Friday night, whoop whoop. It’s not that I’m getting cabin fever (there’s still too much to read and watch and play and binge), but I kind of want to just go to the center of the city and just walk around and look at other people, even while socially distancing and with everyone wearing masks and sunglasses. As I told my coworkers today, October is only seven weeks away. It’ll start getting colder again soon. This has probably been the strangest summer I’ve ever experienced. (The runner-up is the summer of 2013, when I was 16 and moved to the US. It was so strange.) This summer, I want at least one memory of meaninglessly meandering in the sunlight… Toronto’s winters are mean.

Things at work remain hectic, but still manageable. Chit-chatting with coworkers using our internal messenger. It’ll never cease to amaze me how much people are bored by Excel – or maybe they just really hate it that much? Over the years, I taught myself some basic functions, then figured out how other people’s Excel tools work, and then started making my own, ever more complex and full of features. Anyone can do what I do if they just spend one weekend watching youtube videos and practicing on their laptop, and yet no one ever does. Fascinating, really. But hey – job security. Can’t complain, eh?

Tonight’s culinary adventure: fried pasta with egg. Boil some pasta, then throw it on a frying pan, pour a few eggs in, mix it up, fry thoroughly, add some spices for taste – and voila! A crispy delicious meal filled with carbs and a bit of protein. Nom nom.

In covid news: in the US, the Republican-controlled senate still hasn’t passed the new covid relief package. All the protections from the previous package have run out, and millions of Americans can get evicted if their landlords choose to pursue that option. Even if 1% of them do that, that’ll result in tens of thousands of people being forced onto the street…

The official covid death toll in the US has crossed 160,000. The actual, unofficial death toll is much higher, but we won’t know it till later. Some estimates say the death toll will reach 300,000 by December. Then again, earlier estimates had predicted that by August, we’d be done with the pandemic, and only 60,000 would have died. So much for that. There are also 5,000,000 confirmed covid cases in the US. Considering how many people were asymptomatic or just never went to get tested (especially given the logistical nightmare of obtaining a test), the real number is likely much higher. This is what exponential growth looks like. …I don’t want to imagine how much worse things will get.

And to end this on a mildly lighter note, if you’re into dark humour: the US government has issued a travel advisory for New Zealand because it has 23 active covid cases. Not 23 million, not 23 thousand, but just 23, all of whom are in quarantine. Folks online are having a field day with that – this really is stranger than fiction.

Good night, y’all. Try to make the best of one of the last summer weekends.