We've had no reason to try to see our family doctor since the turn of the year, and perhaps it's just as well on many levels. Access of course being one. The other perhaps more critical, is that the state of our health hasn't dictated a doctor's appointment. Immediately the lockdown in Canada commenced we had received an email from the family health clinic our family physician practises out of that it too was going into lockdown. Appointments by telephone only. Emergency? Hospital.

Since then, one would imagine, things have relaxed somewhat. Appointments, if required, can be arranged for physical examinations. Mask wearing is mandatory, needless to say. And only one individual may be given admission to the waiting room at a time. Escorted in and out. We're kept updated with regularly spaced email notices. Seeing a doctor is like pulling teeth. Glad not to have to.

But speaking of pulling teeth. I lost a filling several weeks ago on the inner portion of a top front tooth. Inconvenient and irritating. The tooth felt as though it had developed a huge cavern. I was meticulous about keeping it free of food. And made an appointment with our dentist. At the conclusion of the telephone conversation when I secured a date two weeks hence, I was asked a series of questions.

Did I have any symptoms of COVID? Had I travelled out of the province? Out of the country? Was I related to anyone who had COVID? Had I visited with them? Did I have a fever? That done, I was instructed to arrive five minutes early for the appointment. I would receive a telephone call inviting me to enter the premises when the dentist was ready to see me. That changed, however, when we arrived five minutes early this afternoon, and an attendant, noting our vehicle entering the parking lot came out directly to escort me into the building.

Mask on. Asked to use the disinfectant on hands on entering. Checked forehead with an electronic device for fever. Responded once again to the same series of questions, ticked off on a sheet. Asked to remain seated in the waiting room where another person was waiting for his appointment to commence. Waited five minutes, was escorted into one of the pods completely enclosed with heavy plastic draperies.

Mask off, protective glasses on. Our friendly dentist proceeded with the work at hand, which took less than fifteen minutes, restoring a filling to the tooth. She wore a mask, rubber gloves, and a clear plastic face covering; her voice came through muffled but as cheerful as usual. No cash exchanges hands any longer, it's all credit or debit cards to pay the portion of the fee that insurance doesn't cover.

It helps that everyone there is so personable. And out I went, escorted back to the parking lot.

Glad that's over. What a nuisance. What a sea change in the casual manner in which all these things were conducted in the past. Sobering, and still difficult to believe. This has turned out to be the hottest day yet in a series of over-heated, high-humidity days. By noon it was already 34C, but a nice little breeze helped tolerate the searing heat.

Earlier in the day we'd had a pre-breakfast trundle through the ravine's forest trails with Jackie and Jillie. The forest interior always looks dark as one enters, but darker than usual when the surrounding air resembles a blast furnace, with the humidity along with that infernal heat creating a barely visible light haze. Wide rays of sunlight spark through the forest canopy and we take care not to stop directly in the sun after gaining a hilltop, moving automatically over to the shade. Even Jackie and Jillie try to avoid standing directly in the sun.

Just as wel, it isn't difficult to avoid sun patches since for the most part the trails are well shaded, given the close-packed nature of trees in a mature forest. Mature, but not virgin. In all likelihood over the past hundred, hundred-and-fifty years, the forest has been logged out numerous times. There are still huge old pines; probably puny striplings the last time the forest was logged out, and left to grow. Among the firs and the spruces, yews and cedars, oaks and maples, poplars and birches, beeches and hawthorns, hackberry and ash, and many more.