Summer has certainly brought a welcome respite from the pandemic lockdown. We got to go on walks in the fresh air, do a little shopping in re-opened stores, eat on restaurant patios, and do some social distance visiting with friends in our backyards. Even the weather cooperated. However, that is all about to change.
Recently, conversations with friends have turned to the rapid approach of cooler temperatures and ultimately… winter. Everyone has been asking the same question, what are we going to do when it’s too cold to sit outside with our friends?
Some of these conversations make it seem like we are approaching the apocalypse. They proceed along the lines of, “we suffered through the March and April lockdown, loved the summer break, but are now approaching the return of never-ending badness … winter may break us all, gird your loins”!
Will it really break us? Probably not, but we do need to start planning on how we are going to address it. First up, we need to put things in perspective.
Putting Things in Perspective
I keep saying to my friends that although they went into lockdown in March, I went into “hospital lockdown” back in November 2019. As I frequently joke with them, for me, being sent home from the hospital on March 20 to begin lockdown was actually a major upgrade. I was absolutely ecstatic about my situation in March and April, and unequivocally thrilled, when summer rolled around, that my rapidly improving health situation allowed me to start doing things I was incapable of just a few short months before that … like walking on my own two feet. Yikes! This perspective never seemed to cheer them up. 🙂
More broadly, I kept saying to anyone who would listen that we’d only been in this situation for a few short months, and that throughout the not terribly distant past, many people suffered through situations much worse than our current one. Again, this never seemed to cheer anyone up. They continued to wallow in their pandemic-induced misery. 🙂
Then one day, I found the following excerpt on that fountain of knowledge and all things important… Facebook. It condensed the understanding of what other people have lived through in a very personal, succinct way. As soon as I read it, I knew I had to include it in any article I might write about how we were all going to handle the approaching winter. If you are on Facebook you may have read it already.
I lost track of the Facebook entry that I wanted to use, but a quick Google search of the statement “events that impacted the life of someone born in 1900” revealed a Facebook page sharing the quote. It also revealed a number of short pieces written by individuals who seem to be passing off the quote as their own writing without crediting any source… sigh.
Now, I really have no idea who wrote this, but the person I copied it from had the good common sense to identify the original author as “unknown,” which I have done as well.
So, for anyone who has been thinking that they have suffered mightily from the pandemic restrictions in the last half year Think about someone who found him or herself in the following situation. To provide context for my own life I thought about my parents, who were both born in 1916, dealing with all of these events.
Here we go …
” Imagine you were born in 1900. On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war.
Later in the year (1918), a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.
On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.
When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. And don’t try to catch your breath. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.
At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish.
At 55, the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict.
On your 62nd birthday, you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, should have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.
When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.
Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that?
Perspective is an amazing art, refined as time goes on, and enlightening like you wouldn’t believe. Let’s try and keep things in perspective.”
——
American author unknown”
Does this put things into perspective for you and cheer you up? Or, do I have to remind you that most of us went through lockdown with comfortable housing, groceries delivered to our front door, Amazon bringing us everything else we needed, and television and the Internet keeping us entertained. Especially, let us not forget that that most of us were able to use our Internet access to stay informed, access e-books to read, conduct video chats with friends and family, and fulfil pretty much every need our hearts desired… except direct physical contact with family and friends.
Are you feeling better about your situation now? No! Well then, let’s start looking at how we might get out in front of the approaching end of the world as we know it… i.e. winter.
A Vaccine is Coming
Most people I know don’t seem to be getting very excited about how we are steadily and rapidly moving towards the development of a working vaccine. I watched a video clip this morning of Dr. Fauci in the United States saying that it is possible that a vaccine could be developed by the end of the calendar year. Not October or November like the orange, pumpkin headed individual who seems to be pretending the pandemic is long gone, claims, but in a relatively short period of time.
This makes me think that realistically we should get word about an effective vaccine sometime between the end of the year and the end of the first quarter (March) of 2021. Now, it might take longer than that for us to actually get inoculated and begin to resume our normal lives, but folks, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Don’t despair.
Take to the Garages
There has been some chit-chat amongst our group of friends about trying to extend our backyard patio gatherings by buying some of those propane heaters you often see on restaurant patios. I guess that will work for a while, but in January and February… I think not.
The other option that came up in these discussions was how to set up our garages to allow semi-comfortable visits with friends in a hybrid indoor-outdoor space. Of course, we will need to leave the garage door cracked open six inches or so to allow for fresh air to circulate freely. I am thinking that I can set up a fan we have just outside the garage door to draw out air from the garage, thus allowing fresh outdoor air to be drawn back in.
We chatted about how we might heat the space. Most of that talk centred around whether we could use the portable propane fire pits that many of us own as a heat source for the garage. The one we have is quite light and could easily be stored under a shelf and pulled out for these events. In truth I am not keen on the idea of firing up the propane anything inside what amounts to be a part of the house. It’s probably even illegal.
I realized after a while that I have one of those electric heaters that looks like a fireplace hanging on the wall in our basement. It can be easily lifted off the bracket that holds it in place and carried into the garage. It throws off decent heat and would probably be a whole lot safer to use than a propane firepit. I should add, that since I originally wrote this paragraph we purchased two small plug-in electric heaters for the garage from Canadian Tire; no dismantling of the basement fake fireplace required.
You would maintain social distancing in the garage of course, just like you do outside. And, your guests could all bring their own folding lawn-chairs to use. This would help to minimize set up and take down.
Local Getaways
The other thing that can be done to break up the winter is go to different places for a monthly getaway. Go to another city and stay in a hotel or rent an Airbnb property or a vacation property for a weekend, etc. I don’t think this is as risky as I thought it might be several months ago, but I’m feeling more and more confident that renters have taken into consideration the importance of being able to provide proper COVID-19 prevention standards.
Winter in a Warmer Part of Canada
Once more this winter, we will not get to make our annual pilgrimage to the Costa del Sol in Spain to escape the joys of our Canadian winter. However, I came up with what I thought was a reasonable alternative, renting a place in Victoria, British Columbia for February and March. I did a quick search on Airbnb and found that one-bedroom places could be rented in the downtown Victoria area for about $2300 – $2400 per month. So, the idea is doable.
I’m having a little difficulty convincing the Love-goddess of the merits of this plan, but we are certainly going to explore the idea further. It’ll be much cooler in Victoria than in the Costa Del Sol, but there will be no snow and the moderate temperatures will allow us to get out and walk around comfortably.
List of Things to Accomplish
This past week the Love-goddess informed me that one of the things she wanted to do to help pass the time during the coming winter was to work on her Spanish skills. It’s a very good idea, and something that I will probably put a lot of effort into as well. It also made me realize that this is a very good time for all of us to sit down and write out a list of things that we would like to accomplish over the winter that normally would not get done because we would be very busy being social or travelling. If we are going to be locked up, let’s be productive.
Virtual Travel
In this article I’m trying to avoid making suggestions that are more virtual than real. I think we all had our fair share of virtual experiences last March, April and May. What we will need this winter is continued real experiences like face-to-face get-togethers with friends.
So why am I suggesting virtual travel? Well, because Internet-based hybrid travel experiences have begun to pop up. These allow you to directly connect and interact with remote human travel guides in real-time.
One that was brought to my attention was set up in the beautiful, but remote, Faroe Islands, https://www.remote-tourism.com. They have finished their trial of these connected hikes, but as you will read on their site, videos of previous outings are still available on their Facebook page. I could explain to you how it all works, but it will be simpler for you simply to go to the website and check it out.
Why do I even mention it if they have closed for the season? Because I am sure that over the winter many, many, more of these offerings around the world will pop up. I’m certainly going to be checking them out when they do.
So, What Are You Going to Do This Winter?
Give this some thought, and report back to me. If you have some interesting “real “activities planned for the rapidly approaching winter season, make a comment below, or flip me an email and let me know what you are thinking. I would be happy to publish another list of helpful ideas.
