Solstice 2020, Vernon, BC  

SUNSET: 3:56pm

SUNRISE: 7:55am

That's a long night after a short, cloudy day of snow so heavy it falls like rain and almost instantly melts on roads and sidewalks. However, it does cling to the boughs of evergreens, making them droop until finally the clump is so heavy it drops off and the bough springs back up. If you catch that moment, you're lucky.  😹 

There's no hope the snow will stop until around midnight, so it will not be possible to see the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that will occur tonight in the sky to the south west just after sunset. The forecast is for partly clear skies tomorrow evening. I hope to see it then. The last time there was such a conjunction was on March 4, 1226, so I don't think I'll get another chance. I'm not getting a lot of activity and excitement these days. Sitting in a reclining chair with a heating pad at my back watching snow fall might be more exciting than watching grass grow, but not much. That's why the mere idea of observing a planetary conjunction that last occurred almost eight centuries ago has fired my imagination. 

 

The other bright prospect in my life arrived yesterday in the form of a big brown box from Korea that was waiting at the front door when I arrived home with an only mildly aching back after a walk of about 3km. It's under the tree now. I'll open it when I have the Christmas Kakaotalk video with Jay and the gang on my Christmas Eve and their Christmas noon. 

Less bright is the unknown whereabouts of my package to Korea, which I sent Express Post on November 26. Ten days later, when I tracked it for the first time, it was about 3/4 of the way there. It hasn't moved since. I was cursing Canada Post and praising South Korea's service. But Jay suggested last night that the hold up might have something to do with the fact that in the box, along with the Christmas treats was his old Xbox and case of games. He said he'd heard of there being difficulties mailing them to Korea. And what had I done?  I get so rattled by official business of any kind that even mailing that box got me double thinking my way into stupidity. Although it was quite heavy, there was no need for me to explain exactly why, but I did. I included the Xbox in the list of contents. My mother always said, "Spare me the details, Jan," if I got too long winded, and Jim insisted that I let him do the talking whenever we crossed borders. I'm slowly getting to see myself from their perspective. I sometimes go on when backing off would serve me better. And I used to think they just didn't appreciate my eloquence and spontaneity. 🤪

2020 was a rather stark year, but we can always look forward to a more flamboyant 2021.

COVID Christmas 2020

Yesterday afternoon Bonnie Henry reluctantly announced that residents of B.C. will have to stay home this Christmas, no family gatherings. You can only celebrate with those who actually live in your house. There is an exception for people who live alone. We will be able to join another household of no more than two people for Christmas dinner. The strict measures will be in force until January 8, 2021 in the hope that the number of Covid 19 cases will not spike in mid to late January, as it's feared they would if people travelled and gathered in large family groups over the holidays. Like Hamlet, we will, "... eat the air, promise-crammed."  Unlike him, we are not capons. I reread most of Shakespeare's plays in 2011, the first year I lived alone in Vernon. I copied some of my favourite lines but haven't thought about them until a few have come back to me lately. Maybe I'll return to those notes as a Covid project. I'm not the least bit crafty, I don't like playing games and I don't want to go back to baking cinnamon buns and croissants because the Ratio Coffee Shop and Hot Bread Bakery, both of which are within easy walking distance of my house, bake the best of these two treats that I have ever tasted. And I can still walk short distances. 

As Jay is back in S. Korea and I fell and hurt my back on the second day of skiing, I was already  anticipating a less festive season this year. I will have Christmas dinner with Miriam and Bill and visit Mo and John for New Year's Eve. Jay and I are in touch every day via Kakaotalk, the S. Korean WhatsApp. It's virtual, but I'm really thankful for it. 

We will have a muted winter  season in hopes of being able to turn up the volume by the summer of 2021. 

Jay and Frank on their last hike

Jay on day two of teaching on line. They have kept almost all of their students and appear to have picked up a dog. 

Not all, of course, but many of my difficulties have been caused by either an excess of enthusiasm or a lack of forethought. Dad, because he had been rushed into responsibility by the early death of his father and the necessity of financially helping his mother raise four children in the Depression, was a very cautious person. In my blissful ignorance, I dismissed his deliberations before every act as a big waste of time that could be better spent actually doing things that would mostly be fine and if not would not take much effort to rectify. When he worried about my rushing into things without much forethought, I would just say, "Sometimes you're lucky, dad." He reminded me of this often as I  got older. And we would laugh. Like many of my generation, nationality, race and social class, I have lived in a golden time of prosperity and peace, in Canada. We've mostly been lucky. We've lived under the delusion that we can micro manage our lives, convinced that even if we follow the odd whim, little that is disastrous will befall us. We continue to be among the least affected by this pandemic. Born in June, 1946, I am, according to Garry Trudeau's 'Doonesbury', one of the oldest of the Boomers. Although none of us has made it to the age we are without experiencing pain and sorrow that have forced us to accept that we cannot control everything, we continue to be blessed. The generation before ours is suffering and dying in care homes, and many of those after us are experiencing serious difficulties in work and family life as a result of this pandemic. 

There's always hope.  I might finally have learned to curb my enthusiasm; although, I'm not going to put money on it. On November 22 I had a wonderful first day of skiing at Sovereign. On the 23rd I went for a second. Right at the start, on an embarrassingly small decline, I got going quite fast and stepped out of the ruts to skate a bit. I felt great until I saw my skies akimbo above my head and felt my back whack the ground with a force that knocked me breathless. I was aware of some pain, but mostly anger. How could I have been so stupid as to start skating when I was already going fast. My good friend Mo was soon by my side telling me to stop cursing myself and stay still as she took my skis off. She helped me up. Aside from a dull ache all over my back, I felt fine. We skied a short distance but soon turned around. Since then, I have seen the doctor, had X-rays and discovered I have four tiny fractures on the spine, around the area where the bra comes and just below. I have gripping muscle pain at times and sit down often with a heating pad at my back, but I only need one or two Tylenol extra strength a day. I can walk about three km and do everything I have to around the house. I have some young neighbours who will shovel when the snow comes. I couldn't get an appointment with the physiotherapist I really like until December 30, but I know two women with back problems who are giving me good advice to follow until then. My doctor suggested I have a bone density test to see if I have osteoporosis. But considering what I've learned from researching the medications available for that on the sites she told me about and talking with women I know about their side effects, I'm not eager to go there. So, in typical Scarlet O'Hara fashion, I'll think about that in the new year. I made a resolution this past New Years to allow more time for thought between stimulus and response, that obviously has not happened. Will this accident finally move me a bit forward along the path to forethought and, who knows, even wisdom? I hope so, but am not betting on that either.  

Jay is having to adjust to this pandemic in many ways. Born in 1981, he is one of the first millennials, as I am one of the first Post WW 2 boomers and my dad, born in 1919, was one of the first postWW1 babies. I don't think they made up fancy names for the generations then. On our daily KakaoTalk thumb chat last night he told me that S. Korea has gone to level 2.5, which means that in-class teaching has been cancelled for three weeks. He went to school early, and they started to implement their system for on line classes. He sent me this selfie of him starting his first class. Can you believe it, teaching on line while wearing a mask? 2020 is a time of change; I hope much of it will eventually be for the better. 

Some inter generational humour