Saturday night.

The highlight of this day was my rediscovery of the maple pastry they have at Tim Hortons. (Not every location has them, so ordering them in drivethrough can be hit-or-miss.) It was delicious. Small pleasures, eh?

Lockdown boredom level: although video games are great for fast-forwarding through entire hours or days, the mind still wanders… Case in point: I randomly did a fair bit of research into gathering scrap metal. (Scrapping? Is that the technical term?) I might be blindly and overly optimistic here (and/or just plain bored) but there seems to be quite a lot of money there, especially if you put in the required legwork. I’m fairly certain my brain got the idea from Stardew Valley: in addition to being remarkably addictive, this game is also very big on recycling and dumpster-diving. Heh. Maybe that’s my superpower: getting ridiculous (yet workable) ideas from video games. Just like the time I joined my local Search&Rescue after playing way too much Skyrim.

Anyhow – more research required. This might make for a fun early-retirement hobby. Many years ago, I used to sell used books online. There’s a lot of money in that if you know what you’re doing. At the time, I didn’t take that as seriously as I should have, and while it provided some nice supplemental income, I never quite turned it into an actual business. Maybe this time will be different. (Famous last words, I know.) There’s something extremely exciting about “gamifying” the world around you, where every thrift store can become a potential gold mine for the right kind of scavenger with the right kind of equipment. If nothing else, I think I’ve found a way to turn my old toaster and a bunch of cooking appliances I’ve recently acquired into cold hard cash.

In covid news, Pfizer has released a statement assuring everyone that they do, in fact, have enough vaccines for everyone who needs their second dose in the US. The whole thing is quite murky. There still hasn’t been any official comment from the Department of Health and Human Services, but its director, Alex Azar, has suddenly resigned. The official explanation is the 1/06 attempted coup and the way it tarnished everything he worked on. That doesn’t quite make sense, since there’d been an entire week between the coup and his resignation. I’m sure we’ll find out more when the inevitable tell-all memoir comes out, eh.

On the other hand, here in Canada, we’re projected to receive only half of the promised Pfizer shipment in the next few weeks. The official reason is the big expansion of their European manufacturing facility. This is not doing wonders for people’s morale…

I’m curious what will happen in the US tomorrow. Maybe nothing, possibly something. After the attempted coup on 1/06, we’re all living in a post-conspiracy-theory world. The most ridiculous scenario – a goddamn Green Zone in Washington DC – has happened, so nothing is off the table now. A lot of folks are concerned about potential violence: if not today, then on the 20th, during the inauguration. If not from a giant mob, then from one or more “lone wolf” attackers. A friend of mine in Reno is a journalist. He had to buy a bulletproof vest for one of his photographers. If that doesn’t encapsulate the madness of early 2021, I don’t know what does.

I hope y’all are having a fine weekend, and here is to more of the same.