Saturday night. A century ago, car ownership was a rare and luxurious privilege. Will private space shuttles be as commonplace in 2120 as cars are today?

Today was unusual: I spent most of the day hanging out with xgf, first at a local park and then playing video games on her parents’ tiny prehistoric TV. (The parents were both gone for the day, which is a rare occurrence.) Her little town is as safe as it gets these days: 1-5 new cases per day lately. The downside, of course, is that her parents are conspiracy theorists who go out thrift-store shopping every single day. Her dad has switched from “Jews are doing this to us” to “Bill Gates has created the virus,” and he’s a huge fan of Trump. I wore a mask and a face shield the entire time I was inside, and took a long shower when I got home… Fun distraction from the usual routine, though, and good to see that xgf is feeling better.

Before the pandemic, I used to walk to the nearest Tim Hortons every Saturday and treat myself to two egg&bacon sandwiches, a black coffee, and a doughnut. I grabbed the same order at the drivethrough before I left for xgf’s place earlier today – and was shocked to realize the meal took up almost my entire dietary fat allowance for the day. (I’m sticking to the 55%/25%/20% carb/protein/fat breakdown.) To be fair, the type of calories doesn’t matter as much as the total number of calories, but it’s still jarring to realize how much nutrition I was completely overlooking. When I made it back home at 9pm, I had to catch up by forcefeeding myself a pound of boiled chicken, as well as some bread and veggies. Lockdown life is exciting, isn’t it?

In covid news: Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, took a seemingly decisive action against the virus. We’re getting more than 400 new cases per day now – the last time new cases were that high was in June. Public gatherings in the entire province will be limited for the next 28 days. You can’t have more than 10 people indoors or more than 25 people outdoors. Sounds great and smart, right? Well, wait till you hear about the exceptions: “The new limits do not apply to gatherings in staffed businesses and other facilities, such as bars, restaurants, cinemas, convention centres, banquet hall, gyms, places of worship, sporting or performing arts events.”

In other words, you’re not allowed to host a house party for your, say, 30 closest friends. However, y’all can meet up at the local gym first thing in the morning, go to a diner for brunch, then go bowling, then head over to a movie theatre, maybe drop by the local church if you feel like it, then go to another diner for dinner, and then party till you drop at the nearest bar. All of that will be within the rule framework. Oh, and of course this doesn’t mean school classes will be limited to nine kids each. (The teacher would make the 10th.) Nope, I guess we’re still going with the “kids are immune and magical” hypothesis in lieu of absolutely nothing.

I’m sorry, but this is simply garbage. The only good thing that might come of this is the elimination of house parties. All the elephant-sized exceptions for local businesses and places of worship will result in continued transmission at those venues. This is headline fodder. This is GIGO – Garbage In, Garbage Out. This is gonna be a long winter…

To end this on a slightly lighter note, here’s a picture of the Garbasaurus, an awesome giant garbage statue at a park near Toronto.