Saturday night.

I guess that Monday weather was an outlier: the news says it was the warmest March 11th in Toronto’s recorded history. Well, today was still sunny enough for an urban hike to my bank, a whole mile away. The weather was right around the freezing point, but the sun lured out so many others… I’d say about 80% of Torontonians wear masks outside. At this point, at least for me, seeing an unmasked face is like stumbling on a panda: so exotic and rare.

There’s apparently an Ice Fest on the main street right next to me. I had no idea that was even a thing. One of the many advantages of living in the biggest Canadian city, eh? Some of those human-sized ice sculptures are relatively crude. Some are incredibly elaborate. All are beautiful. They’ll likely melt by tomorrow, if the same hooligans that knocked over a couple of them don’t get to the rest tonight. Ephemeral beauty…

The Bobiverse book I mentioned a few nights ago was fun. The fourth in the series, it was quite different: the space stuff was more of a backdrop, with most of the novel taking place in a mysterious alien society. Not exactly what I was expecting – it was a bit of a switcheroo, with one book wrapped inside another, where the author knew his readers would buy it anyway. Not unlike the third book in Justin Cronin’s The Passage trilogy, where a vampire suddenly goes on a loooong rant about his unrequited college love, with a mostly uneducated post-collapse girl as his captive audience. That particular novella was mildly painful to get through, and rightfully should’ve been interrupted by thousands of questions such as “what’s a bus? or what’s a dormitory?” Heh. Still, the Bobiverse book (but not the Passage book) was good fun. Well written, with a ton of hard sci-fi concepts that even I, a self-proclaimed geek, have never even heard of, and plenty of literally LOL moments. The quantum concept of a soul was particularly interesting.

Some choice quotes to lure y’all in:
“All actions have risks. Most inactions even more so.”
“Laws of thermodynamics do not necessarily apply in quantum-mechanical situations.”
“The wonderful thing about knowledge is that you can give it away and still have it.”
“That was a question for another time. A much calmer time, filled with cups of coffee and purring cats.”

If that writing style sounds like something you think you might enjoy, start here, with the first book in the series: We Are Legion (We Are Bob).

In covid news, a resort in the Bahamas is trying something new and different. The place is called Baha Mar, on the island of Providence, and if you happen to test positive for covid while staying there, they’ll get you either a free flight back to the US or a complimentary two-week stay. (With a $150 meal credit, to boot!) That’s an interesting edge over their competition (which I imagine will heat up, since everyone wants to catch up on the lost time), and it just might pay for itself. Still, I can’t help thinking that some particularly cynical tourists might try to catch covid specifically to get two weeks of free lodging. That might sound unlikely, but never, ever underestimate the power of human stupidity. (Mostly I’m just jealous that they get to travel someplace hot and sunny. Canadian winter sucks. A lot.)

Good night, y’all.