We live about a 10 min drive from the US border. The Canadian border is supposed to be closed to US travelers but daily we see or hear of Americans who are crossing the border and lying about where they are going or they have holiday property here and once they get to their property they don't self isolate for 2 weeks like they have to. If they get caught not isolating for the 2 week period they get fined but I'm pretty sure they don't really care. They see the statistics of how many fewer cases Canada has than the US and they think if they come here they will be safe. Unfortunately they are it bringing with them.
Of course we have plenty of selfish idiots here who also don't self isolate after traveling or if they feel ill. Lots of people are going about their lives like Covid isn't around anymore. And because of this our numbers are slowly going up. Not enough to be alarmed yet be you can see a trend of going up. It was inevitable because how do you keep people at home? You can't catch them all and arrest them because there are just too many of them.
I love it when they first had lock down and everyone was staying home. There was hardly any traffic and the stores weren't crowded. Now the roads are full of cars and the stores are full of shoppers. And I'm ashamed to say that most people here don't wear masks of any sort. Sure right now there are no known cases but all it takes is one traveler stopping somewhere and getting to close to someone. Or someone going on a holiday and coming back, not isolating and going back to work.
It really won't take much to infect a bunch of people. I'm staying out of restaurants and crowded places. If I go shop for groceries I do it as soon as the store opens to avoid crowds. I wash my hands and don't visit with people unless we can stay apart outside. This will get harder as the summer goes on because it will be too hot to sit outside even in the shade. In winter it will be an even bigger challenge.
I have to stay I'm afraid. I'm afraid for my elderly parents and parent-in-law. I'm afraid for myself and my husband who works with the elderly. I'm afraid my kids may get sick because they work in a large grocery/department store. My daughter doesn't live with us anymore and if she gets sick I won't be able to keep an eye on her or help her other than to drop off groceries. If my son gets sick he lives here with us and we have only one bathroom so it would be almost impossible to stay far enough away from him. Our house is only about 800sq.ft. big. With 3 people living here there is no good way to stay away from a sick person, there never has been.
My anxiety is making me eat too much which is causing me to gain weight which I do not need to do. This in turn makes me more anxious as people who are overweight are more likely to have difficulty or die from this virus. So I'm trying to eat well, stay home and attempt to get some exercise inside.
I can't say I've been very successful at any of it but I am trying and hopefully we will emerge from this virus unscathed unlike many unlucky people.
Another thing I've noticed this year is that pretty much everyone around us is doing some kind of home renovation. We dug out along the side of our house which was full of weeds and moss. We put down a weed barrier and then a couple of inches of crushed gravel. It looks so much better and we should have a reprieve from the weeds for a year or two now. We also had a new roof put on our house as the old was was over 20 years old and was showing it's age. Then we pulled off all the green corrugated plastic that has served as siding on our garage since we moved here and put on plywood and then vinyl siding. What a difference that made! We also fixed the garage door and gave it a paint job.
We have to add a small section of privacy fence in the back where people in the alley are looking into our yard because there is a gap. And they we will dig out along side the garage and add gravel there too. It was always just dirt and rocks over there between our garage and the neighbours garage. They put gravel down on their side so we will do the same.
The neighbour beside us did his roof too and then had his house painted. The people behind us built an addition to their garage. And another neighbour behind us added on a covered porch so they could sit outside when it was raining.
And the burned out house that has sat vacant for a year and a half is up for sale. One woman that works at the hospital said she put a bid in on the property. If she gets it she will clear the house, garage and trees off the lot and put in a prefabricated house. It sounds like the house will pretty much take up the entire lot because she has applied for a variance to have her house sit 12 feet from the back alley when the rule is houses must be built 19ft from the back alley. She also needs a variance to put a covered porch on the front of her house. I'll be sad to see a house blocking the sun from my kitchen window when her house is put there. Of course that's if she even gets the property because it's all just in the planning stages and may not even happen.
So I'm anxious about who and what will end up in the property beside our house. The lots are small, about 50ft x 100ft. Our house is only about 4 feet off the property line on the side of that property. It was build in the 1920's and would not be allowed the be built that close to the property line now. If a large house goes up on that very small lot or even a house with two stories it will dwarf our house and we end up with no privacy in our back yard. Their windows will look out into our yard and down into our house. I know lots of people wouldn't care it's just frustrating to have lived her so long and now we don't know what is going to happen and how it will affect us. We are so close to that property and potential house. We will be giving up our nice quiet because right now there is no one living in either property on either side of us. It's nice but it will end.
The man who owns the property on the other side of us doesn't live there. It was his wives parents house and they kept the house to have somewhere to stay when they came to town or their family members came to town to visit family. They also come to town to go to the hospital because with wife has had cancer. They are elderly though, in their late 70's so who knows how long they will keep that property. It could very well be up for sale soon too and once again because we live so close to that house if we get bad neighbours it will be hard for us. I know it seems like a silly thing to worry about but I'm just so anxious with all the things going on right now and every small thing seems to weigh so heavily on my mind now.
Of course we have plenty of selfish idiots here who also don't self isolate after traveling or if they feel ill. Lots of people are going about their lives like Covid isn't around anymore. And because of this our numbers are slowly going up. Not enough to be alarmed yet be you can see a trend of going up. It was inevitable because how do you keep people at home? You can't catch them all and arrest them because there are just too many of them.
I love it when they first had lock down and everyone was staying home. There was hardly any traffic and the stores weren't crowded. Now the roads are full of cars and the stores are full of shoppers. And I'm ashamed to say that most people here don't wear masks of any sort. Sure right now there are no known cases but all it takes is one traveler stopping somewhere and getting to close to someone. Or someone going on a holiday and coming back, not isolating and going back to work.
It really won't take much to infect a bunch of people. I'm staying out of restaurants and crowded places. If I go shop for groceries I do it as soon as the store opens to avoid crowds. I wash my hands and don't visit with people unless we can stay apart outside. This will get harder as the summer goes on because it will be too hot to sit outside even in the shade. In winter it will be an even bigger challenge.
I have to stay I'm afraid. I'm afraid for my elderly parents and parent-in-law. I'm afraid for myself and my husband who works with the elderly. I'm afraid my kids may get sick because they work in a large grocery/department store. My daughter doesn't live with us anymore and if she gets sick I won't be able to keep an eye on her or help her other than to drop off groceries. If my son gets sick he lives here with us and we have only one bathroom so it would be almost impossible to stay far enough away from him. Our house is only about 800sq.ft. big. With 3 people living here there is no good way to stay away from a sick person, there never has been.
My anxiety is making me eat too much which is causing me to gain weight which I do not need to do. This in turn makes me more anxious as people who are overweight are more likely to have difficulty or die from this virus. So I'm trying to eat well, stay home and attempt to get some exercise inside.
I can't say I've been very successful at any of it but I am trying and hopefully we will emerge from this virus unscathed unlike many unlucky people.
Another thing I've noticed this year is that pretty much everyone around us is doing some kind of home renovation. We dug out along the side of our house which was full of weeds and moss. We put down a weed barrier and then a couple of inches of crushed gravel. It looks so much better and we should have a reprieve from the weeds for a year or two now. We also had a new roof put on our house as the old was was over 20 years old and was showing it's age. Then we pulled off all the green corrugated plastic that has served as siding on our garage since we moved here and put on plywood and then vinyl siding. What a difference that made! We also fixed the garage door and gave it a paint job.
We have to add a small section of privacy fence in the back where people in the alley are looking into our yard because there is a gap. And they we will dig out along side the garage and add gravel there too. It was always just dirt and rocks over there between our garage and the neighbours garage. They put gravel down on their side so we will do the same.
The neighbour beside us did his roof too and then had his house painted. The people behind us built an addition to their garage. And another neighbour behind us added on a covered porch so they could sit outside when it was raining.
And the burned out house that has sat vacant for a year and a half is up for sale. One woman that works at the hospital said she put a bid in on the property. If she gets it she will clear the house, garage and trees off the lot and put in a prefabricated house. It sounds like the house will pretty much take up the entire lot because she has applied for a variance to have her house sit 12 feet from the back alley when the rule is houses must be built 19ft from the back alley. She also needs a variance to put a covered porch on the front of her house. I'll be sad to see a house blocking the sun from my kitchen window when her house is put there. Of course that's if she even gets the property because it's all just in the planning stages and may not even happen.
So I'm anxious about who and what will end up in the property beside our house. The lots are small, about 50ft x 100ft. Our house is only about 4 feet off the property line on the side of that property. It was build in the 1920's and would not be allowed the be built that close to the property line now. If a large house goes up on that very small lot or even a house with two stories it will dwarf our house and we end up with no privacy in our back yard. Their windows will look out into our yard and down into our house. I know lots of people wouldn't care it's just frustrating to have lived her so long and now we don't know what is going to happen and how it will affect us. We are so close to that property and potential house. We will be giving up our nice quiet because right now there is no one living in either property on either side of us. It's nice but it will end.
The man who owns the property on the other side of us doesn't live there. It was his wives parents house and they kept the house to have somewhere to stay when they came to town or their family members came to town to visit family. They also come to town to go to the hospital because with wife has had cancer. They are elderly though, in their late 70's so who knows how long they will keep that property. It could very well be up for sale soon too and once again because we live so close to that house if we get bad neighbours it will be hard for us. I know it seems like a silly thing to worry about but I'm just so anxious with all the things going on right now and every small thing seems to weigh so heavily on my mind now.
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