Wow, what a difference a month makes. Make that SEVEN months.
It’s been awhile since I last wrote, about climbing the Mediterranean Steps to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar in early February – another time, another place, another lifetime. Given that I started this blog as a way to keep in touch with family and friends, today seems as good a time as any to re-connect with everyone.
We’ve been back in Canada since the beginning of March, and a lot has happened since then – the global pandemic, the shutting down of the economy, mask wearing and social distancing, climate change and the wildfires still burning in Washington, Oregon and northern California, and the political state of affairs in the US. As for stressful, life-changing events, I’d say we’ve reached the tipping point.
On a more personal note, it turns out that we left Spain in the nick of time. We’d been tracking the coronavirus as it spread from China to Taiwan and South Korea, then Europe. At the beginning of March, there were less than a hundred cases in Spain, mostly in the north, and we didn’t really notice the impact in Málaga. Still, we were anxious to get out before things got worse.
We left Málaga on Sunday, March 8th, a day earlier than planned, and overnighted in Frankfurt. We were on a plane to Canada the next day, breathing huge sighs of relief as the doors closed and the wheels left the ground. The global pandemic was declared two days later, and Spain was under a countrywide lockdown by the end of that week, as was nearly every other country in the western world.
So here we are, seven months later, happy to be back in Canada and British Columbia, and especially back on Vancouver Island and the Oyster River, where the pace of life is definitely slower. Fewer people, fewer cases.
The shape of our lives is relatively unchanged. One of the main differences is we now wear masks when we go shopping, keep our distance from other people, and spray our hands madly with sanitizer when we get back to the car. Apart from that, I still go for my daily walks down to Saratoga Beach, and Ron still goes golfing.
Speaking of Ron. He had his hip replacement surgery at the beginning of July, and was back on the golf course by the end of August. His surgery had originally been scheduled for the beginning of April, but that was put on hold when the pandemic first hit to make sure the hospitals weren’t overwhelmed with cases of the virus. As it turns out, that didn’t happen in B.C., and he was very happy to get in when he did.
Well, that’s the Coles notes version of the past seven months. Before we returned to Canada in March, we were still optimistic. We had already booked our place for this coming winter, and left a couple of boxes in storage with our landlord, anticipating our return. A return that has now been postponed for another year.
Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to enjoying the fall and winter here on the Oyster River. It will be the first year in a long time that we’ve spent a full winter here.
