Boosted

 I got my Pfizer-BioNTech booster at noon today.  

Omicron spreading like wildfire.

God help me.

An Omicron Christmas

Well, it has come to this.  Rapid Covid Tests are now available before going out.  The Omicron variant is starting to make its presence known in a huge way in the last week.  Word is it’s 4 times as transmissible and it’s doubling in 2-3 days!  Borders have been shut, reopened, testing adjusted, again, at the American border, travel advisories reissued.   What a shit show.   It feels like we are in the same boat as last Christmas.   

This is so disheartening and unending.  

Merry fucking Christmas! 

$86.00 To The Good

 I donated 6 paintings to the “We All Need A Rescue K9 Rescue” online auction to help raise money for a dog rescue.   After two weeks of bidding, they helped make $86.00!  So, a bag or two of kibble!  😂😂

Back In The Saddle

Well, I am working again!   I am 3 1/2 weeks into my Fall contract of LLI tutoring at Pleasant Hill.  And I’m loving it.  I work with 3 Grade 3 students (Sebastian, Braxton and Amber) for 3 50-minute, one-on-one periods a week.  This was exactly what I needed.  It gives structure to my days/weeks, a nice sense of purpose and some extra cash in my pocket....hopefully to be used next winter for travel.   I have even decided to do it again in January and found out yesterday that I am able to.  Originally I was only hired for the Fall, as I’d hoped to be away this winter, but it looks like, once again, it would be most prudent to stay put, so I will do this instead.  Which is fine.  Far from ideal, but fine.   Which is how most things are these days.  😖🥴
 

September

September.  A mix of oh, so good and endless and increasing bad.

Bills wedding was wonderful.  Perfect weather, lovely event, a wonderful reprieve of “normalcy” for a couple of days among family and friends.   A hint of hope and better days ahead.   

I also worked at the federal election (which resulted in basically no change in government) and my tutor training.   Some river walks and painting and an overnight trip at Elk Ridge to take in the beautiful fall colours to enjoy this unseasonably pleasant weather lately.   These are the good things.

But...the covid numbers are out of control, the hospitals are in danger of collapse, Dr. Shahab has projected a “fall and winter of misery” as Saskatchewan and Alberta reap the “rewards” of our short-cited and ill advised political directives from summer decisions and directives.  So sad.  And so unnecessary.  And no end in sight.   It feels fucking bleak.

Summer 2021

 People went back to work today.  The nip of fall is in the air.  Night is falling earlier.  Must be the end of August.

What a summer.   Fires.  Drought.  Days of endless heat.  Vaccinations nowhere near where they need to be.  Border still closed t Canadians.  Delta virus surging.   Saskatoon a current hit spot and we have more cases in the city than we ever had.   

Fucking endless.

My constant battle is how much to open myself up to.  Been home and to the lake three times.  Have registered for a painting and a glass class.   I’m scheduled to begin tutoring after Thanksgiving.  I’m reticent to begin singing again, but it is on the docket.   

Living vs existing vs just being alive.   How to balance?  I just don’t know.

I best decide cause it’s gonna be another year living like this, and winter is coming soon.   I’ve abandoned plans and hopes of San Diego once again, but maybe Vancouver Island in January.  I find it so hard to make any sort of long term plans.

Bill’s wedding in two weeks.  So nervous about mixing with all the strangers.

This is NOT where I had hoped we would be.  I shudder to think of what is yet to come before we can consider this episode in time as “the past”.  I feat it won’t be any time soon.

Thankful for these reconnections over the summer, as well as a few hours with Mona  who was home with the family for a wedding.   Silver linings...

I

Reset

Yesterday, all Covid restrictions, including masks, were lifted in Saskatchewan. Something like 453 days ago they began.  Things are now back to “normal”.   Who’d have ever thought this day would come?   I sure do hope it stays.   I’m not sure when I will feel comfortable being without a mask so I plan on still using them sometimes as I increase my social frequency.   

I am just home from 5 days in Bredenbury and 5 days at the lake.  A much needed reset indeed.   Even my back is feeling better these last few days.  I can’t believe it.  The calendar is starting to slowly fill with commitments and activities.  Dare I even dream of a winter vacation again! 🤞🏼

Here’s hoping we are on to better days in our new normal now.

Retirement 2.0: Year 3 Reboot

 It is 33 degrees and sunny out.   We are in the beginning of a “heat dome” that promises record breaking heat for the next several days. 

 Today marks the beginning of year 3 of being a retired person!  And what a year it’s been.  In many ways, I’m glad to see year 2 end.  A year marked with pandemic isolation, pivoting, uncertainty and fear.  However, changes are coming.  I’m past my 2 week second jab waiting period, I have plans to go home on the weekend (finally), I’ve had a beer and appetizers on a deck, my social circle is widening...and I am glad.   I missed small talk and socializing. 

My days have become much the same and so I am looking forward to a new,  more “normal” routine that includes more time with other people, more purpose, more direction.  I have secured an LLI tutoring position for the fall and am cautiously optimistic about returning to San Diego this winter despite the land borders still being closed, as of today.   But the vaccination rates are increasing (over 70% provincially/nationally) and the cases declining (only 17 provincially yesterday and well under 100 for about 2 weeks now).  All mask and other restrictions are being lifted provincially on July 11.  So, unless some great curveball is headed our way (which I don’t discount entirely), surely to God better days are here.   I hope so because his has been really challenging, especially his last month as I’ve had some knee and back issues that have made getting around more challenging.   Thank God for acupuncture, chiropractors, physio and rest.  It’s improved a lot.  It’s not back to “normal” yet, but it’s better than it was.   Hopefully it will return soon.   

So, here’s to turning the page to better days both mentally and  physically and a return to the retirement I had envisioned and planned for.  Cheers to better days.  

Covid Project: Complete

Today I marked the “end” of Covid with my first haircut in 16 months.    

Time to start anew!

Reset

Ok.  So.  Now what?  

I’m 2 days post-second jab.  Had briefer and milder side effects overnight on Saturday.  The worst seems to be over now.  

And so, I keep wondering....”what now?  How long will a mind shift take to take hold.”

I’ve been fighting a terrible back the last two weeks but after much chiropracturing, acupuncturing, x-rays and physio, I seem to be over the worst of it.  I absolutely hate being debilitated and that is how I have felt lately.   It’s terrible.   

Now I make my list of things to do at the end of June once another 2 weeks have passed.  A movie, home to see Brenda, to the lake to see Deed, a beer on a deck with friends, daring to  turn my mind toward planning for next winter in San Diego.   Nothing out of the ordinary...and yet completely impossible for the last 15 months.   Sad, but true, yet once again seemingly within the realm of possibility.   

I feel gun-shy having been through 3 waves/lockdowns but know that the vaccine is the seeming game changer this time.  At least, that’s what the logical conclusion seems to be.

I sure hope the “new normal” contains the aforementioned examples as possibilities/realities because extended isolation sucks. 

I Stuck It To Covid

And so, the wait is over.  I just walked to Shoppers and had a Pfizer vaccine, 9 weeks and 5 days after the first AstraZeneca one.  I mixed and matched.  After much thinking and debating.  And counting and wondering.  And worrying and mulling. 

So let the chips fall where they may.  I am so very grateful to be in the 11.08% national and 16.3% provincial minority to be fully vaccinated.  How lucky am I?    I wonder if I’ll have side effects again like last time? 

It feels a bit surreal.  Like limping over the finish line.  That was a long 15 months of waiting, wondering and worrying.  Let’s turn the page to a better, brighter chapter now, shall we?

Who Da Thunk It?

 Well, I just did a thing!!!   Thanks to Shelley Hosaluk’s connections, I now have one of my paintings hanging in a real, legit art gallery.   And it’s on sale....FOR 60 BUCKS!!!   😂😂.  Never would have imagined it.  Crazy! 

Endless...

 ...and so it continues.   No, not continues, drags on.   In what seems like an endless loop of Groundhog Days.  The checks and balances don’t ever really seem to tip to the side of optimistic change.

Vaccines are here...yes.   So are these wicked variants.

Vaccine supply is increasing....so are hospital cases and stays.

It is indeed like a race and we never seem to get ahead.

Yesterday I cancelled my reservations for San Diego in January.  My first payment was due on the 15 and it just seems too uncertain to make any kind of international travel plans.  The land borders are still closed.  It looks like numbers might soon start to plateau/decline but they aren’t there yet.  It only seemed fair to Pete to give the reservation up so he can try and book a more certain rental.  It seems like the prudent thing to do and then readdress the travel situation in the fall and hope something is available, even if it’s for a shorter or a different time.   I think that’s the best/all than can be done at this time.

I’m now past the 3 week mark of having my first jab.  On one hand, I feel more confident and secure when I need to go out but, on the other hand, I’ve been questioning how this affects my day-to-day living.  I did go for a massage.   I wonder about going home though and or doing things like going to a movie.   I’m certainly not comfortable going to a restaurant yet. It appears things are changing, but they sure seem to be remaining the same.

My prediction is that May will continue to be nasty-in terms of high numbers and hospitalization.   But....we are to receive 2 million vaccines a week, starting this week, in May and June.   This will add to the 33% of us who have already had our first one, so it can’t NOT start making a difference....right?   I think my mid-June,  more people will start getting their second jab and we will start to see a slow and steady improvement and a turn toward better, easier days.   I have to believe this.  

My days feel all the same.  Leisurely mornings with coffee and the news, walking, audiobooks, painting and then, suppertime...it’s always freaking suppertime!

I know things could be worse.  I really do.  And I try not to counter that with “yes, but it could also be so much better”.   

Patience.   Focusing on the positive.  Appreciating the moment.  Counting blessings.   Good health.  Safety and security.  Walks.  Warmer weather.  Longer days.  No work stress.  

These remain my focus until thoughts of travel and unencumbered time with friends and friends can become normal again and we can break this endless loop that has become life in covid times.

Post-Jab

That was a rough 29+ hours.   Chills, fever, body ache, 29 hour headache, lethargy all kicked in at 2:30 am yesterday.   Finally broke down and took some ibuprofen at 5 am this morning to break the headache.   Seems to have helped.   Glad to be feeling better!  Can’t wait for the second one!  😳🙄🤕

I Am Jabbed

I’m trying to process how I feel.   I think it can be summed up simply as relief.  

I went to the drive-thru AstraZeneca-Oxford clinic at Prairieland this afternoon.   It took an hour and 20 minutes from entrance to exit.  I had not planned to do this today, but I’m very glad I did, as much for my mental health as my physical.  

Up to four months until the next one, and I will wait 3 weeks before socializing with less worry.   

There’s so much concern over variant spread.   But now I feel more hopeful.  

Please let this awful time end swiftly now.

The Art Of Waiting: Marking One Year Of The Pandemic

Today marks one year since the WHO announced the pandemic.  Incredible.  Six months ago, I wrote a post to mark that milestone with a few predictions/speculations for today.  Then I made a note to update it.  

So here goes:

Wolf Blitzer just said it’s 6 months to the day since the WHO declared this Covid pandemic.✔️

Dr. Fauci just said it’ll be a year before life goes back to how it was before the pandemic.✔️

The Weather Channel just said it’s going to be an El Nina winter (extra cold).

That’s a lot to take in. (Well, despite a couple God awful weeks, relatively this winter wasn’t as bad as if certainly could have been.)

So 6 months from now:   there’ll be a vaccine,(4 actually!), we’ll be in the downward slide of winter ✔️, Spring will be nearer ✔️, Bill’s wedding will be overX (a Covid casualty) and the promise of travel should be, once again, a possibility. (Well, practically, no, as there are many restrictions in place with testing requirements, self-isolations in hotels after air travel, land border between Canada and USA still being closed BUT the prospect for change is higher than its ever been because of the beginning of and hope in vaccinations).  

This has been an incredible roller coaster ride.  In these 6 months (3 actually) there have been:  vaccination inventions, announcements, procurements, distributions,   threats of it being held back, a 4-week “slow down”/stop of delivery in February, a ramp up afterward, an announcement to increasing the second dose from 3-4 weeks to 4 months to enable more people to get the initial dose quicker.  As of today, the Saskatchewan online booking system opened to 85+ year olds and tentative dates have been announced to receive our “jabs”...(I’m looking at you April 19!!!!!). 

Also currently, the race is on between vaccinations and variants.  Strains from the UK are especially worrying and present here, but ones from Brazil, South Africa and Southern California seem to be looming with questions and concerns of their own.   So, the roller coaster ride continues it’s ups and downs with no sense of certainly of when we can get off and be back on solid ground again.  

Like a roller coaster, so has been my state of mind.   On the up side, I have taken up painting, walked for hours and miles a day, listened to many audiobooks, and am grateful to not be working.   On the down side, I’ve been oddly concerned about getting water in the basement, felt alone and lonely more than I ever have, had such a sense of “Groundhog Day”, watched far too much gloom and doom news.   

It seemslike better days are coming.  Apparently, in the next three weeks we are to receive more doses of the vaccine than we have in the last three months.  🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼But it feels like it’s been so long since there has been anything positive and immediate in this regard that people, myself included, seem hesitant to embrace good news quickly; to believe that the end is, actually, nigh.  I am finding it more and more challenging to just, simply, wait.  

That said, to remain hopeful as I countdown to vaccination day in April, I think about next winter in San Diego, about going home to see Deed and Brenda, about singing again, about taking painting and glass classes; to just feel safer leaving the house and more relieved once family and friends are vaccinated too.  

As of today, 7% of Canadians have had their jab.   It’s coming.  Not fast enough, but it’s coming.  

A few months ago, I started this list.   I can’t wait to eradicate these from the vernacular!  

Words I Can’t Wait To Not Hear Any More:

Corona

Covid

19

Pandemic

Pivot

Variant

Mask

Virus

Self-isolate

“New normal”

Physical distancing

Donald Trump

Covid fatigue

Bubble

Connect virtually

Spike protein 

“We’re all in this together”

“Flatten the curve”

“Another layer of protection”

“Another tool in the tool box”

“Rounding the corner”

“Light at the end of the tunnel”

Second wave

Efficacy

“Could be worse”

Front line workers

Spike protein

Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4