blogcutter

Everyday life has entered a new alternate reality. There's the virtual reality of the Zoomiverse and the in-person world which still is not real life as we used to know it and has a whole bewildering new set of protocols we must learn and adhere to - but without the luxury of time and parental or mentoral patience, training or guidance. Is it any wonder we're feeling a bit disoriented or overwhelmed?

We're still doing a fortnightly early-morning big grocery shop, as we've been doing since lockdown in March 2020. In many ways it's easier than it was in the beginning. They no longer have the one shopper per family rule, they've removed the one-way arrows on the aisles and they don't detain you on the way in to ask a bunch of health questions, take your temperature or spray you with hand sanitizer. It's rarely crowded when we shop and we usually don't have to wait for an available cashier. On the minus side, there are still shortages of some things, the produce is often a bit tired-looking and prices are high even when we look carefully for sale items.

Museums and art galleries have re-opened, though with reduced hours and by appointment only. On Saturday, we attended our first live Ottawa Bach Choir concert in nearly two years and a couple of weeks ago we went to a noon-hour harpsichord concert at Southminster. Restaurants have re-opened for indoor dining. Movies are possible too, although I find there's less selection these days, at least at the times and venues I'm most interested in. There are even a few seasonal craft sales this year. Everything takes a bit more planning and organization than it used to: ensuring vaccination certificates are ready to present upon entry to a building, keeping one's mask on or at hand as needed, along with at least one spare one, a small bottle of hand sanitizer and a couple of wipes. It's definitely a juggling act but a worthwhile one for many of us, especially if we are engaged in activities of our own choosing.

With the recently emerged omicron variant, it's hard to predict what the next few months will hold. And I'm still wondering whether I'll be travelling next summer...

Sixty years ago, a musical came out called "Stop the world - I want to get off!" And now, with Covid receding in our rear-view mirror, many of us are itching for the world to re-start again so we can get back to some semblance of normalcy.

While it's a catchy title, apparently the saying actually pre-dates the musical by at least a decade. Here's what I found on one site:

https://wordhistories.net/2020/05/29/stop-world-want-get-off/

I thought about riffing on some other title, like "The day the earth stood still" but when I thought about that, it's really not very accurate at all, in that many people found themselves busier than ever during lockdown. Not only was their home their castle, but also their office, their children's school and daycare, their library, their movie theatre, and so on. Their lifeline was their wi-fi, and even that may have been inadequate to support the needs of the family unit.

Mind you, not everyone is excited about getting out there again. I have somewhat mixed feelings myself. I tackled a few things but still find myself wondering if I really used my time wisely over the past 16 months. It can be difficult to plan when you don't know how much time you'll have to work with. And even once I do get back to some of the things I used to enjoy - seeing friends, going to concerts, plays, movies, museums and galleries, eating out - will I still be able to enjoy them? I think for a while, at least, I'll have the feeling of being out there but not quite out in the real world yet. There'll still be the need for capacity limits and masking in certain venues, for example, and planning for things that used to be more spontaneous.

Then there are the bigger events like festivals, conferences and travel... and even thinking about it can be a little overwhelming!

Maybe. Maybe not. The greyer I get, the more I see issues in shades of grey, not black and white. Or, for that matter, red, orange, yellow or green.

I hear that the Quebec government is considering not only extending the lockdown, but also imposing a curfew. Meanwhile, Ottawa's Covid numbers have been trending sharply upwards since Ontario included the city in its (minimum) 4-week lockdown.

Clearly that doesn't prove that the lockdown CAUSED the uptick in numbers, but I do think that in some respects, Lockdown Ottawa may have done more harm than good, particularly when it comes to teens and young adults who would normally be just starting to venture out and make their way in the grown up world. People for whom the peer group, their circle of friends, classmates, work colleagues, acquaintances and contemporaries, tends to be of pretty great importance.

Until lockdown took effect on December 26, Ottawa was in the "orange" zone, verging on yellow. There were still some opportunities for young people to socialize. They could go skiing. They could go shopping. They could go to a restaurant or a bar. All under controlled conditions, of course - and probably pretty safe conditions too, if the numbers were any indication.

Now they are allowed to do none of those things. Technically they're not allowed to host or attend private gatherings either. But "technically" is the operative word here. Many, perhaps most people, are following the rules; others are bending them a little; a few are no doubt flouting them entirely and organizing anti-mask rallies at which they confidently proclaim that the virus is one big hoax.

Here's the thing, though: it's much easier to enforce the law at a commercial establishment than in a private home. Police and by-law types can't be everywhere at once. The scofflaws who do get caught are most likely those who live in the student ghetto, those who have darker skin, those that some neighbour or other holds a grudge against, whether or not it's for a valid reason. Meanwhile, people who live in affluent, neighbourhoods, especially if they are personable and generally well-liked, can get away with even the most serious and blatant flouting of rules. Those five vehicles in the laneway plus any hiding in the 3-car garage? Well, that family does own a lot of cars, you know. I really wouldn't like to get on their bad side - they're salt of the earth sorts, pillars of the community!

Law enforcement is just one tool, and not necessarily a particularly powerful one at that. Far better in most cases, I think, is to make it easy to do the right thing. To be socially conscious and socially considerate, which for now may mean being a bit anti-social when it comes to in-person contact.

Consider how society has evolved in terms of other issues unrelated to the pandemic. We no longer have capital punishment in this country. Or corporal punishment in schools. In most communities, non-judgemental sex education and birth control, including access to abortion, are now reasonably available to most young people who want or need them, including those below the age of majority. These are just some of the changes I've seen in my lifetime.

In a number of other areas, we still have quite a way to go. For example: do we really think that putting gory pictures and dire warnings on cigarette packages will deter young people from smoking? Or using plain packaging, hiding them behind the counter or outlawing cheaper, fruit-flavoured or candy-flavoured varieties?

With alcohol, we no longer have to skulk into the liquor store and fill out a little form to get our beverage of choice; we've lowered the drinking age below 21 in most (all?) provinces while still warning against drunk driving or alcohol abuse during pregnancy. That's some progress, I think.

Still, I think the "forbidden fruit" aspect of tobacco or alcohol or cannabis or any other kind of potentially addictive substance is very often the main driver of serious substance abuse issues in young people. If they had grown up having the occasional civilized glass of wine with mum and dad at dinner, would they still feel compelled to go get hammered when work or classes ended for the weekend? Not so much, I suspect. And our children's generation was if anything subjected to more in the way of "helicopter parenting" than we ever were, which might have further strengthened the Gen X and Millennials' need to rebel.

Anyway, back to the matter of lockdowns. I don't think there's any going back now and I don't see Ottawa, or any of Ontario or Quebec getting out of lockdown any time soon. I hope things turn around sooner rather than later. And I hope we are filing away a few "lessons learned" to apply to the next public health emergency!

When the lockdown first began, how long did you think it would last? When I look back not just at some of my earlier entries but also at what a lot of the experts were saying, I think how naive we all were. And how very wrong many people were.

For example, when the schools first closed, I remember one of the CTV questions of the day was: Should we extend the school term into the summer or should the kids just go back in September and catch up on what they missed during lockdown? By and large, we didn't foresee that the 2020-21 school year would involve all these online classes or masked kids in small cohorts taking one subject at a time. Instead, we banned kids even from typical kiddie OUTDOOR activities like swings and slides and climbing structures and basketball courts. We banned kids and adults alike from sitting on benches or even on the grass in public parks. It wasn't until we were in "stage three" of the the initial re-opening process that we let the kids back into the playgrounds - with no apologies for having kept these kids from these safe and healthy activities before or explanations for why it was suddenly okay (maybe even encouraged) for them to play in the great outdoors again.

Of course, we knew that it would take time to develop a vaccine. But then, flu shots are a relatively recent phenomenon and people have gotten the flu throughout history - but we haven't been in continuous flu pandemic mode ever since the first pandemic. We have anti-viral and antibiotic medications that our ancestors could only dream of. And in many (though not all) ways, our living conditions are healthier than they used to be.

Since we entered the second wave, the advice, rules and restrictions have become a little more realistic. The overall message is that we're stuck with the virus for now and since we can't immediately "Conquer Covid" (as one of the initial slogans went), we need to manage and mitigate the risks as best we can.

Predictions are dangerous, even when you can trot out all kinds of well-reasoned evidence. But most of us need hope, the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm not looking forward to this winter, but I'll make the best of it. And plan for next summer, which I'm confident will be better than the one that's just happened.

What lessons did we learn from the first wave of COVID-19 and how well are we applying them to battling the second wave, now (from most accounts) upon us?

First, it certainly looks as if the authorities did not respond quickly enough when the first wave hit. Let's leave aside for now the historical arguments about letting our health care systems and services deteriorate in the years and decades leading up to 2019 and consider the weeks leading to the lockdown in mid-March 2020.

We were told that the risks from the virus were low unless you were already frail, ill or elderly. We were told that it was more benign than H1N1 or H1N5. We were told that it would do more harm than good to wear a face mask unless you happened to be a health care worker involved in direct hands-on, face-to-face patient care.

The advice on masks persisted for several months after the March lockdown and it was not until some time in July that non-medical masks became mandatory in most indoor public spaces. Of course, some people were smart enough not to take the official advice at face value, with the result that even those little dust masks sold at hardware stores were sold out for weeks!

We were also instructed to stay home as much as possible and stay out of public parks (except for quick walk-throughs), never mind that outdoor spaces are felt to be much safer than indoor ones and nature was beginning to wake up for the spring and the weather was getting a little nicer too. While we did manage to pick up a maple syrup order at Fulton's, we had to remain in the car and were forbidden any access to their trails, even though social distancing would have been very easy out there. As for Gatineau Park? Forget it! Police policed the bridges between Ottawa and Gatineau, allowing only such interprovincial travel as the police deemed essential. This lasted from just after Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau finished her self isolation and managed to spirit her kids across to Quebec until the Monday of the Victoria Day weekend when barricades and checkpoints were reluctantly removed. And don't get me started on all those bylaw officers handing out exorbitant fines and punching out innocent members of the public for bringing their kid to the park while black.

There was of course some advice that was good and reasonable - like washing our hands and keeping our distance from others - which most of us followed and it paid off, at the time at least.

Throughout July and August, re-opening proceeded in cautious stages of phased re-openings. We even managed to re-open schools in September, although there have definitely been some mis-steps and growing pains.

And now? Well, the increases in infection rates are disturbing, to be sure. New infections are mostly occurring in people in their thirties, maybe because most of them are just getting launched and do not feel they can afford to spend too long in lockdown. Some of them do become seriously ill with the virus and some pass the virus on to others even if their own symptoms are mild.

But I'll end on a hopeful note. I do see that the authorities are backing off quite a bit on the heavy-handed measures, looking at them as a last resort (or at least not a first resort) and stressing education, information and individual responsibility and using one's judgement and common sense.

For now, we are limiting interpersonal mingling as far as is reasonable, because it's the right thing to do. It's not always fun, particularly for those who live alone or who have a naturally expressive, outgoing sort of personality.

We'll be doing things a little differently this year - Thanksgiving, Halloween, probably Christmas too. But we'll still mark the occasions somehow.

Anyone for a new autumn or winter hobby?

https://www.ottawamatters.com/local-news/new-holiday-traditions-winter-activities-dr-etches-on-turning-the-covid-19-tide-2768461?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email

What is the best way to get around during a pandemic? As with many things in life, the best answer may be "it depends".

If you're immune-compromised or self-isolating, perhaps the safest option is a private family vehicle. But what if you don't have one of those, or a readily available driver to go with it? Ambulance? We'd like to think that's always an option, although most of us tend to think of it as an option of last resort. Even before Covid-19 struck, we'd regularly hear of ambulances waiting for hours at the hospital while drivers and paramedics awaited word that they could "offload" their patient. Which meant, of course, that these aforementioned drivers and paramedics were unavailable to to what they're trained to do - attend the next emergency.

Since March, people with medical issues they think are unrelated to the coronavirus have been staying away in droves, to the point that emergency room personnel have been bending over backwards to get the message out that they are still available to deal with pressing non-Covid matters.

Now that we're into the phases of re-opening, we're once again looking at all possible ways to get healthy people around again. Trouble is, with distancing protocols, crowd limits and masking regulations in place, we suddenly need a lot more vehicles and other means of transportation at our disposal than we did in pre-Covid days.

One idea that the City of Ottawa has put into place is e-scooters, as outlined in the following article:

https://www.ottawamatters.com/local-news/concerns-aside-escooters-a-hit-in-ottawa-fleet-could-grow-bigger-by-end-of-week-2693017?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email

I'm a bit sceptical myself about this one. It looks like you can only use them in a pretty limited area of the city. Besides, not everyone has a smartphone to photograph themselves returning the scooter to a station - and what are the privacy implications of it all? Still, I guess plenty of folk have embraced Uber and if this scooter initiative helps out a significant demographic without too many vehicles lost, too much blocking of public pathways or too many intrusive by-law officers handing out exorbitant fines... well, who am I to argue?

And now that school is underway again, school buses are once again on the roads. Again, more of them will be needed under distancing restrictions if all the kids who qualify for the service decide to sign on. Let's hope most of them won't all be as unlucky as that kindergarten child from a school in Sandy Hill, who somehow ended up in Clarence-Rockland when the driver failed to properly conduct the mandatory attendance check:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/school-bus-driver-fired-1.5713986?cmp=rss

There will be some bumps in the road ahead, to be sure!

If the initial stages of lockdown felt like a state of limbo, there's yet another state of limbo occurring six months later.

Six months ago, schools were closing down. Now they're re-opening - sort of. While they only closed for a short time in west Quebec (at least at the elementary level) and have now re-opened for the 2020-21 school year, it looks like school re-opening in Ontario is one colossal mess. I'm so glad not to have to contend with it all!

If we're lucky, the decent weather will persist here through September, October, and maybe even into the first part of November. They've already decided to extent Sunday bike-days at least to the end of September and possibly beyond. I'm hoping for a longish patio season too. It's still anyone's guess what Thanksgiving and Halloween will look like.

Today we went to Parkdale Market and afterwards enjoyed cappuccinos on the patio of Jamal Espresso House on Hamilton Avenue. Rumour has it they may be gone by winter; they had a "for rent" sign in their window, but that may only referring to a portion of their business (there's also a restaurant, yoga studio and tattoo parlour in that block of buildings.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to brave the LRT again. I'm sort of curious to see if my PRESTO card still works; I haven't used it since March.

Local inventor Troy Crosby has come up with a creative new tool he calls LINC, to help us all survive and stay safe as we grapple with contactless interaction and navigate through the various stages of re-opening our society:

https://lincedc.com

Looks a little like a handcuff, don't you think?

Multi-tools, Swiss army knives, devices to enable greater independence for the disabled - they've been with us a good long time. Use of tools was once touted as a uniquely human trait and while this view now has its detractors, human ingenuity is certainly nothing to be sneezed at, Just beware of those droplets!

I think this is one invention that just might take off (dare I say go viral?) if only because there's hardly anyone totally unscathed by Covid-19. Certainly I wish the inventor well!

The plan is to have this in production some time in September. I've signed up to get updates. Meanwhile, it's interesting to explore the site and learn a little more background .

Since Ontario entered stage 3 of re-opening, there has predictably been an upswing in COVID-19 cases, this time particularly in the 20 to 40 age group. Is it time to backtrack a bit? Maybe.

Meanwhile in Sweden, authorities took a much more relaxed view of lockdown in the first place. Schools never officially closed. Many workplaces did and some precautions were taken in terms of additional hand washing and physical distancing. For the most part though, it seems families and businesses were fairly free to decide for themselves how and to what extent they should limit or adapt their usual day-to-day activities.

How well has this worked out so far? Reaction has been mixed:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/sweden-epidemiologist-anders-tegnell/2020/06/03/063b20e4-a5a0-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html

Now, here is a country that you would think would not be excessively motivated by the almighty dollar or krona. I suspect that Swedes would not have much of a problem with deficit financing. They're known for their generous social programs, although their taxes are also high by our standards. But here's what I find interesting: with pretty much everyone enjoying a decent income and a moderately high standard of living, there is no compelling urgency for them to get back to work and real life. And yet, they choose to do so. Why?

One possible answer would be social life. While some people are more sociable than others, humans are generally thought to be social creatures who need at least a modicum of interaction and social contact.

There may be some scientific justification for Sweden's approach too. If you want to build "herd immunity" in the absence of a vaccine or even an effective treatment for the disease, perhaps it makes sense to go about as you mean to continue, as far as is reasonable. That to me would mean that you maintain only loose restrictions on those you would expect to contract only mild cases of the virus, while still protecting those who are older or have compromised immune systems. But perhaps that's easier said than done.

We don't yet have reliable tests for antibodies and for those who do have them, we don't know for how long they protect the person. Nor do we know enough about genetic or other inherent susceptibilities to the virus. Add to that the range and diversity of symptoms and the picture grows murkier still!

Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell seems to have lost some of the courage of his earlier convictions, conceding that the death toll amongst Sweden's older folks has been too high and that if he had known in March what he knows now, he would have advocated more of a middle-ground approach. In other words, somewhere in between hard lockdown and Sweden's looser approach.

A lot of smart people are working really hard on combatting and controlling Covid 19. I hope they succeed. I'm also glad I'm not in the hot-seat right now!

My big adventure for today was to take the bus to Billings Bridge for some pandemic-era shopping. My last bus trip was 6 weeks ago; I haven't braved the LRT since March. This was also my first visit to an indoor mall since March.

You know, until some time in the mid to late 60s, there was no such thing as an indoor mall in Ottawa. I believe St. Laurent was the first one that was actually built that way. After that and throughout the 70s, they started building walls around the outdoor malls (what we might nowadays call "strip malls" although some were fairly big and had anchor stores like Ogilvy's or Freiman's and major grocery stores like Loblaws as well as "dime stores" like Woolworth's). It probably made sense given our harsh winter climate and with a growing population of shoppers, it had the added benefit of allowing stores on BOTH sides of a centre aisle (and later, additional aisles and alleyways too) as well as centralized services like coat checks, lost and found and information booths. And the rest is history! We got benches and food courts and fountains that encouraged shoppers to linger and spend more money and buy more stuff they didn't need. As long as it wasn't teenagers looking to just hang out with their friends and escape parental supervision and disapproval, the merchants were happy.

They sure weren't ready for Covid-19. Now it's the stores with direct street or parking lot access that have the real advantage. With masking and physical distancing restrictions in place, nobody wants customers to linger. We're barely allowed to stop at a bench to rearrange our purchases. We certainly are not encouraged to use washrooms or drinking fountains or - shudder - mingle at a food court or relax in a wifi-enabled café or restaurant! But I digress.

Billings Bridge was once a respectably sized strip mall anchored by a Woolworth's and an Ogilvy's, with a couple of grocery stores, clothing stores, a bank, a Birks and a Davis Agency (which also sold 45's and a small selection of LPs). Nowadays it's an indoor mall with many more stores and services, most of which were shuttered for several months and have only recently re-opened. I'd say about two-thirds of the stores were open when I was there. I went to the bookstore, the drugstore, the grocery store and the LCBO. The Laura Secord was open and was still flogging Easter candy. The Reitman's was open and was advertising some deep discounts but will soon close for good (I believe it was one of the original stores there, too). Of course, they all require that you wear a mask, follow the arrows, respect the little footprints painted on the floor to ensure appropriate distancing, use their hand sanitizer, don't pay with cash and so forth.

In spite of my grumbling, I found it a rare treat to actually browse in a bookstore for the first time in months. I browsed their mystery and magazine sections and bought a couple of puzzle books. At the Rexall there I managed to find a couple of packages of disposable masks - just in case. And at the grocery store I found lemonade and soy sauce and a block of parmesan, none of which were in stock at our local Loblaws earlier this week. So all in all, it was a productive shopping trip.

It was a reasonably good day and time to go, too. My bus trip was free, the weather was not too bad, the stores were not that busy. But I was glad to get back home too - it's tiring to have to go through all the additional steps and procedures just to accomplish basic tasks.