Next door neighbours are gone and the fire restrictions have been relaxed. Sounded like a good day to light some stuff on fire. I love burn piles and we had a ton of garbage accumulated over the summer months to get rid of. I was up at the fire pit lighting the match before 8 am.

If the full timers on the island are going to survive the winter we are going to have to find a way to socialize. For E and I the bubble needs to be very secure or we are just not comfortable. We are trying to examine how we can socialize while remaining safe and unstressed.

The problem with having a bubble of six or eight members is that E and I aren’t comfortable if members of the bubble are also socializing with others in other bubbles or eating in restaurants. I guess if they do then we would just wait a couple of weeks before we see them.

At this point the only time we have had anyone in our house was to watch a Canucks game and all the windows and doors were open. It worked well. Maybe it is an option when the rains come.

Normally most of us would have family or friends visiting for Thanksgiving and Christmas. With Covid, things are different than they used to be and we full timers need to figure out a way for us to stay sane over the winter without our family.

I can see lots of winter campfires. We have friends who asked us for drinks this week with the caveat that covid social distancing would be respected. We stayed on their deck, brought our own drinks and were offered individual appies. It was a lovely visit. Very nice to step outside our haven and their consideration was much appreciated.

Feeling brave I then asked our bridge partners over this afternoon for a daytime game. Lots of fresh air, a bigger table than normal, individual snack bowls and white wine. It was great fun and yes I said

there was wine