Kickass and cousin Edgar’s death

Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lamenting the Covid19 death of Edgar Anderson who died this week in the same Barron County farm house that he was born in some 93 years ago.  As one of the keeper’s cousins, Edgar was recently remembered here for his boundless enrichment of the keeper’s youth, and for the lifetime love of his wife Dorothy.

Now in the great milling about, as the vaccine comes on board, the cruel Covid19 stats become something else when they get personal.  Edgar wasn’t just one of the 50 Barron County deaths to date, or one of the daily average of 44 in the state, he was that laughing, talkative, jovial, wonderful cousin who was a victim of the horrible pandemic.  The keeper and Phyllis identify with that and look again at the documents certifying that they were “negative” in the most recent facility-wide testing where they reside.

The keeper has no idea where cousin Edgar was politically, and it doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that Edgar would still be enjoying his old age but for the coronavirus.  This puts an edge on the boundless stupidity of those who resist simple life-style precautions; and it makes it tougher to refrain from being incensed at those narcissists who put their personal wellbeing ahead of dealing with the pandemic: Edgar died a couple of days after the national Covid19 death toll went over 300,000.

RIP. Edgar, but not too much “peace” because a certain lack of restraint is what made you such a great cousin; and left the keeper with the priceless memory of sinking slowly into a cold, bottomless spring hole when you took him along as you test drove your Army surplus jeep.