ELK POINT - I’ve always heard of people ‘clearing their calendars’ but have rarely ever done that myself. Only matters of incredible importance or dire necessity have ever made me do that, as I am more likely to shuffle events to fit what sometimes seems to be an impossible amount of events into a single day, so I can have the next day free.
About seven years ago, dire necessity kicked in and I had to do some major shuffling to fit everything in as I underwent a series of eye surgeries, which meant an ongoing amount of shuffling because I couldn’t drive between mid February and August of that year, and got a lot of extra exercise walking to events rather than driving. However, that time, I was able to fit in a large percentage of my normal news and family activities, even with the challenges.
This time, the necessity was not just my own, but that of the whole world, and was sprung on us all with much less notice than the two weeks between meeting with the retina surgeon and the surgery he scheduled. Then, I had time to plan ahead, now, none of us did.
One day, we were all enjoying ourselves at the library tea, celebrating the Midget Avalanche team’s win of a provincials tournament berth while we munched on goodies from recently rediscovered 1990s vintage Arena Kids cookbooks with a relatively calm weekend ahead, nothing but the curling club windup to cover and the Scotties finals to watch, and back-to back meetings, midget hockey provincials and regional public speaking on the following week’s calendar.
A hastily called special meeting of town council on the following Monday afternoon, with barely enough time to get home from putting the week’s paper to bed at the Journal before I had to call in to the conference call, wiped that calendar clean, with all meetings cancelled, facilities closed and everyone urged to stay home. Similar meetings and province- and nation-wide decrees saw all 4-H activities, minor and NHL hockey seasons and activities and the World Curling Championships cancelled or postponed in one fell swoop, while bingo halls, arenas and community halls were asked to lock their doors and students from kindergarten to college and universities were sent home to continue their studies by distance learning.
By the time I turned my calendar page to April, there was nothing on it but a town council meeting on line, two weeks in the future, and the family’s array of six, count them, six, birthdays. It was a far cry from the April 2019 page that I opened to copy down those birthday dates. Last year’s page showed eight meetings, two banquets, a social, an Easter egg hunt, a gymkhana, Gardeners’ Day in Bonnyville, two bingos, a dress rehearsal and the first performance of Elk Point Theatre Project’s ‘Seussical Jr.’ musical, and the Ukrainian Dance Club spring concert… and the birthdays.
Those birthdays – four grandchildren, one son-in-law, one great-granddaughter – are a bit of a problem – how will I get gifts to everyone, while not being supposed to go anywhere but for groceries? I still have one of my sons’ birthday gifts from early March sitting here, after their annual birthday supper was postponed until one got back from a tropical vacation. His gift actually got to him, along with the groceries and mail we parked on his doorstep while he was in mandatory isolation, but his brother’s gift is still here, along with the ice cream and speckled angel food mix for their cake, with the party still on hold.
Maybe their party, and those for the other six, can all be rolled into one some time in the summer, when all this isolation is finally over. In the meantime, I’m sending cards, and will drop off that gift on my way to the post office next time I’m in town.
I have high hopes for the online council meeting, because the 4-H webinar I covered last week was no problem at all, I got more notes than I could use in my story, and this time, I’ll have my usual council meeting agenda to go by and provide any background information if needed.
