Nothing New - Until COVID-19

It's been over a year since my last blog posting. Sorry. Laziness on my part. Also, nothing new happened in 2019.

There were protests,

cosplay,

one year with Lana,

the usual events,

and some street photography.

But for the most part, there was nothing new to say about the photos I posted.  This year, 2020, started out the same way.

Then COVID-19 hit. Businesses closed. Homes closed. Signs went up in windows.

  

Self-isolation made photography a little more challenging. Thinking the lockdown was only going to last a month or two, mid-March, I created a "During the Time of Isolation" album on Flickr.  That title might change to "A Year of Isolation." Or more depending on how soon a vaccine becomes available. Or COVID social distancing procedures become the new normal.

It started with a flurry of cooking and projects to fill the time,

perfect pancakes - a first

doily crocheted out of embroidery thread

homemade yoghurt

getting to know local wildlife from the inside,

and walking around the neighbourhood once or twice a week.

In the beginning, things were put in windows to make walks interesting for kids. I did my part.

Protests are extraordinary.

Nature seems to be a bit testy, as well, with June rains turning into hail-storms more often than usual; clobbering my attempts at container gardening and freaking out flowers not protected by trees.

 Lana is getting used to being hugged several times a day. Sort of.

Then there are things I can't take photos of. Grocery shopping is too stressful for me to pull out my camera, what with having to pay attention to duct-tape arrows in the aisles and unintuitive self-checkouts. There's rewatching hours of television shows and movies on video. There's socializing through social media and email. Testing negative for the virus is a phone-call celebration with friends.

This summer will be different when/if I get called back to work. I haven't seen anyone from work since mid-March. I'm thinking we're all looking greyer.

To be continued...

Links:

• COVID-19 - Wikipedia
• 100 days into the pandemic, we’ve moved from anxiety to complacency, without much reason to do so - Globe and Mail

#strike4climate - Youth Climate Strike rally

Interesting Friday - I yelled at a driver, followed a youth climate change protest, and spoke with a couple of female Mormon missionaries.  The yelling I will save for another post that will probably turn into an idiot-driver rant.  This posting is mostly about the mass of young people who decided to skip school to protest climate change.  It was actually a worldwide event that I guess not many people knew about, but because I subscribe to a few environmental news sites I learned that Montreal had approx 100,000 kids in the streets.  Other cities had more, others less. Being that Calgary is a petroleum-dependent city, I wasn't expecting to see many kids there. There weren't hundreds, but there were enough to make a point.  The enthusiasm of youth.  Gotta love it.  Treehugger has an excellent article, posted March 15, of news Tweets from around the world: Young people take to the streets around the world in the #strike4climate.

Protesting at the doors of City Hall.

"Come on out! Come on out!" No one came out of City Hall.

Peas for the planet. This girl told me that last summer her family went away and when they came back the peas they planted were too far gone to eat. So at her birthday party, she gave everyone peas to plant. She brought her pea plant to the protest.

Later,  I had a sit-down in Olympic Plaza to check out my photos. I was approached by a couple young ladies who happened to be missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS); one from the US and the other from Japan.  We had a nice chat. I told them that they were the first young women missionaries I had ever seen, that usually, I've seen young men LDS missionaries.  They asked what I was taking photos of and I told them about the rally.  They then ask why I take photos of activists.

Two men discuss the appropriateness of pontificating out of turn. The bald guy on the right felt entitled to share his opposing opinions to the climate change movement.  The man on the left had to remind him that the protest was for the kids. That it was their moment, not his. 

I told the LDS missionaries that while the kids were rallying a single adult male decided to counter the kid's chants of "what do we want" by shouting "we want jobs."  He was promptly told to cease and desist by someone's father.  That almost got out of hand too when the father told the entitled-one that his opinions would be best shared with Yellow Vesters.  Enough of that or I'll be starting an idiot-male rant.

I told the missionaries that at most rallies I've attended there is the one person, usually a man, who feels entitled to steal the soap-box for his own agenda.  I take photos for the people who share his view, who cannot change their perspective, and who need to know that their opinions aren't shared by everyone. Call me Don Quixote. Calgarians are a comfy, complacent bunch.

I told them that most of the protesters at the climate rally were girls and that if there is going to be any meaningful change in the world that it would be done by women.  This particular rally was inspired by Greta Thunberg the young Swedish girl who started a solo climate strike last year. According to The Guardian, 20,000 students worldwide have joined her.

Word has it that Calgary kids are going to try to rally every Friday.

Links:

• Young people take to the streets around the world in the #strike4climate - Treehugger, March 15, 2019

• ‘No jobs on a dead planet’: Students around the world strike for more action on climate change - Global News, March 15, 2019

• 'Our leaders are like children,' school strike founder tells climate summit: Greta Thunberg, 15, told UN summit that students are acting in absence of global leadership - The Guardian, December 4, 2018

• Quebec Students Join Global Climate Change Marches - Huffington Post, March 15, 2019

On Social Media:

• Tumblr
• Twitter #schooltrike4climate
• Google News
• Instagram