Tuesday evening. Well, at least this was different. (Famous last words, eh?) Something relatively critical blew up at work because there had been too much attrition and brain drain in the past few months. I spent two hours figuring it out and cobbling together a crude manual hack, but that was a mere symptom. I sense there’ll be more attrition in the near future, and no, I don’t mean yours truly.

Been thinking about The Walking Dead lately. There’s a character to which I relate far more than any others: Eugene Porter, the resident scientist and brainiac, but also the person most likely to run away and choose safety over any degree of danger. Things are opening up, and my warehouse never did close, but I’m way more comfortable here, in my man-cave, not taking any chances. I strongly suspect my coworkers who still have to show up every day (hard to manage people remotely, eh) gently make fun of me behind my back, but meh. Canada might get only 300 cases per day (though there was a spike of 1,008 cases yesterday), but that’s still far more likely than winning the lottery. I’m fine right where I am. Likewise on the meta level at work, where my seniority is pretty uncanny, if only because most everyone else has succumbed to stress, received a better offer or, in some cases, retired and sailed off into the sunset. Patience, stubbornness, and thorough risk assessment will win the day.

Today’s Taco Tuesday was tremendously tasty.

In covid news: something I never considered, having been lucky enough to have no health conditions (yay Russian peasant genes!) is the impact the border closure has on Americans who buy their medicine in Canada. (I’m privileged, I know.) Because of the existing policy and price inequalities, an awful lot of Americans used to buy their prescription drugs (insulin et al) from Mexico or Canada, whichever is closer or more convenient. Well, at least on the Canadian side, that’s no longer an option. That puts millions of Americans who live within driving distance of the Canadian border in jeopardy, since they never could afford the US prices in the first place. Insulin in particular is a hot mess… The formula is out there, the original patent is free for all to use, yet it’s not a public good but something that’s priced using the so-called Hobson’s Choice: you can buy from us or you can walk. Ho hum.

There’s no reason to believe the border will reopen anytime soon. There’s even less reason to believe the American healthcare system will get better within a reasonable time horizon. I really, really don’t mean to trash-talk the US on this here blog, but this pandemic is bringing out a lot of the system’s flaws. If your country can’t survive without gratuitously ignoring its own citizens crossing foreign borders to afford life-saving medication… It’s all fun and games until a once-a-century pandemic shuts down your borders.