My week was a weird mix of meeting and failing demand, but in both circumstances I just keep moving forward. It didn't feel successful, but it did meet the Churchill criterion of moving from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
I normally feel a twinge of regret missing a holiday that everyone else has time to celebrate, but it didn't happen this time. Valentine's came and went, and I didn't try and make up for it the days that followed, like inevitably happens with other holidays that my work schedule messes up.
We have had the best winter for snow, with temperatures in the double digits seeming tropical compared to the deep freeze next door in the western provinces. -18 with windchill is not my preferred temperature for anything, but when you see -38 without windchill where your family lives, it's hard not be grateful!
I decided today should be a celebration of that snow. The driveway was shovelled and I had the equipment, so I made today a winter pentathlon event: a walk in the woods (the squirrels were cautious and acrobatic; the birds enthusiastically celebrating the mild weather and lengthening day), skating, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, and sledding (with involuntary screaming - those bumps in the snow were really well camouflaged but I felt them if I couldn't see them!)
I even had a chance to go shopping for a few items for the first time since the restrictions lifted last Monday to allow "non-essential" shopping again, including pens and bras and underwear that were almost critical in need after a year of making do! It was quite a pleasure to see a variety of choices, and yet have so little drive to purchase most of it!
My neighbourhood feels a little closer this week. My neighbour fell in his house, and called the ambulance. The firetruck and ambulance lights flashed into my living room and I looked to see where it was coming from. My closest neighbour ("the John") was okay, but my neighbour past him, Nick, had called 911. Across from him live my friends who look after him, like I try and look after John, and I gave them a quick call. Turns out he refused to go, after they told him his heart and lungs were fine. The trouble was that he couldn't walk. When I learned a couple of days later that he didn't go with the ambulance but he couldn't walk, I called him to offer my help. To my surprise and delight, he accepted, and when I told him that he broke his ankle and needed to go to the hospital for a cast, he took my advice and went later that afternoon.
It may take a village to raise a child, but it's nice to know that the village can take care of the elderly among us as well. I know altruism is self-serving, but when it has a twin purpose that benefits someone else, it is a nice feeling to have done something right.
Still, my favourite memory was after school when my daughter was combing her knotted hair. She let me make her a snack I have offered her for years, and for the first time she said yes to the classic ants (raisins) on a celery (filled with PB) log. I was tired, having come home from work at 4 am, but awakened early as usual by my cat at dawn. I had eaten breakfast in the early afternoon and I was sitting with my coffee, listening to her talk about her day. She had started on a rant about her math teacher, who she dislikes, and I was preparing his defence in his absence when what she said made me laugh so hard that it stopped her in her tracks. I wish I could remember exactly how she said it, but it was a perfect combination of her literal mind and humour. Essentially, her teacher had said that they had two and half hours of homework, but how was it possible that the very teacher that taught her how to add minutes would take 2-50 minute classes, add 30 minutes of homework, and conclude that this was 2 1/2 hours of math! In her mind, it was ludicrous for her math teacher not to realize that it was a mere 2 hours and 10 minutes of math!
It was a good moment for me, and her. A favourite memory. A successful work week. Mortality may nip at my heels, but I am still standing. The hours of crushing isolation threaten to make time futile, but all in all, a good week.
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