June 24

Morning came calmly into my mind as I emerged from the depths of a dream. Covid was a dream and in the real world, we were in Europe on our way driving up the Rhine River from Holland to Switzerland. We were in the midst of an amazing trip of a lifetime to celebrate 50 spins around the sun. Unfortunately, I woke up to the cold reality of the coronaverse. We were not going to Europe and our trip was on a yearlong(?) hiatus. In our real(?) world travel is only possible if you stay in your own country. My drive to pick up someone at the airport hammered that reality home.

The airport is suffering from less traffic and for many airlines the situation is dire. I was there at noon to pick up the engineer and take him to work with me. I was surprised at the amount of traffic and vehicles parked in the short term lane. I had expected more of a ghost town feel. When I went to enter the terminal the doors were shut tight. Apparently they only want people going in select doors. The plane from Calgary was late in arriving so I had a chance to observe the protocols that have been implemented at YLW.

The airport was very quiet compared to my last trip there. They had a barrier of chairs and tables ushering people from the arrivals lounge toward the luggage carousels. I watched people arrive as the plane was emptying out. It was obvious that some people were taking the precautions seriously and others were not. Many were wearing masks as they walked down the ramp while others had them hanging around their necks. When my friend the engineer walked through he had his properly adorned. He removed his mask and smiled at me, commenting that they were instructed to keep their masks on until they had fully departed the airport terminal. Many people had disregarded this instruction and were only taking things half-heartedly. I personally don’t have a mask but would wear one if it enabled me to travel.

My friend hopped in my truck, I am no longer afraid of people or getting sick from them. We have the good fortune of being in a country that has done well containing the spread of Covid and I am confident that my odds of catching it from someone that is careful and conscientious are extremely low. I won’t hug him, I won’t shake his hand and I will do my best not to get too close. I feel like life needs to continue or our society will grind to a halt. We had our work to do and ended up at the hospital again.

I hope I never take the view from the roof of the hospital for granted. The lake trembled with whites and blues as the wind was blowing strong from the south and storm clouds darkened the sky. We had things to do and very little time to do them so we pushed on and hoped that the lightning would not strike. Rain did dampen our day and ourselves but if we had sheltered from it we would not have gotten our task done. Things can’t be shut down completely because of a storm warning. The hospital felt nearer to normal than the last time there but it was still locked pretty tight. The only way in was through the front door. The storm never struck Kelowna and the hospital escaped unscathed. We can hope that the next wave of storms leaves us untouched as we enter phase three of our recovery.

I joined my friend again at the pub for a beer and some grub. Our waitress was not wearing a mask and we were told that because of phase three things are loosening up for the restaurants. I hope that soon a vaccine is found and then we can enter phase four. Phase four will mean travel, concerts, and sports will return. 

I hope one year from now we will be traveling through Europe. I hope we will be going to concerts and no longer living the covid dream.