The First Response

On March 20, 2021 By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized3 Comments

I think it is pretty safe to say that we are overloaded with information in our world today. It is hard to take it all in, and try to decide what you are going to do with all of the noise on your screens every minute of every day. When I tested positive for Covid-19 I already knew I had it, it was just a formality. Why did I know I had it? Because I read a lot, I knew the smell and taste loss which is a HUGE symptom in this virus. What I started to read about was the length of the virus and what to expect. I read an article that described what happens in the middle of the virus, around day 5 or 6 and that was what I had to look out for.

My day 5 was Saturday February 6th and it was rough. I spiked a fever of 102 and it wouldn’t come down. Then the cough started. After a lot of Tylenol, the fever came down in the evening to 99 but when I woke up the next morning it was back up to 101. I was scared, I am not going to lie. My mom was on the phone with one of my cousin’s who brought over a pulse oxygen monitor for me to use. My mom dropped it off at the door of my condo.

My cousin and I Facetimed and I checked my pulse oxygen. It wasn’t great and she said to me I needed to call 911. I didn’t want to. But I had to. I called and while I was on the phone with the operator she was giving me the protocol for when the responders enter the home. Keep the door unlocked, do not approach them when they arrive, keep your mask on at all times. I sat at the table, turned the TV off and waited for them.

If you have ever taken a first aid course, they really try to ensure you understand how to perform CPR and of course nowadays, how to use a defibrillator if one is available. One of the main reasons why they do that is because it does take time for EMS to arrive on scene. Every minute counts.

In my case, I was waiting for them to arrive and the first to arrive was the Fire Department. They were just casually asking me questions and getting the lay of the land of why I called. They did not come near me, they did not take my vitals, they were really there to assist if there was a need, but really to bridge the gap for the EMS to arrive. One of them asked me “you are not watching the Superbowl?” I replied, “No, the fact they have 25,000 fans there and I have Covid, turned me off”. He agreed.

When you are waiting it feels like a very long time. I am sure it wasn’t longer than 15 minutes but it felt like a lot longer. Once the EMS arrived, the other two left and they took over. They were asking all the questions, getting the history, etc. Then it was time to leave. I walked myself out of the apartment and in the hall was the gurney. My unit faces the street and I see when there are fire trucks, ambulances or police in front of my building. They took me door and out through the main door. The whole thing was a bit surreal and I wasn’t even sure it was real, maybe it was a dream and I was in one of my medical dramas.

Me, being the social person I am, asked the medic his name. He said, Lem. I said, Len? No, he said Lem, like lemonade. I was looking around the ambulance and I said to him, “I watch way too many medical shows.” He was wearing a mask, sheild and eye goggles but I could tell he was smiling. He asked me which ones, I said all of them. I started with Grey’s and he said his sister and mother watch that. Then I froze. He asked me what was going on as my oxygen was dropping. I told him I was having anxiety. He asked me why?

I had heard the siren. As a driver, I know that when you hear a siren you pull to the right and stop. You stop because the ambulance needs to get where they were going, fast. That there is a potentially a sick person in their rig. In this case I was the sick person. The siren brought me to my reality, I was sick.

We arrived at the hospital and they waited for me to be taken by the nurses in the Covid ER. I had a chance to talk to the other EMS who was driving. He was telling me how he is close to retirement and both his daughters are professional athletes and play for team Canada, but right now what sport they play has escaped my brain. He wants to move back to Guatemala and open a wellness centre on the beach. Sounds pretty good right about now. It was their time to leave, so I thanked them and they were gone.

I had no idea I would have another opportunity for an EMS interaction, but as my life would have it I did. I had to be transferred to another hospital after 24 hours. Again, I walked myself to the gurney and they wrapped me up in blankets and put the oxygen meter on my finger. The one EMS, I asked his name, Tim, who asked me what was going on as my oxygen dropped. Again I said, I am having anxiety right now. He put the oxygen in my nose where it stayed for the ride.

On the ride to the other hospital Tim asked me what they told me about why I was being transferred. After I told him the reason he told me about the shift that he and his partner were on that night. It was an overtime shift and their responsibility was to take Covid positive patients who were not critical from one hospital to another as the critical patients at certain hospitals were reaching capacity, many of them overwhelmed by the critically ill. I was grateful to be one of the patients that even though I was still quite ill, was able to be moved.

With every experience we have in life we have to look for the lessons. It is hard to believe that seven weeks have now gone by since that time I called 911 from my apartment. I am grateful for the first responders that were kind and made me feel comfortable during what was a very uncomfortable time. I am not looking to take a ride in an ambulance again any time soon, but knowing how hard these professionals are working and caring for their patients is something to acknowledge.

Please continue to be safe, get vaccinated when it is your turn and wear your masks.

In the Beginning

On March 13, 2021 By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized3 Comments

One year ago today I was working only my second Saturday shift at Goway. What a day to be working in a travel agency. The day the world was closing down. I have written about this day and night before, you can read about that here.

In the beginning

In the beginning there was fear and that created chaos in every grocery store. The shelves were stripped bare. Supply chains were broken and it took months for some items to return to the shelves. I remember at the time looking at the bare shelves thinking to myself, “I hope in six months the food banks are overflowing with all the cans of food that people hoarded that they now realize they will never use”. Let’s not get started on the hoarding of toilet paper. Later on once the toilet paper supply was fixed, it was paper towel that became a scarce commodity.

Speaking of hot commodities, let’s talk about the broken supply chain of flour and yeast that went flying off the shelves faster then they could be stocked. Everyone was baking. How many of you baked at least one banana bread those first few weeks? How many started your own sourdough started and named it? I did neither of those two things.

I did share photos of meals. as did many others at the start of the lock down. Facebook groups were created for people to share photos and meal ideas for their families. It was a great source of comfort in those very first days of the unknown. For me, I think it made me feel less alone.

In the Beginning

In the beginning we lit Shabbat Candles together as three households. That of course led to Zoom Passover, Zoom high holidays and Zoom everything. This has become something we have become ‘used’ to the last 12 months. It does have some benefits in truly connecting people that would otherwise never have been at that particular event. During the High Holidays my brother had ‘surprise’ guests come into our room from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and more.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my birthday that I celebrated two weeks ago. My brother facilitated a zoom room and my mother became a super detective and in the span of two hours in two zoom rooms, there were close to 100 people that joined in from London to Vancouver, to Montreal, Texas, Northern and Southern California, Chicago and much more. You know I love to plan birthday parties, but not in any of my party planning dreams would those people have been here in person to help me ring in 50.

In the Beginning

In the beginning it was winter. But then the snow melted and the weather started to go from winter to spring. We had a very cold and rainy mother’s day on my brother’s driveway. About a week after that I planned a picnic for my parents and I at the park across the street. I brought a huge bag filled with pre packaged snacks, place mats, Lysol spray and wipes. My parents picked up subs. We had just finished our lunch and a Vaughan city worker came and told us the park was closed and we had to leave. My dad’s 75th birthday was in June. We had a visit with family in my brother’s backyard and then we had planned for a few of his friends to meet in the park. There were a lot of people in the park that day. Along came a Vaughan city worker and told us we are not allowed to congregate in the park. We had to move along. So we did. This photo was taken from my balcony. A balcony that does not get ANY sun. It was very hard in those early days not even having a place to sit out side and enjoy the sun.

In the Beginning

In the beginning, let’s go there. Grocery stores. It took me a couple of weeks to get over the hoarding experience I mentioned above. But, we all need to eat. I ventured out in the cold, waited in line outside and went to the store, mask, gloves and fear all rolled into one. This is when I started shopping for my parents and myself. It took a while to get into a shopping grove, figuring out what day of the week and time of day would be best for me. I did this for both households for 11 months, until I got covid.

I found that not working allowed me to go in the morning, in the middle of the week. After the first couple of weeks I never waited in line again to get in and stumbled across check out lane 3 to Susie, a fantastic cashier at No Frills on Centre. The first two weeks I ended up at her lane by accident, but after that I started to wait specifically to check out with her. She is fun and friendly and helps you out when you miss something that may be a price match. She has quite the following. One day in January, there were three of us in line waiting to be served by her. Her manager was mad at her. I told her that he should be happy that people are regular customers and want to be served by someone that makes their experience better. If you shop in the morning at No Frills on Centre and happen to end up at lane 3 – if it is Susie, you can tell her Lisa Simpson sent you to her.

In the Beginning

In the beginning I was taking photos of CNN’s case number counter every couple of days. I am sure that I am not the only one that did this. I did this for a long time, as you can see below. I stopped taking pictures a long time ago, and I think CNN stopped their counting screen a long time ago as well. Now the focus is how many vaccinations are being done, which really is where we all should be thinking now. For America, that was such a mess during the days of pandemic has now emerged out front and blowing Canada out of the water on the vaccination front, we are all now waiting our turns.

Where am I now

Where am I now? That is an interesting question. I did have Covid. I am very grateful to be in recovery of pneumonia with some lingering issues that I hope will clear up in the coming few weeks. I have not ventured out past the park across the street. I have started ordering my groceries on line. I am really in need of a hair cut so that may be the first place I venture out to in the short term. I am craving a restaurant meal, to be served, but I am not in a rush to do that just yet.

I am cautiously optimistic of getting my vaccinations by September. I am praying each day that Canada gets its shit together and it can be sooner, but I don’t know. I am putting it into the universe that I will have a stamp in my passport in 2021. I know that 2022 is going to be a big year for travel. I have plans for 2022 and I am hopeful that come summer time we can actually have legit conversations on moving forward with plans.

Until then, I wait.

The Last Week of Normal

On March 9, 2021March 9, 2021 By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized3 Comments

In life we are reminded of historical events in many ways. Of In the song American Pie, Don McLean sings about “the day the music died” referring to the plane crash on February 3, 1959 that killed musicians Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.

Perhaps your Facebook Memories are reminding you about what you were doing this week one year ago. I know mine have been reminding me each day. A week that was not normal by any imagination. As a travel professional that specializes in Europe my world was already turning upside down, but still not even knowing what would happen as we approached the events of the week of March 14 – 20, where the world as we know it changed.

On Friday March 6th, 2020, my parents and I ate dinner at Sea Hi restaurant, as March 8th would be its last day being opening. This was a long time coming as I am sure regular patrons know all too well, but an institution in the community for almost 60 years. But like a great musical that has to close, the curtain needed to come down on this restaurant.

Not surprisingly, it was very busy on this Friday night. The demographic was an older crowd and many of them were reminiscing about their times in the restaurant and their experiences. There were people taking photos. It really was the end of an era in the community.

It was a neighbourhood spot. My father would tell the story about being 17 years old and parking cars for the patrons on a Saturday night. It may have been almost 60 years old and it looked its age. When you walked in and saw the Budda in the entrance way there was something comfortable and familiar at Sea Hi. If you look over the counter at the front door I am sure the calendar was still from 1959 and so were the piles of papers and receipts piled up on the desk by the calculator.

Their takeout business was large and you could tell because the restaurant was almost always empty. But as soon as you sat down, you were greeted with a large plate of their fried noodles and that delicious plum sauce. I would have loved to know where they purchased their plum sauce from because it was so good you could drink it.

Everyone has a different menu item that they enjoyed as was a staple every visit or take out order. I always enjoyed the honey garlic spare ribs and their fried rice. It had to be rice on the bottom, with ribs on the side with a nice helping of sauce on top of the rice.

There is a symbiotic relationship with Jews and Chinese Food. Everyone has ‘their place’ and to be fair, our places have changed many times over the years. I remember my father closing the store on Christmas Eve and we wanted anxiously for him to come home with our large brown paper bags filled with our favourite dishes from not just Sea Hi, but other places we have eaten from over the years.

This dinner was enjoyable for the fact that it was our last meal as this restaurant that we knew was closing. I wonder how many of you out there were eating at a restaurant that week in our lives that, perhaps due to the pandemic is not there any more. If you had known then what you know now, where you would have eaten that last week before everything changed.

Now that restaurants and establishments are starting to reopen it will be interesting to see the landscape as it starts to unfold. Many places have not survived the last year and there will be new ones that open in their places. As someone who loves food and the restaurant experience, I am looking forward to when it is time to start discovering new places to create new experiences in this new world we are living in today.

What do you remember about that week in March of 2020?