Let’s be honest. All pictures are memories, whether we like it or not. Some of them are nice, warm and fuzzy, others are shivering memories. Either because we were scared, moved or because we were just cold.
Most of the pictures in this post were from such a day. I think the temperatures were not that low, something like –12C or so. Yet a strong wind was blowing icicles onto my bones. This lead picture was from a very cold morning in Southwest Manitoba.
A few days ago, friends and I decided to go hunting for ghosts. Since there is a small park called Woods of the Spirits in Winnipeg, that would have been the most logical place to find any ghosts, right? So, off we went, while many were invited, only three people showed up. Physical distancing was easier this way.
I don’t care much for the term “social distancing” as that rhymes with social isolation to me, one of the causes for mental disorders. If people can get together in a safe way, then half of the isolation problems are gone already, just by showing up.
There is no doubt about it. The virus has us all in its grip. There is not a day without “news” about an outbreak, a restriction or even a cure for it. There is no way to know what to believe and what to discard. As a result, we all go half nuts for one side or the other of the spectrum.
I’m not taking sides or trying to haul people over to the “other” side here. One thing we can all agree on is that we all wish this would be over, and soon. Yet the frenzy doesn’t seem to want to leave us, so we need a retreat from it.
Staycations, well, more or less. I am not one to stay in my house for long unless required by law. And even then, I will probably be outside in my yard to escape cabin fever. Today’s health orders are starting to take their toll on many people. People that have no private transport can hardly go anywhere.
Luckily for me, I still have my own transportation and nobody can pry that away from me. So I still get out, despite all the restrictions. At least the Manitoba government has not implemented any curfews or confinements.
Prairie winters are extreme. Everybody in North America knows that. While Winnipeg is only on the latitude of Brussels, Belgium or Kyiv, Ukraine, it is significantly colder in winter. All will picture winters of extreme cold, ice and even eternal night.
By now, we know that this is not true, at least not the “eternal night” part. While many people are now compiling a “best of 2020” for the “worst year in history”, I decided to concentrate on Decembers instead. Decembers only in Manitoba.