Bored and Isolated in Calgary

Source: denverpost.com

The other day when it was light enough, I studied what I could see outside: snow undisturbed on the road and the sidewalks, trees bare and black.

No colour, or movement.

Our isolation has been three weeks now, going from chaos to unceremonious ejection from the normal.  My morning prayer wonders how this is the will of God; God is speaking, am I listening?

In spite of everything, I cannot help but musing over the unthinking herd mentality that allowed Trumps’ rise to power. Yet, why is uninviting isolation from the herd he best way to “smooth the curve”?

In normal times, it was easy to forget to clean the junk from the garage, to replace a rotten step and to put off changing oil in the SUV. Now there is no excuse.

I did all three.

Spending thee afternoons decluttering about a third of the garage produced vast quantities of garbage and absolutely no visual improvement.

When I changed the oil, a problem with the filter caused oil to leak all over the garage floor, wasting perfectly good oil and making for another garage clean up.

And the step.  I replaced it and promptly stepped on a nail. A smelly do-it-yourselfer tried unsuccessfully to convince the Doctor a tetanus shot was related to three weeks in isolation.

David is supposed to be retired but enjoys being a husband, father, grandfather, friend, Jesuit alumnus, adult educator, writer and small business advisor. He flies his airplane as often as he can, for the absolute joy of it.

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4 Comments
  • jean moylan csj
    Posted at 10:25h, 28 May Reply

    David, you may feel bored and isolated but you strike me as a productive, spiritual survivor of this pandemic.

  • jean moylan csj
    Posted at 10:28h, 28 May Reply

    David, you may feel bored and isolated but you strike me as a productive, spiritual pandemic survivor.

  • Tom Norris
    Posted at 12:36h, 28 May Reply

    Enjoyed your piece, David. I, too, find myself doing things I normally put off for another time. I was looking for a phone number in our old, beaten-up, directory, squinting through 87-year-old eyes, and told myself I should make a readable directory. I am in the process of creating a Word document in size 18, which I will place in a 3-ring binder.
    We are perpetually locked in, our daughters forbidding us elderly folk
    to leave home. They are kind enough to shop for our groceries. The delivery is a little tricky; we meet them outside, respecting distancing, to collect the bags.
    If we are looking for positives in this lockdown, we can console ourselves in the fact that we have added a new term to our language: ‘distancing’.

  • Martine McKeown
    Posted at 23:00h, 28 May Reply

    It is always good to get ones hands dirty and appreciate the challenges of regular maintenance to the vehicles and garages, But most of all be thankful that there is a tetanus shot to repair you later.

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