After the Sun

We just had a week of sunshine and warm weather, and I haven't written a thing here. I also have not responded to email, which is bad, I had at least one enquiry as to how I was doing which I should have responded to. I am doing great.

I've been working in my garden, walking with Hapi, and spending social time at the Reservoir in the morning and on the grass in front of a new friend's building (building is old, friend is new) in the late afternoon. Not every single day, sometimes I just want to stay home and putter or read or whatever. But it has been a good week, a welcome relief to the previous two weeks of rain, snow and cold wind.

I think pandemic social distancing suits me, I feel like I have settled into my Real Self. I always knew I was a funny mix of laziness and busyness, never more so than now. I am constantly surveying my little Queendom here to decide what needs to be done next. Then I am in my recliner reading and ignoring the list of things I should be doing. Hapi is okay with it all as long as she gets her daily walks. I think she enjoys dozing in the back yard, occasionally opening one eye to see what I am up to now. She's okay with my new lawn mower since it is less noisy than the old one.

I put off shopping for as long as possible because that is the only stressful part of my life. Some shops have really good protocols in place, others not so much and you really have to practice a kind of self-defence to deal with it. They changed the bubble rules, now I could bubble with a close friend. I've had one request which I am considering. She's a nice person but I haven't known her a long time. She's quirky and entertaining, I enjoy her company but I have a few reservations. She asked me if I had a car and when I told her that I did she made her request. She wants to go to a beach and the only way to go is by car. It's tempting. I'll have to consult with Hapi, hot days in the sun are not her favourite thing, but she does like water.

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I've been binging on the books of Tamim Ansary, who I have mentioned before. He has two memoirs and three histories. I am halfway through one of the memoirs, have completed one of the histories and am more or less halfway through the other two. The histories are from such a different perspective than that we grew up with in Civilized Western schools that they seem like a peek into a completely different world. Which they are, really. One of the books is about Afghanistan, where the author lived with his family until the beginning of his teen years. I am at the point in the book where Ansary can bring in his own family's role in that country's history, the 1930s and forward. In the other history I am only at the time of the Crusades, as viewed from a Middle Eastern perspective. 

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Last night I read an article in the Guardian newspaper about the likelihood of a Covid-19 vaccine. They take a very pessimistic view. On the one hand there is the difficulty of learning about the virus and its weaknesses, developing an appropriate weapon against it and then getting that weapon into mass production. And on the other hand there is the very real possibility that no vaccine is possible at all, or if possible only one that gives very weak protection. They note the number of viral diseases that have never been tamed via a suitable vaccine, and the fact that coronaviruses are among the group of viruses that cause what we call the common cold. There has been no successful vaccine against that, although fortunately the common cold is not considered a serious illness unless you  have a compromised respiratory system. The main difference between a coronavirus cold and Covid-19, if I am correctly understanding it, is that the former is caused by a coronavirus specific to humans, and the latter by one that is not. It is conceivable that SARS-Cov2 could become adapted and its impact considerably lessened, but that is not likely in the very near future.

Here in Nova Scotia the strategy is to keep the lockdown in place for the time being but in the background businesses are gearing up for loosening of restrictions. Each specific type of business is expected to come up with a plan as to how they will open up while maintaining pandemic safety. A dogwalking friend was telling me about her acupuncturist daughter's involvement in that aspect of things. Her professional association is coming up with guidelines that will be approved by the provincial government for reopening and in the meantime the daughter is getting her office prepared for opening. She has a few friend-clients lined up who will test-run her practice to see what needs to be ironed out before opening to the general public. I think this is going on with all sorts of business associations in the province.

New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are in talks about opening up their border (the Confederation Bridge) to each other, as they have very low infection and mortality rates and almost no new cases. They have said they will consider opening up to Nova Scotia as well, but first we have to get our numbers down as they have. Nova Scotia has had much higher infection and mortality rates than they have. Newfoundland is doing very well too, but their main connection to the rest of Canada is through Nova Scotia, so they will have to wait for us to get it together.