Although I never wanted to really say it out loud…when this all started I had a hunch we’d be in for a long haul. Viruses that spread as quickly as this one looked to be spreading and infect as many as this one looked to be infecting….don’t disappear quickly unless they are compartmentalized and able to burn through their hosts rapidly. And in a world of global movement that’s unlikely when it breaks in somewhere other than a remote and isolated location, such as has happened in most cases of Ebola.
So where are we now. We’re headed into the dark season. It’s going to be dark for different people in different ways.
When I first moved to the coast I spent the first five winters or so in a depression. I’d never experienced that before. Winter up north is cold and snowy, but that also makes it bright. The air is cold, but it’s also crisp and invigorating.
Winter on the coast entails months of depressing grey skies and ranges anywhere from drizzly dampness to monsoon-like deluges. It can rain for weeks on end.
And that sucks.
It takes work to distract myself from that weather under normal circumstances. Normally it rolls off me most of the fall because I am out and about, working with fish at the hatcheries I support, and enjoying the rapport with the people that work at the sites.
That’s largely gone this year, so it’s going to be tougher.
But I’m in a better position than many, I can at least go outside into my yard….if I make myself.
I worry about those who have bigger problems than me. those who live in their apartments in crowded highrises, who may have little more than a postage stamp sized balcony, if that.
This is going to be a tough winter for many people.
But we will come out of it, so hang onto that. It will end….eventually.
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