Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Five Hundred Ninety

It is dark now when I rise in the morning. Still dark when I leave the house for my morning jog, though the light is stealing in, the shadows not as deep. By the time I return, half an hour later, dawn has come, that hazy sort of light that feels like you are blinking back sleep when you awake in the morning. Next week will be November and the darkness will only encroach further and further into the morning and the evening. The long night is here.

There is snow in the forecast for today. The sky is an undifferentiated grey, no glimpse of blue anywhere. When I was out earlier it was spitting rain, foreshadowing what is to come. We could not have asked for a more beautiful autumn and, despite today’s snow, it is supposed to linger. Warmer days next week. I have a friend who says that if you could guarantee a pleasant fall until November and that spring would arrive in March without fail, the climate in these parts would be perfection. This year, at least, we have the first, and we will have to see what the winter brings.

I do not feel the same dread as I did last year at winter’s approach. Then I knew matters with the Grippe Reborn could only get worse and that it would be a lonely and dark time with many hardships. This year, though things have been as bad as they have ever been these last weeks, and are still bad even now with so many still in hospital suffering, I feel a hope I did not. The Dread Lord’s forces are in decline and our inoculation numbers are steadily rising. With the inoculation protocols in force we can safely go out and do all those things we would normally do to dispel the winter cold. Gather with friends. See a movie. Hang out in a coffee shop.

My love and I did that last weekend, sitting in a cafe, reading books and watching the world pass by. It is something I haven’t really done since the Dread Lord arrived on these shores and it felt luxurious to do so now. I hope it never feels ordinary again, though someday I’m sure it will. But not for a long while.