Monday, August 16, 2021

#MicroblogMondays: Odds & ends

  • Finally!!  After a week of sweltering hot, humid weather, we had a weekend of clear skies, pleasant temperatures (mid-20sC/low 70sF) and NO HUMIDITY!  :)  I spent part of Sunday afternoon sitting on my shady balcony with a glass of iced tea, the Saturday newspaper (more about that below) and my e-reader, enjoying the weather and the (relative) peace & quiet. Ahhh!! 
  • We no longer get home newspaper delivery since moved to our condo -- but BIL & SIL get the Toronto Star delivered to their house on Saturdays and, if we're there on the weekend, they will pass it along to me, as they did yesterday. (In the States, it's the Sunday paper that's the fat one with extra features & sections;  in Canada -- where many newspapers have never published a Sunday edition -- it's Saturday.)  
    • Imagine my surprise and delight when I turned to the Life section and found an article on the front page about "changing the conversation around pregnancy loss." It continued inside, along with a further related article where four Toronto-area women shared their pregnancy loss stories.  All together, these two stories totalled more than THREE FULL PAGES of copy and photos about this (sadly) still-taboo topic. Extremely well done, too.  Bravo!! 
  • Saturday afternoon, we went with BIL & SIL to visit Older Nephew, his wife, Little Great-Nephew (and the dog!) at their new home, about 45-60 minutes north of us. We stayed for supper (homemade pizza and foccacia, grilled chicken wings and fresh corn on the cob), and brought them a vacuum cleaner as a housewarming gift -- the exact same thing  (same model, even) that we got for Younger Nephew & his wife when they bought their house a few years ago. I also made a pan of the graham cracker treats that Older Nephew's Wife loves (she had me make them for her bridal shower!), and she was thrilled!  lol  
    • It was an absolutely lovely family afternoon, and Little Great-Nephew was just so dang cute... my heart felt like it was going to burst -- although I wasn't sure whether it was from love and pride, or sadness at the reminder of everything we have missed out on (and continue to miss) as an aging childless couple.  :(   A bit of both, I suppose (although mostly joy/pride, I think!). 
  • While we're still firmly in summer mode here, I've already been getting first day of school posts in my social media feeds for the past week or so -- especially from friends & relatives in the southern U.S.  Schools here don't start until after Labour Day in September -- and kindergarten generally starts about a week later -- which means I can look forward (??) to a full month-plus of this... and not just the usual back-to-school chatter, of course, but also the added dimensions of sending your kids to school in a pandemic: in-person or virtual? (Is there a choice?) Will they be wearing masks or no masks (seriously?)?  Will vaccinations be mandated or not?  And so on.  
    • I do feel for parents, having to cope with these situations and decisions. But it's exhausting (not to mention plain old boring) having to listen to/read about them (endlessly) when they don't apply (have never applied) to you personally. When they're a constant reminder of the life you once wanted, and never got to live. 
  • Our federal government announced it will mandate vaccines for federal workers and employees of federally regulated companies (including banks and airlines) and Crown corporations, beginning in October, as well as for inter-provincial air, rail and marine passengers. That makes me feel a whole lot better about the prospect of flying to see my parents! 
  • The prime minister visited the governor-general on Sunday morning to ask her to dissolve Parliament, thus triggering a snap federal election for Sept. 20th, just two years since the last one, in a bid to increase the current minority Liberal government to a majority. It's going to be the shortest election campaign in more than a century -- just 36 days (the minimum length required) -- but I have a feeling that I'm going to be thoroughly sick of it by the end, lol (I already am!! -- I don't know how Americans do it...!).  Not sure holding an election in the middle of a pandemic is the wisest thing to do (although five of the 10 provinces and one territory have already done so) -- and it may backfire on the PM (who is not quite as popular at home as he is outside the country). I guess we'll see what happens...! 
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here

1 comment:

  1. Those temperatures sound perfect!

    We have a Saturday paper delivered, and as a result get the rest of the week's newspapers in digital format. I still like getting something that has been curated for me, knowing nothing about my likes and dislikes, compared to the skewed news delivery through Flipboard or Fbk etc. Yay to your newspaper for having articles about pregnancy loss. It is so common, but so lonely too (as a poster at the Women's Health unit in the hospital used to say).

    Your evening with the family sounds wonderful. So glad your heart was bursting with love and joy - and I'm sure so much more given the pandemic deprivations of the last year - more than with sadness. We all understand that there is inevitable sadness there, when we are given reminders of what we've lost. But you are clearly a very important part of your BIL/SIL and nephews' families, and get to take joy in those. That makes me happy.

    I'm hoping you get to fly to your parents, and that vaccination levels increase to make you feel safer doing so. Though I know Canada is doing very well on that front.

    And last but not least, a short election campaign is a good one! lol

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