Third Time's a Charm

As I type this update, in our province we are currently involved in a 'circuit breaker' lockdown for the third wave of the pandemic. Today the province announced one death and 64 new cases (stats which in some provinces/countries would be envied) with 975 active cases of which 74 are patients in hospital, 21 in ICU. Although we have administered almost half a million doses of vaccine, there is community spread in both of our cities, schools and all non essential services are closed and movement is restricted to own municipality. We've been here before and know what to expect...but there is a bit of unquietness about it as well as despair. When restrictions were imposed three weeks ago, it was familiar territory and we slipped back into the less frequent essential only grocery runs, no personal appointments for haircuts or esthetician and household entertainment of reading, watching the waterfowl and wildlife in front of us, Netflix, crafts and gardening...who are we kidding? Decision is not by pandemic but age and rural location. To prioritize what I miss it would be:

1. Seeing the grandkids

2. Shopping at Frenchy's

3. Haircut/esthetician appointment

Clearly I write from a position of privilege as evidenced from my sunset watching photo.

Cheers from the beach house

I do not have to put myself at risk to work a minimum wage frontline retail job. In fact, I'm not struggling as an RN in the pandemic trenches where redeployment is routine, exhaustion is the descriptor and another summer looms without relief of the workload. Although I haven't heard a peep from the provincial health authority (their dysfunction a reminder of the reason I haven't worked in my home province for nine years) there are frequent pleas from northern territories begging for staff. I have no plans to give up whatever summer we manage to eke out here and the closest I come to planning is perhaps contemplating a fall contract in Nunavut.... have always wanted to see Arctic Bay. With my 'pension birthday' being celebrated in September, the focus changes to work as recreation vs monetary gain...I'm not volunteering yet, but do I really want to return most of my additional salary in income tax? Not regularly. And then there is the dilemma of becoming a plague pilgrim as rotational workers returning to the province have come to be seen despite being PCR tested three times and doing a modified 14 day self isolation. This in addition to applying for entrance to the northern territories, the 'unfun' travel required to get there (limited flights so more and longer layovers, food services not available in airports or hotels) and self isolation required upon northern arrival. First world problems. Like the social media post where a lady stated she was looking forward to eating supper with someone other than her husband. No comment. Even if the one in this house barbecued the ribs last night to go with the potato salad I'd made. The supper entertainment was a virtual tour of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, at the link below:

heygo.com

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

I've already enjoyed Machu Picchu, Warwick and Matlock Bath UK, Dubrovnik, and a national park near Nairobi as well as a community development slum tour there in the past few weeks. It's odd to be visiting some (previously) usually busy tourist spots which are now deserted. Makes for good viewing but a contrast with 'over tourism' of the past and has changed outcomes. For example...prepandemic the Sagrada Familia collected 50 million euros annually in entrance fees and thus construction which was slated for completion in 2026 is now unknown. The tours are available in French, Spanish, German and Portugese as well and cover a wide range of topics. They're a bit more interesting than just watching a travel show and thinking....when will we ever be able to travel? 

Although in our province, we are vaccinating at a rate of over 20,000 per day and the vaccine supply is assured so we're on track for our second shot, this is going to take time.  We're booked for our second dose in  mid August, although there is some discussion of moving the date slightly forward. The national goal is 75% of us to have had our first dose before we open our borders and we're now at 50%. At present, leaving/returning to Canada is complicated, involving testing within 72 hours, vaccination certification, quarantine hotels and 14 day self isolation. This is in addition to perhaps finding yourself in a foreign country when the epidemiology changes and borders close stranding you in quarantine of their arrangement, inability to access many areas/services, the scarcity and increased cost of flights, additional screening measures, need to wear a mask for extended periods and increased risk of becoming exposed to the virus while traveling. For over a year there has been a complete lack of travel insurance due to the travel advisory on Canada's Foreign Affairs website advising against all non essential travel outside of Canada as well as avoiding all cruise ship travel outside of Canada. The greatest wild card in this game....variants of the virus. At present the vaccines are effective, but this doesn't dismiss a  future need for boosters, different vaccines etc. Both Air Canada and Air Transaat have (with government bailout) refunded our return flights from over a year ago and WestJet has extended the expiry of companion vouchers so clearly the airline understand this is lengthy. In the meantime....the pool guy is cleaning out the winter's organic leavings and soon we shall enjoy water therapy. 

I've been 'shopping my stash' and have done a couple of shawls which were well received. Just finished a baby bear hat for a neighbour's first grandchild due in September. The main ongoing project is a bedspread for the middle grandson which will go on his 'big boy' bed when he moves over from the crib. It's a simple V stitch repeat so I'm able to enjoy movies or webcasts without counting or paying attention to a pattern. It's growing so not a portable project but that's less of an issue in lockdown anyway. I have plans to do a cat couch - which will likely result in three of them as these felines don't share well and multiple balls of scrap to make into a big basket. We shall see. 

I've been enjoying the Friends and Fiction sessions and have found a list of new authors to read. Have sampled books from four of the original five writers and although they're all quite different, all good. I've just finished The Room on Rue Amelie by Kristin Harmel in two days using the Libby app from my library to download the ebook and that meant no housework then a big ugly cry during the day... yes, it was that good. My library holds continue to arrive randomly, the symbol on the edge of my phone screen scheduling the order of consumption of my TBR (to be read) list as well as the temptation of those daily email free offers on BookBub, Freebooksy, The Fussy Librarian and sometimes Bargain Booksy.  Life in the slow lane requires a good read or twenty. Although I've amassed a collection of audiobooks I've chosen to reserve those for boring household jobs such as cleaning out my closet (done and not much work if you haven't worn 'going out' clothes for over a year) or enjoying the sun on the deck where bright sunlight on the screen interferes with ebooks. I encouraged the shore captain/gentleman farmer to enjoy a collection of lectures on Vikings and gifted him the series on Chirp. He is now enjoying a wine region series while he transplants his zucchini. Better to be educated than bored.  

Podcasts (mostly audio, but a few video) are my friend whether it be Daily Ted Talks, CBC Listen, or just subscribed channels for crafts. And as strange as it sounds to say listening/watching a crocheting podcast is satisfying...crochet being a tactile activity....there are all sorts of new yarns, accessories and techniques shared. Lots of ways to enhance your cro-jo as in crochet motivation. I've offered crochet lessons to a friend but that in person activity shall have to wait for in person visiting. 

The walk to the mailbox is about half an hour and the weather has been mostly sunny with a bit of breeze to keep the bugs away so there's a daily outing. Lots of wildlife to see along the route with deer, bunnies, porcupine and neighbours dogs...thankfully no bears, although there have been local sitings. Very little traffic with the travel restrictions and lots of memories of walks over the past 35 years with various combinations of offspring/grandkids. 

The in house garden has been yielding greens for about a month, we've had our first early zucchini and I used the dehydrator to dry a batch of oregano already. Lots of healthy looking plants in the two greenhouses and the compound (which has so far excluded the deer) is planted with potatoes and more. When the resident farmer was complaining that the garden was getting to be 'almost like work' I reminded him that if he wasn't continually expanding his grow op as fiercely as if he were Amazon or Microsoft it would be less onerous. I convinced him to give some transplants to his sister because the more you have, the more you have to freeze/can/dry/find a place to store and we're still working our way through last year's bounty. 

The long weekend is usually the beginning of camping/cottage season but mid June is the target now for our six week restrictions. The projects list is lengthy...let's see what a dent I can put it in before then.