Wednesday evening. I slept in late again, then went hiking… I could get used to this. Technically speaking, I didn’t succeed: the directions were vague and the 20-year-old trails they mentioned got overgrown. I did find a couple of cool-looking (though not shiny) rocks, followed by a perfect place to lie down and read: gorgeous boulders next to the picturesque Silver Harbour. The sun, the sounds of water, occasional fun human noises in the background. It was lovely for about an hour, until someone started coughing in the background. The cough was deep and long and dry… I cut my outing short.

I took my work laptop on vacation with me – partly to spy on my team while they do their own thing, partly to stay in touch with my work friends from the US. The battery failed somehow, so I used a $1 eyeglasses repair kit I’d bought years ago to remove the cover and replace the battery. I knew that thing would be useful someday! (I’m not a hoarder, just a forward thinker.)

In covid news, my all-time favourite diner is shutting down. There was a hole-in-the-wall casino in downtown Reno – the Little Nugget. It had no table games, just slot machines, and there was a really sketchy little diner in the very back. They accepted cash only, cashiers generally didn’t last more than two weeks, there was cigarette smoke in the air, and about 20% of the time you’d have to run to the nearest bathroom after you ate there. But goddamn it, their food was delicious. The Awful-Awful burger was “awful cheap and awful good.” Back in my college days, the 1/2 lb burger with a giant side of fries cost just $6. Or you could order pancakes for $2.50. Or a hangover omelet for just $8: five-egg omelet, salsa, hashbrowns, and a free Bloody Mary on the side. (Gotta tip the bartender, of course.)

My best friend and I were both broke as a joke for many years, but we’d make a point of going out to the Little Nugget once a week, every week. We’d sit and munch and talk about everything… Sometimes, we’d see something highly improbable – such as a homeless man getting in a shouting match with the bouncer (due to taking the casino’s basket when a patron gave him leftover fries), then returning five minutes later, and throwing a carrot at the bouncer’s head. We never did figure out where he found a carrot in downtown Reno (nothing but souvenir stores) at midnight. Fun times…

It’s more than a little insensitive to wax poetic about the death of a diner when at least 620,000 people (and likely far more) have died of covid. I’m well aware of that. I just can’t stop thinking about the world we’ll end up living in. The service industry will be unrecognizable. Most restaurants and diners not backed up by giant conglomerates will disappear forever. Some new ones may rise from the ashes and carry on the torch, but for the most part it’ll probably be just more of the same old chain restaurants. I guess more folks will have learned how to cook, thanks to the lockdown. Heh.

Off to watch some TV, plot out tomorrow’s hike, and catch some zzz’s. (In Canada, they’re pronounced “zeds.”) Here is a pic of the coziest reading perch I’ve ever found thus far in Canada. Give Thunder Bay a shot if you ever aim to visit Canada – it’s beautiful up here…