Hey Friends!
Well that summer flew by! It feels like we were just smuggling ourselves across the Canadian border in a limo, and here we are back in Cayman after 3 months away!
My summer in Candle Lake was great. I was feeling quite unsettled during my surgery recovery - more so mentally than physically. My surgeon basically advised me to carry on, expecting that things may decline, given the degenerative nature of my disease and the continued deterioration that he is seeing. The cartilage biopsy was taken, so a decision to undergo another cartilage transplant is available at any time when I feel that I've reached my threshold. But what's my threshold? Who has time for a 6-8 month recovery? I don't have time for that! My mind was swirling with fears, questions, and scenarios. I was laying awake at 3am creating "worst case scenarios," which is an effective method of preventing sleep. But once I arrived at our house in Candle Lake, I felt these worries slip away. I immersed myself in my family and friends. I embraced late morning sleep-ins, late night camp fires, and a few crazy boat parties. When people asked about my knees, instead of delivering the complicated response, I simply said "ya, they're ok," shrugged my shoulders and carried on. I rode my bike, worked out with light weights, did a little surfing, and although I had some pain, I just did as the surgeon suggested, and "carried on." It was like a 2-month legit break from my knee worries. I took a much needed vacation from Osteochondritis Dissecans, which was exactly what I needed.
Reuniting with family and friends felt so good. So so good. I suspected that our future ability to travel would be impacted by covid, yet again (foreshadowing), and I'm so glad that I was able to soak everyone up like a sponge while I had the opportunity.
I really enjoyed hanging out with my Mom and Dad. Your relationship with your parents naturally changes as you age, but I think the one thing I've realized, especially since we've moved to Cayman, is that I just want my parents to be happy. Although I don't see my dad completely retiring anytime soon, I can see that he is making choices to reduce his responsibilities at the farm, which is definitely resulting in less stress and a happier dad. I've never seen my dad smile as much as I did this summer, and we really had fun together, attending boat concerts and singing "Gloria." My mom has always been quite content, but she and Lenny made the decision to move last year, and I can see that they've acquired a new group of friends, and are enjoying splitting their time between the city and the lake. It's nice to see my mom live a full and joyful life. We had some wonderful afternoons of trash reality TV and lovely boat floats on the lake with our 80's tunes blaring.
Seeing my sister and my friends everyday was incredible. After two years apart, we all fell right back into our regular routine, jokingly making fun of each other, engaging in late night boat dance parties (Ev stood on my foot so I couldn't move my knees), and sipping cocktails while floating around on water mats. I also reunited with one of my besties from University, Michelle, this summer. She was a bridesmaid at my wedding, but we had been out of touch for 13 years or so. I wasn't exactly sure how the reunion would go, given that fact that a LOT has changed in 13 years, but Janna, Michelle, and I had an awesome day together, it made me feel like I was 22 again, and it just made me so fricken happy. My friends are so witty, fun, caring, and I just tried to relish every minute of life with with them this summer, especially not knowing when we will see each other again (foreshadowing).
The trip home, however, was definitely one for the books. Firstly, getting a flight to Cayman is a "Hunger Games" type challenge at this moment in time. Because the island is still technically closed, you must apply to return back on a repatriation flight, and there are only 2 of those flights per week departing from Miami. As soon as these flights opened up in June, I had a travel agent jump on it and requested any flight available in the month of August. The only seats open were on August 18. Unfortunately, we found out a few days later that Biloxi, the most interesting cat in the world, would not be given a cabin spot for that flight, and would be placed under the plane in cargo. After consulting our vet, I realized that this was not at all ideal for a 19 year old cat. After all these years and trips together, I couldn't imagine that Biloxi's demise would be that last flight from Miami! I desperately needed to be on the flight in order to get to work on time, but I was able to get Evan and Biloxi on a privately arranged charter from Toronto a week after my flight.
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| Despite all my rage I am still just a cat in a cage |
Now in order to enter both the US and Cayman, you are required to show a negative PCR (covid test) within 72 hours of travel. That was not an easy feat in Saskatchewan, and I ended up driving to Saskatoon 24 hours before my flight and paying $300 in order to meet the 72 hour requirement, while having results in time for my first flight. As I was packing the rest of my belongings, I was receiving notices on my phone that Tropical Storm Grace was heading to Cayman, with an estimated arrival approximately 3 hours prior to my flight arrival. AGGGGGGGGHHHHHH. I mean...I had some time to come to terms with the fact that this trip was unlikely to be a smooth one (foreshadowing).
It was not smooth. Due to weather in Dallas, I sat on the tarmac in Calgary for 3 hours, missed my connection in Dallas, and spent about 3 hours in a very angry line attempting to rebook my flight to Miami.
Aside: Do you really think screaming at the one American Airlines representative working at 1am is helpful?
I slept awkwardly in airport chairs, tried to catch some zzz's with my head bobbling in the middle seat on flights, and finally arrived in Miami a day late. Luckily (unluckily?) my flight to Cayman was cancelled as Tropical Storm Grace was pummelling into Grand Cayman. Yes, "Grace" was my "saving grace" (you know I wasn't going to miss that one!)
The next day I obediently arrived at the Cayman Airways terminal in Miami 3 hours prior to my flight, only to find out that our flight had been cancelled again. Although they claimed that it would depart the next day, at this point I had zero faith and pondered looking for jobs in Miami.
I decided to try not to stress, and went for a nice little lunch in a area called Brickell, and immediately ordered an EXTRA LARGE glass of wine when I received an email from Cayman Airways stating that my flight had been cancelled yet again.
In the end, it took me 4 days to get home, and I was kinda a stress mess/basket case from lack of sleep and anxiety about being stuck in Miami forever. I arrived with a face full of zits, a gastritis flare up, and a displaced rib. Ironically, Ev's easy breezy charter landed 3 days after my flight, and in the end I would have missed 1 extra day of work if I had just travelled with my little family! (Not to mention saved about 1500CI!)
Vaccinated travellers are required to quarantine for 5 days (as opposed to 15 for unvaccinated), so because our quarantine times would overlap, I rented a 1 bedroom condo for my quarantine, while Ev and Biloxi stayed at our condo. It wasn't ideal, but it was fine.
Note: I'm ok with being alone. For like 3 days. Anything greater than 3 days is bad for my mental health and I began recalling all the shitty things I've done in my life like steal booze from my parents and take my dad's car on a joyride in grade 6. Sorry guys!
I was scheduled to get out of quarantine on a Thursday, about 3 hours before Tropical Storm Ida was forecasted to hit us, so I anxiously waited to be released, and managed to manifest at least 4 new zits while I waited. I made it out by 7pm that night and was able to stay with my buddy for a few days prior to Ev's release from his quarantine. In the end, Ida was nothing more than a few breezes of wind (someone posted, "I've had farts stronger than Ida!"), so all was well.
The whole thing was not easy...but...I would do again in a heartbeat to relive the summer that I experienced!
Now that we're back into the swing of things, Cayman has been hit with some inevitable news...after 16 months with no community spread, we now have Covid in our community. The government had originally planned to open our borders up on October 14, so we all knew that spread was imminent, I just don't think people were expecting it prior to the opening of our borders. No one really knows how it entered our community with our strict quarantine measures...I would suspect we've had Covid here longer than we thought? We've now been told our reopening plan has been put on "pause," with no definitive timeline for reopening. I'm glad that I got off island when I did because I know that this news is a psychological blow to many who remained on island over the summer, with plans to travel for Christmas. It doesn't look too promising at this point...
The other issue is the fact that Covid is in our school system. They opted to close the entire school upon determining a case, and it's now known that 17 students have tested positive in that particular school. Anyone who attended that school, including specialists, volunteers, etc over the past few weeks has been placed in a 15 day isolation, regardless of a negative test. So...um...we're not taking chances here, but I have a feeling that we may all be in 15 day isolation in the near future if this is the immediate response to a positive case. Yikes!
So I'm trying to remain cool and calm and carry on, but to be honest, it's difficult when it feels like everyone around you is panicking. I think being protected from Covid for 16 months was incredible; however, I also think that living in a bubble for so long has resulted in paralyzing fear and inability to cope. We are going to have to learn to live with Covid, and unfortunately, many people's reactions this week has been to pull their kids out of school, buy all the toilet paper (not even joking), and tell everyone online to pray harder - that combo is not super effective.
Fortunately, this fear has spurred many to receive vaccines in the last week alone, so I believe our country is almost 77% vaccinated...our children under 12 are still not eligible, so that, of course, is an issue. I'm hoping that we can carry on with life, accept that there will be restrictions now (we haven't worn masks for 16 months!), and continue on with school, work, happy hours, etc. The thought of entering another lockdown gives me heart palpitations - remember...our "lockdown" was a legit can't leave your house on specific days, beaches closed, helicopters monitoring your neighbouring, cry all day long on your patio kinda lockdown. It was brutal.
So that's where we're at...our utopian bubble has inevitably burst, and Cayman is mentally struggling to cope with a few dozen cases, while the rest of the world breaks horrifying Covid records. What a world we live in - still dreaming of precedented times.
Stay safe guys!
