Friday night. When humans make the outside world completely inhospitable (viruses, pollution, ozone layer going bye-bye, horrific climate, etc), in the world where “going out” is literally no longer an option, will our descendants perform the silly weekend rituals of their ancestors and wonder how different our lives were?

One of my favourite things about Canada (aside from adding the fancy “u” to random words) is all the holidays they’ve got here. There are 13 main holidays as opposed to the six or so in the US. Canada’s Thanksgiving is on Monday, so this is yet another awesome three-day weekend. (With another one coming up just a month from now, in honour of the Remembrance Day.) If nothing else I say convinces people to move here, then maybe the overabundance of long weekends will.

Today’s culinary adventure: just completely giving up on trying to scrounge enough carbs and munching on a bunch of almonds instead. Flipped my carb and fat ratios completely, but hey, as long as I get the right amount of calories, enough protein, and all the sleep in addition to the exercise, it’s all good, right?

One upside of my highly visible pullup bar in the hallway, weighing my food, and blending all these protein shakes is that my landlords are starting to slowly (so very, very slowly) warm up to the idea of monitoring their nutrition and eating healthier. They’re both in fine shape and do some cardio, but there’s no such thing as being too healthy during this pandemic.

Somewhat related, one big upside of being a non-crazy, non-violent sort of prepper (as opposed to your typical wannabe-Rambo in the US) is being prepared for multiple contingencies. Had a bit of a throat tickle this morning, but I knew exactly where my oximeter and thermometer were (as well as all the batteries), and everything turned out fine. I can’t imagine I’d have any peace of mind without an objective way to measure my vitals.

…and by the way, folks, if you don’t have an oximeter of your own, I can’t recommend it highly enough. That little $25 gadget will tell you when it’s time to skedaddle to the nearest emergency room, and it just might save your life should you be unlucky enough to catch covid.

In covid news, the US is still doing its weird crazy thing: full seating allowed in Florida’s sports stadiums, more crazy covid tweets from Trump (he made it a full week without relapsing – good for him, I guess), and a white-bread Michigan militia got busted for trying to kidnap the state’s governor. It looks like they were very unhappy with her decision to initiate a lockdown earlier this year. That does not sound like a functioning democracy… Speaking of which, more of my US friends are reaching out for advice on moving to Canada. One of my friends, who lived in Arizona, just found out that she got purged from the voter rolls, even though she’d been in the system just a few weeks prior. Might have been a database glitch, might have been something far more sinister. The very fact that sabotage is a probable explanation means the fundamental element – the faith in the system – is no longer there. I hope at least one of my Canada-curious friends makes it over here.

In more local news, Toronto and two other parts of Ontario are entering a new modified lockdown. It’ll last for 28 days (insert your “28 Days Later” jokes here), during which there’ll be no indoor dining, bars, gyms, theaters, etc. Weddings are still okay, as long as they stick to 10 people indoors or 25 outdoors. I expect a lot of anger from the locals who have already lived through one long lockdown and got a brief taste of freedom – which, of course, fucked everything up. (And that’s why we can’t have nice things.) It’s interesting how fast Doug Ford pivoted from “I can’t let people’s businesses die!” to freezing everything for almost a month. I guess he finally got those numbers he asked for. Too bad he couldn’t see the writing on the wall earlier. I hope this lockdown works, because all indicators show Toronto getting to the same disaster we saw in New York back in March: full ICUs and insufficient hospital space.

Here is to even more indoors time, and to more distracting hobbies. I’ve just started bingewatching “Ozark” on Netflix – it’s fascinating to find a well-made show where the protagonist is a fellow financial analyst. Stay safe out there, folks, and make the most of your weekend.