Friday evening. If my landlord hadn’t said “happy weekend!” when I went downstairs after logging off from work, I might have forgotten what day this was.

I’ve fought it off long enough and as well as I possibly could, but there’s no denying it: boredom is setting in. I find myself digesting old memories, reliving old experiences and dates and meetups, trying to recapture in the most vivid possible way the memories of old vacations – Nevada, Costa Rica, the six-day cruise six years ago… Was it the Tuesday road trip that got my brain so ravenous for stimuli again? That might have been the case. After months of self-lockdown – a trip, an adventure, dozens of new people I talked to during my random and improbable day-long quest.

I’ve watched a movie, and brainstormed an exciting new vector for the next six years of life, and learned some French, and finally requested to cancel that gym membership that I’ve been holding to out of politeness before I saw all the unauthorized charges they’ve made. (That was a step too far, eh.) And it’s still only 9:24pm. Heh. Maybe it’ll help to just start devouring escapist science fiction: I’ve found some fun new (to me) titles by one of my favourites, Robert Charles Wilson. But first, the classic novel Way Station by Clifford D. Simak.

Or maybe this is all just some secondhand existential anxiety about the US election, which is just 11 days away now. The social media is refusing to talk about anything else, which rather interferes with my usual doomscrolling. (How inconsiderate of them, I know.) There’s a lot riding on what happens there.

In covid news, my company has extended its WFH policy: now we’re allowed to work from home until June 30th. If our own specialized analysts have looked at it and said, “nope, nope nope nope nope nope,” then the outlook is dire indeed. I’ve said this many times before – Canada is dealing with covid far better than the US, and we’ll likely do a better job with distributing vaccines when they become available, too. (It’s funny how I started to refer to Canada as “we” at some point I’m unable to recall.)

Realistically, I think I’ll get my shot in February or March. (Will we make it to Plague Diaries – Day 365? Heh.) But if WFH continues through end of June… That opens up so very many choices. Maybe I can move out of the suburbs and into the actual city of Toronto. Maybe I’ll be able to sell my car. (Car insurance is ridiculously expensive here.) Maybe, for once in my life, I’ll become a cosmopolitan city slicker, enjoying the life of the largest city in my country (I’m so sorry things didn’t work out, New York) while leisurely exploring the million things it has to offer, as opposed to having had to plan an entire day-long excursion like I had been before the age of covid. (Congratulations to everyone who made it to the end of that run-on sentence.)

In any case, it was awfully nice of them to give such a long-term reassurance. This gives so much more food for thought…

Enjoy your weekend, folks – I hope it’s mildly more manic than mine.