End of 2020 Communiqué – The Strangest year of my life

It’s over and yes it was a bizarre year . . . some good and of course some not so good . . . mostly, thanks to Covid-19. 

 January started out good.

Rice Pounding Ceremony (JOUSHOUMEI) - annual tradition of mochitsuki the pounding of rice to make mochi

I was invited to a Rice Pounding by a fellow Alberta Health Services volunteer.

Sweet rice soaked and then steamed in a huge double-decker pot and comes out looking like bread dough. The dough is put into a stone mortar and pounded with wooden mallets until it is the "right" consistency.

Then it is thrown onto a floured (rice flour) board where young and old pinch off small pieces of dough, flatten them and place a condiment in the center of the "Mochi" and wrap the dough around . . . like a dumpling. Young and old are talking and laughing as they work around the table.

February trip to Victoria

I realized I needed to start doing things on my own and decided to take a February trip to Victoria (my brother’s lives there) and Vancouver Island to visit friends and familiar places. They (brother Stan and wife Patty) were going to Mexico and I could stay at their place.

The Flood

Their place has 3 separate living spaces - the main floor; a recently renovated upstairs suite and the ground floor suite. Lo and behold, I was greeted by a flooded ground floor and a rather massive clean-up job. Thanks to Todd, the fellow who has taken care of his place for years, the whole process got started and was proceeding well by the time I left.

Old Friends Up-Island

I took off up-island  . . . first stop was Nanaimo to visit a neighbour from Calgary and then up to Courtney to see Sharon, another Calgary friend.

One of the highlights was our visit to the Filberg Heritage Lodge and Gardens in Comox. I loved the waterfront view and the natural landscaping with its collection of sculptures created from fallen trees from right there on the property.

 

I did get over to Sooke to visit a gal who I had worked with in Lethbridge when we were there in the 80’s and who, incidentally, had a unit in the Condo in Lethbridge. Anyway, she now lives in an interesting Cohousing development is Sooke. Co-housing (http://www.harbourside.ca/whatis.html) is a unique concept of a Co-op/Strata (Condo) ownership structure with a great harbour view.  

 Victoria

Somehow, I lucked into a great tour offer and managed to get around Victoria and get to places I would never have visited.

Chinatown

Miniature Museum

This was a special place for me . . . I’ve always been fascinated by miniatures.

And Now for the Rest of the Story

Finally I felt like I was starting to eek out a life for myself . . . I had a plan . . . a couple interesting volunteer projects starting in March . . . oops . . . not to be.

Both projects were “face-to-face”. One, they just gave up on but the other one (CNIB – working with visually impaired people to mentor them on using a iPhone) I am still trying to get trained up enough to know what I’m doing.

There have been a number of Zoom-type workshops and meetings but I can’t say I’m terribly active or occupied . . . what can I say? . . . Generally I’m in the same boat as so many people . . . Wake up . . . Eat . . . Sleep . . . Repeat.

Cooking is in there somewhere too. They keep assuring us that it will end . . . I hope they are right.

Fred left me a challenging legacy . . . there are more electronic devices around here than I ever imagined. The challenge is to learn how they work and what is on them . . . and, of course, everything continues to change so I’m sure this will go on forever but it does exercise my mind. 

And so ‘Life-Goes-On’ . . . one day at a time.