Wednesday night. Halfway through the workweek already?

It seems as if this self-imposed lockdown is a metaphor for my previous workaholism. Nowadays, I’m a complete shut-in, venturing outside only once every 10 days, and doing very little aside from work and mindless media consumption. In the preceding years… Well, I’d make an effort to go to a meet-up or a party a few times a month, but it was mostly similar to this, with an occasional fun interlude. The real question is whether I can break this routine now that I’ve become aware of it after doing little else for most of the year.

The caffeine headaches took a day off yesterday but came back with a vengeance today. Well, so much for my little science experiment: I can survive without caffeine, but it’s not a whole lot of fun. (No way to tell how long the withdrawal would last.) I’m going to take things slow and treat myself to a cup of black tea in the morning, then play it by the ear.

With a whole lot of nothing going, and with the life becoming just a prolonged waiting game (let’s be honest, it’ll be more of the same until I finally get my vaccine in the spring), I wonder if I should start tinkering with my sci-fi novel again… This “Plague diaries” series alone is more or less book-sized now, and all it took was 20 minutes of writing every evening. I’m using my lockdown time more productively than some people, but let’s see if I can do even more with it.

In covid news, now that Toronto is locked down for 28 days, some local entrepreneurs are testing the limits. The big local scandal is the incalcitrant entrepreneur who reopened his BBQ restaurant for indoor dining two days in a row. (After announcing that on social media, no less.) Despite a pretty big crowd of BBQ enthusiasts, the local police didn’t give out any fines ($750 CAD per person, in theory) or take any names. They did a whole lot of nothing yesterday, and more of the same today. Local authorities charged the restaurant for operating without a license (a sizable fine of up to $75K CAD altogether) but, once again, not for breaking the lockdown rules. Both the mayor and the premier criticized the restaurant’s owner but, again, did a whole lot of nothing.

Laws that don’t get enforced becomes guidelines. Guidelines that don’t get enforced become jokes. More will do the same now, and the divide between those who follow the health guidelines and those who mock them will grow ever wider. I doubt this is a purely Canadian phenomenon. Human nature, eh?