Oops, I guess I kind of forgot I had a blog for a while there, but I’m back now. This will be another general update post because that’s all I’ve got.
Since my last post, BC has entered ‘Phase 3’ of the Restart Plan and, unrelated to that, we had a crazy heat wave.
I am now fully vaccinated and with Phase 3 they have lifted the mask mandate and eased a lot of restrictions on gatherings. Generally, this hasn’t really had too much of an impact on my life. We are still meeting up with friends outdoors and in small groups, we still wear masks indoors in public places and we haven’t returned to eating in restaurants regularly.
Why? Well, on the first point, it is summer and we just put a patio in our backyard so the outdoor get-togethers are a no-brainer.
Mask-wearing is just doing our part to keep things trending in the right direction. I’m not bothered by wearing a mask and I feel it is a visual signifier that I am part of a community and I want to do what is recommended to keep everyone safe. Even though the mask mandate has been lifted for a few weeks now, I still see the majority of the people at the grocery store wearing masks and I am glad that so many people are willing to do their part to get things back to normal.
As for eating in restaurants, we just haven’t really missed doing that. I can see us going out occasionally in the future, but there’s nowhere I’m desperate to go any time soon.
The one exciting exception to our usual small group gatherings is the return of outdoor dancing! Last Thursday was the first “Swing Dancing at Showboat” and it was fantastic. This event is not an official dance; it’s just an informal gathering on Thursday nights during the summer months. Of course, during the summer of 2020 there were no dances at all, so it was kind of a significant progress marker that it could start taking place again.
Being the first gathering after almost two years, it was a bit complicated for a lot of people, but I think overall our community is very respectful of other peoples’ comfort levels. Quite a few people attended just to visit and see some people in person again, some people danced only with select partners and/or chose to keep their masks on, and some people just jumped right back in.
We went again this week (last night) and the crowd had grown, as vaccination numbers increased and also people had seen photos from the week before and were drawn out by the magic of it all. It really is magical. Dancing at the Showboat has always been magical, but after such a long absence it definitely feels more so. I have a feeling that it will soon become a bit too well-attended though, being the only dance option available.
In other ‘getting back to normal’ news, I had a dentist appointment this morning and a haircut this afternoon. Both things I haven’t done in almost 2 years. It’s been kind of convenient having hair long enough to just stick in a messy bun, but now that it’s summer, it’s time to chop it off.
And speaking of hot weather: The heat wave. It was over 40⁰C here and I don’t know if that has ever happened. It was terrible and worrisome.
It has been bad enough the last few years having to deal with forest fire smoke for weeks on end and I definitely did not need a heat wave to understand that we need to be taking action on climate change, but maybe it helped some people see the light. I hope it did anyway.
In our case, it prompted us to start finishing off a section of our basement to build what we’re calling a ‘summer bedroom’. Generally our house doesn’t get too hot, but if we’re going to continue having extreme heat like this, we need somewhere cooler to sleep and for Gilly to hang out. She’s going to be very excited when she finds out we have a basement. She’s always suspected it was there but has never been allowed to explore.
The downside of this new project is that it puts the garage renovation on hold, and I think I mentioned in my last post that the garage renovation has already put all our other projects on hold, so the deficiency list that we were trying to finish up this year is quickly moving down the priority list. At some point it will all be done though, or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.
Dancing In Irreverence 