Sunday night.

I take back everything I’d said about being a space wizard. (Unless I can be a very unsuccessful one, like the guy from The Last Unicorn.) Even though I’d managed to wrangle my 42″ TV into the backseat of my Kia, it got damaged in the process. I think I pushed it too hard against the knob of the folded backseat. Now it’s got a big dead area up top: I could still ignore it while gaming, but it wouldn’t work at all if I invited friends or a date for a movie night. Ho hum. That TV has been with me longer than my car: I got a great deal on it back in 2012. I’ve transported it from Vegas to Fort Worth to Tampa to Seattle (all over Seattle) to Toronto, and now it’s time to give it away for free and get a smaller replacement.

I’ve spent most of the day nesting. The giant pile of stuff got sorted out for the most part. It’s gone from an enormous impassable slippery mess to a relatively small pile of stuff. (Something to do tomorrow, eh?) The downside is that now every flat surface of the studio is covered with gems, antique cameras (yay 1920s art deco!), and beautiful pieces of unique glassware I’d picked up in thrift stores. I could use another medium-sized bookshelf… This is a lot like the Schitt’s Creek episode where they end up with a gigantic family portrait that doesn’t fit anywhere. Heh. I’ll have to give away so much stuff before my next move in August… For starters, only flat art from now on: photographs or flat metal pieces such as this Braniff Airways sign.

I also made a few quick walking expeditions (no sense in driving three blocks) to the local LCBO (surprisingly cheap and diverse cider selection), Dollarama (improbably huge art section and literally the only place I’ve managed to buy a small handheld mirror), and a grocery store which had surprisingly low prices. This whole time, I thought the suburbs were cheap and the big city was expensive. Turns out I was dead wrong. Huh.

I’ve hung some of my art hoard on the wall – and then had to rearrange it because some of my, ahem, not-quite-work-appropriate art to make sure it wouldn’t be in the background of my video calls at work. (On the upside, the programmable Christmas lights I’ve finally put up – yay new batteries – look cozy as hell.)

One of my purchases today was a festive orange tablecloth for the disgusting stained table that came with the studio. It’s still every bit as disgusting, but that’s no longer visible. Creating illusions, for ourselves as well as others, is such an integral part of life…

It was strange wandering the main street during my shopping expedition. Most but not all are wearing masks. At this point, I’ve been away from real pedestrians (not a whole lot of those in the suburbs) so long that it almost doesn’t seem real when you see unmasked passersby. It looks almost like a hyper-realistic video game that renders randomized and flawless faces. I need to get out more often.

There’s a video making rounds online: one of the 1/06 domestic terrorists (unsurprisingly white, unsurprisingly male) threw a fit at an airport because he’s been added to the “no fly” list until they figure out the extent of his involvement in the attempted coup. That’s a tiny, tiny fraction of what needs to happen, but it still brings a smile to my face and gladdens my dark and shriveled heart.

In covid news, the attempted coup was four days ago. The Capitol’s attending physician, Dr. Brian Moynihan, notified the congress-critters that there was at least one covid-positive person among them while they sheltered in place at an undisclosed location. Some witness accounts from 1/06 state that a lot of congress-critters refused to put on their masks, being defiant and anti-science even during that unprecedented emergency. There were hundreds of people all stuck together in a place that might not have had perfect ventilation. That was four days ago. There will probably be a wave of new diagnoses. Thus far, only one congress-critter died of covid. Unfortunately, there might be more.

Good night, y’all. Stay safe, as always.