Two years of the Whitewater news.
July 1st is my benchmark for yearly volumes. I joined the paper in 2020, in the swing of the pandemic; I had been unemployed for years, and to work in the field that I had spent far too much money and time on was nigh on unthinkable for a guy who wrote about video games.
Still not sure how to work that one into the paper with my current demographic, but life’s hurdles are not to Olympic regulation.
We’re ‘out’ of the pandemic now, apparently. Well, we’re not wearing masks in public anymore, we’re not sanitizing as much, and we can go to public gatherings like restaurants and parades. COVID-19 has gone from nearly weekly RCDHU updates to all-too-frequent social media posts from sufferers. Nearly all of us have our shots now, and those that don’t aren’t nearly as relevant to us with their parroting of ‘untested gene therapy’ and other words that don’t mean what they think they mean.
Canada Day was hot. I drove out in the afternoon, never able to come the proverbial ‘morning person’ despite years of attempted conditioning from growing up on a farm. Mornings are always hotter, brighter, and more tiring than any other time of the day, and I feel it even after two years of paper events.
Well, not so many. There are quite a few more now – Decoration Day services, community dinners, and the annual Canada Day parade. People at the Cobden Legion seemed more relaxed, even with their masks, and while it was in a lull for the day, the organizers were in good spirits after the lunch rush.
As things pick up, I’m out and about more – this last year has been somewhat hard on me, personally. Even with the pandemic winding down and people’s summers winding up, I find myself lethargic and drained. Years of all-nighters and caffeine abuse likely catching up with my almost-40 body. I’d much rather sit on my balcony that come out and watch a concert, especially with the erratic weather we’re getting.
Optimism is rampant with the world going back to apparent normal, but the intense storms between blazing heat paint a different pictures. Farmers are going to start feeling effects of the climate emergency we were becoming more urgently aware of in 2019, not to mention the increasingly dire political situations around the world. With a new election for Council coming up and a slew of resignations from the CAO and the Parks and Recreation Manager, things aren’t going to be particularly stable.
I suppose that’s why we have community events like music in the park, graduation ceremonies for kids going to high school or university, and sports. Everyone needs a distraction, even if you’re active in calling out and trying to solve the world problems that all come to our corner of the woods eventually.
As I sat on that bench in Forester’s Falls, taking that picture awkwardly, I thought about the paper. I thought about what I want out of life, and what I feel about the two years I’ve had. Truthfully, I haven’t decided yet – I’m not sure I really fit with the Township sometimes, but it’s not for lack of trying, nor for the trying of the community itself. Most people are nice, and the community cares for itself and each other, even when others don’t seem to at all.
That’s what you have, sometimes.
