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