*PICK A CARD-ANY CARD*

Back more years than I want to admit, we had a goofy kid in our neighborhood named Phillip whose goal in life was to become a performing magician.

He was constantly running around with a worn out deck of Bicycle playing cards that he took delight in thrusting into the face of anyone within reach saying “pick a card-any card”.

The goal I presume was to put the card back in the deck and after a quick shuffle, produce the selected card with an animated “Voila” to the amazement of all present.

Unfortunately Phillip wasn’t all that talented and it became a constant stream of “is it this card, what about this one, it must be this one then” until most of the deck of 52 was presented until the card either appeared or the crowd disappeared.

I never thought much about it over the years until someone casually mentioned the other day- “hey-did you know that goofy Phillip wound up as one of the committee members on a Covid rules and protocols task force?”

Which explains a lot.

We started out 22 months ago with the sneeze that changed the world.

Immediate lockdowns – well – that didn’t work.

Testing was implemented – while that tallied the numbers it didn’t stop the spread.

Vaccines were on the horizon and were touted as the answer.

Smart phone sales increased as the masses now had to produce QR codes to visit grandma.

Booster shots were added

Let’s keep our distance even when masked outdoors.

Stringent regulations were set in place to curb travel.

Pick a path – any path.

And yet here we are fully vaccinated, boostered, masked, distanced and on the verge of bankruptcy and that long awaited (and paid for) trip to Mexico has been hit again by another “let’s try this” measure by our illustrious leaders.

Effective Nov.30th,2021 anyone entering Canada is required to undergo a PCR test on arrival and then self isolate for up to 2 days until the results come back negative.

This is in addition to:

Having to be fully vaccinated in order to board the aircraft in the 1st place

Having to produce a negative PCR test result prior to departing Canada for your destination ( depending on the destination)

Having to undergo a PCR test and produce a negative result 72 hours prior to returning home from your vacation

What’s truly asinine is that in Canada’s 2 largest provinces, if you are a hospital or health care worker you can opt out of the vaccines and still continue at your job provided you undergo rapid Antigen testing every 3 days.

So let me see if I’ve got this right: An Antigen test in lieu of the vaccine is acceptable when your job requires that you attend to the immune compromised while replacing body parts into the patient’s open cavities but if you are a double/triple poked individual who’s been tested with the costly PCR format more times in 72 hours than the infamous Boeing Max aircraft – you’re considered as one of the great unwashed and still need to go hide in a corner for 2 days after the final test?

Navigating what used to be a simple vacation has now become a game of chess where the rules of the game change after every move.

And even after you’ve captured the king – there’s no way of ascertaining whether in fact you’ve won the game.

It depends on whether the judge feels a win is warranted.

We discovered early on that Phillip’s problem with the card trick was that the deck had more jokers mixed into it that actual numeric or face cards.

And I can’t help but wonder if that same old deck overloaded with jokers isn’t what’s guiding the current approach when it comes to protocols needed to get our lives back on track.

Adios until next time

Dave