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Views Of The Sea
The pandemic is alive and well at the moment and life in pandemic mode continues. We dream of opportunities to flirt and we walk by people while wearing masks even if they do not, to remain safe. I would like for people to do what they can to end the pandemic but that is an empty dream
A concrete dream is that shops in Switzerland are once again asking for one person per household to shop at a time and this is positive because despite the government failing to do something at least the shops do. It shows both that the situation is getting worse, but also that people are taking things more seriously.
I am in a safer part of Spain so I feel safe. I am still masked anytime I am near other people and I still observe the wind.
I am still wearing the Garmin Instinct solar but I find it hard to charge. Most of the time it is hidden under layers of clothing and when I took it off and left it by a pool it was back in the shade by the time I went back to it. I can see such a watch being in its element in summer, rather than winter, even in Spain.
I find myself considering emigrating from Europe to escape its defeatist pandemic attitude. I am tired of people making excuses to empower the virus, rather than to block its progress. I want soft lockdowns and self isolation. I want masking to be done properly and I want boosters to be more easily accessible.
I have been studying Bootstrap and so far it looks like a great tool. I will write more shortly. For now, I leave you.
Seeing the Pandemic As A Journey
Last night I was reading and began seeing the pandemic as a journey. The pandemic has been a journey for everyone, but especially for those in solitude. For those of us in solitude, it has required that we completely change how we consume the media and how we interact with the world. We go for weeks without hugs, without kisses, without meals with other people. For weeks, we may exchange a few words at a shop or petrol station but without ever having in person conversations.
This changes us. I believe that this is why I walked two to three kilometres further, sometimes, to avoid being within meters of others. Solitude is painful when we are reminded that others are not solitary. Bizarrely, with time, the pain of pandemic solitude diminishes as we give up on some aspects of life.
Giving up on those aspects does mean avoiding most films, television series, current affairs podcasts. Instead of listening to the usual content, I ended up with podcasts about journeys, whether the American thru-hikes or other forms of journeys. I am currently reading “Le Camino Seule, enfin presque” and this is what made me think of the pandemic as a journey, where we work on ourselves, on our inner journey, while waiting impatiently for normality to return.
It isn’t easy to turn fourty in solitude during a pandemic. It wouldn’t be easy out of pandemic either, because we know that doors are closing. The energy to be lively around toddlers, of not going on road trips and sitting in cafés alone. Of never speaking about “we” because of the never-ending I of solitude.
I am fine with solitude. What bothers me is ageing and theoretically running out of time to experience certain chapters in the standard model life, as I like to call it.
The pandemic has forced us to accept two years of solitude, and to cope with it, to be fine with it. I refuse to accept the fatalism of married people, and people who have a home life. I want society to do what it can to end this pandemic. Teenagers, children and single people are forced to grow old without being able to enjoy a “normal” life because those who are not alone make excuses for not self-isolating.
I like solitude because I am not expected to feel sorry for people who have more than me, emotionally. I am not forced to hear things that make me miserable. Whether we are miserable or not, during this pandemic, depends on what we are subjected to. Solitude is pleasant. Fatalism about the pandemic being out of control is soul-destroying.
Pandemic life is absurd, so the sooner it ends, the sooner people who are not in solitude, do what they can to end the pandemic, the sooner people in solitude, can start experiencing social lives again.
I want the pandemic to end, and I want people in power to stop making excuses for why this evergreen pandemic can’t end. The pandemic could end within two or three months, if we had ambitious optimists in power, rather than corrupt individuals. For clarity, I mean corrupt in the sense that people are too afraid to lose their job, than to fight for human rights. The right to health, the right to live out of pandemic.
A Walk By The Mediterranean
We can’t all head to the mountains and the slopes that lack snow. Some of us head south to the coast. The weather is good and the air is warm enough. It is warm enough for me, not just to consider swimming but to actually do it.
The sea is blue and green as usual with waves breaking. I saw a few orange buoys but I am unsure about whether they are for diving boats or swimmers. Usually for divers they are not so visible.
Dive sites are more stealthy.
The path is clear and easy to follow. It is green and white.
I went for a swim today. I went in an unheated pool, rather than the sea. I could go to the sea but that requires driving and organisation. Swimming in a pool doesn’t.
I don’t like getting into cold water. It tingles. I managed to swim for about ten minutes but if I put my head and brought it back up then it felt cold. I like to be warm. Swimming in cold water when I am not hot to start with, goes against my natural instincts.
I try to alternate between walking, cycling and swimming, to work different parts of the body.
In Switzerland the number of Covid sick is going up and the government is doing nothing to slow it down or stop it. It is allowing people to fall sick despite one fifth of people who fall sick developing long Covid. I am tired of the pandemic, but not enough to give up on maintaining safe habits like wearing a mask, social distancing and more. For as long as I do not fall sick with long Covid there is hope. It is worth staying Covid free, despite the social isolation it results in.