Another COVID Winter – The Corona Diaries – Part Six

January 13, 2022January 13, 202250 Comments

Another Covid winter – I can’t believe I’m writing those words. With the arrival of vaccines last spring who would have thought we would still be in this mess, and getting worse, and now with the Omicron variant spreading faster than a wildfire should we be distancing twelve feet apart instead of six?

Did anyone watch the simulated video where the cloud of Omicron virus emitted from a cough launched itself airborne twelve feet and then hung about in the air like some menacing green Grinch, waiting for an innocent victim to walk by. They then repeated the simulation with a mask on, and those wily particles still escaped from the sides and top. I’ve since upgraded to N95’s, if I can find them, although when I had to visit the ER department with a family member on Boxing Day, they made us remove them and don one of their flimsy blue ones.

Yes, I spent Boxing Day and the day after, in the ER dept, for a non-COVID matter, and we consider ourselves lucky to have escaped with only a six hour wait each day. The second day was for an ultrasound to rule out a blood clot (negative) as they were too busy to do it on the holiday, and then a three hour wait for results – twelve hours in total, in a cubicle breathing in potential COVID germs. It was a scary thought, and I spent the week after counting down the days until we could be considered safe again. This was just before the Omicron tsunami hit, and the staff were barely coping then. I hate to think what will happen when things get worse and they can’t get enough staff…not just in health care but in any essential worker category.

We were lucky enough to get our third COVID shots in early December before Omicron even existed. They allowed me to get mine early, as my mother’s caregiver, although technically my age category wasn’t eligible until two days later, but then a week after they announced anyone over eighteen could, and the Hunger Games of Online Booking began. So, they’re telling people to get boosters, but no one can get one, at least in a timely fashion. Rapid tests are equally scarce. Parents are scrambling to get second doses for their kids before school starts again. I know high risk people who are booked a month from now, and feel fortunate to have gotten that. The health unit ran out of Pfizer and they are substituting Moderna again, which causes a problem when you have to provide proof for travel. Meanwhile the provincial government, in a priceless pass-the-buck news conference suggested to “just walk into” your local pharmacy. Without an appointment? The same pharmacies who are struggling to cope with the Christmas medication rush and flu shots and are already short-staffed? (Have I mentioned lately how glad I am to be retired.) Mine has stopped taking waiting lists – with 250 names already, and only receiving a paltry 60 doses a week, it’s rather pointless.

With only about a third of the population here having received their boosters, it’s hard to know where to lay the blame, the federal government, the provincial government or the local health unit? They are just now starting to add in more clinics to get the essential workers done, including health care workers, long term care, teachers, police, fire, ambulance – to me this seems inexcusable.

Needless to say, I’ve had a few sleepless nights, and am now back to just skimming the news again – you want to be informed, but not deluged with doom and gloom, especially before bed. For those who are struggling with these difficult times, check out last week’s book review – Wintering – by Katherine May.

I do feel somewhat hopeful that things will be better by spring, and that we will have achieved herd immunity, similar to what happened with the Spanish flu – two rough years, then two years of sporadic cases until it ran out of people to infect. Of course, it could mutate again, and we’ll be back at square one – take your pick – depending on if you’re a pessimist or an optimist. Some days I’m both.

It reminds me of studying microbiology in second year. Our lectures were in the old Banting and Best building at U of T in a room filled with rows of wooden desks, which I’m sure were there when insulin was discovered. I always liked being in that lecture hall, as I loved history. I once read a biography of Banting and Best and found it fascinating. Type One diabetes was a death sentence back then – one of their first patients was a 13 year old girl – imagine being able to save someone from the brink of death with a substance you had extracted from an animal pancreas. In my early working years, insulin was still sourced from Beef and Pork. It wasn’t until the 80’s that it was genetically manufactured to match the human type. Anyway, microbiology was taught by an old professor with a thick East European accent who used to snort into the microphone, the occurrence of which used to make us laugh hysterically, but in all seriousness, it was an interesting course and we learned about exponential growth, replication, mutations and all the things in the news these days……it’s funny your recollections forty years later. Science has conquered many things over the years, and will eventually conquer COVID too.

Since cases have skyrocketed here, and there seems to be no stopping it, other than taking the usual precautions and staying in, I’ve armed myself with books, (see next weeks Winter Literary Review), jigsaw puzzles, DVD’s, and even signed up for Netflix – although I’m not that impressed with what’s on – most of the movies they suggest based on My List, I’ve already seen. If anyone has any recommendations please leave a comment.

The only good thing about the winter so far is that the weather has been fairly decent, unlike other parts of the country which have been deluged with snow and cold. We’ve had a few inches now and then, barely enough to make a snowman, which melted quickly as many days the temps were in the 30-40’s. A mild December is always a bonus as it shortens up the winter. Now, in the depths of January, it’s been colder but we’ve hardly had any snow, certainly nothing worth shoveling. I like it when it’s not too blizzardy out, as I tend to feel claustrophobic in snow storms. I don’t want to go anywhere, but I like to know I could if I needed to.

They had been predicting such a bad winter that I decided to get new tires for my old Honda – way overdue but the mechanic kept saying they were okay as long as I did do any long-distance driving??? (really – like where?) So my big expedition for the month was hanging out in the relatively deserted waiting room of Canadian Tire (a gigantic hardware store with an automotive division), where I felt reasonably safe, but not brave enough to visit the adjacent mall.

(My big outing for the month, other than the ER dept.)

Of course I had to wait for the tires to come in (supply issue – what else is new), and then had them put on the week before Christmas (the mall was a zoo), and then had to go back for the alignment as they were too busy to do it that day, which was a blessing in a way, as I found a car part in the driveway, (never a good sign), which turned out to be a wheel weight, requiring a wheel re-balance. If the snow hadn’t melted I wouldn’t have noticed it. I also had them check the battery. So now I feel safe with my new old car – if only there was someplace to go…

(Even the birds are staying in, except for the partridge in the pear tree)

I haven’t set any new goals or bucket list for this year, as I have in the past, as what would be the point, we have so little control over the circumstances. Masks have been mandatory here for two years, and some degree of lock-down depending on the stats, but there’s little to do even when restrictions are lifted.

(Many people have left their decorations up to shine a little light)

I’m still walking every day, except for a few slippery days, for the fresh air and exercise but mostly for the immune boost – admiring the decorations and lights, and listening to my daily dose of music.

This catchy tune was on a Lincoln car TV commercial recently. It really has been a most unusual year…..but I have hope for the future.

PS. How are things in your neck of the woods? Do you know anyone who has had COVID? I’m starting to know of a few people who have had it, more friends of friends than people I know specifically.

I am Vaccinated – The Corona Diaries – Part Five

July 8, 202126 Comments

I am finally fully vaccinated……but not without some drama.

I last wrote The Corona Diaries at the end of The Winter of Our Discontent, but you might call this installment The Promise of Spring which didn’t quite materialize, and hopefully not the start of The Summer Which Never Came?

It’s been a depressing several months, the weird and wacky weather, the long frustrating wait for vaccines to get us out of this mess, the hope for better days ahead, when they all seemed more of the same, and all the while the world was blooming with loveliness.

Hydrangea bush enjoying the morning sun.

May and June are my favorite months, but somehow this year they got cluttered up with much delayed appointments – doctors, dentists, lab work, vision, both for myself and my mother. Then there were the maintenance things like car, A/C, computer and spring cleaning maid service. (I still can’t believe the earliest appointment is mid-August – guess we’ll have to live with the dust for awhile longer). Having received one dose of the Pfizer vaccine on April 20 I felt it was safe(r) to re-book some of this now and get it over with, but it seemed like every day when the weather was perfect for sitting outside there was something on. The rest of the time it was either too hot and humid, too cold or too rainy. So much for spring. Now after two weeks of drought, we’ve had two weeks of rain – so much rain that the backyard is a tropical resort for giant mosquitoes, one of which bit me on the leg resulting in several days of itchiness so intense I couldn’t sleep, so I’ve retreated inside again….like a hermit going back into it’s shell.

As there were um…..comments about the last post (A Reading Sabbatical) being too long, I shall spare you the drama (and accompanying word count) of the vaccine process, other than to say that I long for the days when they just lined us up for a jab with the needle.

Archives photo 1956 – high school students receiving polio vaccine

Actually when I was in grade two in 1963 we were lined up for the oral polio vaccine, which was even better, as they dispensed it on a sugar cube. We never had sugar cubes at home so the sensation of that dry granular square in my mouth was such a strange thing that the memory has stayed with me.

After five months of lock-down, even I, the most contented of homebodies, have been enveloped in a cloud of gloom and doom lately. Now that I’m fully vaccinated and can go out, there’s nothing much to do – every outdoor summer event was cancelled months ago, including the fall fairs. We are now entering stage two of reopening, with the stages spaced at cautious three week intervals, assuming case counts remain low and vaccination rates continue to increase.

I’m tired of cooking, but with no indoor dining until August, I’d rather wait until my birthday when I can visit my favorite steakhouse, a place with tablecloths and candles and frigid air-conditioning, and be served a meal someone else has prepared and will clean up after.

Non-essential stores have reopened too, at 25% capacity and after the initial crowds disperse, I’m looking forward to some retail therapy, if only to browse and buy socks. I have a whole list of things which need replacing – things you have to look at in person not pictures on a website.

And I’m sure once I get a haircut next week I’ll feel better and be ready to face the world again with more optimism. My bangs have achieved Cousin-It status and it will be nice to be able to see through my new glasses. I haven’t had my hair this long since I was a teenager, and while I kind of like the hippy look, the darker graying roots simply must go.

Sun-In and sunlight – and you’ll be blonder tonight!

Bring on Summer and Peace Out!

(650 words)

The Winter of Our Discontent – The Corona Diaries – Part Four

March 31, 2021March 31, 202188 Comments

For this latest quarterly installment of The Corona Diaries, I’ve borrowed the title from a 1961 novel by the American writer John Steinbeck, best known for his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath. The Winter of Our Discontent, centers around a protagonist, Ethan Hawley, who labors as a grocery clerk in a store once owned by his rich and illustrious Long Island ancestors. A man of honesty and integrity he sells his soul in a series of successful but unethical get-rich schemes, hoping to satisfy his restless wife and teen-aged children who want more material goods than he can provide. He becomes suicidal, but is saved at the end by a talisman his daughter slips into his pocket.

No idea why this was on my basement bookshelf, but Donald Sutherland looked young in 1983.

I read this book in high school, because our strict but otherwise excellent English teacher required a monthly book report on one of the classics. I’m not sure why I chose this one. Perhaps the title appealed to me, as Canadian winters tend to be long. Certainly, as a 15-year-old I found it hard to relate to, as nobody in my world was suicidal, (young people weren’t back in the 70’s), but in truth all I remember about it was there was something about a grocery store and the scene of his despair was near the ocean, which I wanted to view some day.

Steinbeck in turn borrowed the title from the opening speech of the Shakespearean play, Richard the Third, from which the English teacher thankfully spared us.

“Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York; and all the clouds that lour’d upon our house. In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths…..”

A catchy opening phrase, but the subsequent lengthy passage deals with politics, war and who gets to be king, and while I’m sure it was profound, I disliked Shakespeare too.

None of this has anything to do with COVID, although I suppose you could spin a connection that Ethan Hawley was an essential front-line worker, there’s still a lot of political divisiveness raging, and mental health issues are becoming epidemic the longer the pandemic drags on….but basically I just liked the title.

For many people it has been a winter of discontent, but I’m an introvert so I’m still doing okay…keeping busy….reading lots…..walking every day except for one brutally cold week in February when I could not force myself to leave the warmth and comfort of the house. (Skin freezes in twenty minutes in sub-zero temperatures.) Cocooning in the winter is nice, but I’m wondering if I’ll remember how to interact with other people in person.

But I have to admit I’d be a lot happier if I could get a COVID vaccine. The vaccine roll-out here has been slow, as not having any vaccine manufacturing facilities left in Canada, we are at the mercy of the EU supply chains.

It’s a case, of slow and steady does NOT win the race…..against the variants.

While I’m grateful that my mother, in the over 90 group, was able to get her first shot in early March, with her second booked for five weeks later in April, unless it’s cancelled, I’m not happy that the government recently decided to stretch the dosing interval to FOUR MONTHS, for everyone else in an effort to get more people vaccinated, including for the 80 plus group. While they were able to give the nursing home residents and workers, and health care staff two doses initially as recommended, everyone else has to wait until July for the second dose. While I understand the rationale behind this, it’s a big gamble, especially with new studies showing that immunity in the older population is substandard to begin with and may not last as long. Every day now, so much new information is emerging, it’s hard to keep up with it all.

Sea turtle (by Joni’s mom) drowning in a sea of COVID information which changes with the tides…

As for the vaccination clinic itself, well…..that’s a rant best left to Facebook, if I was the kind of person who posted on Facebook. Where else but in Canada would you have to wait until the ice came out of a hockey rink before you organized a mass immunization clinic. The general inefficiency of the previous set-up has now been replaced by a new model involving pods of 15 (maximum of 60 in the now ice-free arena) where you register and sit in your pod and the immunizer person comes to you, aiming for a goal of one patient per minute. A great idea, and I’d give the local health unit credit, but they stole the (hockey hub) model from the Gray-Bruce Health Unit.

Unfortunately I was disqualified from getting the vaccine as an essential caregiver, as I do not share the same residence as my mother, even though I am there almost every day as she is 95 now, BUT if she was in a nursing home and I visited her once in awhile, then I would have qualified? (Ministry of Health rules) But at least I will not worry so much now that she will have some level of protection. Otherwise I am waiting patiently for my age group to come up…..they are decreasing by fives.

On to more pleasant things, like food. There has been entirely too much dessert eating going on here lately…

I had to use up the rest of the spy apples before they spoiled…

So many English trifle parfaits were consumed that we ran out of peach and strawberry preserves. I felt like the pioneer woman who ran out of provisions before the end of winter.

Next year make three batches of freezer jam…

I’m still doing the every 2-3 week grocery run, as we have basically been in various stages of lockdown since Christmas. We had two weeks in the orange zone in late February, so I was able to get a haircut, but locked down into gray again shortly afterwards. Lots of cases and variants rising – we’re just starting the third wave.

I fear that by the time I get the vaccine, (and then which one, which is a whole other topic), it won’t work as the strains will have mutated so much we’ll have to start over again. The Spanish flu took four years to die off, (1918-1922) with the first two being the worst due to WW1 troops spreading it between countries. Sorry to be so depressing….

I still have my old biochemistry book in the basement somewhere, but I’m grateful I no longer have to study it. I remember it as a killer course involving stuff like memorizing the Krebs cycle. I’m happy I can now keep my brain active by doing jigsaw puzzles.

Lots of color and nothing over 500 pieces please….

Someone gave my mother one of her paintings as a puzzle (a great gift idea – simply upload a photo and order online at piczzle.com) and I helped her out a bit and found it fun. The store shelves were empty of puzzles after Christmas, but I managed to snag one on sale at the bookstore. It’s the kind of mindless activity which is meditative and addictive at the same time….you sit down to do a few pieces and soon an hour has passed.

Speaking of paintings, her art exhibit comes down mid-April. It’s been up for five months, but the museum has been closed for 3 ½ of those, so very few people had the opportunity to see it, which is a shame as it was such a nice display. Another museum called last week and asked if we wanted to do a show this year as they will be re-opening soon, but I think I’d rather wait until next spring. I really can’t see going to all the work of setting up another show, until we climb out of this mess.

Winter is over and spring, my favorite season, is here. I don’t want to miss it this year, so the blogging schedule may be a bit erratic. This past month has been pleasant walking weather, with the grass greening and flowers popping up all over. The robins are back, bringing with them the promise of warmer days ahead…..after Thursdays snowstorm!

They are playing this song every time a COVID patient is discharged from the hospital.

A COVID Christmas – The Corona Diaries – Part Three

December 17, 202034 Comments

Like many other people, I’m just not in the mood for Christmas this year. Call me Scrooge, call me the Grinch – let’s just fast forward to January.

Many years ago, I read a book called Skipping Christmas, by John Grisham. (goodreads link) It was a departure from his usual legal thrillers and in this short novel, the protagonist, fed up with the fuss and expense and drama of their elaborate and ever-expanding Christmas celebrations, announces to his wife his intention to skip it altogether. Spoiler alert – of course, he didn’t really skip Christmas, they just had a scaled down version of it, a simpler celebration, more in honor of the true meaning of the season.

Many people will be having smaller Christmases this year with just those in their immediate bubble, and some people will be staying home alone. While it’s nice to have a bit of a crowd around at Christmas there’s something to be said for quieter times too. Christmas is often a sad time for those who have lost loved ones or who are alone and lonely, but pretending to be jolly when you’re not, can be exhausting too. If you have to get in the Christmas spirit, because other people are depending on you to be a merry little elf, this song may help, because we all need a little Christmas, even if it’s just in small doses.

For I’ve grown a little leaner, grown a little colder, grown a little sadder, grown a little older….

I love the lyrics to this song, “Haul out the holly, Put up the tree before my spirit falls again, Fill up the stockings, I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.”

Feeling better now…perhaps a bit more gleeful?

Part of the problem with getting in the festive mood this year is that so many of our yuletide traditions have been modified or cancelled. Who would have predicted this time last year that we’d be in the middle of a pandemic, and simply singing a Christmas carol would be forbidden – all those droplets spewing forth possible germs – yuck. Other activities have adapted, so in Part Three of The Corona Diaries lets take a look at a few of those old favorites and see what’s changed and what’s stayed the same, or maybe even improved – yea more cookies for me! Fortunately the parts of Christmas I love the most, the lights, the decorating, the music and the food, tend to be COVID-resistant.

The Festive Special:

Swiss Chalet has been offering their Christmas Special for over 30 years now. It usually starts in mid-November as a kick-off to the season, in order to capture those hungry shoppers smart enough to do their shopping early. This Canadian restaurant chain is known for their rotisserie quarter chicken dinners, and for three dollars more the Festive Special gets you a small scoop of (box) stuffing, a thimbleful of cranberry sauce and a gift box of five Lindor/Lindt chocolates.

This years TV commercial features a little girl excited to see Nana and Papa and then a shot of the family dining inside the restaurant, cut to the Door-Dash guy delivering a meal to the grandparents, and then the family zooming with them via an I-Pad on their respective tables. Creative marketing at it’s finest. Ours was take-out this year, and the cranberry sauce was as skimpy as ever, but the chocolates were good. You can’t go wrong with Lindt Chocolates, even if you have to pay for the the free ones.

Musical Interlude – because mid-Nov. is still a bit too early for non-stop Christmas music. Anyone remember this song by the Queen of Soul? (youtube link)

Nov 25 – Santa Claus is Coming To Town:

The Santa Claus parade may be canceled, but Santa’s coming to a neighbourhood near you! While many Santa Claus parades have become stationary drive-through events or are being conducted on football fields sans spectators and broadcast live (the annual Toronto parade), in the smaller cities and towns, the parade may come right to you. I had forgotten all about this, until I heard the sirens and looked out and saw all the little kids in the neighborhood running down to the corner. Kind of negates the idea of not congregating, but Santa can’t cover every street in town. This year’s parade was really scaled down, only one float and two firetrucks, but Santa was on one of them. Go Santa!

Christmas Charities:

The Salvation army buckets are out in full force, but not manned this year, although some had the new tap and pay feature. Other charities have adapted too. Although there were no toy drive drop offs, just cash donations, Christmas for Everyone is still doing food and toy hampers, as the need is greater than ever this year. The Legion and church offered take-out turkey and roast beef dinners as a fundraiser and sold-out in days – because who isn’t sick of cooking?

Christmas Shopping: (or you’re a mean one, Mrs. Grinch)

I remember one year buying presents for 32 people – talk about insanity. Only half of those were for family and the other half, friends or employees. I was a department head and decided I would buy my staff a small gift, personally geared to their interests – I ran myself ragged shopping, and I don’t like Christmas shopping at the best of times. I only did that one year, the next everyone got the same holiday candle and Tim Horton’s gift cards. Work was always so busy that time of year that eventually I learned to shop early in the fall and would not go near the stores at all in December. A hospital can be a sad place at Christmas and I can’t imagine how the staff are coping now, burnt out and exhausted, with all time off cancelled due to lack of staffing.

I didn’t do ANY Christmas shopping this year – a few small gag gifts from the dollar store, but I did not go to any store for anything other than essentials. Being retired now and our stats still good, I thought I had all kinds of time, but I left it too late and by then the numbers were ticking up and they were telling people to stay home. The few things I bought online had to be returned, so I just gave up, as Canada Post couldn’t promise delivery after Dec 3. I don’t like online shopping anyway, preferring to actually see the item first, and on my one return-and-dash trip to the mall, it was so crowded I felt unsafe and left after half an hour. So this Christmas will be money stuffed in an envelope – not even gift cards. I didn’t realize until recently that Visa gift cards expire if you shove them in a drawer and forget about them – yes after a year they start to subtract a monthly fee. There’s nothing wrong with cash, you can take it to the bank and deposit it, and I had cash lying around I hadn’t used from the spring – so now it’s used up! Easy-peasy!

Dec 1 – Mad for Plaid:

My sole purchase for myself, as you need to treat yourself at Christmas too, was these plaid face masks.

I asked a neighbour where she got hers and she said Old Navy and she liked them as most masks were too big for her narrow face and these have side loops you can adjust, so I got a pack of the Christmas plaid ones on sale – $11 for 5. Plaid is festive at Christmas and matches my plaid scarves from those new coats I blogged about last year, now sitting in my closet with no place to go. (link to Joni and the Amazing Technicolor Coats). You might think it’s too much plaid but style icon Kate Middleton wore one, so that’s good enough for me, and I find anything plaid immensely cheering.

Dec 9 – Baking:

Speaking of treats, we all have to eat, so why not treat yourself to Santa’s Favorite Chocolate Cookies (link to blog). I only make these rich decadent cookies once a year at Christmas and normally would make several batches to give away, but this year I don’t have to! I made my first batch in early December – 28 cookies I don’t have to share! Well, I shared some…..but still…more for me! Baking is also a good way to use up all that flour you stockpiled in the spring with the best of bread-baking intentions.

Dec 12 and 15 – Deck the Halls:

I was late putting up the decorations this year, so I didn’t put up as much, either inside or out, as in a few weeks I’ll just have to take them all down again, and that’s always a downer. I’m keeping it simple. A few wreaths outside, no lights, but candles in the windows. I know everyone is going overboard with lights this year but they sold out early and I forgot to ask the electrician when he upgraded the hydro if I could still use the front outdoor socket.

Instead of buying those overpriced pine arrangements I stole this idea from my neighbor, after watching her out my kitchen window one morning, hacking branches off her pine tree with pruning shears. Saves money ($35) and the rustic look is in. I just love the plaid ribbon, and the cattails were from a ditch.

My mother’s evergreen tree willingly donated some branches,

so I did one for her with a few dollar store decorations from previous years.

And then one for my front porch.

Personally I think there should be a law against those blow up decorations – if you’re already feeling deflated this Christmas, a sight like this doesn’t help.

Someone in my neighbourhood has so many of them on their small lot that I lost count after thirty. There should be a bylaw – two per household, and only if you have little children.

A Charlie Brown Holly Bush:

My holly bush is keeping it simple too. I planted four of these one year, one male and his harem of three, but two died and the surviving one is really just a Holly Golightly twig. As they’re sandwiched in between a row of lavender and a row of rose bushes (not one of my better landscaping decisions) they never really did well. But one sprig of holly is all you need for atop the store-bought Christmas pudding.

Holiday Movies:

The Sound of Music (check), White Christmas (check), that one with the annoying kid with the BB gun (check) – my mother loves A Christmas Story, it reminds her of growing up in the Depression. I haven’t watched Scrooge or It’s A Wonderful Life, but they’re always on Christmas Eve day.

Holiday Music:

I started listening early, as motivation to walk – fresh air and music. As well as the usual Christmas favorites, I’m enjoying some of the old Christmas hymns I remember from Christmas Eve services. (link to blog – Joy to the World – Christmas Playlist) There won’t be any midnight mass here this year, certainly no choir, just an early service you have to register for online, and a video broadcast link later. We usually tune into the church channel with the Basilica from Washington DC, if they are allowed to have it this year?

I always enjoyed this Christmas reggae song by Boney M – very uplifting.

The Reason for the Season:

If you’re feeling frazzled, like the jolly guy here, clinging to the tree, remember this too shall pass, and remember the reason for the season. Keep those traditions you can and those that have meaning for you and let the others go for this year. Peace and goodwill to all. Wishing everyone a Merry Little Christmas!