April 18, 21

I sat in my car looking at the line of traffic that sat stopped.  One year ago that traffic didn’t exist. This week traffic was back with a vengeance. Where are all the people coming from? Where are they going? You would never know we are in the middle of a global pandemic based on the number of cars on the road. I turned on my radio and heard the announcer say the cars would be rolling again soon. Highway 97 into Kelowna was closed for over an hour in the morning and things were backed up for Kilometres down the road.

I turned around and went home. I had better things to do than sit in a parking lot on what should be a highway. It’s amazing how much things have changed since April 2020. I miss the quieter times we had. Now it’s like we’re making up for lost time as we lose time waiting for the roads to clear.

Despite the shutdown of many facets of our economy, the Okanagan is booming. How long this will go on is anyone’s guess. Many people are banking on it to continue into the foreseeable future. My stomach churns at the thought of unending growth in our piece of paradise. How long will it remain paradise if it becomes another overcrowded big city?

After a week of chaos and working full time I was ready for a weekend. It was the day my family decided to celebrate my birthday, my second birthday in the coronaverse. This one was worse than the first one. In reality, birthdays are just another day that ends in a why? In this case, it was a why not… The why not was we were in isolation when my actual birthday happened. Two weeks later we could go out and sit on a patio.  

My wife was one of the lucky ones, her brush with covid was mild and she was feeling much better. Her symptoms were gone and the only lingering effect was tiredness and a tiny cough. Other people have had it much, much worse. Our friend is still suffering after a month. This is a large part of the problem with our viral foe. It just keeps hanging on.

We sat and stared at the dancing flames of a backyard fire. In the distance, I breathed in the view of the snow-covered peak of Little White Mountain. What a long strange trip this last year has been. While the fire in my yard burned the debris from my recent hedge trimming it made me wish we could burn away the debris from our world. I can do nothing but keep feeding the fire and stoking the flames. My friend Brad came to sit with me and reflect on the year we have survived in this time of chaos. We enjoyed the chance to connect around a roaring fire. Music serenaded the night and I felt lost in the hypnotizing dance of a campfire.

Time continues to pass and the days meld together. I yearn for the simplicity of days gone by, days when traffic was slow and people were kind. Now it roars along again and the need to stop and breathe sometimes becomes overwhelming.

Soon I will get a vaccine, I hope it will be enough to return to days when we didn’t have a viral foe hovering over our world. When the time comes for me to get the jab I think I will finally cut off my hair. I know my girls will be happy to see me shed my flowing locks. My hair is a symbol of my lost youth. I keep it as a symbol of how long we have been in this state of confusion. When the time comes I hope the vaccine will be enough. I hope enough people will take the vaccine and we can all gather again for a huge celebration to end the separation of our souls.