The COVID-19 pandemic continues, and since I last checked in, I travelled back to British Columbia twice, once in late October to say goodbye to my dying mother, and another for the Christmas holidays. The first trip was a no-brainer, as she only had days to live, and after her passing I spent some time in Vancouver seeing people I didn't think I'd ever see again.

VIEWS pic.twitter.com/17d12DRASv

— Richard Brynj ó l f s s o n (@sillygwailo) November 6, 2021

I returned to Toronto, and attended 3 performances by Caribou, a concert sponsored by the Icelandic tourism industry before hunkering down again. (I would later learn that I'm related to one of the participants of the junket that travelled to promote the Land of Fire and Ice.)

The Christmas holidays trip felt a lot more optional. The Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 was starting to assert itself, and the holidays were very much centered around Mom. The family kept some traditions alive (like Pizza Hut on Christmas Eve) and retired others (like the gift exchange). I saw family friends, stomped in the snow from the rare snowstorms B.C. experienced in the lead-up to my arrival, and otherwise relaxed at the family home for a week and a half.

Toronto, as of early January, is currently in a state of lockdown where indoor dining is not permitted and many venues on their own have decided to cancel events. It still doesn't feel as bad as the early days of the pandemic, but the city is noticeably quieter than the days in November and December 2021. January has been a month of more or less sheltering in place, in part because the outside temperatures are minus something Celsius, but also because there's nothing to do again. We just got word that that may be the case until the end of the month.