Mar
2021

Doing the things again…

I am so excited we’re having virtual Cheer competitions. Tonight we recorded our routine.

He said

With the regulations loosening up it means Mom & Dad are allowed visits from both the primary (me) and their secondary (Shawn) caregivers today. Shawn was over this week for a visit, in addition to helping them get some pictures up. Every time I’ve gone over in the last few weeks, it’s looking more and more settled. The building maintenance guy finally got their medicine cabinets installed in their respective bathrooms. And Mom & Dad have finally starting picking away through the pictures and deciding which ones are going where. When I left Friday afternoon, it was the first time where I look in their suite and can it is theirs. And it looks like home.

Friday morning this week was a very happy moment for me. We were able to play hockey again! There’s not much time left in our usual spring session but it’s looking like we’ll at least get a month of skating in. It felt so good to be back out on the ice again but I can tell you there are some leg muscles that are letting me know over the weekend they hadn’t be used that way in a while. And one of the coolest things to happen was one of the guys who has been a regular but hadn’t returned in October when we started didn’t recognize me at first because the last time he saw me was about 40 pounds ago. Thanks for the ego boost, Doc!

In keeping with our exercise focus, the last few weeks we’ve been trying to get outside for socially distanced hikes and walks with our friends The Sherwoods. This weekend, our schedules didn’t quite work out, but Danielle and I didn’t pass up on the beautiful weather we were having today. We got out and did a 5 km walk catching the Thames Valley Parkway from the same place where I catch it for my bike rides, but we went the opposite way on the path checking out the new bridges they put over two sections of the Thames River. The sun was out, it was warm and the skies were blue. It was so great to take in so much fresh air.

Much to Danielle’s… delight, I upgraded turntables this week when I found a vintage Dual 704 turntable on Facebook marketplace. As much as I loved the special edition Union Jack Rega RP1 we’ve had for close to 10 years, the German made Duals are highly sought after and it really completed the setup so that everything in it is vintage from the late 70’s and early 80’s. And the sound is just so much fuller and better. We spent a chunk of yesterday listening to records and reorganizing the collection and finally putting the more recent additions and stack that I inherited from a wonderful friend, into the collection. And I finally got the pieces of 2×2 wood I needed to act as stops on the cube shelves we have for the records. There is still a bit more work to do but it was a really nice day aside from the few swears moving around all the collection and alphabetizing it was.

The weather forecast this week calls for more days north of 0ºC, and there are three days we’ll even hit double digit temps. Now, I know there is like another blast of snow in the forecast but it’s really starting to feel like we’ve seen the end of winter and spring may be soon. This is fantastic news because one: it means the camping season is getting closer. And, two: I’ll be able to get the bike back outside and some real riding as opposed to the stationary in the basement workouts I have been doing. I am really looking forward to both, and they seem way more of a reality now than they did a few weeks ago when I was shovelling a foot of snow off the driveway.

She said

For the first time in months things felt a bit more normal—sad what we consider normal now. This weekend was a full one for Emelia. She was finally able to see her gymnastics/cheer bestie Olivia. It had been months since they could really be together through lockdown. They missed Christmas, Emelia’s birthday and the entire month of February. The toll on the girls has been harsh but seeing each other this past week was exactly what they needed for their mental and physical health.

Yesterday was Emelia’s school best friends Anna and Grace’s 14th birthday. The girls were able to spend the entire day together. First thing yesterday morning masked up we went to a small local nail place to get the girls their nails done. With restrictions the girls were the only ones allowed in the salon but it was exactly what three teenage girls wanted, time just them having a great time. The girls later went out for dinner, some ice cream and time together. Emelia came home so happy she got to spend the day with her friends feeling as normal as you can with all that is going on.

Like I said at the beginning it is strange what we think of as normal now. A year ago today Emelia was in Toronto competing in what would become her last gymnastics competition. Only a few days later the world shut down. All sense of what our lives and what is normal now is so strange. Today exactly a year later what is normal now Emelia went to training tonight masked up, in small groups to change their entire competition routine so they can video tape a submission to judges. Emelia is thrilled to be able to do this but she was saying the entire way home from practice tonight that doesn’t feel like competition. I keep telling her it won’t always be like this, to focus on new skills to keep her passion going and things can hopefully be more ‘normal’ next season.

So it was a good weekend for Emelia, she got to feel like a teenager, even through strict restrictions she got to do some of what she loves the most. Be with her friends and push herself through sport.

Leave a Reply