Day 66

  Sixty-six days. 9.4 weeks. Two months and counting. That's a long time to be social distancing and basically never leaving your home. No parties. No movies. No family dinners. No school. No visiting. No doctor appointments. No sports. No...well I could just keep writing what we have been doing without but honestly that would be too depressing. We are all well aware of what we are missing out on. You don't need me to remind you.

  I think back to March 14. We had just arrived in Orlando and checked into our hotel. We had bought some groceries and were eating dinner with the news streaming in the background. That's when we heard Canada wanted everyone to start making their way home. This virus was now becoming a lot more serious than we thought and even though we had just arrived, it was time to go.

  We made it home in record time with no known contamination. Honestly we thought this would be short term. A few weeks. A month maybe. No longer though. Canada shut down? Couldn't happen. The entire world? Not a chance.  Yet here we are sixty-six days later with long greying hair just now starting to reopen. And we are all complaining it is too soon. Too fast. What made us all change our minds?

  Over 328 THOUSAND deaths world-wide are what did it. 6000 in Canada alone to date. People in hospitals for weeks on end hooked up to ventilators and fighting for every breath. Families unable to be with their loved ones in their final moments. We saw it on the news daily and it scared us. In our minds, we knew that the vast majority of us would make full recoveries. But our hearts told us to take no chances. So when we did have to go out, for essentials only, we wore a mask, avoided contact with everyone, and sanitized our hands till they were raw. And when we got home we washed everything and then sanitized our homes...just in case.

  So now, as we begin the slow process of reopening our great nation, it's important to remember all we have learned about what is important in life and what is not. Family and friends spending time together is the most important thing for almost every single person on the planet. All the other stuff is just filler. It's a valuable lesson and one we must not soon forget.

  On a final note...that hotel in Florida we left, Legacy Vacation Resort Orlando, very kindly gave us a credit for another 7-day stay at a future date. Even though they were in no way obligated to do so. Thanks!

  Ang