Galwegians January 2022

As the Galway Hall prepared to close out its 2021COVID-19 dominated year at its AGM at the end of November, there was some positive thinking regarding 2022. Board members were urged to come to the Board meeting in January with some fresh ideas and some fresh approaches towards events and fundraisers during 2022. The general consensus from this AGM was one of guarded optimism for the upcoming year.

Now, fast forward into mid-December 2021 and COVID-19 and its new variant, Omicron, where chaos is surfacing into almost everything once again. To make matters worse, this heightening confusion is just in time for the holidays. Yikes! Restrictions, gathering limits, safety protocols, health unit directives, government regulations and government modeling are forefront in our lives again (at this deadline date). The fluidity of this new variant is incredible! All levels of government will be continuing to scramble to keep ahead of this new threat. At this moment, the first couple of weeks of 2022 do not look promising. Down the road, potential local events may be put into question as well if solutions are not found quickly..

Winter officially arrived on Tuesday, December 21^st. We have enjoyed what may be considered an ‘open’ fall with above average temperatures and limited snowfalls. Our area experienced big winds that created wide-spread power outages for about 24 hours or so. This event happened on December 11^th and 12^th. This storm freed up many of the area bays and lakes from the newly formed ice. With the open water, about 12 hooded mergansers were spotted on Clear Bay. Both bald eagles have also been seen periodically around Clear Bay. During one of the latest windy days, an ’inconvenience of ravens’ was spotted. There was between 14 and 20 ravens tumbling and flying over the treetops bounced by the turbulence.

In the myriad of cookbooks that are found in our residence, I came across an 80 page book that would have originally come from my Grandma White. It is called “The Best in the Cupboard” from Canada Packers. Although there is no date in this book, I am guessing that it was from the late fifties. The book was based on a collection of letters that were received during more than a year of radio broadcasting. This radio program started in 1954. This broadcast was called “Man around the House”. It collected helpful hints, news, poems, stories and favourite music from across Canada. Since this program began in the Prairies, a large proportion of the mail was from the Prairies. Throughout 2022, the Galwegians will highlight some of these suggestions from the past.

Here are a couple of tidbits of advice from this collection listed from the “Children” section of the book’s index:

1. To get rid of chewing gum, even from the hair, put the white of an egg on it and leave it for a few minutes.
2. When knitting sweaters for children, start the sleeves at the armhole, and work them down to the cuff. When the child grows it is easier to knit a piece to the end of the cuff.
3. If you do not have an electric floor polisher, equip your children with an old pair of socks and let them polish the floor by skating on it.
4. Rub cold cream over the eyelids and around the eyes of children before shampooing their hair to keep the soap out.
5. Small children have less trouble holding onto the strings of pull toys if you hang a big button on them.

January’s winter sky has the following events, depending on the atmospheric conditions. On January 3rd, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury & the Moon appear in the southwest sky just after sunset. The best winter meteor shower of 2022 peaks on January 3^rd and 4^th. This is called the Quandrantids. The Full Wolf Moon occurs on January 17^th.

“Pocket” is an app and web service that makes it possible to save, manage, and read articles you’ve found on the internet later. It’s also referred to as a social bookmarking service. According to Pocket, “What we save to it can be a fascinating window into what’s occupying our collective attention. And in 2021, the most-saved article on Pocket gave a name to the mood that many of us were feeling but couldn’t quite identify: languishing, a pervasive ‘meh’ feeling that dulls our motivation, focus, and joy. If 2020 was a rollercoaster of intense anxiety and grief, 2021 had many of us struggling to cope with the long-haul stress and ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic. The result was a mass sensation of stagnation and emptiness.”

Curiously, “meh” is regarded as a verbal equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders. It is an expression of indifference, boredom, apathy, disinterest, and indifference. “May our sails be filled with hope and courage” as we leave the “meh” of 2021and chart a course to navigate the uncertain waters at the start of 2022.