Cats Mostly

Right now I'm on my two week Summer Shutdown. This is an annual vacation that all members of my staff team partake in. There was a discussion on whether or not the pandemic would impact how we approach this time, and we decided that it would not.

Usually we have a staff barbecue to kickstart the vacation. This year, we still had a gathering, but it was in honour of a staff member's birthday, and we didn't invite our significant others. We all sat two metres apart from each other, and hand sanitizer was available.

The gathering took the form of a late lunch, and we ordered in from a place called Vincenzo's, which is a grocery store that has a made-to-order sandwich bar. It's a traditional location for WALES staff when celebrating.

Not that you care, but I feel like I finally perfected my Vincenzo's order.  Roast beef, on a pretzel bun, with provolone, lettuce, green olives, banana peppers, chipotle mayo and dijon mustard. Delicious.

Today, my roommate was finally able to get his operation done. If you haven't been following, he suffered from kidney failure, and because of the pandemic his operation was postponed for four months.

Recently, I've been helping a few people to adopt cats. One is work-centric and happened at the place that I adopted Kieran from. The other is being adopted by my mother and brother from a place called My Kitty Cafe in Guelph.

My Kitty Cafe, in normal times, is a place to drink coffee and hang out with cats, with the option to adopt being present. Nowadays, you have to pay an admission fee and have a limited time to meet with the cats. Last weekend, I arranged a meeting time.

Both of my family's remaining cats are elderly, and it is our belief that it is healthy to have a diversity in age between cats. The younger ones bring out some kittenishness in the older ones, although I've heard others argue that younger cats "annoy" older ones. Luna was intended to be the younger cat that provided companionship to her older brothers, and then she would be an elder that would be assisted by adopting a younger cat. Unfortunately, Luna passed much earlier than we anticipated.

So we need a younger cat to be a companion for the two remaining elders. Mom and Duncan managed to burn the full 50 minute meet-and-greet with the cats without forming a decision. They wanted further consultation with an expert. The person working there that day had opinions but suggested they wait for the head of the rescue organization.

So they booked a time with her, discussed there reasons for wanting to adopt and what they were hoping for. They had to fill out some weirdly-intense documentation, but were ultimately approved.

Between meeting the cats and consulting at least two cat experts, they have been approved to adopt Cassidy:

On their website she is described as "Adult female, loves head scratch, pretty relaxed, loves catnip, little shy".

Because the cat rescue organization leader needs to be present at moment of adoption, and because my brother is the official adopter, they needed to have their schedules align. This means she's not oficially coming home until August 8th. Something to look forward to.

Since this post is coming in on the heels of my last update, I will mention that if you glance below, I started a food blog. All it's got is a bread recipe so far, but I will be expanding.

Recipe Blog

I spent a lot of time last night writing an update, and somehow, it didn't publish or save as a draft. No idea where it went. I notice that a lot of things on Blogger look slightly different today, so maybe my draft disappeared with the old format.

One thing I did start last night, however, was my food blog. Awhile back, I asked for advice on what I should name it. I didn't get any suggestions, and I almost went with the achingly boring "Gryphon's Recipes", but at the last second, I called it Gryphood.

Get it? Gryph-food. Oh well, if it works it works and if it doesn't it doesn't.

I've got one post on there right now, my Katimabread recipe. I think that, even if the blog doesn't pick up a lot of traction, it will be personally useful because I won't have to dig up old recipes I found online, I can just check Gryphood. Eventually it will be like a recipe book.

It's my intention not to do that annoying thing that most recipe blogs do, where they write an essay on why the dish is intimately important to them, and they add a ton of pictures so you have to scroll a mile to get to the actual recipe. I'll have one picture of the finished product up top, I'll provide a source for where I got the recipe, then I'll have an ingredients list, then instructions, and at the bottom I'll have my essay on personal importance. No pressure to read it if you just wanna cook.

The format's really rough. Blogger doesn't work quite how I remember, but here it is:

Gryphood: https://gryphood.blogspot.com/

Anniversary

July eighth was mine and Lee-Anne's first year anniversary, and we celebrated on the fourth. At the beginning of Phase 2, restaurant patios were reopened, so we decided to try that out. This was the first time I'd been to a sit-down restaurant since the beginning of the pandemic. It might still seem a little bold of us, but it was a special occasion, and we helped bolster our local economy, darn it!

We went to Moxie's. I don't know a ton about restaurants, especially ones in the category of "a little nicer than usual, but not fancy". Lee-Anne suggested it, saying it was a slightly classier version of another nearby restaurant that we'd been to. The only thing I'd heard about it beforehand was, way back during my time in Ways2Work, when I was 19 and a half, the guys said to never bring your girl to Moxie's, because the waitresses are too attractive.

But I figured the advice of my current girlfriend outweighed some commentary from my former teenaged peers from over ten years ago. This appears to have been wise, as I did not notice anything immodest in the waitstaff, although both of our servers were male, so I guess you'd have to ask my girlfriend if they were distractingly attractive.

Making a reservation was easier than we thought. Because only patios are open there is limited seating, and since we've been deprived of the luxury of sit-down dining, it seemed like people might be jumping at the opportunity to experience it again. But we managed to get a spot on the day and at the time we wanted.

We were assured that weather would not be an issue, as the patio was covered and heated. This made me laugh. Like, how much more can you build up a patio before it gets considered to be "inside".

For the purposes of seeming "pandemic safe" it did the trick. The open walls allowed for airflow, which is what makes viruses less easily spread outside. Despite how easy it was to get reservations, the place was fairly full. Each table was seated at least two metres apart, although I think restaurants usually already do this, so that people can speak privately with each other. All the waitstaff were wearing masks. It was a little awkward when they'd ask how our meal was going, and we weren't wearing masks (obviously, because we were eating) because the person wearing the mask is protecting you from their airflow, while they are not nearly as protected from you if you are not wearing one.

They asked us if this was a special occasion, and when we said it was our first anniversary, they gave us free champagne, which was real nice.

I ordered the beef dip sandwich, but I didn't know I was supposed to dip it. I also called the au jus "gravy" and dipped my fries in it. I was into the second half of my sandwich before I asked Lee-Anne if I was doing something wrong. She told me about the au jus, and how that was the "dip" in "beef dip". Honestly, I'd read it as "beef drip" and thought it meant that the beef was so tender, it "dripped" and that the au jus was gravy to dip your fries in.

Once I did it right, I regretted having eaten more than half the meal undipped. To be fair, the sandwich exceded expectations even without the au jus. I gave Lee-Anne a bite of it, and now we've both decided we need to go back at some point, so she can order the beef dip, and I can eat it now that I know what to do.

We had a sourdough with feta and roasted tomato for an appetizer, she got the pokebowl for an entree. I've never seen a pokebowl before. It's cool. Like deconstructed sushi.

The weekend after our patio experience (which is now this past weekend), I went over to Lee-Anne's family's house. They have an outdoor pool, which I got to experience. I got to pick raspberries from their garden, and it was the weekend of the NOAH Conference.

NOAH stands for the National Association of Albinism and Hypopigmentation. I've shown several pictures of me and Lee-Anne, but if you didn't put it together, she actually has albinism! And if you don't know what that means, it means that her body is void of pigment due to a lack of melanin, which makes her skin, hair and eyes lighter. Normally, NOAH hosts a bi-annual conference in which people with albinism gather. This year, of course, social gatherings of that size have been cancelled, so they shifted to an online alternative. But I did get to watch a couple presentations and meet some of her albino friends over video conference.

As of last Monday, Waterloo Region has been issued a mask rule. Everyone is obligated to wear a mask if they are going somewhere indoors that isn't their home. Honestly, the Greater Toronto Area, and Wellington-Dufferin (which includes Guelph) had already implemented this rule, so we were a little bit behind. They have also released a heat map for neighbourhoods impacted by COVID-19. I am sort of retroactively vindicated in my paranoia and resentment toward the behaviour of my local community, because the area I live in ranks highest for community spread. Another area ranks highest for total infected because it contains a long-term care facility that got hit hard, but so far as infection caught within the public, my neighbourhood holds the title. So when I complained about the people twisting the "Court Closed" sign backward and playing basketball, when people were letting their children grapple and drool all over each other in the parking lot, when people were playing soccer in the community backyard (hitting me with a soccer ball three times while I was gardening) they were actually spreading the disease! So frustrating.

Regardless, the entire region is moving into Phase 3 tomorrow. This should actually allow for me to pick up some of my Direct Support Work, although it will have to be done outside. If everyone is wearing a mask, we are allowed to be within two metres of each other, and if the person I serve cannot wear a mask, we can still work together, although we will have to stand two metres apart.

Phase 2

First of all, happy Canada Day. This is my annual reminder that my first day of Canada World Youth started on Canada Day, so on this day when I'm supposed to be thinking of Canada, I think of Mali. The first week of Extend-a-Family's Summer Program's Day Program, of which I helped lead for four years, also happened during the week of Canada Day. So I think of our first themed week, All Around The World, as well. Kind of weird both those associations are international.

Here in Ontario, we have a 4 phase reopening strategy. In my post, Garden 2020, I mentioned that Home Depot, Canadian Tire, garden centres, and clothing stores that have an external entrance and exit were allowed to reopen. This is because we had entered our first phase of reopening. A few weeks ago, we entered Phase 2, which has allowed shopping malls to reopen with strict physical distancing guidelines, as well as barbers, single-person sports, patio dining, and we are allowed to gather in social groups of ten instead of five. Weddings and funerals can be attended in social groups of fifty.

Not everywhere in Ontario is opening up at the same rate. Initially, there was some concern that if we allowed ourselves to reopen in regions that were less at risk, they might get stormed by long-haired Torontonians craving barbers. But eventually, we did take a region-focused reopening strategy that left the Greater Toronto Area behind most of the rest of Ontario. For the most part, the Torontonians have demonstrated a level of self-discipline that has allowed us to progress at a fairly consistent rate. Durham, Halton, and York were next allowed to enter Phase 2, with Toronto Proper and Peel Region (where my girlfriend lives, and the worst-hit region by percentage) being left behind. As of last Wednesday, Toronto and Peel Region were allowed to reopen, but it turns out that Windsor-Essex has been having its own issues, and was disallowed to enter Phase 2.

My understanding is that the Windsor-Essex area has been hit mostly due to the presence of migrant workers. When we closed our border, there was some concern about whether or not we would be able to have migrant workers assist us as "essential workers". With a significant percentage of our agricultural workforce being dismantled, as well as the potentially invasive species that are the murder hornets impacting our crops, this created worry about how our local food production would be impacted.

It was decided that migrant workers count as being "essential", but because employers do not provide pandemic-safe lodging, the virus ran rampant throughout their population. Eventually, Windsor-Essex was deemed safe to enter Phase 2, with the exception of Lemington and Kingsville.

The past four days, I've been in Guelph. This is the first time I've seen my family since everything began. It's funny how everything is a little bit different city-by-city. In Kitchener-Waterloo, the hours of every open business has been reduced. In Guelph, all hours are the same, but if you go inside anywhere that isn't your home, you are required to wear a mask.

I've talked a lot about Charles Street Terminal. For the longest time, it was the heart of Kitchener. It was the place where most public transit gathered, and so did out-of-city services such as Go and Greyhound. There was an information desk, as well as a cafe and a bar. It wasn't the cleanest space, and a lot of homeless people took shelter there. After the introduction of the Ion Light Rail system, Charles Street Terminal began to be phased out. Public transit continued to run throughout the first two weeks of the Ion's opening. After public transit closed, the building was still open, but only for the information desk, the cafe and the bar. At this time, the bar was packed, I assume because everyone knew it would be closing. Then the bar and cafe closed, and the information desk was relocated, but Go and Greyhound still ran and the building was open. At this point, all the homeless people I had grown to know, as well as security and maintenance were the only people still occupying the building. Charles Street Terminal had become a de facto homeless shelter.

Eventually it was fully closed, with only a small shelter open for people waiting for the Greyhound, and as kind of a meeting space for security personelle. But even since then, Greyhound has closed its services during the pandemic. However, during the pandemic, they have reopened as a homeless support space. I find this absolutely beautiful. Until the very end, they were doing their best to cast out the homeless, and now they are trying to bring them back.

It's not a shelter though, and isn't meant to house them. Many of our pandemic responses have impacted our homeless population. Many of them relied on public bathrooms, and since all food establishments went curb-side pickup only, and since our libraries and community centres closed, those became unavailable to them. Many relied on coffee shops or libraries to charge their phones and connect to WiFi, which was their access to information. Without that, many people have been watching the world shut down and transform without a reliable source of information. Those that relied on panhandling are having a more difficult time because the streets are much more empty, and among those that are still outside, they are less likely to be carrying cash because it has become frowned upon due to the chance it might carry the virus.

So in response to this, a number of new homeless support centres have been developed, where homeless people can use the washrooms, wash their hands, charge their phones etc. The fact that they're using Charles St Terminal's washrooms as a resource is kind of pathetic though. I distinctly remember the men's washroom has three urinals and one stall, and the taps don't function unless you hold down the lever that turns it on. So if you want to wash your hands, you have to do this really awkward thing where you hold down the tap with one hand, and use the other to wash itself. Not too sanitary. City Hall across the street is also a support centre though, and that place has nice washrooms!

I've spent enough time in downtown Kitchener to know all the best public washrooms.

The YMCA near where I live is a homeless support centre, and the local community centre also offers some services. It's funny, this area never had homeless people before. Do you remember those pictures I showed of some deer I found nearby? If you look in that patch of woods now, you'll see tents scattered around.

There have been some efforts to revamp homeless shelters so that they adhere to physical distancing guidelines. "Tent cities" have opened up, which allows for better physical distancing than the current open-concept shelters. There's an area that has introduced cabins as an alternative to camps

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2020/06/14/residents-move-into-one-room-cabins-at-a-better-tent-city.html

In Toronto and in many other places, hotels, which were seeing lower traffic are being used to house homeless people. I called that in an early post regarding the pandemic.

Last month was my weekest for monthly updates in 2020. Before that, my lowest count by month had four updates, and last month only had two. I'm still on my way to reaching my goal of a minimum of 40, as this is my 26th update, and we are precisely halfway through the year as of today.