Turning the February COVID blues on their head

Jeff Green | Jan 27, 2021

With only a small space for an editorial, I thought something about the lighter side of living with COVID-19 would be apt. There aren’t that many lighter sides to the pandemic, as we all know. We are in the midst of Lock-down 2.0 and the latest news about hyper contagious variants of the virus that may not respond to the vaccine that was supposed to get us out of this mess by the time the snow flies in the fall is not exactly cheerful either. Oh, and I forgot about the shortage of the Pfizer vaccine is having a negative impact in our region

How am I doing so far. A laugh a minute, right.

What about the Bernie Sanders memes, those are funny, aren’t they? Well, they were sort of funny for the first few days, but not so much anymore.

Julie Payette’s pension might be laughable, but is it really funny?

What about Randy Hillier? He’s a laugh a minute, right? Not so much.

What about life at home?

We all know that people who live alone have had the hardest time of all during the pandemic. Families with school aged children have been stressed by the constant transition between virtual and in-person schooling, the fear of isolating children from their friends and the fear of COVID-19 transmission from their friends.

Some of us are living the best life, however, alone with our life-mates.

Back when my wife Martina still thought I was sometimes a funny person, I think it was back in June, we laughed together about the concept of a Covidivorce in the Covidiverse; couples who have lived happily together for years because they do their own thing much of the time, but now realise they don’t get along at all when they are together 24 hours a day for months at a time.

That joke hasn’t aged any better than the Bernie Sanders memes.

The truth is that, at the end of January, even a mild January, life is not exactly grand, even for happily mated couples.

Happily, Valentines Day is coming. It is a time to celebrate romance and maybe a time to make amends. Don’t wait, reserve flowers today at Goodfellows Flowers in Sharbot Lake (279-6446) or Memory Lane Flowers in Sydenham (376-6309) as soon as possible, and pick up some good chocolate while you are at it.

Or, do something special and send us a picture of your Valentine, along with a short and sweet message, to go in our February 11 Valentine’s edition.

For $40, it’s a gesture worth making at any time, more so in these COVID-19 times. We will even post the Valentine’s ads on our website (See page 12 of this paper for details)

It might even provide a small break from what is certainly a dreary winter of ’21.

PS There is one thing that is truly funny, and heart warming, out in the world of social media. It is the song and dance routine by Jamie McCullough, the Principle of North Addington Education Centre, that was posted when it was announced that students would be returning to school on January 25. Go to the NAEC twitter feed to find it.