Today, I downloaded an app on my phone called ArriveCAN.
It’s what you need now to cross the Canadian border.
And I can cross the Canadian border. Any time I want. You can’t yet, but I can as a Canadian citizen.
Just a sign that we’re slowly returning to some semblance of normal again. I really wondered during the past 18 months if we’d ever get to this point again.
We can sidle up to the bar again if we want, wear our masks if we want. Or not. Up to all of us.
Maybe start to breathe just a little bit easier. A little easier around strangers.
It’s a real feeling that there is finally light at the end of the COVID tunnel.
Peninsula Daily News sportswriter Michael Carman talked about covering the Firecracker Classic this past week as a “return to a true community event, the kind we had been missing for the last year-plus.
“It was enjoyable to cover a couple of ball games in the fresh air without having to worry about signing an attestation form and getting a temperature check, or if I had my mask with me.
“And to see some smiles and animation on the kids faces was a pure positive. Nice to tell a player he had a good pair of games and see a smile. [Kamron Meadows].”
Amen to all of that. I have nothing but respect for anyone and everyone who chooses to continue wearing a mask. I’ve been fully vaccinated since April and, to be perfectly honest, I can’t get rid of my mask fast enough. I don’t mind wearing it for a few minutes in the grocery store, but with a crushed sinus and deviated septum, I hated masking up for long spells, as much as I did it religiously for a year.
This summer, I’ve really noticed what a dramatic difference in the crowds in the local restaurants and the traffic on the roads. I had forgotten how busy this area used to get in the summer. Last summer, it was only a fraction of the visitors we normally see. And we still don’t have the MV Coho yet, bringing in all those Canadians. What a day that will be when it starts up again (fingers crossed).
What to do, where to go
After Canada announced it is partially reopening its border, I found myself immediately checking for concerts or shows in Vancouver I could go to later this month, finding only a Celine Dion show that probably costs a fortune. And it’s Celine Dion. Sigh. Oh, well. I am looking forward to my first concert in probably 19 months in Marymoor Park in August. I’m looking forward to a Mariners game later this month and getting a tiny baseball helmet full of soft serve ice cream. And I’m looking forward to hopefully going to Banff in August.
It’s just good to be able to dream and make plans again. Even if those plans keep changing almost daily.
On the down side, plans I’ve been making to travel to Montana or central Oregon later this month are going down the drain at the moment because of insane temperatures and high fire danger. 100 degrees in Missoula next week. 100 in Bend. COVID maybe is becoming less of a factor in everyday life, but we’re a long way from solving climate change.
There is the nagging caveat to all of this — the 30 percent of people who aren’t vaccinated and the Delta variant. I worry we’re going to see a resurgence of COVID. I worry the virus will keep mutating to a form that vaccines won’t work against. I read all the misinformation about COVID-19 on Facebook and that makes me REALLY worry.
But I’m tired of worrying. I got in line as early as I could to get vaccinated so I could return to normal, and to do my part in helping everyone around me return to normal.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
