Thursday night. I believe I’ve already used every single cliche about the swift passage of time (especially when your world is limited by just one room), but hey, that doesn’t make it any less true. I blinked, and it was Friday once again…

I’m cheating on my DuoLingo French lessons with DuoLingo Spanish. (My life really is filled with excitement, I know.)

I stumbled on very succinct instructions on growing your own sourdough starter, so I’m giving this another halfhearted try. Clint Yeastwood didn’t work out the first time around, but he shall rise again.

The news from the US is a little bit too depressing to describe – or enumerate, for that matter. More friends are asking me for advice on moving to Canada. Alas, they’re all saying they’d rather “wait until it gets too bad.” They don’t listen to my warnings that by then it might be too late. (Or they’ll be competing with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other Americans.) We’ll see how this plays out.

…I wish it were possible to remove my memories of the US, the way they did in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Or rather, keep the best memories, but stop thinking of the US as my former country, and view it just like any other strange war-torn foreign country you encounter in the news: tragic and sad, but not something you’re personally connected to.

In covid news: a small tribe in a remote part of India has been exposed to the virus. Meanwhile, CDC director Robert Redfield tried to walk back the updated guidance (asymptomatic exposed people don’t need to get tested) without actually changing it. He said that testing “may be considered” and “everyone who wants a test does not necessarily need a test,” but the bizarre guidance on the CDC’s site remains unchanged. Just more political theater, though it’s really getting kind of ridiculous at this point, like a bunch of cartoonish mustache-twirling villains trying to fulfill their misdeed quota for the day.

Here is hoping the border stays closed until and well into 2021.