Tuesday evening. Earlier today, I had a rare moment of genuine self-reflection. I own an elaborate book of cocktail recipes. It occurred to me that maybe, if I were to buy the ingredients for one particular type of cocktail, I could perfect it by the time I went grocery-shopping again in 10 days or so. The prospect of this new hobby was made ever more tantalizing by the fact that there are some shiny bartender kits on Amazon. (Shakers, jaggers, strainers, oh my!)

I came pretty close to buying one before it occurred to me that I have a) a rather addictive personality, and b) no other external stimuli to amuse me, keep me accountable, or even get me out of the house. I nixed the home bartending idea. There are safer, cheaper, and better ways to perfect a cool and useful skill. Perhaps I’ll dust off the cobwebs from my “Cooking for Dummies” and learn something other than my basic bachelor cuisine.

My face shield shipment grew legs and walked away. It was supposed to get here today, but now the arrival date can be as late as June 20th. I’m safe enough with a mask and goggles, but I’d rather have all the PPE on the next grocery run. The pandemic life is full of bizarre juxtapositions: thousands may be dying, yet the most exciting development in one person’s life is whether their Amazon package will arrive. Heh. (And yes, I did check my privilege.)

The US-Canadian border closure has been extended yet again. Now the tentative reopening date is July 21st, but it’ll almost certainly get moved back again. There was a new cluster in Beijing: likely just a few dozen people, with the virus having been brought by a traveler from another province. This pandemic is giving China a very strange opportunity to show off the extent of its control over its people: locking down cities with millions of people, strictly enforcing the isolation rules, etc. I’m curious if they can keep going like this. There are 22 million people in Beijing. How do you lock down something like this? What do you do if case appear in every major city?

Such strange and troubled times…