The Online Season

Because of a very commonly known reason the last spring has been somewhat special. What comes to my life it has been an online season.

The activities not allowed have been:

Work:

Online lessons, online exams, online meetings, online tutoring.  As a benefit there were no super early waking ups and skipping the extra 2 hours for travelling made the days not so heavy.

Online lecturing - nothing new in it

Online exam monitoring - feeling like the Big Brother of Orwell

Oriental dance: Online training

Gym: Only home training allowed

Shopping: Reduced to minimum, more food in fewer trips bought. At first folks would hoard stuff, surprisingly especially toilet paper. 

No toilet paper today!

I also made some food storage for a possible quarantine situation. Today there is still something left but most of them are already eaten.

Dreamwear Club meetings: Peer meetings online, spring meeting cancelled

The Dreamwear Club online chat

Relatives: Phone and online meetings allowed

Online meeting with grandkids

To open the window to the surrounding world I biked quite a lot, did some walks in the nature.

The actual quarantine determined by the Finnish Government lasted till June but I’m still in the mode of reduced contacts to other people and try to keep distance for avoiding virus contamination. The usage of masks has been decreased and it has not been total during the entire pandemic, due to somewhat contradictory instructions of Finnish authorities. Otherwise Finland has been one of the most successful countries in controlling covid-19 epidemic – in spite of major mistakes in some details in carrying out the situation.  

My mind adapted to the situation: Mostly I didn't have thoughts like "Oh, I'd like to go to gym... but OMG, I can't do it!". In some glimpses of the moment I had throwbacks of the wonderful places we have visited or moments we have experienced. And then it felt like they belonged to another world. After the experience I might better understand the people with depression or total shortage of money.

There were one thing that didn't stop in my activities. I was more active in social media than before the pandemic - maybe even too active. The issues were mostly about trans, anti populism and human rights.  

June was mostly warm and sunny and gave some release for pandemic angst. My “big project was the updating the terrace of larch. The old one lasted 15 years but it was in its final state. This kind of goings was quite relaxing after somewhat hard spring.

In the Midsummer time we also dared to go to Ruissalo Spa in Turku for two days. There we naturally had to meet quite a lot of people and in some places the drunken visitors were not capable to keep the needed distance. However after two weeks from the visit it seems we succeeded in avoiding the virus. We also had a plan to go to the beach but it was so full we swam in the spa pool and in the sea by the hotel.

In the the pea soup,... I mean the Baltic Sea

I preferred the pool this time

Ruissalo is very nice place. It is sort of a part of Estonia or southern Sweden with lots of Oaks and rich amount of various plants.

At the Ruissalo Natural Park

Sniffing platanthera bifolia (valkolehdokki) orchid in the Ruissalo Natural Park

My suitor in the botanical garden of Ruissalo...? 

In June I also met some my friends - finally. The reason was the demonstration against new trans care guidelines. Even though the government has stressed the better care for trans people the guidelines made by officials were not according to that policy. The guide lines propose the half year period when the doctors untrained to trans issues take care of the process. The guide lines also stress the psychological care as an alternative for a proper trans process and seems to neglect the needs of non binary people. Even now the untrained doctors tend to send the trans people to psychiatric clinics instead of  trans process and it is evident the new guidelines will increase this activity - even if it's against the current legislation! The guidelines seems to contain handprint of some fundamentalist doctors who have succeeded in infiltrating to leading position in trans process administration.

  

Now the world seems to be in very instable condition for it is so unsure what is going to happen during the next fall. Many things as the work and Dreamwear Club activities are planned to be carried out in real life but everything must have a plan B.

Just now it is time to just relax and not thinking too much about the future – for some weeks at least.