We live in strange times. I know I don't need to tell you that but it's particularly clear to me today. We're in a difficult place right now. We're still firmly in a pandemic but we all really want to believe we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. After a year of this, we all really need to believe that.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has reported a new record for new COVID-19 cases in the state in the numbers just released. Today's numbers include 2533 new cases, the second day in a row of over 2000 reports. The percentage of positive cases to negative cases has also increased again today to 19.38 percent. The state is facing a quickly-rising pandemic increase after the beginning of school.

Six months into a global pandemic, we’ve become familiar with language we’ve never expected to use before COVID-19. “Quarantine” was a word most likely associated with popular sci-fi movies, and “safer at home” was a phrase we probably only heard when we were expecting a big snowstorm.