Questions, so many questions

This is day 50 of our Self-Isolation. Yes, I think it’s such a major event that those two words should be capitalized. So for 50 days it’s been Linda and me and the cats (Missy and Sandy) hanging out with no safe place to go. Two years ago, right about now, we were getting super excited about a planned three week trip to Italy. Italy’s current state reminds us that acting on a good idea…is a good idea. So we did. It was the best! Very timely. We had considered putting it off for a couple of years but Linda noted we might regret a delay because of life’s uncertainties. Who could have imagined rather than one of us getting sick, that whole country went to sick bay. Sometimes you get lucky.

This year all plans revolve around closer to home – Meal planning based on on-line ordering, working on a daily routine that sure seems like the same routine we worked on yesterday, and trying to keep the blood cells moving. We are so fortunate to live on a ravine that is part of the Highland Creek Watershed. It’s a migratory corridor for birds and wild animals that includes a 2 mile path for pedestrians and cyclists. I walk it everyday. And it’s on those daily constitutionals that questions keep rumbling through my head. Questions covering a myiad of topics that pop in at random.

For instance, why does the Governor of New Jersey where 800-thousand people face unemployment want to pay illegals 600 dollars a week? And why do only half the people of the United States know about Tara Reade? And how come 20% of the people in Los Angeles are illegal aliens? Why are the daily COVID 19 briefings akin to watching paint dry? The Prime Minister speaks without a supporting cast and when he’s done why doesn’t anybody ask important questions of substance? Aren’t reporters allowed in his stately presence? Here’s a question: Does Canada plan to ask China to refund the money we paid for faulty Personel Protective Equipment (PPE)? Did Ontario’s Premier move his mother-in-law out of the Long Term Care home in which she was living and infected by the Virus? Why would China threaten Australia because the Aussies were seeking truth? And recalling Mel Lastman’s query during the Sars outbreak, Who is WHO? China’s best new friend, that’s WHO!

When we started our Self Isolation 50 days ago, Canada reported 103 cases of the Virus, and today we are reporting (60,000 ) plus with a prediction that almost four thousand will die before May 5th! Remember when the country’s Chief Public Health Officer predicted we had little to fear from this virus? Do officials who make wild, baseless statements ever get canned? Probably not.

But when you walk the Birkdale Ravine everyday there are many positives. Spring has arrived. Didn’t look like it would in the middle of March when the SI started but the buds had a notion. They knew what was coming. 10 days into Isolation, the robins started arriving in bunches from the south but my oldest granddaughter was stuck in Tunisia. And our Foreign Affairs Office strongly suggested Canadians get home tout de suite – in both official languages. Isn’t that the way it goes, something good followed by some bad?

When Italy brought down the hammer, our national total was doubling every three days. Today Italy is working to re-open. Is this a good idea? At this stage many are somewhere between worried and in the fog that seems to have surrounded every statement meant to reassure and clarify. Who knew anything? Who knows anything? The Chinese knew but they aren’t talking.

The great thing about walking is how quickly you move things around in your head. The brain can change the subject in a nano second. On Tuesday, March 17, I was thinking how sad there wouldn’t be a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Takes a lot to throw a curve at an Irishman that he can’t hit. And what about baseball? I noted the Blue Jays opener is here in less than a week but file that next to no parade, no basketball, hockey, and soccer. Wow is this really happening? My friend Penner Mackay and I would not make it to the Blue Jays opener, and we would miss Jackie Robinson day in Los Angles and Brooklyn. Is this fair ball? It is not!

Sport fans are tired of watching old games and listening to old baseball games. The other day I was listening to a game broadcast on radio back in September of 1939. Bob Feller, one of the greats, was on the mound for the Cleveland Indians playing the Washington Senators. Always thought baseball was the perfect sport for radio. You? Vidiots find themselves watching shows they never heard of. Is it possible Britbox and Netflix were invented for COVID 19? What are politicians doing during these lockdowns? I know they’re not answering their letters. Somewhere in the ether are two letters from me. One to Toronto’s deputy mayor and the other to our member of the Provincial Parliament for Scarborough Centre. Answered? NO.

When I noodle some of the COVID 19 briefings by Trudeau, Trump, Ford, Tory I recall a telling quote from Winston Churchill in answer to a question by a reporter about the tendency for his government to lie about British misfortunes in a couple of World War Two battles. You almost hear his every distinctive, stentorian syllable in response: “We would never lie to you, but don’t assume we are telling you the truth.”

Today on my walk I said hello to 4 deer and blew my warning whistle at the coyote. At Linda’s insistence 15 years ago we moved from a downtown condo to life on the ravine.

Isn’t it great? No question!