The end of 'The West Commences'

For the past few days I've been thinking about sitting in the sunroom and writing my blog but I have not done it. Finally today I realized why. The west is no longer commencing. I have lived in Vernon for ten years, Jay, May and the girls have lived here, with me and in their own house, friends and family have visited me and I've made new friends. I'm here. 

Since the beginning of Covid, that's over a year ago now, I have been Kakaoing with Jay every evening and keeping in touch with distant family and friends in other virtual ways more than I did before this virus forced us into bubbles of various sizes, shapes and capacities to stretch. I started the blog to keep in touch and I'm doing that now more than I did when we could literally touch. I also wanted to create some kind of concrete proof that I was here. When you are alone after years of being with another it's a bit like being a helium balloon adrift with no string or anchor to keep you from blowing away, as Joni Mitchell said. There's no longer anyone there you can count on to confirm that things really happened. By writing down bits of my life I seemed to be anchoring them, making them real and maybe even meaningful. But I've lived in Vernon for over ten years now. I have real friends. I have a life. And my distant family and friends seem almost closer now that everyone is really separated by the virus and at the same time virtually united by it. 

I have not touched another person since March 14, 2020. That's hard to believe. And yet I can't say I really even mind that. I was never one to hug people in greeting. But I have wanted to put my arms around someone once in a while: if I see Jay on a Kakao video or a friend I haven't seen in a long time either virtually or in real life. The expression 'virtual reality' used to seem laughably oxymoronic to me, but in the last year it has become a fairly accurate way of describing much of my life. But as I do real things like: walk, bike, kayak, have dinner (outside except with Mo and John and MIriam and Bill) with real people almost once a day, my life goes on in a way I cannot complain about at all. And the virtual connections with Jay and distant family and friends are almost as good as the real thing. The operative word of course is almost. I'm too old for virtual reality to ever be able to create a whole world for me, but in this time of Covid it has augmented what would have otherwise been a bleak time of no touch and few contacts. 

The first rose of summer 2021

Nature carries on into the real world of 2021 in Gardom Lake

Indigenous humour lives on. This sign which I saw when biking through the First Nations Reserve near Enderby reminded me of Ron Noganosh.