(a sign of the times: decontaminating delivered packages)
Since March, 2020, a lot has changed for me personally. A significant diminishment.
No more Stroll of Poets live cafe readings. (Online readings not the same.)
Very limited contact with my son’s family and the two grandsons. We have been in the same outdoor area about 3 times, but no physical contact. No visits to our place.
We no longer go grocery shopping in person. Our daughter has groceries sent to her place and we pick up there. (She works out of home.)
We no longer see extended family except my wife’s sister visiting at a distance rarely.
No more shopping trips or mortar and bricks shopping. All bought online via Amazon usually.
Basically, we are confined to home, looking after house and yard. Our exposure to nature, otherwise, comes from neighborhood walks.
We no longer attend the August symphony concerts or any live concerts or plays.
We have not been to the dentist, not needing any repairs.
I have only taken the car in for servicing once.
We have not ordered restaurant deliveries except with our daughter a few times.
My meds are delivered by the druggist.
I have discontinued regular monthly massages and periodic haircuts.
We pay at the pump when gassing up seldomly. Certainly no long distance travel to Jasper, Banff, Radium, Vancouver, or Victoria.
We wear masks and socially distance if we have to make a rare trip out (to the post office, doctor’s, lab).
In the winter, I walk in the basement (no walks outside on snow or ice). And ride a stationary bike till spring.
We do more e-mailing than phoning except to arrange appointments.
We limit how much national and international news we get via tv given the ongoing ‘downer’ bad news and tragedies.
Yes, in many ways, this is the new diminished existence–a far cry from the olde normal life before March of last year. The focus daily is on personal survival, getting various things done, and attending to what needs doing. We often take evenings off to watch movies or old tv shows or read. Personal existential choices and priorities guide the day’s choices and activities. Ultimately, one’s own world is most important and relevant by necessity to avoid conflict and problems. You have to look after your own well-being, mind, heart, and spirit in ways that work for oneself and any significant others you live with.
The world ‘out there’ remains very divisive and self-imploding what with the climate crisis, the dangerous nonvaxxers, the stupid politicians and their dumb-ass choices (Trudeau’s greed for a majority, Kenney’s bungling on Delta, and Biden’s Afghanistan exit, and innumerable, other unreconcilable agendas. There is little courtes, much more irrational nastiness, hate, and casual, random violence. Basically, you do not know the vaccination status of others; so you cannot trust strangers. A far cry from freedom, peace, trust, and love movements of the late 1960s-early ’70s.