Monday night.

I find myself having to look up what day this is – they’re virtually indistinguishable now, both during and after work.

Today’s walk was pretty amusing: I stumbled on a Ukrainian-Canadian museum, as well as a statue of St Volodymir, the guy who Christianized the Kievan Rus’ back in 988. My dad’s side of the family was from Ukraine, so that’d make for a nice homage to ye olde motherland when the pandemic ends.

Speaking of pandemics and things to do – if you’re reading this here and now, in January, check out this Humble Bundle deal. It’s a lot of e-books on programming for the low, low price of one dollar. (You can always buy pricier bundles, but you really can’t go wrong with a single buck.) I’m more of a SQL, Redshift, and Excel guy, personally, but this is a great opportunity to learn more. Incidentally, once I paid my buck for the bundle, I realized I had a lot of previous purchased bundles I never downloaded… Let’s just say that if I get so incredibly bored that learning every single coding language looks like a good idea, I’ll have plenty of reading material to do just that. Heh.

Meanwhile, new lockdown hobby: trying to actually eat all the random long-lasting food I’ve been lugging with me back and forth. I think I’ve finally microwaved the last can of beans, but all those jars of peanut butter… They vex me so. Guess I’ll subsist off PB crackers for a bit. (I’m not becoming agoraphobic – I just really don’t feel like going into a crowded grocery store unless I absolutely have to.)

Trump’s presidency will end in just over 37 hours. It feels like everyone is at the edge of their seat (or is it just me?) in anticipation. Will he or will he not go quietly? There’s still a whole lot of nothing from his administration regarding covid, in case you were wondering. The much-awaited Sunday protests in all 50 states turned out to be a big nothing-burger: the turnout measured in dozens, not thousands, and nothing of significance happened that day. The really big question is whether there are any shenanigans planned for the inauguration day itself.

The FBI has started to review the 25,000 or so National Guard folks stationed in Washington DC. I’m unsure what kind of background check they can do in so little time on so many people, aside from making sure they don’t have a swastika tattooed on their forehead, but hey, kudos to them for trying, I suppose. It’s possible nothing untoward will happen and the whole ceremony will go without a hitch. (I can just hear all the pundits sing praises to the peaceful transfer of power while thousands of armed guards are on standby. 2021: the year irony died.) It’s also possible something will go haywire on the same scale it happened on 1/06. It’s impossible to tell, but at this point there’s no such thing as too many precautions. It’s like the monster in every horror movie ever made: you don’t let your guard down until it’s been put down, decapitated, burned, and had its ashes scattered.

In covid news, my friend in Reno has mostly recovered, but her boyfriend hasn’t been posting much on social media after his trip to the ER a few days ago…

I’ve signed up as a volunteer for the ongoing covid vaccine trials taking place in Ontario: I’m curious when – of if – I’ll hear back from them. If I do get picked to be a human guinea pig (huinea pig?), what I get may or may not be placebo, and if it’s real, it may or may not be effective. Those are pretty slim odds, but it still beats sitting around doing nothing. I’ve also called the local covid hotline to inquire about any waiting lists for leftover doses if they run out of folks to vaccinate. Either I’m going crazy or the person who answered the phone hadn’t been briefed on the issue of leftover (and rapidly expiring) vaccines at all. I know they’re real: there have been quite a few articles on the topic, and my US friend got it the very same way. It’s possible that Ontario has an endless line of phase-one folks waiting to get their shot, but that doesn’t seem very likely…

Oh well. Gonna wait and see what local reporters can find out – because if there really are leftover vaccines, and if they do get distributed unofficially, it’ll make the news fairly soon. One strange development: the automated selection menu for the hotline stressed that I should remain polite, and that any rudeness could cause them to hang up. I’d never heard anything like that, in Canada or elsewhere. Just how rude, weird, or downright crazy have some of those callers been?..

I hope your Monday was okay – we’re already 20% done with this workweek, eh.