This is the time of year when normally I'd be packing my snow boots and winter gear (the picture is from a previous Boskone in front of the hotel) and keeping a weather eye on the Northeast. But not this year. The last trip I took before the pandemic shut everything down was to Boston in February 2020 for Boskone57, little realizing that it was about to be the end of the world as we know it. That may seem dramatic, but I remember when one could just walk onto an airplane with a ticket in the 1990s. Then everything changed on 9/11 and now we have a "new normal" of taking off shoes and nobody waiting with you who's not flying, and bottles holding less than 3 oz. of liquid. So no, I don't think we'll ever go back to "normal". Even after I get vaccinated and we're told the coronavirus is in our rear-view mirrors, I intend to take masks with me when I travel for an extra layer of protection from the unknown. After Boskone57 I took the train down to N...