20:20 New Years Eve 2020
It is another day in the year of the coronaverse.
The final day.
Does a new year change anything? Do we magically get a gift, a reprieve, a time for renewal? Or is it simply another day in the week?
A day that ends in a why.
It is 20:20 on new years eve. A time as ironic as it is symbolic. Ironically the province changed the rules yesterday. Now as of 8 pm there is nowhere in the province that you can legally purchase an alcoholic beverage. With just over one day’s notice, the province changed the rules on the beleaguered restaurants in BC. . I am confused at the logic they are employing. People will drink and behave badly, why penalize the restaurants?
At least they are open.
There are less than four hours left in the year that was 2020. It sets a new standard for hindsight… Normally we would be dressed nicely, going out on the town, or going out to see some friends. We would be set to gather and celebrate.
I think back to many New Years’ in days gone by. Some were thrilling, one I spent on a houseboat in Lake Havasu, Nevada. Another I spent partying in Cabo San Lucas. I have always gathered with as many friends as possible to ring in the new year. It was always a great excuse to see friends we don’t always see.
I sit with my beautiful wife dutifully waiting to ring in a new beginning. I am missing the gathering. I think about going to our neighbours to warm ourselves by a fire outside.
It feels weird.
Are we breaking the rules? Do the rules make sense? If they don’t make sense should we break them? How many law-abiding citizens are ignoring the rules because they keep changing and they don’t always make sense?
With a foreboding sense of anticipation, I count down the minutes to this most unusual year. I hug my wife and daughter, fortunate to have them by my side.
Have a very happy New Year and all the best in 2021.
4 Comments
Louise · January 2, 2021 at 7:11 am
“People will drink and behave badly….” and this is how the virus spreads, even more easily transmissible with the latest strain.
You keep missing the bigger picture
Victor Barr · January 2, 2021 at 9:20 am
Yes, but if people drink in a restaurant they were in a more controlled environment. By shutting down early it only serves to have people do it on their own in their homes with others. Punishing the businesses will do nothing but backfire. That is the bigger picture, our government has lost the trust of the people because of the arbitrary and illogical last-minute decisions that are being made.
Louise · January 3, 2021 at 8:31 am
The bigger picture, as I see it, is that people are getting sick and many are dying because of the “bad behaviour” of others. The reality is also that there is no controlling the behaviour of an individual once they’ve had too much to drink – wherever they choose to drink.
Victor Barr · January 3, 2021 at 9:36 am
What the stats tell us is the people are dying in care homes. I don’t understand how controlling where people are drinking will change that. My question remains, why punish the restaurants with the last-minute change to the regulations? It simply relocated those that would behave badly anyway. At least a restaurant controls people and keeps them from mingling. I have been to a few restaurants and they are very strict about people mingling and about the amount of alcohol served. Most of the spread seems to come from the youth that willingly ignores the rules, when stuff like this happens it only confirms the lack of common sense in the rules being created. It feels like the days of prohibition. You will never stop people from drinking or smoking but if you can find a way to legally control it then there can be positive steps made in mitigating the problems associated. I know of many house parties on New Years’ and the numbers simply went up when they introduced the ban at the 11th hour.