The Test

It’s Friday, spring is on our doorstep, the clocks are moving forward this weekend and Covid restrictions are being lifted more quickly than you can say “cue the next variant.”

Ontario’s provincial government announced on Wednesday that they were lifting all Covid restrictions by the end of April and mask mandates in particular on March 21st. Not to be outdone, BC followed up shortly after to lift masking requirements effective today. Yes, today. March 11th.


Nana booboo. Take that, Ontario!

Testing the break

Ontario goes into March Break on Monday and so are lifting their mask mandate upon the return to classes. Although I’d prefer to wait until at least mid-April when the weather is warmer and the natural increase of spring colds, flus and the like are done, they at least had the wherewithal to hold onto the mandates until after the break.

Not here. We go into March Break ten days from now so we’ll have well distributed any bugs by the time the holiday comes around. Awesome!

All of this newfound ‘freedom’ (to quote a certain truck convoy) begs the question… What will you be doing this weekend?

Shaking hands with random strangers? Enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet? Licking handrails?

As for me…

I for one will be spending this weekend similarly to most previous weekends. Yes, I’ll be heading out to do some errands, get groceries and so on. But yes, I will be wearing my mask indoors. It feels to me that lifting these mandates is rushed, at best. Foolhardy at worst.

I’ll be keeping my assortment of masks for the foreseeable future. And I’ll be using them. When I shop. Certainly, when I travel. Personally, I like having gone through flu season after flu season and not caught anything. And I know if I’m feeling any kind of illness coming on, sniffles, cough, I’ll be masking up indoors and out to protect all of you out there.

To me, this just seems like kindness to strangers. Which is what I’m hoping for in return. I have seen enough cars driving around town with their Canadian flags a flying to make me a bit nervous about harassment for my choice on this. But I’ll remain hopeful until proven otherwise.

As I mentioned here, I’m going to be spending some time downtown today and specifically, enjoying our best local bookstore. We’ll see how this goes.

The test begins today.

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