Notebook Purge

This post is coming out quickly after my last one, Grey Christmas. As per tradition, I'm packing in some posts right near the end of the year to buff my anual post count.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I keep a notepad on my phone with suggestions for blog updates. Sometimes time moves forward, I get busy, other things happen, and the suggestions get outdated. I don't delete them from my phone though, so I've got suggestions dating from back to around last December. As a way of cleansing my phone notepad for the new year, I'm just going to blast through them on here, and explain why I wrote them down in the first place.

Luna Grieving Post

Starting off kind of depressing. Last December, a beloved family cat named Luna passed away. I did post about her passing, but I think I spoke on it closely after her death. I wanted to make another post that was more reflective, after the initial sting had worn off a bit. As of now, I think it would be a little inappropriate to do an in-depth grieving post, since so much time has passed.

If you don't remember, she was one of the cats that lived in Guelph with my mother and brother. She was eleven years old, while their other two cats were sixteen (now seventeen). We usually have two cats of different age groups, so that the younger cat can motivate the older one to have a bit more energy. The plan was to adopt another cat after Thor and Blackavar passed away to keep Luna company in old age. We had never lost a cat unexpectedly before, so when she developed rapid kidney failure, it was a real shock.

Luna and Thor were both adopted before I started Canada World Youth. During the time between my return and the start of college, me and Luna really hit it off and she became sort of "my cat" between the three. After getting into college and living more often away from home, she developed a special relationship with my mother.

Since then her passing, Mom and Duncan adopted a new cat, a little female grey tabby named Cassidy, to keep the older ones company. Although you can never replace a relationship, Mom and Cassidy have found a similar closeness.

Like I said, I won't do a full grieving post, but I'll leave you with this thought: There are books and movies made about the stories of dogs that have passed, Marley and Me, Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller but not only are there pretty well no stories written about the passing of cats, when I was sad about Luna's passing, people seemed to think the magnitude of my grief was inappropriate and unhealthy. When a dog passes, it's often seen as a tragedy, while a grieving cat owner is labeled a crazy cat person. I still don't regret my response to the news of Luna's unexpected passing.

Fixed Table/Dresser Drawer/Walk-In Closet Door Knob

This one is really not important anymore. The title basically describes the content. I guess I still have the table and dresser drawer, which moved with us, but I left the walk-in closet door knob at the old townhouse. We can add a storm door handle to this list, although I screwed up the installation of that, and Lee-Anne's parents helped put in a new one. My bedroom door handle was also a replacement out of my own pocket. I was tempted to take all my door handles when I moved, since they're my property and it would just be one more final indication to my former landlord about how I viewed our professional relationship, but with the stress of moving, that just became a really low priority and I wound up leaving them behind.

Drawer vs Shelf

I've made a post about how Lee-Anne thinks I pronounce a lot of words wrong like: palm, calm, sriracha, and finicky. Well, it turns out I never really bothered to draw a distinction between the words drawer and shelf. So she's found it kind of difficult to offer directions around the kitchen when I treat the two words as synonymous. To her credit, I think she's right about this. A shelf is a flat surface that you stack stuff on, commonly seen inside a cupboard, while a drawer is a container that you roll out and put stuff in. I'm sure none of you needed that clarification.

Meal Post

Don't really know what to put here. For awhile, back in the first wave of the pandemic, I was making regular meal updates. People were cooking from home way more, and their eating habits were changing. I was personally focusing more on foods that were frugal, had a strong shelf life, and were nutritious. People also had time to make food that took longer to prepare, an example being the COVID baking trend. People have chilled out a bit in the second wave, even though our numbers are worse.

Nowadays when I want to post something food related, I just post to my Gryphood blog: https://gryphood.blogspot.com/

Netflix

I couldn't log into my Netflix account, but they kept charging me. Eventually I called them, and when I gave them my email to confirm, they said it wasn't what they had in their system, and asked me if I had a nickname. I said I hadn't. I asked them what email was attached to my account and they wouldn't tell me. I only use one email account for everything outside of work, so it's not like I accidentally used a different one. They mentioned that I hadn't used my account in a long time. So even if somebody somehow stole my account and attached a different email to it, they never used the account or changed it to a better service. Weird.

Mission: Rescue Succulent

On my first birthday after getting my job at WALES, one of the main office staff members dropped by our buiding and offered all of us a succulent. Since then, mine is the only one to have survived to this point. After looking it up, the plant I received is a jade plant, and it represents good fortune in terms of wealth. You're not supposed to water them more than once every two weeks, so I chose to water it every payday, because it's a wealth plant, and it makes sense to nourish it when money is coming in.

When the pandemic started,I realized that my succulent would be left to starve. It felt very dangerous to go to the office, but I steeled myself and made the journey to WALES. Once there, I realized that one of my coworkers had a coffee plant that was left behind. I had wanted the mission to be totally covert, but I couldn't leave the coffee plant to die. If I took the coffee plant with me, I would have to admit to my coworker that I had taken her plant, and entered the office to do so. In the end, my compassionate side made me rescue both my succulent and her coffee plant, and I wound up admitting to her that I had taken it. She was grateful, and once the first wave had ended and she was able to return to in-person work, I returned the plant to her desk.

...Actually, now that I think about it, we just entered the Grey Zone and nobody is doing in-person work again... I might have to go on Mission: Rescue Coffee Plant soon.

Tiger King, Animal Crossing, Takeshi 6ix 9ine

These are some "COVID Culture" topics that occured during the first wave.

Tiger King was a documentary on Netflix about the strange world of big cat owners that trended during the first wave of the pandemic. The lead character was Joe Exotic, a man who convinced two heterosexual men to marry him by coercing them with drugs and other privileges. He had a vicious rivalry with a woman named Carol Baskins, who is widely thought to have killed her ex husband to enherit his wealth and tiger sanctuary.

Between this and two tigers being found to have developed COVID-19, I went though a bit where I worried that people would link the tiger symbolism with China, and since the virus was first found in Wuhan Province, use this as a reason to be racist. I even worried that this would turn into feline hate in general, and so I made sure to stock up on cat food. In fact, I bought enough cat food that Kieran still had some in stock when I moved to my new place. He had more food than I did.

Animal Crossing is a video game where you exist in a world of animal people. You have a house, pay off a mortgage, build and decorate a better home. You get to know the villagers, make friends with them, influence who stays and who moves out. You fish, collect bugs, dig for fossils. It's all pretty calm, pretty chill. It came out at just the right time, because it's the game where you go outside and hang out with your friends, which was exactly what people were missing in real life when it came out.

Takeshi 6ix Nine is a rapper. He made a deal to get out of jail far in advance to his initial status by snitching out some of his fellow gang members. Once COVID hit, he was put into house arrest because they were trying to cut down on crowding in jails. On he was "out", he started putting out singles. They had to move him several times because his guady lifestyle would put him at risk of being tracked down.

I guess I mostly took notice because I reall don't understand what makes him popular. He is a young man whose rapper name is Japanese while he is Hispanic, hus symbol is a gay icon while he's heterosexual, and he has tattooed the symbol of a sex position all over himself.

Well, that's all I got. I have a few more notes, but they are far closer to current events and I will address them in the very new future. I hope you all have a good 2021!

Grey Christmas

Check it out, I figured out how to make a large linebreak, like I did in the Lair of the Gryphon Days.

I had to settle for a smaller linebreak combined with an indent when Blogger first started forcing changes. Now that they've gone all the way, I can go to all of my previous posts and copy whatever code they translated my former formatting into.

Before we get into Christmas, we had a pretty cool event happen on December 21st, our shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice. On that night, Jupiter and Saturn passed each other, an event that occurs about once every 20 years. That's not too frequent, but what makes this even more special is that this was the first time they've been so close in almost 400 years. This event has been named the Great Conjunction, and the fact that it occured on the Winter Solstice makes it even more magical. The planets were both supposedly visible from Earth, but I didn't see them.

Anyway, I’ve got to apologize for the fact that I left one of my posts incomplete a little while ago. On my post titled “COVID 19 Update: Colour System” I only covered the measures put in place for our “Red Zone”, up until they inconvenienced me, which was around the point they were talking about cinemas. I intended to add the rest of the measures, but recently, the Ontario Government has chosen to put the entire province into Code Grey, which is a mandatory lockdown, and looking back at the resources I was using before, they have since been modified to simplify things.

At first, they were considering putting all regions in Red in lockdown, but they wound up deciding to do it to all of Ontario. Southern Ontario is up for reassessment in four weeks, and Northern Ontario in two.

Last Christmas, Uncle Steve had recently passed away, as well as a beloved family pet, Luna. Because of the timing, we didn’t really celebrate that year. In fact, I titled last year’s blog post, “Blue Christmas”. This year, we’ve got a “Grey Christmas” because of the government mandated closures. I wonder what colour Christmas will be next year. If we’re at war, maybe we’ll get a “Red Christmas”. I’m complaining, but we did get a fresh coating of snow, which offered the traditional “White Christmas” that we were hoping for.

Originally, our Grey Zone was supposed to start on Christmas Eve. This seemed like an attempt to capitalize on the Christmas economic boost so that businesses that had to close down would be more likely to survive, while at the same time shutting people down from social gatherings and prevent a boost in infection rate. This was kind of a slap in the face though, because the government was basically expecting us to do all our Christmas shopping, but then not give it away or use it for its intended purpose. They backed down though, and moved the lockdown date to boxing day. I’m guessing they realized that we’re already dealing with a lot of noncompliance, and by canceling Christmas like this, noncompliance would increase even further. So I went to Guelph for Christmas, because while in Red, we’re allowed to have a social group of five, and between me, my mom and my brother, we’re a social group of three. Since we were still technically in the Red during the time I was up there, we didn't violate any of the rules.

We had a Christmas ham this year instead of a turkey. First time we’ve done that. Duncan made his potatoes au gratin, and we had Brussels sprouts, stovetop stuffing and a little storebought pecan pie. It did the trick.

I got my mother a breadmaker. She likes homemade bread but she doesn’t like to knead. I kept us supplied with homemade bread after I learned how to make it in Katimavik, but after I moved out, they got cut off from their bread supply. I like to make my own by hand, but the breadmaker solves the kneading issue for her. I got Duncan a video game. He always knows what he wants. I got Lee-Anne a book on cat language, and a book on tarot that was written by the person that designed her deck. It doesn’t cover individual cards, it’s more about how to get in the right headspace to do a reading, what the different spreads are etc. I got a tarot learning kit for my friend, who is moving away in the New Year (I’ll have to talk about this in a future post). We got Kieran three cat wands to replace his old ones, as well as two new cat toys, and Mom got him a new scratching post.

My mother got me a rice cooker, which I requested, and I apparently have a wok coming to go with it. My brother is having a set of headphones mailed to me. They also got me a coffee bean canister and coffee beans to go with it. Lee-Anne and her family got me a bread knife and a fancy chess board.

Pretty decent gift exchange. Glad to be able to celebrate a little. Despite the circumstances, I hope all of you made the most of the Christmas season.

Fires, Foxes, Vaccines, 1st Aid

Alright, I learned how to make a line break

I don't like this new system, though. You have to use code to make linebreaks and can't see images without previewing. This means that, even though you guys get to see a post punctuated with linebreaks and images, I have to look at a giant wall of text interrupted by code until I make a post. Very unsatisfying

Part of me wants to try a new site, but I have a lot of history with this one. I've been here for about 12 years. It's seen me through so many flavours of life, from my main passion being Karate (my old dojo is gone and my former sensei is a car fanatic now... lame), to being a blue collar factory worker, to being in college, to being an early graduate, to starting a home. Most of what I've written hasn't been phenomenal, but I've definitely had stand-out moments. I wrote over 200 pages reflecting on my experience in Mali, and there have been surprisingly memorable posts here and there. Like when I went for a walk in the woods with some classmates after graduating college, and we got surrounded by snakes, and then a guy drove down a hiking path in a car, and I chased and stalked him down, thinking he was going to hurt himself when he was just (probably illegally) collecting wood. There was also the time that I got to try and recreate the Russian painter Malevich's initiative to convince people that painting a black square was the cutting edge of art.

Even if I learn to navigate Blogger's new formatting system, I worry that it's just not strong enough to survive and I will eventually have to abandon it. From doing a few quick searches in an attempt to learn how to use the new system, I have only seen negative feedback and a number of people claiming that they will leave the site over this. It's a shame, because I believe this is post 852, and I kind of wanted to reach 1000

Anyway, I'll coninue using the site for now.

For this upate, I wanted to review a few semi-recent events. I keep a notes file on my phone of everything I want to blog about. Sometimes, the moment just passes, and I never get the opportunity to blog about it. In this update, I'll talk about some events that still feel relevant, and in the next, I'll go over everything I never got around to talking about before that.

My first note is "Fires". There have been a few interesting fires lately. A little while back, three Walmarts were lit on fire. Each happened within an hour of the other, and each time, it was lit from the toilet paper section. I guess people weren't panic buying like they did in the first wave, so someone had to create an artificial toilet paper shortage. Probably some agents from Amazon wanting to muscle out the last heavyweights of in-person shopping. I kid.

"Walmart is under attack" is such a wild statement, but it appeared to be true. Security picked up on the images of the culprits, but it was difficult to identify them because... they were wearing masks. I'm still very much for masks and all recommended safety precautions, but this was an unfortunate detail. Masks cover up some identifying features. This wasn't enough of a deterrant though, because the arsinists were eventually caught. Reasons for their actions were never released.

The Walmart fires resulted in millions of dollars worth of damages. I also learned that Waterloo region has six Walmarts. Remember when everyone hated Walmart? They seemed like the sole reason that small businesses were dying. But somewhere along the way, Amazon took over that position. I guess people only have enough hate in their heart for one organization at a time

My next note is "Foxes". So, since moving to the new place, I've seen two foxes. The first time, I was walking up the street, not far from where we now live, and I was suddenly aware of the fact that a fox was immediately next to me. Hip-to-hip, casually strolling next to me, as if appearing out of nowhere. It continued walking nonchalently down the street, without any indication that I had disturbed it. Some time later, me and Lee-Anne were going grocery shopping, and we saw a fox streak across the street, and we later saw it skirt around a church.

Now, this was likely just a coincidence, but it might be noted that the spirit name I was given in Chisasibi was "Fox-Man", so if you wanted to try and make this into something more, the material is there.

Next note is "Vaccines". I neglected to note in my previous COVID update that we now have two COVID vaccines on there way. One in from Pfizer/Biontech and appears to have a 90% efficacy rate, and the other is from Moderna, and it has a 95% efficacy rate. I believe we were originally aiming for 70%, so both of these excell beyond expectations. It will still be an uphill struggle though, because it will take time to produce in large enough quantities to distribute to everyone. Still, they are now being distributed to first aid responders and vulnerable populations. Even if you don't have the vaccine, every time someone in your community gets it, it reduces your chance of getting sick, so things are looking a little brighter.

Next and last point is "First Aid". I recently had to do my First Aid training. It's a good thing I did it when I did, too, because who knows when we'll have another lockdown. We all had to wear masks. In fact, we weren't allowed to use reusable masks and had to use disposable ones. We also couldn't practice on each other. I won't go into detail, but there were about eight people attending, and I knew half of them.

That does it for this update. In the next one, I think I'll go over all my older notes throughout the year that I never got around to including and explain them. Hopefully I'll know more coding by then

New Furniture, Bad Formatting

Alright, this post may be painful to read, because Blogger has just updated its formatting system and based on my experience with the Gryphood blog, I haven't found my stride with it. Linebreaks and indenting don't seem to work now, so everything is kind of just merged into a giant wall of text. Hopefully I can get things figured out, but for now, it's pretty ugly. Recently, me and Lee-Anne bought some furniture. This is the first time in my life that I've bought something that I couldn't carry home with me. Back in college and even after I moved into the townhouse, I bragged that I didn't own anything I couldn't carry on my back. Eventually I did own furniture, but only because of a combination of roommates buying it, or me taking it from people moving or being evicted. Even the mattress that I posted about some time ago, I got from Walmart because the box came on wheels and I could wheel it home by foot. The heaviest thing I ever bought and walked home was a desser. The new items we bought were a couch and two desks. Generally speaking, I'm pretty chill with my cat Kieran scratching whatever he feels like. But now that I've spent real money on some stuff I'm like "Hey... you have a scratching post". I'm using some of the money I recently inherited, which I've mentioned in a recent blog post, on furniture. It's my first investment since inheriting it. I'm relieved to say that I still don't like spending money. Long ago, I learned of something called the "financial comfort zone" which I've been kind of obsessed with and terrified by ever since. This idea is that, despite the fact that everyone strives for greater wealth, on a subconscious level, we desire to maintain what we perceive as "financially normal". This is the phenomenon of the homeless man winning the lottery and being homeless again the next year. We might convince ourselves that we're indulging, and that we are treating ourselves, but on some level we are uncomfortable with being put into a different financial state, and we're attempting to return to what we're used to. We got the new couch from a fancy rich person store called IKEA. I am especially proud because I've seen many memes saying that the true test of a relationship is assembing IKEA furniture. Our main struggle was that the couch we bought came in four separate pieces, and the instructions provided detailed how to put each piece together individually, but not how to connect them. We managed to get through the hardship, and look at our reward:

And check out my desk:

As you can see, I'm still using a dining room chair. One day I will have an office chair. We've been trying to prepare for Christmas, but it appears that the 2020 trend of panic buyng is just a way of life now. We have an artificial Christmas tree because it was donated to an old roommate who left it behind when he moved out, but getting decorations for it has proven to be a bit tougher. In previous years, I've been satisfied with a red star-shaped tree topper and some blue tinsel from Dollarama, but Lee-Anne has preferred a slightly more detailed tree. At any rate, it doesn't amount to much more than a giant cat toy:

We went to Home Depot, and we went to Walmart, and all the Christmas decorations were sold out. Also, they haven't been able to stock up on workout equipment either. A little random, but this will make it a little more difficult to work off the extra pounds you take on this holiday season. Our housemates are still missing. It's been a little over half a month since we noticed they haven't been here. A little spooky, but here's hoping they turn up soon

COVID-19 Update: Colour System

Recently, Ontario moved away from their 4 phase recovery plan and has implemented a new colour-based system. The new system has 5 stages: Green (Prevent), Yellow (Protect), Orange (Restrict), Red (Control), and Grey (Lockdown).

    I could swear  that when I first saw the chart, the final stage was Black. When I first heard the term "Grey Zone" I thought it was something like when we entered phase "3-B", an attempt to add an extra stage between two previously established ones.

    But no, Grey is the new Black. I wonder if they backpeddeled on the term because it could potentially be racialized, or maybe they felt Grey was a "softer" term, and they wanted to avoid causing more of a panic than necessary. Still, who makes "Grey" the emergency colour? What comes after Grey? Code Beige? 

    I admit, we'd better be careful, because once we go Grey, it will probably be a long while before we get out. I hear there's 50 shades of it (little 50 Shades of Grey joke for ya).

    I think the reason for the change from numbers to colours is that, it feels more natural to go back and forth with colours. When it's been stated that we have a 4 phase recovery plan, and we've made it to Phase 3, but then we have to go back to Phase 2 or 1, it feels like we have to redo our work on a project that we were close to completing. But with a traffic signal, we're used to seeing the light go from red, to green, to yellow, then back to red. It feels less linear.

    Things have not been great around here. Since the colour system was implemented, Waterloo Region started at the Green Zone, which means using an education-first approach. Signs are placed, stating that wearing a mask and maintaining physical distance is important, and there is security on public transit calling you out for not following the rules and offering free masks, but there is no real substantive repurcussion for not following the rules.  We quickly moved to the Yellow Zone, which means law enforcement is authorized to issue fines. Then we turned Orange, which I'm not going to bother looking up, because we barely touched it before turning Red. 

    The Red Zone means that social gatherings are limited to five people indoors, 25 people outdoors.  Religious services are limited to 30% indoors, or 100 people outdoors. For food and beverage estabishments, only 10 patrons are allowed indoors at a time, two metres must be maintained between tables, unless an approved barrier is in place. No dancing, singing, or live performance. No buffets. PPE, including eye protection, must be worn by waitstaff. Everything has to be closed by 10, and no sale of alcohol after 9. Music must be down to a conversational level so that people don't have to shout (spraying saliva).

    Oxygen bars, saunas, steam rooms, bath houses, sensory deprivation pods, are closed. Cinemas  (except drive-ins) are closed. There are a bunch of restrictions placed on gaming, bingo halls, and performing arts.

    I gotta say, the closure of cinemas peeves me a little.  I run a group right now, and we've been to three different establishments: an arcade, a pool hall, and a theatre. Between the three, I felt safest at the theatre by far. At the arcade, there were hand sanitization stations everywhere, but they definitely weren't sanitizing machines between uses and the setup of the location made physical distancing diffiuclt, although they did encourage it. At the pool hall, every second table was closed and everyone received their own pool cue at the front instead of getting them at the rack. There were signs everywhere saying that masks were mandatory, but only my group was wearing them. At the theatre, they got rid of the guy who rips your ticket, you have to select your seat in advance, and there are strict capacity limits. The only concern I can think of, is that it's difficult to monitor people to make sure they keep their masks on during the film. But really, is sitting in a giant, nearly empty room doing nothing all that much more dangerous than other activities? 

    Toronto and Peel Region are in the Grey Zone, meaning they are back in lockdown. I must admit I'm a little surprised. I thought that the initial lockdown was because of all the unknowns. Back then, we didn't have tests available, and when we did, there weren't very many of them. We didn't know how the virus spread or how to best protect ourselves. It felt like the governments just needed us to hide until they got things figured out. But now we have things more or less figured out and we're still requiring lockdowns. Personally, I feel like regions should be dancing between Yellow and Red. Green feels too careless, and Grey feels too imposing. But I'm not a health expert.

    Numbers are worse than ever but there isn't the same feeling of panic as there was at the beginning of the pandemic. I haven't seen any panic buying (except for sanitization wipes, still can't get those), although stores have started putting restrictions on toilet paper in anticipation of it. If we do the panic buying thing again, I really hope it isn't toilet paper. That was embarrassing.

    I think the reason that people aren't reacting to our current situation as strongly as we were before, is because we're just tired at this point, and we've survived the initial wave. When things started out,  deaths were going up exponentially and despite our efforts, things didn't seem to be slowing down. Now, we've seen things get better, and we have reason to believe things will get better again. 

    Since cases are going up despite increased precautions, it's tempting to say that our efforts are not yielding results. However, I watched an interview with Obama, and if I recall correctly, he said that Canada has 39% the mortality rate for people with COVID than the United States. If you look at the Worldometer, I think the last time I addressed where we compared with the world, we were at #14. At this point, we're #29. This means we're not just holding our position, we're competitive with the rest of the world.

    However, I'm not sure how much I can rely on the Worldometer. Right now, they have the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that was infected at the beginning, as having 40 active cases. How can that be? It's been nearly nine months since exposure.

    Also, media has been stating that New Zealand and Taiwan are completely free from COVID. However, according to Worldometer, New Zealand has six new cases and 72 active cases. Taiwan has 24 new cases and 103 active cases. So what exactly am I supposed to beleve?

Moving 2020

 Not long ago, I made the big move out of my old place. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Because of the overlap month, me and Lee-Anne managed to move most of the things that can be transported by hand, so by moving day, we mostly only had to worry about furniture and other bulky items. The most difficult things to move were my four-drawer locking filing cabinet and my deep freezer. We got the bed and our Internet set up here, so even though I still own my previous place until the end of the month, I'm set up enough that this is where I sleep and do my work.

    In my previous post, I showed images of my new place. Here are some pictures from my old place, which I took back when I was looking for a roommate. Just for comparison:

So, there are pros and cons. I mentioned that some major pros about my new place are in-house washing and drying, central air conditioning, the open-concept kitchen, two sinks in the bathroom and a double sink in the kitchen. My old place however, was about two minutes away from a Tim Horton's, as well as the best pizza and shawarma spots in Waterloo region. It was also close to a really good convenience store and thrift store.

    On the other hand, my old place was frequently experiencing crimes and gun violence. I was witness to the local convenience store being robbed, there was an incidence of open fire at the closest grocery store, in which two innocent bystanders were shot at 5:00 PM, and there was a murderer on the run from Quebec hiding in my complex. I got to see the secret service take him down. They also have the highest rate of community based transmition of COVID-19 in the region.

    I'm going to miss the community somewhat. My old place was in a spot where everything was everyone's business. Around here, I've only seen our upstairs neighbours twice, and there's no real reason to connect with anyone beyond that. Not needing to deal with neighbours is probably both a pro and a con.

    The new place is really near a well-known walking trail, and on the other side of that, a well-known shopping area. Both spots are really close to public transit.

    I'm really glad to be leaving my old place of my own volition. Most people leave my old neighbourhood because they're being evicted. My evil landlord liked to evict people frequently so he could regularly hike up the rent. When I first moved in, I was paying $940 a month. When I left, I was paying about $1000, but people moving in were paying $1500-$1600.

    Of the 48 units, as I move out, there are only two units that have been occupied longer than mine. Some things that my landlord did to make the living situation unpalletable incude:

-Trying to charge me an extra half month of rent, because even though I moved in on the 1st, he "Approved" me on the 15th

-Saying my cheques bounced for the first four months of my living there, even though they hadn't

-Consistently only having two washers and dryers working for the 48 units relying on them

-Refusing to give me a copy of the tenancy agreement

-Refusing to give my roommate rent receipts and telling his superintendants not to give them either

-Having a new superintendent every two months because he would refuse to pay them

-Refusing to fix my neighbours toilet and telling the company not to replace it (If you Google "1200 Courtland Avenue East", you should see some media coverage on this issue)

    I've heard stories of him trying to run people over with his car. He's definitely cussed out roommates and neighbours.

    As with any move, sacrifices had to be made. Let's go over some of the stuff I needed to let go of:

This picture was taken at the Donkey Sanctuary just outside of Guelph. We went here at the end of Ways2Work, a pre-employment program I took after highschool. What I got rid of in the move is the green jacket I'm wearing here. I remember, I accidentally left it at the donkey sanctuary but the owners found it and brought it back to the agency that my group was run through. In Katimavik, I brought it to a nightclub in Summerside called The Heritage, AKA the Scare-itage, AKA the only nightclub on PEI. Lost it there too, and somehow managed to get it back. After that, it developed a reputation for always finding its way back to me. I doubt it will make it back to me now, since I put it in a garbage bag and threw it into my townhouse complex's dumpster. It didn't fit me anymore, and it was held together by safety pins, as it came apart when I was working factories after Katimavik ended.

    I also threw out a winter coat that my brother bought me for Christmas six years back. We were playing a video game, and I complimented one of the characters clothing. Since I don't talk much about that kind of thing, he took notice and got it for me as a gift. I received a number of compliments for the coat, but it wore out over time and I had to get rid of it this year.

I bought these portait images from a nearby thrift store and I placed them on the landing that divided the staircase in my old townhouse. They reminded me of the old-school video game Dungeon Master where you start in a hall filled with portrait paintings of people who have died in the dungeon. In the game, you get to choose a team based on who you want to revive. When I got into painting, I contemplated making portrait images of everyone who had lived there with me, and just put them so they stared at you as you walked up the staircase. It was always a little too creepy to follow through with. In the end, I re-donated these images to the same place I bought them from.

   

I got these Japanese prints at the same place I got the portrait paintings, and they got re-donated in much the same fashion. I got these after my first set of roommates moved out and I needed to advertise for a new one.

    So that about does it for news about the move. I'd like to point out that this is my 40th post of the year, which means I fulfilled last year's New Year's resolution. Let's see how much I can raise the bar before the end of the year. The next update should be sooner rather than later, since COVID measures have been on the increase in Canada.

United States Election 2020

I try not to get too political on this blog, and really, if I'm going to be political, I should probably focus on my own country. However, this is I think the third time I've broken my rule, and each time it's been about the United States. If I'm being honest, each time its been for a specific politician, Donald Trump.

    The first time was back in 2016 when I very mildly mentioned that I was disappointed in the outcome, that he didn't seem very professional, but I wished the US luck and hoped he would surprise me. The next time was in June of this year after he opened fire on a crowd of peaceful protesters with rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash bombs.  I compared him to a demon.

    So based on these two samples, you can kind of get an impression of my political leanings. I didn't like him in 2016 and he hasn't won any points with me since, to put it extremely mildly.

    Even though the United States is not my country, it is very difficult to ignore its politics. Something like 75%  of our exports go to the US, and we purchass more from them than any other country too. They are the current world superpower, and if they ever lost that position, we would likely remain reliant on them. It's painful to say, but a big part of Canadian identity is simply being "not American".

    My lack of fondness toward President Trump is not uncommon among Canadians, although you can't really say that this is due to his lack of awareness. His "America First" policies promote a level of inward thinking that excludes nations that have historically benefited from partnering with them. This means that our growing feelings of negativity to our brother to the South is by Trump's design. 

    Some things that have made us salty towards Trump's presidency is that he initiated a trade war with Canada, he expressed interest in sending armed troops to our border (known as the "oldest unmilitarized border in the world") to stop Canadians from fleeing to the US during the COVID-19 pandemic (any soldier would be stopping Americans from fleeing to our country after how the US bungled their Coronavirus response). He tried to stop an estabished trade agreement of N95 masks to our country before realizing that without the pulp that we manufacture, and the nurses we send across the border, they would receive a net negative amount of N95 masks for themselves. Trump has said that our success during COVID-19 is due to US influence, and he's said that we want to open our borders but he won't allow it (we are horrified to open our borders to the US considering the infection rate over there). He's also reportedly ordered people to attack our Prime Minister on TV, referring to him as a "behind your back guy" 

    So despite it being the election of a foreign nation, on November 3rd I curled up with a bottle of whisky and watched the electoral vote slowly take place. I'm sure all of my viewers know this, so I'll try not to dwell on it, but things were not looking good for Biden (Trump's opposition) at the end of the night, although everything was still very much inconclusive. While Biden was ahead in electoral votes at the time, Trump was leading in swing States that were yet to be counted.

    It wasn't looking hopeless for Biden though, as there had been an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots this year, and they were estimated to lean in favour of the Democrats. This is because Biden had been pressing the importance of safety measures concerning COVID-19 which included avoiding crowds, whereas Trump had been downplaying the virus and telling people that mail-in voting would cause widespread voter fraud.

    So, pretty predictably, the day-of ballots were counted first and made Trump look as if he were winning, and then in subsequent days, the mail-in ballot was counted and favoured Biden well enough to earn him victory.

    Trump has since refused to concede his position and has demanded recounts and has attempted to sue key States for voter fraud, despite having no evidence of this ocurring.  He has neglected to provide briefings for Biden's adimistration or to support a peaceful transition of power, which is potentially dangerous to the US. Even though Trump lost, he still has power for another couple of months. 

    Oh well, even if he goes crazy and drops a bomb on someone and it gets returned, I just moved into a basement apartment, and if I stay underground for a few days, I've got a shot of surviving Canada's Nuclear Winter should the US ever wind up in a fight like that.

    Speaking of which, I just made the big move into mine and Lee-Anne's place today. I'll update you guys on that soon.

New Place

     This past Sunday, me and Lee-Anne got the keys to our new place. However, because I still have the lease at my old apartment, and because my Internet hookup is still here, I still have to work at my old place for a bit. That means it hasn't caused too much change to our living conditions yet.

I brought over a queen-sized air mattress, a blanket and a pillow, just so I could pretend I could sleep over. It turned out to be useful for planning where to put the bed though, because it's so easy to move an air mattress. My entire life, I've always put my bed in the corner of the room furthest from the door. I assumed this was some kind of ancient human instinct, as it would give a small amount of time to defend yoursef in the instance of an intruder. I'm being asked to question that logic and design choice, because it's harder to change bedsheets in a corner, and it blocks one person from getting out of bed without disturbing the other.

In a social psychology course I took, we were taught that people are more likely to be interested in cooking in places that have open concept kitchens. This is because you're still in a shared space with other people in your household, which turns it into a social activity. I got really fixated with this idea, because while I think most modern kitchens are open-concept, the one at my old place isn't.

And we have a double sink! My old place only has one sink, so this is an upgrade.

Here is the living space.

Two sinks in the bathroom, so each of us gets one. The shower is a little low for me, but I've lived in basement apartments before, so I should be able to get used to it.

We have a second bedroom!

And we have an on-site washer and dryer. This is big for me, because the laundromat at my old complex has four washers and dryers for 48 units, and usually two of them are broken because someone smashed them open to collect change. I've got to hike half an hour with a bundle of laundry to another laundromat and with my schedule and their hours, I often only have one day per week to get it done, with my ability to access it being weather-dependant. We share with the upstairs neighbours, but it's still a massive improvement.

We have central air conditioning here too, although the upstairs neighbours have control of it, and I can already guess our temperature preferances aren't going to be the same as theirs

 This year, Halloween was on a Blue Moon (when a full moon happens twice in one month), and it was also the time of year when it's bright orange. Despite Halloween being really minimal, it was the perfect Halloween moon. Lee-Anne's parents made some candy packs that I handed out to neighbourhood children. In the COVID hot spots, trick-or-treating was canceled. In Waterloo Region it wasn't, but lots of people chose not to, anyway. In my complex, lots of people were exchanging loot bags while staying distanced, like I did. Some households left out bags of candy for kids to pick up without having to come close to anybody.

I'm Rich

I think I've mentioned in the past that I've relied on a trust fund on occasion. Most significantly, it paid for my college tuition, as well as living expenses and other educational fees, such as textbooks. The fund came from one of my grandparents who sold a house he'd bought for my parents, after they stopped living there. A quarter of the profits went to me, but it was put in a trust fund, which I wasn't allowed to receive until I turned 30, with the exception of education fees.

    I'm 31 now, and me and the lawyer in charge of things were talking about meeting up so that I could receive whatever I had left. Unfortunately, that conversation happened right before COVID-19 and the province-wide shutdown. It would be about seven months before we started talking about meeting again.

    I thought I had used up almost all of my share, but it turns out that because of some shrewd investing, I still had about half of my original amount.

    For the meeting, I had to go to Toronto, so I stayed at Lee-Anne's parents' place on a Thursday and got a ride in on Friday. Meaning, I got to hit two of Ontario's COVID hotspots over the weekend. I mentioned briefly that we were in the second wave of the pandemic in my previous post. This was announced nation-wide, and Toronto, Peel Region (which includes Brampton), and Ottawa were scaled back to a "modified Phase 2" of our recovery plan. Waterloo Region, where I live, is still in Phase 3-B for the time being.

     My brother and one of my Toronto aunts met me at the lawyer's office.  They weren't there for me, they had a bit of overlapping business.

    We had to sign the papers in the lobby. The one employee that was in the office had to move to a different room, and we had to lock the door behind us. Everyone had to wear masks, and there was a plexiglass shield between us and the lawyer.

    Despite exchanging emails with him regularly since college, it had only been a few weeks prior that I had heard his voice, when we spoke over the phone about meeting. This was my first time seeing him. Honestly, it had been my impression that this man had been hoping to retire since I first started communicating with him almost a decade ago, and that our family was sort of his "last mission". In my mind's eye, I was picturing someone who was kind of feeble and done with things. By contrast, he seemed surprisingly youthful and vital.

    After the meeting, we celebrated by going to a nearby Polish restaurant. All outdoor dining because it's Phase 2 there. Luckily, weather was good, and I got to eat some cabbage rolls.

    I'm not going to go into specifics about my financial situation. I know in the title I said that I'm rich. That's pretty subjective, and I think many people wouldn't find that was the case if they knew what I had. Still... I was doing a bit better than living month-by-month before this, and now I'm a lot more comfortable than I've ever been before.

Canadian Thanksgiving 2020

Last Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. It was a little different this year due to the second wave of the pandemic. We were told to forget our social circles and just to celebrate within our own households. I was a good boy and stayed home.

My boss sent us a "Thanksgiving Turkey For One" recipe for people celebrating alone. I won't post it to Gryphood since I couldn't find turkey breast and since opted for two chicken breasts, but here's a recipe and a photo of what I accomplished:

Recipe:

1. Set crockpot to slow
2. In a bowl, mix together 1/2 cup orange juice, 1 packet onion soup mix, and 1 can cranberries
3. Put 1 turkey breast in crockpot, drizzle on mixed topping
4. Let cook for six hours

If you want to know what all else is happening in that image, it's just stovetop stuffing (follow the instructions on the package), easysprouts (turns out it was just Brussels sprouts in a ziplock bag, they don't even provide seasoning. I just added oil, salt and pepper), mashed potatoes (I used mayo as a base instead of butter and milk, so it was kind of like warm potato salad), canned gravy, and pumpkin tarts from my recipe on Gryphood.

You can look down on me, but when was the last time you put that much effort on a meal that was just for yourself?

Since Thanksgiving was canceled, it begs the question of what will happen to Halloween. Logic dictates that it isn't happening either, but don't tell that to the stores. Costume sales and bulk candy packs everywhere. Tell the Christmas people too, since the first rendition of egg nog (low fat version) is hitting shelves for the first time this year.

I realize I used a few phrases that I haven't used before on this blog. Here, I'll do a quick Pandemic Phrase Guide. It's three phrases, but they all mean basically the same thing.

Social Circle/Bubble Quarantine/Cohorts: This concept has been being pitched by scientists for awhile. As infection rates were easing and restrictions were being phased out, we were told we could exit our "lockdown" period (meaning you can only interact in close proximity with people in your immediate household), and proceed to develop a "social circle" or "quarantine bubble" of up to ten people. This means that you could create a group of up to ten, including people outside of your household, and if these people all agree not to socialize physically outside this group, it's possible to limit the spread of the infection and ensure that contact tracing is possible (don't think I've covered "Contact Tracing" in a Pandemic Phrase Guide, I'll keep a note of it).

People were really enthusiastic to jump on this concept, and most people didn't have difficulty narrowing their bubble to ten people. Even I developed one. Here, I'll share mine:

1. My girlfriend
2. My mom
3. My brother
4. My roommate
5. My best friend
6. My girlfriend's mom
7. My girlfriend's dad
8. My roommate's son

Look at that! Only eight people! I could even add two more! How socially frugal I am.

The problem is, nobody is doing this in the way the scientists intended. People are coming up with their list of ten, but they aren't ensuring that everyone in that group has the same list of ten.

I really don't want to do this to my own bubble, but for example:

• My girlfriend's three brothers and their significant others would be in her bubble
• My mom's best friend and her spouse would be in her bubble
• My best friend has at least one other friend he interacts with
• My roommate's son interacts with his mother

That's ten people I don't interact with who have access to people in my bubble and are potential viral entryways, and I'm sure they have their own bubbles. So it's not so much a "social circle" as it is a "social chain" or even "social web".

I usually only hear "social circle" by the media, and "cohorts" is a phrase usually used in a professional environment. It's "social bubble" that seems to get abused. "It's okay, you're in my bubble" "I spent the weekend in my bubble" etc.

I added Pumpkin Tarts and Pumpkin Bread to Gryphood:

https://gryphood.blogspot.com/

I'm Moving

 A lot has happened since my last update.

I turned 31. My previous update was actually after my birthday, but I had more to say about QuarantEAFy Day. My 31st went okay. I visited my family in Guelph and Lee-Anne came over on the Saturday. 31 isn't really a landmark year, so it wasn't too dramatic, although the pandemic feels in some ways like it has stolen time. My mom made me pork tenderloin with scalloped potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, and brussels sprouts, and Lee-Anne's mom made a lemon meringue pie for dessert. It was all very good. Lee-Anne also got me a container to knead bread dough in, which was filled with food from Brampton's farmer's market.

On the Sunday, there was a Pokemon Go Community Day, which kind of felt like a gift. This time it was Porygon, the artificial Pokemon. Not my favourite, not the most powerful, kinda rare but old. It did have a new shiny form and special move for the day, so that was exciting.

Community Day was actually a day before my birthday, and the Men's Group I ran before the pandemic coincidentally reopened on my birthday. We're not allowed to do much. We have to be two metres apart at all times, we have to wear masks and we can't go indoors. Suggested activities at the moment are hiking and crafting. I've already had a group get rained out. We took shelter in a local Tim Horton's, but even though we were all recent guests with coffee cups to prove it, there were only a few tables available to make sure that physical distancing requirements were maintained, and of the tables left, they were all unavailable because staff hadn't had a chance to sanitize them since the last patrons had left. So we got cast out and had to hide in a bus shelter.

Remote work has restarted at WALES as well, at a greatly reduced capacity. Supposedly, we're in Phase 3 of a four phase recovery plan, but the provincial government has introduced something called  "Phase 3 B". Feels kind of like when you have homework, and there's only five questions, but then question five is sectioned into three alphabetized questions. So you actually have eight questions, the teacher is just being sneaky.

Regardless, this means that organizations like WALES are being encouraged to reopen physically, with strict safety measures in place. This doesn't effect me as much as most of the staff because my work remains remote. However, I am now a relief staff in addition to my other duties, and last week I was called in twice. So, between the Men's Group and WALES relief, I did my first in-person work in about six months.

I'm moving. I've talked to my roommate about it, I've given my current landlord his two months notice, and two days ago, me and my girlfriend were confirmed for a place. We just signed the lease and submitted our deposit today. The housing market has been really bad for a series of years, in part because we've been turning into a commuter city for people who work in Toronto, with Stratford becoming our commuter city for us.

However, due to our two universities and our community college changing largely to an online format, many students are choosing not to move away from home. At the same time, the government took back eviction protection for people struggling financially during the pandemic, and Air BNBs have been struggling to stay in business. All these factors have caused a confused housing market and a temporary relaxation in renting prices.

 So, it's time to move.

We viewed seven places. The first place we saw was a main-level apartment with tall ceilings. We didn't really know what we were looking for, but they advertised themselves as having air conditioning, and it turned out they only had a portable one, which had been replaced and was leaving with the current tenants, and the guy was unclear about whether or not he would replace it. It said they had laundry too, but it was in a neighbouring tenant's space and we didn't get to see it or meet the person. We took a pass.

The second place we saw was pretty nice, but they advertised their ceilings as being 6'5". I'm 6'3", and my head was touching the ceiling. We quickly figured out that these listings are like guys on dating websites, lying about their height. Third place had the same issue. It also had a very strange saleswoman who rushed us out in under five minutes, clearly resented us being there, and pretty much told us she wouldn't rent to us. Weird experience. Even weirder, she's still advertising it, meaning she hasn't taken anyone.

Fourth place was a main-level with really tall ceilings, a ton of space, a low price, and in a good area. It was the first place we were excited about. We went back to my place and sent our references, and immediately got a message back saying that they had gone with someone else.

Fifth place was a basement apartment. Two bedrooms, decent ceiling height, good price, good location for transit and groceries. Two sinks in the bathroom. Very thorough application form.

Sixth place was enormous and very cheap. I think it was larger and cheaper than the fourth place. It was a one bedroom with three "dens" which were apparently too small to be legally called bedrooms, but I've definitely seen rooms smaller than those advertised as bedrooms. Right in the heart of student housing, though. Clearly a repurposed student four-bedroom that couldn't rent because of the new online education format. We liked it enough to give it a chance despite the location, but someone had put down a deposit before the viewing even happened, and the person giving us the tour said other people would only be considered if she said that she didn't want it. She wanted it.

Seventh place, Lee-Anne couldn't make it so I headed the charge. It had a shared backyard with a ton of potential for gardening. Had some cannabis plants (legal in Canada), so obviously the other tenants were into gardening as well. Basement apartment, but it was on a hill, so the backyard was level with the unit. 

Wound up getting the fifth place. There was a delay in response, so I figured we didn't get it based on how fast this game had proven to be, but I'm happy to have been wrong in this case.

By the way, Donald Trump, President of the United States, has caught COVID-19 and has been hospitalized. 

QuarantEAFy Day

 Wednesday of last week was EAFy Day. I'm sure I've covered it the past two years, but EAFy Day is an annual team building event at Extend-a-Family. Each year has a theme. Last year was Choose Your Own Adventure, and the year before was Choose Your Happy. Clearly leaning into the value of honouring choice.

Normally, because of my unorthodox work schedule, I'm not able to join committees, and we usually try to keep each of them limited to one WALES member. However, this year, because of COVID and the complications surrounding hosting an event like this, there were fewer volunteers to help organize it than usual. This, combined with my schedule being changed so drastically, and because this specific committee had a finite end date, allowed me the opportunity to sign on.

We chose our theme this year to be QuarantEAFy Day, because we've all been caught up in quarantine. We were initially upset because we usually host the event at a location outside our office, and the venues at our disposal were all closed due to COVID, despite our numbers being allowable based on the social gathering rules at the time. We wound up hosting the event in the office parking lot.

This turned out to be well-received, though. See, usually the day is an opportunity to get out of the office, but this time the office is where everyone has been held back from. It was like coming back home.

That being said, there were some people who didn't feel comfortable joining us in person, and so we made sure to offer remote options. We hosted Jackbox games online (a casual online game platform that has become popular for people who want to socialize while in quarantine), and we had a livestream for people who wanted to participate in either yoga or Thai chi. We also covered our morning press conference on a live stream for people who wanted to participate remotely. This was done in the style of a Doug Ford press conference. I was the Minister of Schedules and Logistics.

Obviously, for everyone that chose to celebrate in person, we had physical distancing and sanitization procedures in place. We even supplied everyone a mask with our agency logo on it.

I wound up in charge of mini golf, axe throwing, ordering lunch, and some public communication pieces. Axe throwing turned out to be pretty popular, and for lunch, we had EVO boxes. These are some kind of classy gourmet lunch boxes. Here, take a look at the menu:

https://www.evokitchen.com/menu/gourmet-boxed-lunches-2/

I got the antipasto platter with assorted crackers, artichoke and asiago caponata with pesto crostini, fresh fruit, summer berry snack, and San Pellegrino.

It was pretty good! Although the artichoke and asiago caponata was a little overpowering. In a strange coincidence, everyone who got the antipasto platter wound up sitting with each other.

I thought I would have to be on-site all day, but turns out, committee members are allowed to partake in activities. In the morning, I did a mural art walk in downtown Kitchener. It was cool, because I've spent a lot of time there, and I've seen most of the murals, but usually I'm in a rush or I'm distracted. It was cool to learn about the background and attention that's put into so much of what's around me. It was kind of like getting a tour of our own neighbourhood, but by someone who knows it better than you.

It was good that we celebrated when we did, because this week our Prime Minister officially declared that we are, nationwide, in the second wave, and the Premier of Ontario has put provincial restrictions on social gatherings that wouldn't have allowed for EAFy Day to happen.

Shorts, Guelph, Credit Card

Back in Katimavik, when I was moving between Summerside and Thunderbay, Air Canada lost all my luggage. Because of this discovery, I was a little distracted and didn't pay too much attention when my group came across the group leaving their Thunderbay rotation. I did however, notice that among them was someone a little taller and larger than me, and with a pin hat that had more pins than mine. Being the tallest and largest in my group, and having taken on a project to collect and attach meaningful Katimavik pins to a toque, my insequrities briefly spiked, and I silently wished to myself not to cross paths with this man again, before resuming my anxious thoughts about my luggage.

Air Canada never found my stuff and didn't honour a claim I made for what I lost, even though they directed me through it. Instead they gave me an incredibly minimal blanket reimbursement. Like, $140 for over $1000 worth of lost luggage (Katimavik's list of recommended items to bring was pricey). I made the best of it, but things move fast during Katimavik, and it was a while before I could schedule a trip to the Salvation Army, so I needed a wardrobe quick. Fortunately, the previous group had needed to leave behind some of their clothes before moving to Chisasibi, so I got to pick through their discard pile.

Unfortunately, throughout the duration of my Thunder Bay and Chisasibi rotations, I would find myself continually compared to "Big Rob", the giant man with the crazy pin hat. Turns out, in addition to the pins and physical stature, he was also the Katimavik Communication Counsel Chairman, like me, and he kept a dream journal, like me.

He also lived in Southern Ontario, and I wound up working in the city he lives in. We're good friends now.

I didn't put the pieces together at the time, but since he was the only person my size, and because I needed to take clothes from a discard pile from his rotation, that means I was probably wearing his clothes until my belated trip to the Salvation Army.

It also means that the hoody with the greyed-out skull that I gave my mom, and the basketball shorts that I've been wearing as summer pyjamas and as a swim suit for years, originally belonged to him.

So it's with a heavy heart that I must announce, after ten years of use (and never telling him I was wearing them) that I finally tore my friend's basketball shorts irreparably.

This loss was softened somewhat, when my girlfriend suggested that we go to Giant Tiger to get a new pair. For my international readers, Giant Tiger is a Canadian department store, with very cheap prices and a lot of store-exclusive brands. Because of changes to bus routes and because the pandemic has limited my movements, I hadn't been to a Giant Tiger in a long, long time. In fact, this would be the first time since the pandemic that I would take a city bus. While we were waiting at the stop, I did an Easygo text to see when the next bus would come, and I saw that the last time I'd used this feature was March 12, my brother's birthday, about half a year ago.

Anyway, I got new shorts. I have since slept and swam in them.

Not too long ago, my mother, brother, cousin and me got take-out from Crafty Ramen in Guelph. Because of this, I saw how the layout of downtown Guelph has evolved since the pandemic. Since it's mostly made up of small food establishments and specialty stores, they blocked off traffic and put picnic tables in the roads, so all the small businesses can safely abide by the patio-only rule. It's actually really nice, and it's not such a hassle for vehicles because Guelph is such an abnormal city, traffic isn't really reliant on downtown anyway.

Speaking of Guelph, they've recently opened at least six locations to buy cannabis for recreational use, with more opening soon. It was really funny earlier in the pandemic, when there was a division of "essential" and "non-essential" businesses, and cannabis dispensaries were considered "essential", despite a year earlier being illegal.

I recently got a new credit card, and boy am I relieved. I won't share my new information, except that the CV code isn't "666" like it was last time, or "666" like it was the time before that.

Twice in a row, even though the numbers are supposed to be randomized. Here's a game for you guys to play. Google "random number generator", select the range to be between  "100" and "999" and just keep spinning until you get "666" two times in a row. Let me know how long that takes you. Keep in mind, this happened to me when there was one chance over several years.

At this time, "The Devil" card was showing up a lot in my tarot readings, and one time I was at a KFC and my order number was 666. It really messed me up. But a while back, The Devil in reverse showed in my future, which means a release from the devil, and the new credit card backs me up by having a CV that is anything but the number of the beast.

Eggs, Sunflower, Cat

Lee-Anne was visiting this past weekend and stayed until Monday morning. Since we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, we made sure to celebrate each day with a hearty breakfast. But this most important meal wound up being more indulgent than either of us anticipated:  

I bought a dozen eggs, and as you can see, each one had two yolks. I've never encountered this before. I wonder if certain chickens are just prone to laying double-yolk eggs; and from there, I wonder if one specific chicken lays a full carton of eggs.

You can see from the first two pictures that of the eight yolks, I broke one each time. It was the left-hand egg with the yolk on the bottom that broke both times too, so I wonder if that says something about how I crack my eggs. I finally got it on the third time, though. Eight unbroken fried yolks in four egg whites. I feel strong.

A few weeks ago, we visited the Kitchener farmer's market. Despite having lived in a sublet near it for five months after college, I'd never actually been. It was the closest I've been to being in a crowd since the pandemic. They had directional arrows on the floors and everyone was wearing masks. We bought bell peppers, mushrooms, and zucchini for kabobs. It was weird being in a place that only accepts cash, since most places have been phasing it out. Since the pandemic, I've transitioned to unlimited debit transactions, because it requires the least amount of physical contact. Another weird spot that still requires cash is all my local laundry options.

I managed to bloom a sunflower this year:

It's small, but still a sunflower! I didn't think I'd get any this year, since insects were really harsh and a number of them died in windstorms, but this one made it! Another one survived, but I'm still waiting on it to blossom.

This year, I got a handful of Thai Dragon peppers, which felt really nice because I've never managed to grow a pepper plant that produced before. The Ghost Pepper plant died early on, and the habenero survived but didn't produce. I got regular cherry tomatoes, but the regular sized ones are still unripe and I have little hope for them. The radishes grew very well, but didn't look like radishes, which is puzzling because I'm sure I understood the package when I planted them. When I went to the grocery store, I tried to identify a vegetable that looked like my radishes, and the closest resemblance was Swiss chard. Nor idea what I should do with that veggie, though. I had a number of developing cucumber, but looks like some critter ate all of them. My celery is healthy enough and I should harvest it, and the beans never grew in place of the peas All in all, I didn't overcrowd the garden and most things were healthy. I was glad about the peppers, but otherwise, kind of a weak crop.

I'm leash-training my cat Kieran. The first time I brought him out, I'd bought a leash that fastened around the midsection but not the neck. So one time, when he got surpised, he jumped backward and out of his harness. Since then, I've got one with two buckles.

Apparently some cats fall flat on their sides like a statue when you attach their harness, because of a self-defense mechanism in the event that they are attacked. Kieran only fought the harness until it was on him, and then he didn't care. We opened the back door of the apartment, and he did not struggle with the idea that going outdoors was taboo, and just trotted out.

He shuffled around sniffing leaves for the most part, but he tried to climb a chain-link fence twice and then a tree to get at a squirrel. Good thing the leash held firm.

Visiting Grandparents and Adopting Cassidy

A few weeks ago, me and Lee-Anne visited my grandparents in Toronto. We had been planning this trip since before the pandemic, but because they are in the vulnerable age category and living in a retirement community in the most population dense city in Ontario, they were put on full lockdown and our plans got put on hold.

Toronto is now in Phase 3, which for them means they are able to accept two guests into their apartment at a time. We had to complete some documents, make sure we were wearing masks, use hand sanitizer and have our temperatures checked before being allowed entry. It was a bit of a hike between their place and the subway station, and it was a pretty sunny day, so I was sweating fairly significantly before I got my temperature checked. I don't even know if it makes sense, but I was worried that I'd raised my body temperature by speed-walking through the summer sun, and that fear was exacerbated when the person checking me said "Let me try that again". However, I apparently passed the test on my second attempt, and we were allowed to meet my grandparents.

Not only was this their first time meeting Lee-Anne, this was also my first time seeing their new home. It was really nice, with a lot of the personal touches of their old house. We had brought some potted flowers, and it turned out that they had a shelf full of flowers in front of one of their windows, with one empty pot just the right size for the ones we'd brought.

We had coffee on their terrace, and then we had lunch at their club. As an effort to help diners feel safe during COVID, there was a tray next to each table, and servers offered a choice between setting the food on the trays to maintain physical distance, or to bring it right to the table. Their club is right by a lake where some members keep boats, and so we went for a walk on the docks afterward.

The hand sanitizer there was coconut-scented. That was my first experience with scented hand sanitizer.

So now, Lee-Anne has met my mother, my brother, a cousin, two of my aunts and a set of grandparents. She still needs to meet my two more northern grandparents and one more cousin.

After this, I went to Guelph for the last bit of Summer Shutdown. I got to be present for the introduction of Cassidy, my mother and brother's new cat. I mentioned in a previous post that we had gone down to My Kitty Cafe and met some cats. After another visit and some consultation, they arranged a pick-up date, and I managed to be in town for it.

She was very shy and immediately chose a hiding spot under a table in Mom's room. We didn't get much more from her that day, but she at least came out at night long enough to find a hiding spot at the other side of Mom's room. Despite not wanting to come out in the open, she was receptive of physical touch, leaning into being pet and purring.

That's as far as she got while I was there. Since then, it's been over a week, and she is still very shy, but she has like, five hiding spots that she'll alternate between. She will eat wet cat food with the other cats, and enjoys perching in the windowsills. The older cat, Thor, just ignores her, and Blackavar is curious and social but has been respectful for the most part. She's not much interested in socializing with the other cats yet.

My phone apparently has a moist charge port and can't seem to dry or charge. But I managed to email these pics to myself before it died. Here's Cassidy:

My family sent these. In the last pic, she is relaxing in an open space, which is big improvement.

I updated Gryphood with my "Pandemic Pretzels". If you want to read the whole recipe with description, you have to click on "Read More". That's a feature of the new Blogger format, and as far as I can figure out, I don't have the option to use the layout that this blog uses. I guess this blog's format has been kind of grandfathered into the new Blogger system.

Another criticism I have of the new Blogger format, is that when I'm on this blog, there is a "New Post" button that allows me to make a new post. Gryphood doesn't have that. So the only way I've figured out to make a post on Gryphood is to click "New Post" on The Gryphon's Perch, then try to exit the page, which brings me to a list of posts from the blog, which gives an option to toggle onto my other blogs, including Gryphood. From there, I can make a new post. So if they force a change to the new format, I don't know how I'll update any of my blogs. There's got to be a way, but it's not very intuitive.

Anyway, here's the new post, don't forget to click "Read More" to see the full entry: https://gryphood.blogspot.com/2020/08/pandemic-pretzels.html

If you've got a recipe you would like me to try, and potentially publish, send it in a comment or by other means if you've got my information.