There are a few (very few!) medical exemptions I can understand for not getting the vaccine – if you are allergic to something in the vaccine, if you had a serious reaction/event after your first shot and, uhm, not much else?
But I’ve never understood being exempted on religious grounds.
Even if you believe in God/Allah/Santa/etc., what possible rationale would lead you to think that something in religion means you can’t take a lifesaving vaccine that protects you and others?
It’s also sad but not surprising to scroll through r/HermanCainAward (which is a sub-Reddit that collects stories of anti-vaxxers who end up getting Covid and dying) and seeing how many people didn’t believe in Covid *until* it got them who also happen to be people of faith and are suddenly begging for prayers and for god to save them – which, spoiler alert, never happens – at least in this sub-reddit.)
I was going to post a bunch of pics from our charter flight yesterday but to get my money’s worth, I feel like I should parcel them out one or two per day for awhile! 😉
I alluded to this in Thursday’s post when I wrote “the years have flown by” about my mom and dad’s 50th Anniversary. But I didn’t want to give away the big surprise I had planned for their anniversary gift knowing they read my blog.
Honestly, it was a bit tough trying to come up with an idea for a 50th wedding anniversary gift for a few reasons:
* Covid being out of control in Saskatchewan made any large-scale anniversary tea/gathering too risky. Same with some splashy expensive all expenses paid trip to Hawaii or Mexico (plus I love my parents but that’s stretching my budget quite a bit too!) 😉
* Mom and dad probably don’t need any more “stuff” at this point in their lives so that rules out golden dishes, golden chalices, golden anything really!
So what else can you do that’s unique and memorable and symbolic?
I had tossed around a few ideas but then it hit me – in separate trips to Hawaii, we did both a submarine and a helicopter excursion with M&D. But, as far as I knew, they’d never been up on a small plane.
I also saw on Facebook recently that someone I knew from the Sask Book Awards board of directors had done a trip in a small plane over the Qu’Appelle Valley. As well, I knew Shea’s parents had flown with a family friend over Weyburn so all that inspired me to do something similar with my parents.
Originally I booked the charter for Saturday October 23 which is their actual anniversary date but the plane we were recommended to use was for sale and the Regina Flying Club couldn’t guarantee it would be available later this month. As well, in Saskatchewan, no guarantees the weather will hold either and though they could go up if it was cold and snowy, that didn’t seem as enjoyable as a nice fall day.
So I moved the date up by a couple weeks and, other than a bit of a forest fire smoke reducing our long distance visibility somewhat (but not nearly as bad as it could’ve been), we had an amazing flight to various spots that have a lot of meaning to mom and dad – the Qu’Appelle Valley, Katepwa Beach where all of us have spent so much time in our lives, over our family cottage, a few times circling our family farm, into town over the farms of numerous family friends and past the historic Bell Barn then a few circles over the town of Indian Head spotting so many spots that have deep meaning – our house, the high school I attended, the hospital where mom worked as a nurse for 30+ years, the elevators where dad hauled so much grain over the years.
After that, we followed the #1 highway back into Regina and our pilot treated us to a couple extra circles over the city skyline and Mosaic Stadium (I think maybe we were waiting for permission to land?) then finally, touch down and we were back on solid ground. (And a chuckle at the fire trucks by the Regina Flying Club – “are those for us?”)
It was better than I could’ve ever imagined and if you’re reading this and looking for a unique outing/experience/gift for yourself or someone you know, I highly recommend the Regina Flying Club.
Here’s a video I took of our takeoff – sorry my pan of the cockpit is so poor – it was a pretty cramped space!
This is a picture of my parents at my cousin’s wedding dance in Calgary in 2003. (His marriage lasted about three years while mom and dad will be celebrating 50 years of marriage later this month! But to be fair, my cousin had better luck the second time around – and has been married to his second wife for probably 15 years?)
Anyhow, the years have really flown by…and more to come on that note! 🙂
I want ZERO Saskatchewan residents to die from covid. Pro-vax, anti-vax, young or old. Perfect health or numerous comorbidities, it's a gruesome way to suffer and die. My condolences to @MarkFriesen08 as I've verified someone with his name is at RUH.
Sort of deviously brilliant how Dr. Kyle found out – he just called the hospital and asked!
But it definitely feels like a throwback to a kinder/gentler pre-Internet, pre-social media time when you can just call up a hospital to inquire about whether someone is present or not and…they tell you! Plus, if they say where they are, that might reveal what their reason for hospitalization is (“Mr. Smith is on 3F” <checks> – oh, the cardiac ward.).
Because people have asked: When your friend goes offline unexpectedly and you hear they are in the hospital you can call the hospital up to ask where to send a gift basket. Unfortunately, they said I couldn't because it's a covid ward. No insider knowledge, no HIPA violation.
