I got an email from a friend this weekend with what has become familiar news, but with a bit of a twist. the news is that this friend’s entire household has contracted Covid. “As far as we know, the cat hasn’t contracted the disease. She seems OK. Then, again, no one feels up to giving her a nose swab. Everyone else is more or less miserable.” Here is the twist. My friend also wrote, “It feels like color television when I was a kid. We are the last family on the block to get it.”

The not struck a chord with me, but not because of the reference to color television. When I was a kid, we were the last family on the block to get any kind of a television. I think that my parents finally succumbed and got a television because we kids were spending so much time at our friends’ houses watching their televisions. It probably isn’t true, but it seemed like we were the last family in town to get a television set. However, once we got a television, our father decided that he really liked it. He watched the news every evening if he got home in time. He watched Lawrence Welk. He watched television every chance he got, which wasn’t too much. When color television came out, I think we were the third family in town to get a color set. I know we were the first family on our block to have one.

But if you are wondering, so far our household has escaped Covid. Our son and his family, who live just a couple of miles away and with whom we spend a lot of time, all got sick when the virus came home from school to their house. It didn’t happen the first time. That time, only one child contracted the virus and they were able to keep him isolated while he recovered. The second time, however, the whole family, including the child who had already had Covid, got it. Both times we were saved by having gotten all of the vaccinations for which we are eligible, a bit of distance, the use of face masks, and mostly by luck. Our work has careful procedures, which has kept our church from becoming a site for spreading the illness. We generally wear masks when indoors, but not always. Mostly, I’m sure it is luck.

So far, I’ve been less lucky when it comes to seeing the northern lights. I expected that we would see them frequently now that we've moved up north, but it hasn’t been the case. Part of our problem is a bit of light pollution to our north. We’re just south of the city of Vancouver, BC. Part of it is elevation. We’re not up on top of a hill, which would give us a better view. When we look north from our home we mostly see the houses of our neighbors. Part of it is the location of the magnetic north pole. If you look at the charts for the distribution of the northern lights, it is actually more likely to see them in our old home in Rapid City than in our new home even though we are farther north.

I look out of the window every night, however. I read of others who live fairly close to us who have gotten a good view. I saw some lovely pictures of the lights taken just 20 miles from our place on a night when I made a special effort to see them by driving to a higher elevation. I thought I might see them last night. The forecast was for some views from our county and when I awoke in the wee hours the coyotes were singing. I don’t know if they were singing at the lights or at the moon, but you can see only half or a bit less of the moon right now. It isn’t as dramatic as when it is full.

I realized as I lay in bed listening to the coyotes that the window in our bedroom is on the other side of our bed. I sleep on the side away from the wall. That is a bit unusual for me because in the last four houses we’ve occupied there has been a window on my side of the bed. However, I’ve been sleeping on the same side of the bed since we married, which was over 49 years ago. I’m unlikely to switch sides of the bed. And I think it would be impractical with the configuration of our bedroom to turn the bed around. It must not be bothering me since it took me nearly a year of living in this house to notice that there is no window on my side of the bed.

I don’t hear the coyotes singing as often as I didn’t when we lived in South Dakota. I think part of it is that the country around here is a bit more flat. We don’t get the same kind of echoes. Part of it might be that our immediate neighborhood is quite a bit more dense. I don’t think the coyotes come into our subdivision much. Coyotes, however, are quite adept at adapting to urban environments. I’m sure they are around. I’ve seen one and our son sees them much more often in his commute.

The deer don’t come into our subdivision, which is a big change from our South Dakota home, where they came into our yard every day. I’ve seen a few that have been hit on the road to town, but not as many as we would see in our previous home. Actually, I think I see deer in the middle of the city of Bellingham more often than I see them out in the country.

I’ll keep scanning the skies for a glimpse of the northern lights. We’ll plan a trip north one of these days and camp in a place where we can get a good view. I’ll keep listening for coyote song in the night. And we’ll get vaccinated whenever it is recommended and hope that we remain lucky as the pandemic sweeps around the world.