Welcome 2021

 If there was ever a whole year to skip ... I guess it should have been 2020.

What a freaking mess.

How do I bullet point through a whole year?

☝January started off with the potential for Covid-19 making it’s way into Canada, and on the 28th that became a statistic. Also in this month my little Miss Muffet decided to change the course of her life, and battle her trychotillomania. 

❤ February ... as time was wearing on, it was becoming more and more evident that the Covid-19 was something that was going to be around for a while. I was beginning to question our government, and wondering how it was that people were still traveling. Thought bubbles were flying through my head when the son’s girlfriend left for Ireland for 3 weeks, amidst what I was starting to fear was “this shit is getting real” .. and yet she still went, with her friend (that had decided to leave her boyfriend of five years and start a new life or I don’t know .. run away from life, I still haven’t decided). I believe at some point in February I made a quick visit to see my friend in Qualicum Beach. My sister and I made a fun trip down to Washington State, and found a lovely quirky town that I took a ton of pictures in. Most importantly we found an antique store that was absolutely thrilling to walk through. I found one of my sisters favourite book “A bargain for Frances” hard cover version ! Thrilling to say the least!

💚 Well, and there you have it: March 12th the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. So now what do we do? The boy was already working from home, the girl lost her job. Daily news reports were a thing. Luckily she was able to apply for CERB, which the government quickly formulated to keep money coming in for people. I had Kevin, my hair guy start dropping off my hair colouring at the front door, as all the salons had closed down. The girl and I just went on car rides out to Pitt Lake just to drink coffee, listen to music & enjoy the scenery! And this is when life just spins past us.

🙉 April was at break neck speed ... the days speeding past with continued outbreaks and transmissions & new stories. I continued to work, and so did the husbandman. The girls hair continued to grow. What a concept .. amidst a certain dread and general feeling of nervousness the girl had propelled herself above this, and it was heartwarming to see that thick main of hair sprouting back. To see pictures of her now, one would never think that she was practically bald, except for the edges of her hair line and the remnants of her once long hair at the back of her head. To look at her .. you would think she just had a super edgy haircut. Interestingly as well ... she finished her course in Abnormal Psych. The boy was waiting to immerse himself into BCIT, and the girl was somehow managing to learn Math 11 in a matter of weeks, so she could take a stats course.

👏 May we had a birthday party for the girl. Her friend came over. She sat in the grass .. haha .. nope .. she sat at a lovely distance away “physical distancing” so the language soon came to be a regular thing in our daily lives. I planted a garden. I bought a white square box that I filled with a gazillion litres of soil ... it seems like all I did was purchase bags of soil, so much that I eventually gave up buying soil, and bought plants instead. I grew lettuce, kale, sweat peas, broccoli, spaghetti squash & tomatoes. I am not sure why I put the sweat peas in .. but I think it was just because it was a sunny location ... and I like sweat peas, so why not. The boy started his program at BCIT. A huge move, a leap, a hope for gaining a position in life that would eventually lead to employment that he could earn good money at. This was also huge, as this way he was now on his way to a formal “education” in the eyes of the girlfriends parents, which they absolutely expected from anyone that they would allow their daughter to marry.

👯👯My sister and I visited my friend at the end of June. We were still allowed to travel. I have never not spoken so much in my whole life while visiting with my friend ! It was hilarious ... my sister just talked and talked and talked ... We had the most lovely white wine with a strawberry added for perfection out on the back deck one of the days, I should have just taken a picture for pure memories sake, it was divine. Little Miss Muffet “rocked it” in the math department .. she mustered through, wrote a note: you can do hard things, and powered through her math. She still took 3 classes through the summer semester, as everything had gone on line. 

😎 July from what I recall is nothing extremely memorable, or remarkable ... unless something comes to me later! I watered my flowers and vegetables A LOT. I do know that I did create a pandemic puzzle table .. and I just kept completing puzzles by the boat load .. and then stacked them on top of one another, and took pictures of them, and just enjoyed the images as they unfolded. Something of which I haven’t mentioned much is the constant return trips to Rod’s mothers house to trim back overgrown hedges and bushes, and my constant chopping of limbs and branches. This seriously had been a regular routine of mine, of which little is noted “here” .. as well .. Rod was forever weed whacking the blackberry bushes in her backyard, and cutting the lawn (of course). Our nephew had moved into her house, which was a good thing, at least that way he did not have to keep driving up there every 3 days to ensure it hadn’t burned down or something to that effect. Oh ... of course a great thing was I got a definitive new socket and COVER for my leg. I wont go into great details as to how FREAKING difficult getting a new socket is, and the horrendous amount of back pain/ neck pain/ dizziness that went along with that .. it only took months to figure it out .. but once we did .. well, hooray.

💤 August seemed promising ... the superson finished his first semester at BCIT. Then proceeded to get sick, and could not do much. The girl was finally on a break from her school, and got to have a much needed rest from her studies. Her and her boyfriend had some good chances to take off and go camping. It was nice to see her do some of her loveable things, rather than have to sit around here, just doing stuff with a boring mother! Ha! It was the month to harvest ... my spaghetti squash did really well! Go me! Of course with August comes the true bear watching season... which I had lots of. I had my camera out with me, and started spotting the bruins in my favourite bear watching spot. Luckily at this time of year the crazed photographers have not made their way out of Vancouver to find them. We had them as per the usual strolling around our streets and our backyard to make the events of the day seem funner. I was pretty excited to make another QUICK trip to my friends house. It was a great trip... for a couple of reasons: seeing the BFF, then the decision was forever made in the husbandman’s mind that he was moving to Qualicum Beach, she took the BEST picture of the husbandman and myself, AND the ferry ride on the way there back was beyond beautiful ... completely still ocean. 

👊 You got this. September was the start of what would be some pretty challenging months ahead. It appeared that Covid was not going away, and was beginning to build steam and a second wave. The constant talk of VACCINES was exhausting. Both the kids entered school. She only took one class, which in completely wonderful hindsight was a BRILLIANT idea. I became the tomato harvester. It was a great time. Plus, now the bears were in full force berry season, and then along came the smoke from all the fires. THAT WAS BAD, The girl and I made our way up to Cleveland Dam, only to have a week later a breach of the dam which killed 2 people, nothing short of horrific. The flowers were in a state of true happiness, given that it was cooler, however now that the days were becoming shorter there is always that air of sadness in me that some things only have a short life span. The smoke eventually cleared.

👹 October for me was good. People learned how to wear masks in public, or at least most of them did. Daily reports of Covidiots were a regular thing on the twitter feed. The little miss was doing well in her stats course. A good friend of hers coached her through many hours of tutoring. We had a brilliant photo session with her and her boyfriend. I took some pretty awesome shots of her .. .it was especially lovely, as it was the first time in many years we were documenting growth, as in personal growth. ON so many levels. The son was not having an easy time of his studies, as there was a shit ton of work, and as he stated, he wasn’t afraid of the work, it was constant, with more piled on top, and then some, all of which given that this school was meant for in class - it made doubly hard to be doing this on their own. Nothing that anyone can do .. other than to just keep reminding him to look towards his future, that this here in the middle is the muddy part. And, the girl reminded him he could do hard things, so she gave him the card that she had made for herself. Day in day out, he eat, breathed & slept BCIT. Halloween was an interesting take. We built (like I did anything to build it!) .. however Rod came up with the idea of a candy shoot .. it worked well for all our little trick or treaters. I might have to go back and edit this post to add pictures. I say this and carry on writing! The Miss Muffet started working full time at her music store job. So she had stats & a full time job to now keep her very occupied, which she was. I am not even mentioning the numerous trips to go and see her boyfriend ! Looking back on my photos .. it seems that I just took a thousand photos of Mr. Angus ... that is something that I am truly good at!

💪 November was a truly memorable month. Not for anything in regards to me ... I am just plutzing along. Graciously. I still very much dislike November. It’s grey, it’s rainy, for the first 11 days it’s filled with remembrance & sadness. I just do not like it. There were no Remembrance Day ceremonies, as everything has to be done virtually. Covid numbers are continuing to rise, so the public health has been issuing new orders. People are working hard to skirt around the new orders, and of course make themselves exempt from having to listen. My answer: fuck off you morons. Yes, I do hate humans & the shit they pull. We put our tree up in the 3rd week, and then all the gazillions of decorations that followed. It was wildly christmas, with the knowledge & acceptance that this would not be our typical Christmas time. At the end of November Little Miss Muffet went and had her hair CUT & COLOURED. If I only showed you how her mop had looked many moons ago, it would make you suck your breath in. She had come such a long way. Of course that showed in her personality as well ... she does have a kind of big one .. and not a big one like being bossy and a big mouth ... but one that is just hilarious and good natured and kind and lovely ... it just spills out of her ... along with all these luxurious curls that have grown out of the past year. The boy was thankfully coming to an “almost end” of his courses ... along with him being at his wits end. Everyday was a new challenge for him, and everyday he just spewed vitrul about his classes. I thought to myself... better outside of his head, rather than the inside of his head. Again ... my sole purpose was just to keep his head above water, and keep him looking towards his promising future. Ok, so the “kid” is only 25 years old, and the pandemic/life has kept him at home ... but I guess these are the reasons .. just to keep him peddling to the front, rather than sinking at the behind. His lovely girlfriend and him had just made plans to go away on December 14th. The day he was to be finished with his classes. This would certainly be a nice break for him and her ... this pandemic shit is shit for those living in separate households. 

💣💣💣💣💣💥💥💥💥💥💥 Well holy fuck. December. Wonderful and horrible all wrapped up in one.  The researchers had found a vaccine that reached 70% coverage of the covid-19 symptoms, help is on the horizon, it made me smile. The PHO cancelled anyone’s plans to go anywhere .. so the son and his girlfriend had to cancel their going away. Too bad... since he was officially completed his 2nd semester at BCIT, which truly sounded like it was horrific. He found out after the fact that he was one of the top students in the class. “Shocking”. News from a friend had kept me cautiously optimistic for positive outcomes, but with the real possibility that things could also go sideways. I tweeted all my positive vibes on the 21st. Finally it’s Christmas! Dinner was exceptionally beautiful and lovely, so was Christmas Eve  ... it was so wonderful actually. We got to see the girlfriend on the 24th, we had a porch party with one of the girls friends, and the boyfriend stayed over for 3 days, for which he was truly thankful for. It was a beautiful day, just us as a family, and of course we would have wished for EVERYONE to come over .. that did not happen, which is alright. I spoke to my mom on the phone & we took lots of pictures so the tech savvy grama could see what was going on ... in recollection, it was sparkly and lovely. AND .. I didn’t have to clean a bathroom, which I usually do on Christmas Day - so in effect .. I didn’t have to clean a bathroom on my birthday as well ! Ha! Then the 29th hit. Double holy fuck. Why does life have to become so messed up? I was mad, and angry, no make that quadruple mad and quintuple angry and beyond furious and super super super super sad... so many fucking emotions going through me at once and I needed to be strong and supportive and kind and respectful and hopeful. I do not really know if I was any good at anything, and ya, I am not trying to make this about me ... but fuck ... I was gently trying to guide/prod the superson to get through his girfriend of close to six years dumping him, all the while not actually speaking with my BFF because all I would do is cry, and in reality .. I knew she would too. So we just texted. Messages got through clearer that way I am thinking. ON New Years Even ... there I am .. politely and gently prodding the son to make his payment for school that started in four short ... (but VERY LONG DAYS) ... of course I was worried that this would completely derail him, and throw him off course to where his future was headed. Of course I tweeted anything and everything vial that I could think of about the situation he was suddenly in. As he said .. “she” was the ace in his back pocket .. the “one” constant ... the “very person” who had his best interest at heart ... and then POOF. I wished her dead actually. I did .. I thought maybe this would be easier to get over. The greatest sadness in all of this ... he doesn’t know why she left. He doesn’t have a clue. So she is gone, and by all rights .. is pretty much dead to him now. Probably a very very very very very bad karma thing to write about ... considering that my friend had her own health emergency happening ... so I felt pretty bad about wishing horrible things upon the girlfriend, when I was wishing for positive outcomes for my friend. The pandemic killed their relationship. I couldn’t wish December or this year to be over with any faster. At least the son paid his school fees. Small blessings folks.

On New Years Eve I drank some wine,  ran out .. since I only had a 1/3 of a bottle, then knocked on my daughters door and filled my cup with some of hers, ate Himalayan salted ripple chips, talked with the son about moving forward, wished every single positive thought I could muster up and good intentions to my friend on the island. I did feel very sad about the stat holidays ..and knowing that how much they interfere with the business of peoples health.

It’s a new year ...

Everybody started school. My friend saw a surgeon and had surgery by the 7th day of January. Good news for her that there is zero involvement anywheres else. The girl reached 365 days since her start of no more hair pulling. The son is back to working out, getting outside, eating low carb & looking forward to a bright future knowing that he will be moving out this year. Plus he gets his inheritance. NOT that he has banked on this. The vaccines scheduled have been rolled out. 

Holy fuck, Welcome 2021.