cluster zone, in a region where people travel daily between my town and Buffalo. Only a matter of time before we become designated yellow or orange.

My town has a Christmas parade every year in early December. This year, officials decided on a closed car "parade" without open floats or marching bands to discourage people from collecting in groups on the parade route. (So why have it at all?) I live on part of the route but forgot about the parade date when I took a long walk for several blocks to get fresh air and exercise.

When I returned to my street, it was lined with people clustered together as a line of cars drove by. That's all there was to see, just cars. But people took it as an excuse to get together in the tradition of past years. A group of teens had set up a decorated curbside booth where they waved at everyone and ran back and forth between other groups as people of all ages milled around.

I saw this from a side street as I approached the corner to my street. Glad I was wearing a mask. Rather than wade through the superspreader event to get to my front door, I backtracked a block and went through empty yards to reach my back entrance.

Once inside, I checked online for local updates on new cases. My region already had 90 new cases that day before the parade, its highest one day count ever. This followed days of 60+ new cases. Guaranteed to rise sharply again after the superspreader parade.

So hard to protect yourself when everyone around you disregards precautions.