Holding Onto Soon – The Climb #718

Tuesday 9^th February 2021

We’re in the situation in the UK where we’re in lockdown. After Covid cases rocketing after Xmas, and new variants being discovered, we’ve effectively been told to stay home except for essentials.

In many ways, if we had to have a lockdown, now’s the best time. It’s the height of winter and it’s just too cold to go out.

Yet, as we approach nearly a year of the pandemic, there’s something a little wearing. I had always expected this second wave. Heck, my family cancelled Christmas back in early summer because we figured there was a good chance Christmas would just not be safe.

And you’d think with vaccinations happening, things would somehow feel better.

I had my own wobble a few weeks ago where I went from being quite content with lockdown, to going a bit stir crazy. I’ve got plenty to keep myself busy but the combination of short days and length of the pandemic wore down just about everyone I knew. We were all having a tough time.

My focus has been on March. With it comes better weather and hopefully the reduction in restrictions. It won’t be long until we can go out again and whilst we’ll still need to be careful and take precautions, at least I’ll be able to leave the house and go for a pleasant walk without freezing parts of my anatomy off.

Yet in recent days, there’s a creeping realisation that this is going to drag on even longer than even I had thought. I want to go Storm Chasing again but due to the seasonal nature of it, I’d need to go in May. I’d already told myself that might be too soon to start travelling and have delayed the plan to 2022.

And we’re being told that perhaps planning summer holidays this year might be premature. My original plan was for things to get back to normal in September. I’d pretty much planned to be holed up until then. But now it’s looking like it might go beyond that, which will then probably lead into another winter uptick, which means that my September 2021 plans now look like April 2022.

And that’s a little wearing to be honest.

Look, there’s plenty to be positive about. Those close to me are all well. My parents have had their first jab. And I’m sure how quickly those vaccines were developed is a human achievement that we don’t really appreciate.

It’s just that it’s been a long old road. There are good days and there are bad, but it wears you down even if you try and busy yourself with home projects. The days bleed into one another. There’s little to look forward to.

And so professional news, in two completely different fields, was welcome today, however small. It sometimes feels you are going to be stuck in this lockdown status quo forever, that the future is on hold. Any little move towards a new future is welcome right now. It’s hard to feel the pleasure of optimism when you can’t even make future plans.

So you take it where you can get it. It feels a lot like Groundhog day at the moment, the same day repeated over and over again. But there are cracks appearing. Soon the weather will get warmer, soon restrictions will be lifted, soon there will be changes.

Soon.