From the moment in March, 2020 when we heard the staggering news of COVID-19 our trajectory has been one of recalculation. The data was always changing. Indeed the outlook is no more unshaken. The perpetual fickleness – especially when added to the evaporation of every travel proposal ventilated along the way –  has naturally made us apprehensive and exhausted our enthusiasm. My instinct to “get up and go!” has instead become to “wait it out!” Patience was never my strong suit; but in this I feel the draw.

An example of the disturbing empirical data spiriting my resolution is this from the Radium Hot Springs in Banff, Alberta:

Expect lengthy outdoor waits. Dress appropriately for the weather. Pack a water bottle. There is limited access to shelter or shade while you wait.

They could have suggested to bring a chair!

The customary tourist approach whether taking the hot spring waters or ascending the Spanish Steps of Rome – including luxury river cruises and exotic globetrotting – normally entails a mobility for which youth are notable. Unless you count yourself among the hierarchy of Darwinian creatures who at an age approaching an octogenarian is yet capable of walking upright and unhindered, then it’s time to re-examine the agenda. I for one have reached that pinnacle of impending descent!

There is no value of Olympic travel of any degree! Instead my confessed Nirvana is now unperturbed indolent reality. Nor is this especially extravagant. For me it is a quiet barrier island beach on the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico, a bicycle, a pool and fresh food. To date that simple objective is unattainable if for no other reason than the Canada/USA border is closed to non-essential vehicular travel.  While that alone does not obstruct a Florida venture (we could fly and have the car shipped) it is dangerously close to the adage, “What was your first clue!” The image of an insect succumbed by fly paper is unappealing!

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis may yet have the last laugh. Reportedly a local Canadian physician has similarly commented that we just have to get accustomed to the pandemic because it isn’t going away. What stands against that gush of individual and constitutional freedom is the less than inspiring hospitalization statistics from pandemic infection. The global condition is struggling as well.

Florida’s 1st District Court on Friday reinstated a stay on mask mandates in schools, blocking local school requirements for now, court documents show.

Lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis filed the emergency appeal after a judge ruled on Wednesday that the state must stop its enforcement of a mask ban.

The latest court ruling comes amid a showdown between the state and some local school districts that have insisted on requiring students to wear masks as Covid-19 infections surge.

The civil rights enforcement arm of the US Department of Education added to the issue Friday, saying it is opening an investigation into whether the Florida education department “may be preventing school districts in the state from considering or meeting the needs of students with disabilities” with the mask mandate ban.

As a result of this conflicting tumult the erstwhile vagabond resolve has dissolved. It is time to stay at home, to rest, to digest, to contemplate and appreciate one’s current reality.