“Check out Canada’s 100% eco-friendly stay-at-home order!” I wrote in an email to my mom last Monday. I included these two pictures of the first snow of the year taken on a bitterly cold night.
It was cold again on Tuesday when I walked to a mall to meet a friend, the only safe and open indoor place we found to catch up without exposing her six-month-old baby girl to winter weather. When I got there, I noticed a large sign on the door: “All mall walking activities—formal and informal—are prohibited.” I burst out laughing. Really, guys?
My friend and I still walked through the long carpeted hallways without paying much attention to the mostly closed-for-good or closed-because-reason shops. All sitting areas were taped off and we skipped coffee because, well, masks. Seriously, 2020 is a really fucked up year.
The world is exhausting right now but life is really boring. I get up, work, go out for a long walk in the afternoon, work all evening and most of the night then I go to bed way too late. Mark comes home at 3 p.m. and the rest of the day drags on for him, especially now that it’s dark just before 5 p.m. and there are no activities or places to go. Work keeps me busy, at least—it’s actually somewhat of a miracle I get assignments considering how many industries and businesses are affected by COVID measures. I feel lucky.
France is back in lockdown except this time, schools are staying open. Rules aren’t as strict as during the first lockdown and my mom has to go to work (she’s teaching in an apprenticeship and skilled trades school). Non-essential businesses are closed and there’s a big debate on what’s essential and what’s not (Books? Christmas trees? Makeup?). Restrictions don’t seem to be as accepted as in the spring—after mandatory use of masks everywhere and curfews, COVID fatigue is setting in.
Meanwhile, in Canada… I don’t know. I really don’t. Canada isn’t doing too bad compared to the US and Europe but life isn’t normal at all either. There isn’t much to do but work if you still have a job. Other activities are either cancelled either impractical because of various restrictions I’m having a hard time keeping track of. I take it one day at the time, too much is changing all the time and I’m tired.
But once in a while, you get lucky. And we did get lucky this week with a surprising and unusual spell of warm weather—like, actually warm, around 20⁰C during the day.
It’s not going to last but damn, it feels good. Just like everybody else, we went out and spent Sunday afternoon chasing the sunset on Parliament Hill.
Les températures sont tellement belles! On aimerait que ça dure! Je pense qu’on est tous un peu fatigués de cette pandémie, surtout qu’avec la saison froide, on se sentira encore plus seuls. Imagine ceux qui n’ont pas de famille, ça doit être tellement difficile. Bisous!
Oh oui, je me sens chanceuse d’être entourée, même si les gens que j’aiment ne sont pas tous physiquement juste à côté. Ça aide quand même beaucoup. Je pense souvent aux gens qui pour une raison ou une autre n’ont pas de cercle social (déménagement récent, changement de vie, rupture, etc.) et je me dis que ça doit être dur de retisser des liens en cette période.
Hey, I was chasing the sunset last week too. Because days are shorter and shorter and I couldn’t drive my oversize load at night (habitually ½hour after sunset).
Sunday I was in Nebraska and températures were around 20°, but they went down to -9° yesterday in North Dakota.
That’s pretty much us tonight in Ottawa. We went from 20C to almost 0C without warning (well, the fact it’s November *is* the warning actually…). Sunset before 5 p.m. is brutal. Does it make you start earlier?
No, because the sun rises late in the morning. And it’s even worse when I’m going East, , because even if there is a 10 hours daylight time, I lose nearly 1 hour driving eastbound, so I could have less than 9 hours to drive (instead of the 11 US légal ones) if I’m going East with an oversized load. However, I win 1 hour of daylight driving if I’m going West.
This is when I realize time change must mess up with your brain sometimes! Does it affect you? or maybe time is a bit irrelevant for you (except for delivery deadlines).
The thing is, I have to keep track of my driving and working hours, and it has to be based on the time at my home terminal, because it would be too complicated to change it on the road (some hours would have to be done twice, and some not at all. It would never be clear).
I just have to keep track of the local timezone and the eventual summer shift (however, it’s true that I’ld like that Alberta keep the advanced time all year long).
Sometimes I forget to add or remove an hour, especially when timezones are weirdly designed (see Idaho for example) but that’s not often an issue.
I foudn the concept of a country with different time zones very weird when I first move to Canada. It’s understandable though given the size of it but still… took me a while to understand “Eastern Time”, “Central Time” and all 😆
The pictures are beautiful – this light !
I love the one with the reflection in a puddle.
Masks don’t bother me, but the rest does.
I liek the guys in this picture too 🙂
Yeah, masks are the least of my worries right now.
Mark was wearing a cool t-shirt!
Oh, you’ve seen this jersey before? 😉
Saluuut, où en etes vous du côté d’Ottawa? Que vous annoncent-ils pour les écoles?
Yeah, I saw that Quebec is mulling over closing schools or extending the Christmas break :-/ So far Mark is still going to school but Ontario is also threatening us with a lockdown, whatever that means…The general consensus (except crazy people on social media) is that here, transmission doesn’t occur at school so it’s best to keep them open.