Going out on a second limb!

We made it through another weekend!

People are very proud of their haircuts and many folks ate dinner on some pretty nice patios. It is all very different but it sounds like a very good, temporary life to me.

It's still spring. No time for haircuts or restaurant's in this bubble, yet. I have been attacking weeds all weekend. I had an Italian grandmother and from May to October, tomatoes are my life. No complaints here either.

So, about bubbles. I have been thinking a lot about this. Expanding your social bubble to ten is difficult. It is a lot harder to get my head around than I expected. A good friend and I went for a long walk on Friday night. She has been isolating and distancing and so have I. We both agreed that bubble blending was still quite risky. We stayed 6 feet apart.

I think it has added to my isolation anxiety and no one needs more anxiety at this point. I have three adult children. They live separate lives with their own network of partners, their families and friends. Shouldn't my son's girlfriend and my daughter's boyfriend have the right to bubble with their families? But, if they do, they can't bubble with mine. I am not even thinking about friends who have their own families. I believe the expansion to ten is meant to allow isolated people who have been living alone, to get close to family members again. Beyond that, things get confusing and difficult to control. We are in the middle of a pandemic, not the end of it. This virus loves to get into your cells. It will spread rapidly once these 10 person bubbles start to inadvertently blend.

We can head back to our places of worship. That's great but stay six feet a part and wear a mask.

Some clarification about masks: This wee bit of conspiracy theory drives me batty. We believe it was started and spread by a discredited scientist. A cloth mask does not cause you to be exposed to high levels at carbon monoxide (CO). We breath in oxygen. We breath out carbon dioxide. CO is not even part of the breathing equation. Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out.....period. Bacteria in your mouth cannot infect your cloth mask leaving you at risk for breathing it back and infecting you. Utter nonsense. In a healthy person, the bacteria in your mouth is not 'infecting' you at all. These bacteria are part of your normal bacterial flora. They are in perfect balance with you and very necessary for your health. I could go into more scientific detail but we are confused enough by all the detailed guidelines that were just introduced. Let's make things less confusing, not more confusing.

Once a mask is cleaned appropriately, clean masks can be used by anyone in the family.

You do not need to wear a mask in your car but if you are taking it off before you get home, take it off in your car by carefully using your pinky fingers to grab the loops behind your ears. Drop the mask on the seat beside you. Put it back on if you need to by touching only the loops, not the mask.

If you are physically distancing, you do not need to wear a mask while exercising ( biking, walking or cycling).

A cloth mask does not need to be multilayered. Double layered, heavy cotton is all you need; no special filters or plastic required.

To summarize: Wear a clothe mask when out in public spaces. If expanding your social bubble to ten is confusing to you and you are not confident that you can keep 10 people isolated from everyone outside the bubble, don't expand it. Yes. That's me on a limb again.

I love the fact that we can now gather in groups of 10 with people outside our social bubble. It is safer to do this outside, stay six feet apart and wear a mask.

There is more great news which will not continue if we do not remain vigilant. We have done brilliantly so far. Keep it simple, use common sense and follow the basic rules.

The province reported 197 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday morning.

This is the seventh straight day in which the province has recorded fewer than 300 new cases . Sunday's report also marks the second day this week where fewer than 200 new cases were reported.

There have been no deaths recorded in people 19 years of age or younger, in the country!

We tested 23,278 people in the province in the last 24 ours. Aaaah. Our awesome efforts continue!

We are a team. Teams need to work together to win. We are winning but the game is definitely not over. Keep your positions and have faith that WE WILL WIN.

Anne-Marie

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