Monday night.

I know this isn’t the most productive way to spend the following month, but I just can’t stop daydreaming of all the things I’d be able to do once I get both of my vaccine shots… It’ll be tricky: most of Canada will remain unvaccinated until about June, and if new cases pick up again, there’ll be more lockdowns, more restrictions, less things to do. And even without that, I’d need to wear a mask and try to be a responsible member of society, since I’d still be able to spread covid if I were to get it. In other words, no karaoke bars in the foreseeable future.

And yet… The first two things I’ll try would be actual dining at an actual restaurant, with an actual server, and a menu, and a crew of cooks making a meal for me – even if it’s just something as simple as a burger and fries. The second thing: an hour-long massage. Tons of them. Ye gods, that would feel great… It’s tempting to just book travel all over the US (Vegas, baby!) and visit all my family, but not until they get their shots as well. The last thing I’d want is to be a Typhoid Russian-American-Canadian. (It’s a very narrow niche, eh.)

I’m just about done reading A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling – and damn, what an excellent book. I originally found it through the “best of 2020” list on Goodreads: some of those were flops, some were just okay, but this single book redeems them all. The premise is simple: a bunch of libertarians take over the town of Grafton, New Hampshire, and as they deregulate everything, bears move in as well. The author’s carefully skilled narrative, though, goes layers deep, centuries back, and covers everything, starting with remarkably charismatic people on the fringes of the political spectrum and ending with bears themselves. His use of metaphors and carefully crafted phrasing is quite remarkable, and the book is filled with literal LOL moments. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

In covid news, more bad news for AstraZeneca. The NACI (National Advisory Committee on Immunization) folks reviewed more data on blood clots, determined that the risk is actually 1 in 100,000 – and advised not to use the AZ vaccine on people under 55. That leaves a very narrow, and probably increasingly unsettled, window of people between 55-65 who are still able to take this vaccine, should they choose to do so. This is just the latest in the long series of mishaps for AZ… At this point, even the staunch vaccine advocates like myself are highly suspicious of it – and those who weren’t very excited about vaccines to begin with… Well, for them this is just more fuel to light the fires of distrust. It sure would’ve gone better had the NACI not assured everyone AZ was perfectly safe. That shipment of 1.5 million doses from the US might not actually get distributed around Canada, simply due to lack of interest and overabundance of caution. What a mess.

Stay safe, y’all.