Well, valued readers, I’m back in the saddle for yet another year with the Kivalliq News.
Well, almost. I still have another six days to go in yet another week of quarantine here in Winnipeg and then off to Rankin Inlet I go (finally!).
And I can’t help but make myself believe 2021 is going to be a whole lot better than what we’ve been battered with in 2020.
I’m sure there are people reading this who went wherever in this great nation of ours for a little me (or us) time during the summer, and had absolutely no problem doing their thing, Covid 19 or no Covid 19.
I wasn’t one of them.
I knew I was taking a big risk by heading to the East Coast this summer, but my daughter had been having some serious ongoing health issues and I was determined to spend some time with her and the grandchildren.
It was, I hoped, time for some serious dad and daddy’s girl re-bonding and getting caught up with each other again — in person, not over some tech gadget that can never properly convey feelings and emotions, unless, of course, Lindsey is upset with daddy over something or other, and then the all caps texts tell me exactly what type of mood she’s in.
Spending my first two weeks of vacation self-isolating in Cape Breton, N.S., wasn’t too, too bad. I was in my family home and, living out in the country, I was able to turn the volume up a notch or two while listening to some of my favourite hard-rock albums.
I had called ahead to Nova Scotia to find out what was what with travelling in the area with Covid-19 restrictions in place, so I was quite confident once my two weeks in Cape Breton were up I’d be safely inside the Atlantic bubble and would be off to Prince Edward Island to be with my family.
The one thing I forget to mention during my call ahead, however, was that I’ve lived in Rankin Inlet for almost 23 years and every piece of identification I own says I belong to Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, lock, stock and barrel.
So to the good folks guarding the Wood Island ferry terminal, I was a Northern boy with a rented car who, maybe, self isolated and then again, maybe not.
Two more weeks of self-isolating, begging and pleading my case followed, then, finally, I made it to P.E.I. to spend the grand total of almost five whole days with my daughter and grandkids.
Laugh at me for awhile Covid-19 may have, but it couldn’t change the fact they were the best five days I’d had for quite a long while.
So, having left Nunavut where there were no active cases, spending a month in Cape Breton where there were no active cases, and five days in Charlottetown where there were but four active cases, I was almost ready to return to my home in Rankin, where there were no active cases.
I figured, given the circumstances, maybe I could get permission from our top public health doctor to travel directly to Rankin from Winnipeg, and, since I live alone, self-isolate.
No such luck. But his announcement that our MLAs would be allowed to travel out of the territory for face-to-face meetings and could then self-isolate back in their home community brought a twisted smile to my face.
Do as we say, not as we do. What a unique concept.
Six days to go before my trip to Covid hell is over and I’m all snug as a bug back in Rankin.
And I won’t be going anywhere again real soon.