News of the new COVID strain is smothering all other news items at the present time. The preeminent concern with the wide spread globally in alarmingly quick order. Much faster than the original Wuhan strain, and it in its first go-round was unbelievably swift in infecting the world population. Omicron is that much more impressively invasive and infectious. 

The Province of Ontario is urgently trying to convince its residents to waste no time in booking a third, 'booster' shot in self-defence against the virus. Two weeks ago when it was first announced that those over 70 years of age in the province were eligible to make appointments through the provincial booking agency, we did just that. The best they could offer us was an appointment on December 31. We read soon afterward that there were so many attempts at booking the system went down, leaving people flummoxed.

You do a mental shrug, well, it's something' we did after all get an appointment. The booking agent knew our history of course, it's all available online; 85 years of age, and from the time of our second dose almost six months had elapsed one of the conditions to be met by anyone wanted a third dose. Famously/infamously, it is generally known that by six months following the second dose of vaccine, antibodies have waned considerably; so from at least an 80% protection rate, it has plummeted to below30%. 

Today, emergency news blared the absolute, utter requirement that all vulnerable people, indeed everyone from childhood up, must be vaccinated with the booster shot. Urging people to right away, instantly make their appointments so that as many people as possible can be vaccinated by year's end. So much for efficiency and bureaucratic malaise. We're headed directly into a storm of frightful proportions and everything we heard on the CBC's emergency updates sounds more like political electioneering poses than sound medical advice with sonorous voices of 'authority' intoning how we're all in this together and Ontario has done a magnificent job of protecting its population.

Today a different, more expected and natural storm developed, and we found ourselves in a snow blizzard. Blowing wind and heavy snow created near a white-out landscape. And we know from long experience that new snow over existing ice creates really hazardous conditions. What was merely difficult yesterday would today be downright dangerous. Not only does new snow on ice make for extremely slippery conditions, newfallen snow hides from view what lies under it, ensuring that searching out safe places to tread in avoiding the ice would no longer be possible.

 

The alternative was something we usually avoid if at all possible, and today it was not: a walk with Jackie and Jillie well leashed, on nearby streets. Even that turned out to be difficult as we watched a teen slithering on icy portions of the road with his year-old bulldog who wanted to play with Jackie and Jillie hauling him along.

Cold enough at -3 for Jackie and Jillie to need their boots on the falling snow. Jackie was beside himself with happiness, wandering everywhere back and forth, under and over and across Jillie's leash, prancing about on the snow, fully exhilarated by its presence. They were both slipping on thin layers of ice under the snow, but it makes all the difference being on level ground, to enable one to maintain balance. 

The wind whipped the snow into our faces as we walked along the sidewalk next to a heavily-trafficked main road until we made our way once again back onto a street that is more like a looping court with a little playground that was quite abandoned of the presence of children anywhere. Irving and I are anything but fond about walking on urban streets, but Jackie and Jillie didn't seem to mind today, and getting them out for a bit of a stretch and fresh air was the important thing.

Before reaching home we passed the ravine entrance and decided to drop the bag of stools we had accumulated from J&J on the way, in the receptacle for ordure at the entrance to the forest. Leaving the road and stepping onto the trail, our boots were soon slipping everywhere as we negotiated the newfallen snow, revealing the ice underfoot. Conditions so dangerous it would have been well nigh impossible to descend the first long hill into the ravine, as usual without risking life and limb.