September 17, 2020
As fall arrives and our kids go back to school, many of us are already thinking ahead to winter and what that might mean in the face of Covid.
For those of you who peruse the daily cases you may have noticed, the not unexpected upward trend. This, of course, is concerning, particularly as we move inside, no longer free to lounge in parks or on patios, socially distanced sans masks.
I imagine my continuing daily isolation, interacting virtually until my husband arrives, whom I then glom onto, craving face to face conversation and physical contact, while he would rather be chilling on the piano or watching some sports activity without an audience. He continually forgets I need social contact. I have too little, and he has more than enough. Or I think about a friend I might invite over for a chat, a drink or a meal, placing them 2 meters away from me on a stool while we yell to be heard and understood. It all just doesn’t sound that appealing.
Since I am nothing if not proactive, I have been making some plans to cope with moving inside and back into a relatively solo existence. Thinking ahead I am deciding who I will have over for in-person or virtual lunches, who might be a bubbled work buddy, my friends I will walk with around the city, choosing a different daily direction. I may even decide to “bubble” with a set number of friends since I have seen my social circle dissipate from lack of use due to dwindling motivation. The time has come, for me, to weigh probabilities versus taking a rigid approach to avoiding Covid-19. We must all remember that the weight of social distancing and isolation decrease the desire to bother with much needed social contact. Remember, motivation follows action. So I will be scheduling these connections even though I’d just rather not. One tip I learned for those of us who need to worry about contracting the virus is to get a Covid test just before the appointed social contact. While not 100% accurate, it’s still much better than simply playing the odds.
Looking at the calendar for October, I have booked the family into a hotel in Collingwood where we will each have our own rooms and enjoy a socially distanced dinner. Hiking will definitely be on the agenda. At the end of November, my husband and I are going to Niagara Falls for the weekend and will stay there for a boutique getaway. We will ride the ferris wheel, eye the falls and take in whatever kitschy sites are available to us. December
will involve a staycation and Christmas gift drop offs. January we take off for a few days to the Cobble Beach Inn, hopefully to cross country ski and snowshoe. February we have been lucky enough to be offered a friend’s house in rural Quebec for 3 weeks where we plan to sleep overnight at Parc Omega with the wolves and head to Montreal for Valentine’s Day. We plan to take day trips to Spa Nordik, Mont Tremblant and maybe skate on Ottawa’s Rideau Canal. This all of course is dependent upon being free to roam the province. But while plans may never come to fruition, without them it is unlikely that anything will.
Aside from escapes from the city I’m going to buy cross-country skis from MEC before they are all sold out. The plan is to find urban sites to ski and snowshoe, as well as the usual daily park hikes. Remember winter is lovable only if you know how to dress. We already have an outdoor heater that may allow us to eat with others on our back porch. Lucky for us we have a hot tub for two in the backyard – perfect for wintry cocktails.
And while none of these best-laid plans may come to pass, planning is one way to deal with the inevitable but still be prepared to deal with whatever shows up…in this case, snow, slush, cold and lots of time indoors. But, as we all know, everything passes, sometimes just not soon enough.
- Anonymous Contributor #1
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