Ground Hog Day

 

Mount Robson on a sunny day

In many ways, the past 15 or so months has been a bit like the movie Ground Hog Day.  Pretty much the same every day.  

I get up, have my coffee, pretty much ignore things like house cleaning, get to the studio twice (if I can), veg a lot.  Much of the past year or so has been dealing with being 'retired' (for certain values of) and trying to figure out what direction the next few years should take.

Last year the summer was grey and wet and kind of miserable.  It didn't bother me too much because it meant any wildfires had little opportunity to spread and smoke was at a minimum.  Given the pandemic and the admonishments to stay home and not travel or even gather, the chilly wet summer seemed to encourage everyone to just stay home.

For me that wasn't a hardship, although it was for many.  

Classes were cancelled and cancelled again for this year, so I am not getting my drive through the mountains again, not getting a (rare) chance to see Mount Robson in all it's glory.

Things may get back on track for next year, but it's been hard for a lot of people to see their plans disrupted, events cancelled, societal norms for celebrations downsized, put on line.  That sense of community celebration is curtailed and a lot of people are re-examining their life priorities.

For us it hasn't meant much of a change.  Not having much in the way of income for most of our lives, we are used to doing without of a lot of things.  We have rarely taken 'grande' holidays, in large part because I was already traveling so much - even the 'usual' things like birthdays and anniversaries got moved to when I was in town.  Moveable feasts.

Last week it was announced that BC would begin booking 2nd doses of the covid vaccine.  Given the original date was months after the first, moving it up to 'in the next few weeks' is at once a relief and anxiety ridden - when, when, when?  Patience, Grasshopper.

Some of the provinces are still staggering under a huge load of cases, so while Canada is, generally, beginning to bend the curve, there are still hot spots and some provincial governments (whose responsibility health care is) seem hell bent on encouraging a fourth wave, opening up too soon and encouraging large festivals that they rely on for tourism and such.

So I am content to stay home, and I will continue to wear a mask until BC reaches herd immunity.  I might continue to wear a mask anyway because I enjoyed not catching a cold this past year and because wearing a mask when I walk means less discomfort from my allergies to air born particles (smoke, pollen, dust).

Like I said to the guy on my walk yesterday, while covid might be over by the end of the summer, my allergies won't be.

In the meantime, I keep going to the loom, weaving down my stash, thinking about ways to teach on line.  Fighting with the technology.  Yesterday it was my monitor, so a back up monitor was brought up and swapped out for the one that was slowly dying.  Of course the back up didn't have speakers, so then rummaging through our 'saved' older (replaced) technology, finding the speakers that we kept and getting them installed.  And once again I wondered why I keep trying to do this on line thing.

So today, with no Zoom to host, I am going to go weave a couple more towels.  Who knows, I might even get back to the spinning, too.  I may have turned into a hermit permanently.