Category: Personal

Closing day 2021

Monday October 11th 2021

Finally at 7 pm the park gates are closed and locked to end the 2021 season, oh yah everyone knew that 5 pm was closing time, but as usual the rules don’t seem apply to some of the “special people”.

We were treated to the LHR (Lake Huron Resort) exit parade, which is made up of a few vehicles making a lap around the park with car horns beeping as they depart. This practice seems to have become a departure ritual as of recently and the action is normally only enjoyed by them and us.

Oh closing day (weekend) is always a day of great sadness, people leaving their “happy place” until next May. There are friends and neighbours that won’t see each other for six months and then there are a few that may never see each other again just because of circumstances.

In our case it has been exceptional difficult period of time, with what could be considered a little touch of joy thrown in.

To explain quickly, most of the people fall into one of four categories, group one are the people that have became our friends and would not leave without saying goodbye, group two are those that will go out of their way to speak if we are around, group three are people that while might not go out of their way to engage in a conversation with us still do so if we are in the area, and the last group are the people that will go out of their way to avoid speaking to us for what ever reason. That last group are the ones that cause us to smile and feel that little bit of happiness as we watch their tail lights disappear down the road, as they were that 20% that consumed 80% of our attention and caused all the heartache.

There have been lots of hugs and tears so far this month, as we have said goodbyes to so many friends, and many people have stopped by to wish us luck with our adventures, and while some still can’t seem to fully understand why we do what we do, we ventured into this life style to explore and travel and making friends and leaving them has become part of this life as difficult as it seems at times.

As we have learned is to try to avoid goodbyes, we like to use the phrase “we’ll see you down the road”. And we will alter most travel plans for the chance to meet up with people, a detour of a couple of hundred miles has become quite acceptable in our book which would make a normal travel day in our world.

In eight days our commitment will be complete here at the park, and where we move on to is still an unknown as we are still waiting for an America border decision. But I can tell you we didn’t miss Bill leaving at 4 am this morning nor did we miss all the regular late night visitors, or the bikers that couldn’t afford an exhaust system. The water is off to the south side of the park and winterizing has begun with earnest.

Be Strong, Stay Safe, and we will see you down the road!

Do restrictions work?

Sunday October 3rd 2021

COVID-19 has changed our lives, I think we can all agree with that simple statement, no matter what your personal opinion on this pandemic might be, it has changed our lives and world.

Here in Ontario we have now seen four surges in new case counts, and we have endured three provincial lockdowns in eighteen months, but we seem to be avoiding another lockdown for now, and being the largest population base in Canada we need to look at the numbers to see why.

Population:

This chart just shows the populations of all the different provinces and territories, it also shows the growth over the last decade.

We want to look at two provinces specifically for this comparison, so pay attention to Ontario and Alberta.

Ontario 14,733,119

Alberta 4,428,112

COVID-19 cases:

This chart shows the new COVID-19 cases, again by province and territories. And once again we want to look at two main provinces but Saskatchewan is worth a note because their number is terrible as well.

Ontario 668

Alberta 1630

Saskatchewan 471

I remember in July when Alberta and Saskatchewan removed all restrictions with regard to mask wearing, social distancing, and venue restrictions. With promotions and ads, and on every Canadian newspaper, heck Alberta even allowed the Calgary Stampede to take place with few or no restrictions. And I thought that sure would be nice, to be able to enjoy a “normal” summer, as I for one was feeling very restricted here in Ontario in comparison. But right about now I’m thankful for all those annoying restrictions. So while Ontario has 3 times the population of Alberta and 12 times the population of Saskatchewan, Alberta has over 2 times the cases than Ontario and Saskatchewan’s case rate is even worse.

My next thought was maybe the outbreak in Alberta was just because of a low vaccination rate so next I was going to look at the numbers comparing Ontario’s and Alberta’s vaccination rates, here are the numbers.

But as the charts above show Ontario and Alberta are not too far apart when we look at both the percentages of total population with vaccinations as well as the percentage of the eligible population vaccinated.

Conclusion? While vaccinations are important, because the majority of the cases are of the unvaccinated people, and an even higher percentage of the people in the hospitals and the ICU wards are unvaccinated. So the big difference has to be the restrictions!

So those restrictions that we all loathe, do work, the mask wearing, the social distancing, the venue limitations and now the vaccination passports are keeping Ontario’s fourth wave of new case counts under control, so as Alberta is implementing another lockdown, Ontario is allowing more fully vaccinated people into venues as a comparison, and if the vaccination passports keep us from a fourth lockdown then I will wear my mask indoors, and follow whatever guidelines the sciences team suggests to move us forward.

Here is today’s graph of the world vaccination rates, and let me start by saying that China’s data is suspect, as accurate and factual information from China is virtually nonexistent. Next I notice that India is getting one dose into the arms of citizens, kind of like Canada did when vaccines were hard to get. Russia is just plain failing with only a 33% vaccinated rate, and another number that looks suspect is the United Arab Emirates, can the population of 12 and under only be 7% of total population? And remember when the Olympics were being held, and Japan was so far behind on vaccinations and now their even ahead of the United States

But whether you believe the numbers or not here is a glance at where a few countries are on the vaccination front.

So please don’t be offended if I put on my mask when I’m in a group, or avoid people that I know are not vaccinated, or I just avoid groups in indoor settings, don’t take it personal, I’m just protecting me.

Be well, Stay safe, and protect yourself!