Tuesday night. I actually had a brief moment of confusion about what day this was: it really does blend together.

I’ve learned something exciting earlier: I was way off about how long I’d need to stay in Ontario (as opposed to backpacking around the world) to maintain my health card. It’s five months, not seven. (Seven months of residency is required to get the card, not to maintain it.) That means I’d actually be able to travel a whole lot more once I leave the rat race. On the other hand, the citizenship rules (after I get my PR) state that I have to physically spend two years in Canada before I can apply. Decisions, decisions… Do I take my time and travel five-six months per year before I can apply five years later? Or should I just spend two uninterrupted years in Canada, followed by getting my citizenship, followed by getting a Canadian passport? (With an occasional trip to Vietnam or Laos or Mexico for a month or so, lest I forget what hot weather feels like.)

It’s absolutely ridiculous to make plans for 5.5 years into the future, but that’s part and parcel of having been born in the USSR, I suppose. (Seriously. Five-year plans. Try them. That’s some good stuff.)

I’ve finally finished Red Dead Redemption, tying off that eight-year project that had been low-key nagging me all this time. The ending seemed, um, unusual – and rather longer than it needed to be. It was an unusual experiment in storytelling, and who knows, maybe that’s why the game got so popular. Not my cup of tea, but kudos to them for taking the creative risk. Not that it always works out: Ocean’s Twelve tried to be too artsy for its own good, and it ended up being a whole lot of nothing instead. (Ditto for Inside Man – the heist movie that just kept going on and on and on.)

In covid news, check out this neat Canadian vaccine tracker, eh. It says that as of right now, 25,382 Canadians have received their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine. That’s not a whole lot (0.068% of Canada’s total population) but it’s a start. I’m guessing the tough part right now is the logistics and making sure the temperature stays sufficiently low. It’s slow but steady progress. There’ll probably be a lot of fanfare once the 100,000th or 1,000,000th Canadian gets vaccinated.

Also, Antarctica has lost its status as the last covid-free continent. There’s a covid outbreak at a Chilean research base in Antarctica (who had that on their 2020 bingo cards?), so if you wanted to escape it all and chill with some penguins, that might no longer be an option. Considering that there’s usually about 1,000 scientists living in Antarctica from March to October, it’s actually a bit impressive that they’ve gone this long without importing the virus. All the other research stations are still covid-free, so this is mostly a symbolic loss, but symbols matter.

Stay away from those Chilean Antarctic research stations, y’all, and happy Solstice+1 Day.