year…

People are desensitizing to it and becoming complacent. I understand that no one wants to hear the same news anymore, over and over again, or yet again more cases and hospitals getting crowded and deaths. Being tired of that news doesn’t mean it’s all gone yet. Covid 19 is still here, whether people choose to ignore it or not. And something can be done about it too, to get rid of it all: vaccination!

Junior has a cold now, nothing bad, just a stuffed nose, he feels fit otherwise. He did an at home test yesterday which was negative and, just to be safe, he won’t be going in to work today and has just gone out to have an official test done. Hopefully it all stays negative. I’m really proud of him for being so responsible about it all (and he’s double vaccinated too) but can 15% of the grown up population that is not vaccinated really continue to hold the 85% hostage who have been vaccinated? I want this thing to be over! Vaccines have already killed off diseases, why can’t Covid be one of them?

This week the news came that Rockmond Dunbar, whom I love on 9-1-1 and have loved on The Mentalist as well, has been written off 9-1-1 because he refused to be vaccinated. Warning: spoilers about his final episode can be found in this breaking article about the situation. I know very little about Dunbar but I am so disappointed that someone who can play such a lovely, warm, empathetic character on the show should refuse to be vaccinated like this in real life. In the show during season 4 he is glad to finally get a Covid vaccination while the already vaccinated first responders Bobby and Athena look on, and yet in real life he won’t have it.

Apparently he is “not an anti-vaxxer” but the religious and medical exemptions he asked for were reviewed and declined, which says to me that his reasons for not vaccinating are just not good enough. Sigh. It’ll be a long time before this Covid nightmare will end, I fear.

So, for me, it’s back to working from home full time again. I’m actually glad to not have to go into the office all the time but a little travel (I went to the office once a week these past few weeks) does break the monotony somewhat and I welcomed that. No more of that now. All that sitting at a table at home and typing often makes my hands feel cold so I invested in these…

… and hope that this partial lockdown will indeed help reduce the further spread of Covid while I type away on my work laptop. I’m already vaccinated, all I can do now to stop further spread is be careful and stick to regulations. And also say: please, get that damn vaccine!

Peter Krause anyone?

A few years ago I watched a short lived tv series called The Catch which starred an actor called Peter Krause. I didn’t know him before that but instantly loved him on that show. The first season was good, the second less so, but through it all I really liked Peter Krause.

It turns out he already had a few hit series under his belt, like Six Feet Under and Parenthood but both are shows I have never seen before. About two years ago I watched seasons 1 and 2 of his latest show, called 9-1-1, about first responders in Los Angeles. I tuned in specifically for him.

He plays the fire department captain Bobby Nash, with some tough past baggage that he carries with him, and he eventually falls in love with policewoman Athena Grant (played by Angela Basset – man, that woman can give looks that kill!).

When I first researched Peter Krause, after I saw him in The Catch, it turned out that he’s the real life partner of Lauren Graham, who plays Lorelai Gilmore in my beloved Gilmore Girls. I just love that they’re a couple.

Anyway, this past week I’ve been binge-watching 9-1-1 again. I had been all caught up until almost the end of season 2 but had not gotten around to seasons 3 and 4 yet. Not sure anymore what brought me to it again but I refreshed my memory by re-watching bits and pieces before watching season 3 and am now progressing on to season 4. Although the world does seem to be ending every few episodes (fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, train crashes) I do really enjoy this show. There are also more mundane and some very weird cases in it, based off real life 911 calls, which are sometimes tragic but sometimes also quite funny.

The cast is diverse, which I love. Yes, there’s Peter Krause and Angela Bassett, who are awesome, but the rest of the cast is also good. I especially like Athena’s ex-husband played by Rockmond Dunbar (in the picture below on the left, I had also loved him on The Mentalist), Aisha Hinds (to the right of Krause) who plays an EMT married to a woman, Kenneth Choi (on the right) and the storyline of a firefigher played by Ryan Guzman who is the single dad to a boy with cerebral palsy.

Back to Peter Krause. There’s just something about him, in the way he looks into the world with a half smile and such a friendly face but so much hidden behind those open wide eyes as well.

He’s got me hooked again on this show and I love seeing him as the captain commandeering crisis situations, as the father figure for his team, as the man dealing with a difficult past, and in his marriage to Angela Bassett as Athena. I love that there is no endless will they/won’t they between them. They fall in love and get married all within one season and just get on with it, dealing with all that life throws at them (and that is a lot!).

I’m thinking that after I’m all caught up, I might go on to watching him in Six Feet Under and Parenthood. It’s always fun exploring an actor like that and I just like this guy. He’s been nominated for Emmys and Golden Globes for Six Feet Under and he did Parenthood with Lauren Graham (she plays his sister on that show). Have any of you seen those two shows? And if so, any thoughts to share?

Right, on to the premiere episode of season 4 now before we get around to dinner at the Esther household. Luckily, Mr Esther cooks, very much like Peter Krause does, who as Bobby is always cooking on the show.