OK, It’s Not a Perfect World

We’ve made it through another year which, in my mind, deserves some congratulations but let’s avoid celebrating for a while. 🙂

We made it to the Vet on Wednesday and both animals had a manicure. Ciaran also got his shots and did some posing for photographs. His toe count is now officially 28 which is a record for this Vet – so they took some photos. The Doctor also said “Just imagine walking through the woods and seeing those footprints in front of you!” I really should have named him Sasquatch.

What I was worried were nails growing through the pads under his front paws turns out to be thick skin – sort of like keloid tissue – but not associated with an injury or a problem. Whew!

Covid numbers are exploding in this Province just as they are everywhere else and, as a result, the processes put in place at the beginning of the pandemic have had to be modified. Contact tracing is not taking place anymore – there just aren’t enough resources to do that.

What used to trigger a lockdown is now something people are trying to “manage” instead. The availability of Rapid Tests (a technology I find truly impressive) is supposed to help identify cases which require a PCR test. The backlog of requests for the latter in Saint John the other day was 2500. Unfortunately, if somebody has a positive RT they aren’t included in case counts unless they do a PCR – so if you want to keep working (fishing) you just don’t get one.

One of the flaws in this current, modified system involves defining your “bubble”. When this all started and we went into lockdown you were limited to your own household or, when things relaxed a little, to two households. It was easy to define your approved contacts and kept things safe for all. The new rules are a little different.

We are each supposed to limit our circles to 10 close contacts. Think about that for a moment. There is nothing to restrict each of your 10 contacts to the same people. So, for example, Joe might be one of your 10 but his circle includes you and 8 or 9 completely different people. And so on, and so on, etc.,.

We used to tell young people to remember that even if they were only sleeping with one person they’re also sleeping with everybody that partner ever had sex with. Contacts work the same.

I have limited my circle to one. He’s paranoid about Covid and is very careful – but he goes fishing and works on other people’s projects. This means he’s in contact with everybody they are. It also means that through him I’m in contact with the whole Island.

We’re in the middle of a virtual outbreak here. At the beginning of the pandemic they would have locked this Island down. Now? Now the scale of the problem is unrecognized by the Powers That Be. The Mayor has been agitating for some resources to enforce quarantines etc.,. There’s nobody available.

I’m using much better masks and staying as hermit-like as possible. We’re also going through a lot of Rapid Tests. I expect we’ll be OK – unfortunately New Year’s is tonight and people will party anyway. I’ll just hunker down with my menagerie and watch the inevitable fireworks from my easy chair. See you next year! 🙂