Taking stock

Well, here we are in May – already a third of the way through the year…

We are also – as The Girl pointed out to me this morning – now a full sixty weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic…

This is probably as good a time as any to take stock and to see how the year – and the pandemic – is progressing. It would seem sensible from our point of view to take as a yardstick the post that I wrote back in January in which I looked forward (as has become my habit during each January) to the coming year – laying out our plans, hopes and dreams for the months ahead.

That post contained a list of things that we very much wanted to be able to do. I make no apology for repeating it here:

• To get to see family and friends – face to face!
• To be able to entertain again
• To dine out
• To see some live theatre
• To enjoy some live music
• To attend a live sporting event (preferably Rugby!)
• To be able to travel… anywhere!

So – how are we doing on that list? The answer is – of course – badly!

We must not be too down-hearted. The positive news is that both The Girl and I have had our first vaccinations. We even hear rumours – which we fervently hope will turn out to be true – that the second jabs will be made available somewhat sooner than the sixteen weeks that are currently being touted. Canada is apparently taking delivery in May of a vaccine delivery larger than those of the last five months combined – which is cause for an optimistic two cheers.

Now, I know that in some other places in the world – and I am thinking particularly of the UK in this instance – progress in the vaccine rollout has been significantly better. Friends and family back there have either had their second jabs already or are shortly so to do. There is much talk of ‘opening-up’ back in the old country. Now – the optimism could turn out to be premature and it may all end in tears, but let us hope fervently that it does not. I hope that the UK gets a decent outdoor summer season in some form and that as things move into the autumn life really does begin to return to some sort of normal.

Here in Canada things are not looking so good. In BC – and in particular here on the Island – we are reasonably protected, but other parts of the country are still suffering high rates of infection and talking about locking down further. I fear that our summer will be much like that of last year.

Aside from the wish-list posted above my January scribblings included one or two other projects or plans slated for 2021. In my next post I will report on how those are going.