Year in Review: 2021

Posted on January 03, 2023
Categories: Year in Review — Tags: none

2021 was also a thing that happened, eh?

Previously:

NOTE: I started writing this back in February, 2022. This post isn’t incredibly late, nosirreebob!

Personal Deets

The pandemic continues.

I spent last year¹ mostly hunkered down. The winter was a particularly low point: the damp cold, the lack of daylight, and the slow dispersal of vaccines all took a toll. I spent my birthday alone again. Then …

I expanded my bubble. I visited some good friends. It felt strange interacting in person again, but good.

Vaccines started going out, faster and faster. My parents got their first shot. I got mine. I went to a birthday party², and spent the entire time thinking, “Is this really happening?” I went to the Island. I got my second shot.

No-one knows what’s going to happen, but I thought there would be two main possibilities for the fall:

Vaccinations take off. COVID-19 cases plummet. Hallowe’en 2021 is a bacchanal.
The pandemic will continue indefinitely.

And lo, the delta variant came. Case numbers started going up. I hunkered back down.

Travel

Victoria
I took the seaplane to Victoria and spent a day wandering around. It was great.

Comox (twice)
Then I joined my family and went up to Comox. I came back for a visit in November, before cases started to rise again.

Mission
My COVID bubble and I drove out to Heritage Park for a visit. I got to drive back to town. Vroom vroom!

Langley
Christmas party! I saw people again! Huzzah!

Events

Celticfest Online
I won so much whiskey!

The heat dome
It can’t be overstated how abnormal it was. It wasn’t cooling off at night. Our lows were higher than our standard heat waves.

I’m a weirdo who likes heat, and even I found it a bit much. I was covered in sweat the entire time.

Atmospheric rivers
On the opposite end of things, our normal fall weather — unceasing rain — took out every transportation link between Vancouver and the rest of the country in early November. It took over a month to reopen the Coquihalla to commercial traffic, and repair work is still underway as of early 2023.

The barge
On the plus side, a windstorm blew an empty container ship ashore. I can’t really explain it, but after the atmospheric rivers, it was hilarious. I love you, barge!

Christmas (white)
I rocked it solo-style this year. I ordered a delicious meal from the Irish Heather, got myself a slice of cake from True Confections, and took a bunch of pictures of Vancouver in the snow.

East Van Panto: Alice in Wonderland
This was the second time I watched the panto on stream. Uh, I’m fuzzy on the details. I think this was more of a normal show, except you could watch via stream. I can’t remember if there was a live audience.

Visited the office
… This doesn’t sound momentous, but it was. After more than a year and a half of working from home, I returned to the office to pick up a new laptop and the few things I’d left behind.

Finished off Pirates
I already posted about this..

The Critical Hit Show on Twitch
They got pretty good at doing improv comedy online, despite the vagaries of Zoom and not being able to see nor hear the audience.

Zoom hangouts
They continue!

Media

New Girl
I binged the series before it left Netflix. It’s good!

Summation

It was better than 2020. That said, the climate hiccoughs have me shook … and this was before the drought of 2022.

Pictures

Vancouver in the spring.

Renée’s probably better off.

The ocean at sunset. I like it!

I like this one, too.

A cooling station during the heat dome. Stuff like this is why I love the West End.

In 2021 Indigenous groups started confirming unmarked graves at residential schools around Canada, starting with some 200 in Kamloops in May. This Every Child Matters protest at the BC Legislature building sprung up immediately.