What a difference a pandemic makes: With our vaccinations scheduled, we’ve started plotting some long-delayed travel. Tied to that are some equally long-delayed purchases that may interest you. None if particularly life-changing. But each, in its own way, is a bet that the future could be something close to normal again.

We’ll see how that goes. But as of today, everyone in my direct family has received at least one vaccination, and my second vaccination is scheduled for this coming Tuesday. But the bigger concern, from a scheduling perspective, is the rest of the family. We won’t travel on a plane until everyone is fully vaccinated, and we probably won’t travel as a family until late summer at the earliest.