Summertime An’ the livin’s easy…” Billy Stewart sang a few decades ago.
I don’t know, or even remember, his cause of death, but Billy died long before the coming of what we (still living, concerned and responsible mortals) are preoccupied with in this era of consciousness by every definition — being healthy, and hopefully living long being foremost.
If Billy were alive in these pandemic times, rumours would be floating like a virus as to his cause of death; he was a big guy.
Nevertheless…
Right now the temperature is normal — hot, summery… And it has been that, and more… In this case call it a perpetual natural summer bonus, a ‘global warming aesthetic effect…’ as it were, for those who describe themselves as sun lovers, and relish a little extra sun and heat for whatever personal aesthetic reasons.
Thankfully, my sunlight quotient is always satisfactory, was naturally infused… gifted at birth. Call it the gene effect. No need to self-torture, along with deathly side effects of what medical/science and other health practitioners refer to as sunburn?
So, given normal summery weather, and in this instance summer ’22’s extra summery heat and feel, which summers are sometimes made of, I was simply going with the heat and sucking up it up so far (mentally speaking) to the best of my ability… my heat tolerance threshold as it were.
As we’re well aware summer sometimes takes it good ole time setting in arriving. Sometimes it hangs around for a period of time then, without notice disappears, making its way to some other distant place to warm up other suffering souls, shivering for summer. I never fuss; nature’s sometimes temperamental. But summer ultimately does what it naturally must, and will. It’s nature’s way.
Problem for me this summer though is an unusual feeling that overcame me a few weeks ago. Like many people, I personally wasn’t itching to shed whatever Covid-19 had been imposing; I had no qualms about doing whatever ‘those who know’ were preaching. Aside from wearing a mask like a bank robber each time I did normal things like venturing outside to do life’s necessary domestic matters I adopted/created a new mental space to cope with Covid.
My position? As living beings and individuals life provides us with various personal ‘life things’ of interest to do, worth doing…
But I ultimately yielded to ‘pandemic temptations’, a small handful of social events I knew would be “safe.” In all instances, not everyone was masked; I certainly was sporting mine.
Yes, it’s summer, but I couldn’t help wondering for a short period of time after why I was feeling the chills in the summer. I’m not prone to flu bugs and such conditions when they are ravaging certain communities, and people.
After some soul searching My thinking was I shouldn’t be getting chills in mid-July, so much so that I would close basement windows a crack more or less, to get some relief from a normal mid-summer’s evening breeze (always a welcome respite from a typical triple H (hazy, hot and humid summer day) breeze?
Nevertheless, there I was in mid-July doing just that to feel some internal warmth.
Yes, I was wondering why am I feeling chills at this time of year. I wasn’t aware of any flu bug news stories or anything, especially because I do not normally suffer from flu bugs, etc. during the so-called “flu season” let alone summertime.
But there I was, wondering… what the…
Soon enough everything was clarified. “Yours truly,” no, mine, mentioned that we should endure another COVID-19 test, which were happening in our district, at local CLSCs. We had done the Vaccine caravan (of shots) at the beginning of the pandemic, then later boosted, in keeping with government among other credible sources of information. So what the hell, we have nothing to lose, but lives.
The home-front, healthy and vaccinated, was well taken care of. We had been well armed, everyone feeling mentally and physically well and ready to take on COVID-19 and its enablers, deniers, detractors… and other adventurous types to invade our mental/physical space. Their alternative information sources weren’t any more credible than the trained professionals’ we had become accustomed to for close to three years and counting…
That being our situation, we were confident that our home-front had done our due diligence to combat the virus and be fairly healthy by respecting COVID-19 protocols based on the information we had been lapping up the duration of this respiratory, not human-made virus.
And like most families, we’ve been waiting for scientists/governments to sound the all-clear: announce that some semblance of normalcy was in the near future, a welcome relief, especially for those of us who’ve been respecting government protocols, directives and what not closing in on 36 months now.
But based on call-in show recollections of people who had contracted the virus, it’s akin to a common cold… Perhaps. But I would prefer a COVID-free life and health record, without the flirtation…
Hmm…
Things were soon clarified, based on test center information, a positive test. What!
That’s why I had been experiencing chills, a gruff cough and voice, clogged with unmentionables.
Covid-19 had finally caught up to our homestead? The evidence was unmistakable: I had become a Covid-19 victim, notwithstanding the fact that our home had been listening, was practicing and preaching…
“Summertime…” and all the images it conjures… It’s no match, or cure, for the pandemic.
Had Billy Stewart been living and died in this pandemic era, rumours would abound as to his cause of death, citing “Underlying health conditions and what not.”
Nevertheless, this global pandemic is nothing to celebrate. Healthy lifestyle or otherwise, we’re all vulnerable to other peoples’ carefree, carelessness, lifestyle choices, practices…
Personally, I’m merely cleansing my system of abnormal, irritating, awful mucus… associated with the so-called “common cold” as some people say, as they try to enjoy what’s left of this gradually unwinding COVID-19-tainted summer.
Meanwhile, I don’t care about talk of “people living with and beating COVID-19…” Good and lucky them.
I’ll continue to listen and keep masking my way into to a better and normal healthy lifestyle…
And here’s hoping the powers that be will find a way to deal with those pandemic detractors who deliberately and selfishly continue to compromise other peoples’ health and lives…
fingers crossed don’t allow it any opportunity to wreak any more havoc on those of us who are doing all we can to see Covid-19 done and finally gone.
I don’t want to hear talk of learning to live with Covid-19. We all want to hear about the pandemic dead and buried.
If he were alive, Billy Stewart might share a similar sentiment and still be still be entertaining audiences with Summertime…
IT’S SUMMER… COVID-19 POSITIVE AND LIVING…?
