corona lockdown day 291- second lockdown day 6

 I went downtown to drop off the Rustle deposit- I didn't need to see anyone, just drop it into a slot. There was a new sign on their door verifying that there were no cases of covid in their branch, which may explain why they were closed on Monday. Maybe someone needed to get tested but the result was negative. At any rate, it was pleasant enough out that I could wear my rain shoes instead of my bulky winter boots.

I had an interview today and worked on contracts.

Made a chef's plate that we have pretty regularly some variation of beef Bolognese.

This evening I am watching elevation church praise party.

corona lockdown day 290- second lockdown day 5

 Today the locksmith came to fix the mailbox lock at Rustle and it had fixed itself, so that was good. There was a snow flurry about that time and it made it a bit difficult to walk as there was ice under the snow. 

I had interviews today and continue to make progress in the courses.

I received an email asking for support- apparently 2021's first victim:

Made Barbosa (?) tacos- quite good!

Have to tackle some more work before bed.

corona lockdown day 289- second lockdown day 4

 Today I slept in so didn't get as much accomplished as I hoped from the morning. I did get out for a walk. Worked a lot on the courses. There were only 3 new cases in Kingston today but there is some concern of a possible outbreak in a store at the mall before Christmas but as it has already been 7 days since the known infected people were there the outbreak appears to be limited so far but we shall see.

I watched an interesting documentary on South Africa while I worked.

The White Slums Of South Africa (Poverty Documentary) | Real Stories - YouTube

corona lockdown day 288- second lockdown day 3

 Today I got up early to go downtown. I needed to go to the bank for Rustle however, when I got there there was a sign that said they were closed for "unexpected circumstances". I didn't know if that meant a building problem or a covid but I was not successful in that part of the trip. I was more successful at Food basics as it was very quiet and pleasant to shop at even though they also did not have much meat. They did have the sale chickens (whole) though  and I put it in the slow cooker and it made a very nice meal. Whole chickens tend to cook the best even though I don't like dark meat, the process of cooking it altogether is better than the parts.

I then had to call the locksmith to try to fix the Rustle mailbox and I have an appointment for Wed.

Kingston's numbers have not been too bad 3-4 every day for the last few days. I find it odd the lack of reporting due to holidays in the pandemic. You would think if the pandemic was so important they would report every day.

I got a bunch of my contracts out today which was good. Still a long way to go.

corona lockdown day 287- second lockdown day 2

 So I started the day with a trip to a different dollar store as my regular one did not have James's dental picks. I don't like this other one so much as it has long narrow aisles and it is difficult to avoid people. There weren't many people except one of the workers was wearing the mask incorrectly and seemed to be coughing. But I made it through in pretty quick time so hopefully that was ok in the end.

Watched Rustle online (no inperson due to the shutdown)

Went for a walk with Christine as she was feeling low. When we came back I tried the Rustle mailbox and my key didn't fit and Todd came by as well and his key didn't fit either. He had opened the mailbox earlier in the day so it must have been damaged in the pervious few hours. I'll have to call a locksmith tomorrow.

corona lockdown day 286- second lockdown day 1

 No reported cases today- the lockdown worked. Haha- our assessment center was closed yesterday.

Last night it snowed but there was a lot of ice underneath making it very slippery to walk. I should have had my ice cleats out. I did make a very brief slippery trip to shoppers to pick up things from their regular saturday sales. I looked at their Christmas chocolate but the 50% off chocolate was still very expensive so I did not pick up any.

I did some work but have not tackled my email yet.

Made hamburgers for dinner- very easy and little clean up!

corona lockdown day 285- Christmas!

 This morning an old heritage building that was on a construction site fell apart so there was a lot of activity there. I took a walk in the morning and saw the activity from a distance. I also walked past the location of the fire from a week or so ago and saw that they had cleared up most of the rubble. You could see how the building beside it was singed. No injuries in partial building collapse – Kingston News (kingstonist.com)

We had a nice time Zooming with family and opening gifts.

Made bacon and brownies for dinner.

Last night I watched "Half Broken Things"(2007) which was an interesting story about wounded people working together to create a peaceful existence. The characters are all liars and are living a lie but they are all so likeable because of their brokenness that it is forgivable. But living a lie cannot go on forever and there are disastrous consequences.

corona lockdown day 284

 Today there were odd things missing from the stores.

Went to Metro first- while Loblaws didn't have turkey breast, Metro often has a better selection. Not today. They didn't even have any whole turkeys. So I would guess turkey is pretty much out in Kingston. We'll be having bacon for dinner tomorrow. Thank you frozen food box. (I could have ordered turkey from them if I was foresightful enough but I did not know the scarcity that there would be. I got cheese, juice and apples.

Went to Giant Tiger- James wanted a horrid kind of Doritos that they normally have in stock, but they did not. I am somewhat thankful for this. Picked up some buns to go with the bacon.

Went to the dollar store because James needed dental floss picks (he manages them better than real dental floss) but they didn't have any.

All this done in the rain and with minimal people around so I guess that was good.

There is a Christmas eve service at Rustle that I am about to leave for. Also in the rain.

corona lockdown day 283

 Today was a long day of interviews, then made calzones then worked into the wee hours to complete work I couldn't get to because I was in interviews. Things are getting rolling for the winter term though, which is good.

corona lockdown day 282

 The grocery store is where things are at. Like everyone was at the grocery store in the last few days. Partly Christmas. Partly lockdown. I went to Food Basics first thing in the morning and there was a line up outside so I turned around and went to Loblaws which didn't have a line up outside but had a line up for the cash all the way across the building. I picked up the essentials that I needed and went out the self check out (that did not have a line up). Looking on Google maps, the stores remained packed all day. What a time.

I did watch the Bach'ette tonight and while I thought I wasn't going to like it, I did like the ending.

I still have to contact our clients for the projects tonight before bed.

corona lockdown day 281

 Today was a very long day but I am hopeful that some things are coming together.

I did get a walk to Rustle and to see Tabitha. 

Stores seemed busy either in preparation for Christmas or lockdown. Our numbers were good today- below double digits. Hopefully that remains.

I made a nice chili type stew (lots of veggies to get rid of things that were on the edge of going bad and no beans)

corona lockdown day 280

While we technically will be in orange tomorrow it sounds like a full lockdown is coming on the 24th so we'll find out tomorrow what that may entail. I mean Toronto and peel have been in full lockdown and I'm not sure things have improved. 

Today I did get to go in person to Rustle and we did the gift giving. Likely the last time in person for a while.

Trying to catch up on work- have a long list of things to do tomorrow to get ready for the term. 

corona lockdown day 279

 On Monday we will move to Orange

I am not sure what changes this will make other than in restaurants and large events.

I did some shopping in the morning which for the most part was light. When I was at a self-checkout I heard a guy talking to the live cashier to say he was just in from Toronto. And I was like- dude- you don't want to admit that right now.

Made hamburgers for lunch before James went off to play pond hockey. Saw Deborah and her dog.

corona lockdown day 278

 I went to Loblaws first thing. It was a bit busy. Busier than you would expect for 8am. But I was efficient and made it in and out quickly.

I went to the online funeral for Amanda. It was pretty sad to see how all broken up everyone was.

Having fun with my new balance board. I trying different short exercise routines from youtube. It is pretty cool.

corona lockdown day 277

 Yesterday was exiting for this time I guess. James is not thrilled by the cold for when he needs to walk to school. Today is the last school day before the break and potentially for a while if rumors of the pivot to online learning are true.

There was a sudden death in the parking lot a block away. I'm guessing a medical emergency rather than a murder.

There is a covid outbreak at joyceville penitentiary- 84 tested positive

James drove out to get his award from last year in a small ceremony with just him and the coaches. I got to experience his driving. It isn't bad except the corners could be better.

corona lockdown day 276

 I made some progress on the projects for next term but have a lot more progress to make tomorrow.

In addition to Amanda's family the Rustle community suffered a loss: 

Body found near Tilton Lake Rd. that of missing Val Caron woman Amanda Oake - Sudbury.com

Amanda was a beautiful spirit who was always full of joy of life. She moved from Kingston because Ron had been working relatively close (but still was away a lot of the time) but he normally worked more in northern ontario. She wanted to learn to be a pilot.

Our case numbers were around 20 today so not looking as good.

corona lockdown day 275

 I didn't get much sleep as I had slept in so it took a long time to get to sleep. Then I had to be up early to be ready to get James out the door and for an 8:30am meeting. It was cold out but James didn't realize so he wore the wrong jacket. He now knows people who are in isolation as there was a girl in his year who tested positive. Her last day at the school was Dec 7 so they are all in isolation until Dec 21. Very hard for teenagers.

Our numbers were not good today so we are inching closer to orange. A lot due to the house parties.

I made the chicken in the instant pot and it also was dry so I have come to conclude that it was the chicken not my cooking methods that was not great.

corona lockdown day 274

 The day before the return to school. I slept in. That was nice. I had heaps of email. Took James to the hairdressers. A high risk event before he starts his high risk schooling. He was very pleased with the outcome though. I went to Rustle to pick up receipts to send to the bookkeeper. Made plain chicken in the slow cooker but it kind of dried out because it was skinless so it wasn't as good as usual. I will make the rest in the instant pot tomorrow as that is probably  better for skinless chicken. Then had a board meeting. Then worked on PM assignments. Then made the spreadsheet for the bookkeeper. Now to try to get to sleep before an early wake up for both James' school and I have an early meeting.

Update on the COVID-19 Vaccine - Dec. 14, 2020

corona lockdown day 273

 It smells really bad. The wind has picked up. I walked to Food Basics (scored some toilet paper on sale and they let me buy 2 packages!) as I was about a block away from the charred wreckage I could tell it smelled really bad (like sour milk bad not like bonfire good) but I thought when I was out of wind range it was not so bad. However after I came out of Food Basics (which is a few blocks away) I had to rearrange my groceries for the walk and then I took off my mask. As soon as I took off the mask I could smell it again. I guess this is why people in toxic cities wear masks. By the time I got home my eyes were (still are) stinging. Powerful remains.

charred

 Yesterday I walked by the fire scene and it smelled very burnt and charred. They are clearly dismantling it. It looks like the firefighters did a good job keeping it from spreading to other buildings.

I walked by Canadian Tire today and they had no more live Christmas trees. Last week they had lots. Covid restrictions on trees? 

corona lockdown day 272

 Did a short trip to shoppers in the morning, in and out of the store in 5 mins thanks to the self check out.

Received a few packages today. Amazon bundled my 2 orders together, which was good of them but I don't get the intellicom emails anymore. Not sure why.

Waiting for the case numbers to come out today to see if it is an exponential day. They have already stated 2 Lowe's employees tested positive and I'm not sure if the KCVI numbers were in yesterdays count or not. The most exciting part of the day.

Skating for James seems to so far be unaffected. Not sure what happens if we go to orange. High numbers today I think would guarantee that.

Elephants Run To Greeting A New Rescued Baby Elephant

corona lockdown day 271

 A late night last night working on the project groups and they are pretty close to done now, which is good so I tried to catch up on some other things. It means I will need to do some work to help my body reset.

The case numbers are on a rather exponential trend here, though the MOH still seems confident in his video, except for the car dealership one he thinks things are under control.

2 students tested positive at KCVI and cohorts are now isolating. We'll see if more cases come out in the next few days. James is due to go back on the 15th to the new high school. Assuming it is still open.

COVID-19 Activity in KFL&A Update for December 11, 2020

corona lockdown day 270

 While the MOH seems to think that everything is under control we have had double digit days and there seem to be people down with it everywhere. There was a case at Metro in the township. It seems to be gaining momentum and not lessening.

I did go downtown to put the deposit in, it's a bit busier downtown.

Made black bean stew for dinner.

Worked late making project teams.

COVID-19 Activity in KFL&A Update for December 10, 2020

He doesn't mention this as maybe it happened after the video was filmed but I received an email to say that someone from Module Vanier tested positive (this is at KCVI) but no cohorts need to isolate so I'm thinking that this means they were self isolating early enough. Also, I guess there are still house parties.

corona lockdown day 269

 Today I walked over to the fire scene that still had the trucks on site (I think just looking for hotspots, there was no more visible fire). When the fire people cleared later in the day, the demolition crew arrived as it was unsafe to leave in the state that it was in. Speedy work on that.

Went to an online prayer meeting and an instructor meeting. I am waiting on a lot of people for a lot of things. I am still working on project groups.

Kingston had 17 new cases and a few new outbreaks so things are not looking good for us right now.

COVID-19 Activity in KFL&A Update for December 9, 2020

corona lockdown day 268- a flame!

 It was a long day today. I went to Loblaws first thing as we needed milk also picked up some other useful things. We had our last classes in the morning. Talked to the new Rustle bookkeeper and think that is on track now as well. Worked on merging 5 different spreadsheets to begin the group making process.

Around 10pm there were a lot of sirens  and I tried to look on media for what it was but couldn't find anything. There were so many it did sound serious though. I found an article now though. Apparently a large fire a block away. Fire department battles blaze on Bath Road | The Kingston Whig Standard (thewhig.com)

COVID-19 Activity in KFL&A Update for December 7, 2020

corona lockdown day 267

 

The numbers are looking worse by the day in most locations. There is an outbreak at Kim's church.

I worked on updating the onQ site for the Winter term today. Then needed to make a copy of it for another section but alas you can only copy past courses and not future courses so I had to put a ticket in and hope that I can sort this out tomorrow. Tomorrow I also hope to make the Winter term project groups, I just am trying to understand the residence cohorting system before I start.

Yesterday I put in 2 amazon orders. When I put in the first order, it immediately broke it into 2 orders both arriving on Monday. One of the things I ordered was a 1 kg package of M&Ms. (I know that it sounds like a lot but it lasts a long time). I had been watching it on Amazon- at the start of the pandemic they were $10 but for the last few months they had been $17. They had been sold out in stores here but recently were back and $15. But this is still too high for me to purchase. So yesterday they were $12. So I gave in and ordered one.

But then James realized that his hair clay was out and the only place to get it is amazon and it had been out on amazon but I looked again (after I put in the first order) and the original listing that I had purchased from was out but a very similar looking pot was available (I only just read it and it is not the same, so we'll see what James thinks) so I put what I thought was the hair clay in the cart and guess what Amazon suggested? A 1kg bag of M&Ms for the original $10! Was it just waiting for me to purchase it at a higher price? Sneaky amazon! 

At any rate this second order is due to arrive a day before the first order- on Sunday. Their delivery speed has slowed as they must be managing high volumes.

Tomorrow I have to scoot to Loblaws to pick up some things. I'll go first thing in the morning when it hopefully will be clean and quiet. James has a bunch of hockey in the evening. 

corona lockdown day 266

 Today I got up early and went to Food Basics. When I arrived there was a long line at the cash but after I quickly went through there was no line. It was pretty efficient overall. I got juice for the week.

At Rustle Ebe was speaking and he told a story about teaching the youth group about justice. He and Al and Kat run the youth group. When they go for snack all the kids sit at the tables and the table that is the quietest gets the snack first. So on this day of the story, he and Al went and sat at a table and were very quiet. So Kat was handing out the snack and she gave the snack to Al and Ebe first and she put one snack on the table for herself for when she was done handing out the snack. Ebe objected to her sitting at the table with them. When Kat asked why he said that she smelled. The kids were getting upset at how Ebe ws treating Kat! Then when Kat went to give out the snack to the other tables, Ebe threw his snack wrapper on the floor. The kids were incensed with his actions! Thus leading to Ebe being able to talk about justice and how justice is needed for peace. I think they'll remember the drama!

corona lockdown day 265

 I ventured out shopping this morning expecting things to be a bit quieter with our high case numbers yesterday but instead things seemed busier. And people no longer seemed to follow the arrows on the ground. Giant Tiger was out of sanitizer at both the entrance and the exit.

Planning the Mexican Turkey Albondigas Stew for tonight. Thanks Chef's plate.

 

corona lockdown day 264

 Today was rainy and grey. My students were ranking their projects. The new cases in Kingston were up to 14 when we had been at a steady +3 or so for the last few days so that is not so good. I took a walk in the dark when it had stopped raining and saw the silhouettes of the crows in the "crow trees" which was a bit weird. 

There is one case at KCVI  but they say no risk to students or staff so no cohorts are isolating. James hasn't been to the school in over 2 weeks so no risk to him!

corona lockdown day 262 and 263

 Yesterday I don't think I got out much. In the evening it was announced that one of out IT guys who runs the servers would be leaving for another job. Within the hour the server had shut down. I think it will miss him.

Thursday is always my busiest day but today was the end of the Thursday training sessions, so that may change. I had to run out to Loblaws to pick something up later in the day than normal and there were long line ups. Then had a board meeting in the evening.

corona lockdown day 260 and 261

 Day 260 was rainy and dreary not much to write about there.

Today I went to Loblaws in the morning, pretty quiet and efficient. In the afternoon I went to Rustle. It was mildy rainy so I wore my rain boots but it was also cold so my feet were cold when I got home.

corona lockdown day 259

 This morning I went to Food Basics- with no problems, it was relatively quiet and easy.

Then I went to the Kingston Center Dollarama which wasn't very busy but busier than I expected. The problem here was all my own. I don't have a cold and haven't coughed at all but I have an odd sinus issue that crops up from time to time and in Dollarama, I needed to cough. Probably if I hadn't been in a mask it would have been fine as there would have been less irritants. Instead I was trying to hold back the cough which led to my eyes watering, which was not fun. I booted it to the checkout and made it out where I could take off the mask and cough it out (just one cough was enough) so it all worked out in the end somehow.

The most exciting part of the trip is that cleaning products that have been out of stock in March we in bountiful supply. The truck must have arrived in Kingston!

Then watched Elevation and Rustle online.

chilli

 Jay dropped off some carrots from the farm that he works at. Carrots just out of the dirt taste so good. They were "a bit nibbled" so they were not saleable. I made a nice chilli with them.

I went for a walk while the chilli was simmering to watch the sunset but my toes got too chilly before the best of the sunset and I had to return home.

Today a bus ran into a home trying to avoid a collision. 

Hayden is recovering from a car accident a few days ago.

At Loblaws today I did not see this display, maybe they were still working on it

Maybe it was busy as the end of the month means paydays.

corona lockdown day 258

 I woke up early to go to Loblaws. It was busier than I expected. They didn't have many of their advertised specials. I got mainly what I had planned though.

Then went to the dollar store and shoppers which were ok.

Advent calendars are dropping in price as Dec 1 rolls up.

Last night after a long time of no sinus leak, my nose started to run as soon as I lay down so I was a bit worried about wearing a mask for the shopping but it ended up ok. I did have to blow my nose between stores.

The rain started just as I was heading into Loblaws but by the time I exited, it was over. The weather is not bad at all, very nice. I will have to think of another reason to be outside today!

corona lockdown day 257

 I woke up too late to go to Loblaws but will plan for it tomorrow. Ran some pretty successful presentations. Answered a lot of questions. Made turkey enchiladas for dinner. I did bike downtown to go to the bank. There are a lot more people downtown than other places so I was glad to be on the bike to scoot down and back quickly.

A Week in Review

corona lockdown day 256

 Thursdays are always my day of meetings and this one was no exception. I am happy that the projects have launched and will do a special session with the students tomorrow to do a brief introduction to them.

I launched the peer review system and got some paperwork done in the evening.

Tomorrow I have to get our website ready for Saturday to begin next week. If all goes well I also have need of a trip to Loblaws and to Rustles bank.

corona lockdown day 254/255

 The last 2 days I have been busy launching projects until midnight both days. But they are out now, so that is good for a week.

We had a lot of deliveries today. Canada post in a white van, Frozen box by FedEx, Chef's plate in a rental van, package from intellicom from parents, package from intellicom with groceries (2 different intellicoms) I didn't get an email about the package that I had ordered from amazon- normally they let me know it is coming. Not sure what broke down in their system. Maybe the package overload.

I wore my winter boots today due to over an inch of snow.

corona lockdown day 253

 Today I got a walk in to Rustle which was nice to get out. Just needed to pick some things up. Worked into the evening. Still lots to do. Made lemon chicken for dinner. James has been doing minecraft and he has been recolouring the sheep.

corona lockdown day 252

 I got through posting most of the projects, just a few with technical difficulties so that feels good. I should take a look at my to-do list as I think I was supposed to accomplish a few other things over the weekend.

Evidently shopping malls in Toronto and Peel will close tomorrow for the lockdown so they were full today. Kind of missing the point there. That sounds like it will create a setback?

There has been snow most of the day and they are calling for freezing rain tonight. I am debating about going out for a walk as sometimes it is nice to walk in the snow.

I went to Shoppers this morning and it was out of most of its sales. I was considering the walk to another shoppers to see which sales they are also out of.

corona lockdown day 251

 Yesterday was a busy day as I'm trying to get the projects out. I went to Shoppers in the morning that was relatively busy but I went early enough that they still had sales. It was still nice outside. Today it is snowing.

I made pasta with meatballs that was good.

corona lockdown day 250

 Today they announced that we will be moving into "yellow" despite only having a few new cases over the past few days. The new cases on Friday-Monday have them concerned. I think that this only affects things like restaurants and other things that we don't go to as there were no changes to our lives in the green/yellow transitions that we have been in before.

Yesterday I reminded the students of the deadline for their assignment. The assignment was handed in into a special dropbox that would run a program to set up a peer review process. I warned them that they could not be late for this, it was very important. And how many emails did I get today with people wanting to hand it in late? Too many.

I went to Food Basics first thing in the morning. The weather is still being nice. It was not too busy. The lady at the front was reminding everyone to follow the arrows. I noticed at Loblaws yesterday people were not doing a good job with that. 

Today I had a lot of things on my to do list and I only got to the main task of getting their projects released in the evening. Most are easy to get through but when there are difficulties it really slows down the process.

Have plans for more shopping tomorrow and to work on the projects some more. I should also see Sarah as there are some documents that need to be signed for Rustle.

corona lockdown day 249

 While there was a jump in our cases from Fri-Mon, since then the increase has only been 1 per day which is better but we'll need to wait a few weeks to see the extent. We are currently still in the green.

I was up early today to go to Loblaws. It was oddly busy and the staff were oddly chatty with each other. The weather was much nicer. Today was my day of meetings as Thursdays always are. After all the meetings I made easy sheet pan chicken wraps. It was indeed easy!

Could you tell us about the fast food related cases in our region?

corona lockdown day 248

 It is colder and more gloomy so haven't been outside much. We have had a close a number of fast food restaurants due to the covid- 2 McD, 2 Tims and 1 dominos. Apparently it likes fast food and fast travels!

corona lockdown day 247

 Lots of meetings and training sessions today. Made lemon chicken for dinner after the long day. Then in the evening I worked on the schedule for deliverables for the Winter term. James' amazon order of shoes came just in time before he needed them. He went to his coop in the morning and had training in the evening. 

corona lockdown day 246

 I went to see the tree scene that my last post and everything was cleaned up but when I looked up I saw another part of the tree completely cracked off and leaning on another tree with no warning signs. I looked like imminent danger to me.

Today was mainly meetings all day so a long day. Solved some problems, still behind on others.

corona lockdown day 245

 Yesterday someone posted about migratory waterfowl able to be seen at Lake Ontario park. But today had been too rainy and windy to get down there. Not sure how the birds feel about it either.

I braved Shoppers in the morning and it was busier than normal. People were actually using the self checkout. Overall was very efficient and they still had toilet paper on sale so things are doing better even though our numbers are doing worse. 

We had 10 cases on Friday. Our MOH doesn't update on the weekend but the Ontario numbers show we are at least 7 up from Friday so things are still upward trending as we wait out the extent of the outbreaks.

It is very windy here and we try to hold on to our power- this is down the road:

I Eat Engineering Properties for Breakfast

stew beef chilli

 Made a very nice chilli with stewing beef for dinner. By the time I am through one meal clean up and dealing with laundry, it starts all over again. I try to get dishes and laundry done before I start anything else but most days it takes a while to get on top of that. After that I had to send some sample reports to the TAs and launch our Week 9. Then I tried to get through some financial paperwork. One amazon order arrived (from Mississauga). If the other 2 also some from Mississauga (as they often do) I am not sure why they can't ship them altogether. Not that I mind. Package arrival is generally the most exciting part of the day.

shoppers

 I wore my birthday leggings to shoppers. I biked and that went well. I had to pick up a prescription so while I was waiting I did my shopping. But then when I was done shopping, I could see that they had made the prescription but the pharmacist (only person there) was on the phone with someone, explaining the same thing over and over again. So I had to wait about 10 minutes for him to get off the phone, so my efficiency of getting out of the store was reduced.

They have now closed an A&W here. Covid is taking down the fast food outlets!

corona lockdown day 244

Funny amazon story- I placed an order on Friday (just after midnight) for some shoes for James that he needs for Tuesday. I also added some snacks to fill the pantry. When I placed the order it said it would arrive on Thursday. Amazon send me 3 messages during the day (because the order was evidently coming in 3 parts). The first email said the first part would arrive on Sunday. This didn't include the needed shoes but seemed to be typical of their delivery time. The next email said the second part would arrive on Tuesday. This includes the shoes so we can keep our fingers crossed that they arrive before James needs them. At this point I logged into amazon and saw that the 3rd part (that they had not yet sent an email about) would be arriving first. It said on Thursday which confused me because I hadn't placed the order yet on Thursday but it must have been holding the original due time before they sent the new due time even though they must have known at that time that it would be arriving first. Then I got an email saying that the 3rd part would be arriving today! It would be interesting to know if they all ship from Mississauga. 

corona lockdown day 243

 The birthday version. I took a vacation day and took it easy. Slept in and went for a walk. Zoomed with my parents. Overall a good day!

The cases in Kingston took a jump this week which will likely bring more anxiety out and about. 2 McDonalds are closed. They have been popular staples for people in the pandemic so it is possible that this may have larger impacts in the community, we will have to see.

My real estate agent said that most of the houses in kingston are being bought up from people from Toronto who are trying to get out of the city. She also said that building materials are short as many people are doing renovations instead of travelling.

Community update about rising cases - November 13, 2020

corona lockdown day 242

 Thursday is always my day of meetings. It went ok but was very long. I made chicken orzetto after it all was done.

James went to school but changed his internship from working with a school phys ed class to working with Ryan from hockey helping him with some admin work and the team. So that means his bubble is smaller right now, which is good. We'll have to see how things look in octomester 4.

corona lockdown day 241

 Tomorrow is a school day. Since March James hasn't needed to eat food from home and I wasn't quite prepared so had not bought anything so he'll have a bit of a challenge putting it together in the morning.

Today was another nice day and I did manage to get outside for a walk. My email is still pretty backlogged but tomorrow is all day of meetings again.

MOH advice

James is back to school tomorrow. Guess that is essential!

corona lockdown day 240

 Today was another beautiful day and I made a point to get outside as I was not able to yesterday. At lunch I biked to the bank to pick up some paperwork for Rustle. I wore a mask in and they greeted me by name but then in order to give me the paperwork, they asked me to pull my mask down to confirm that I was me. I found that a bit odd. I spent some time in the backyard as well.

James had a lot of training today. Octomester 3 starts for him on Thursday. Unfortunately, we have had an elementary school close thanks to covid and one case in a high school today. So we'll see how octomester 3 goes.

corona lockdown day 239

 Today was a very long day with lots of meetings but we got through a lot of things, just my work is building up while I am in meetings. So not much to report as I didn't leave the house even for a breathe of fresh air.

corona lockdown day 238

 I had a laugh at this:

I took on Loblaws at 8am and it went well. Rustle online at 11am. The in person 11am was full. Christine said she needed to wait outside (but they did end up having space). Maybe this will inspire people to arrive on time. At any rate, it worked for me to be online. Funnily they muted Todd when he sang happy birthday as they thought his voice was too bad. Hahaha.

In the afternoon I biked to Rustle to pick up the bills. They are changing our account to need 2 approvals to pay the bills so I am paying them quickly before the new account features are activated.

Made peameal bacon. The frozen box was ready to ship in the next few days but I still have frozen things in the freezer so I went in and found out how to delay the box so I was pretty pleased with figuring that out.

corona lockdown day 237

 Happy anniversary to my parents!

Today I went to the grocery store for the first time in a week. I went relatively early and it was not too busy. I also went to Shoppers and they still had some of their sales, so that was good. Pretty successful trips. Kim came over and we went for a neighborhood walk. One of the houses a few doors down went on sale today and despite the high price and the lack of a sale sign the house was hopping with viewings. 

corona lockdown day 236

 A day with many meetings. I still need to write down all the notes. Took a walk after the meetings in the Strathcona area. Made Italian sausage risotto for dinner. I am hoping to see Kim for a walk tomorrow.

I have a number of work things to do on the weekend as well as getting some groceries.

corona lockdown day 235

 Today was a day of meetings as Thursdays usually are. This one was more meetings than usual. I only had a short time to make pasta and heat the sauce at one point in the day Tomorrow is better but likely my tasks are backlogged from all my meetings today.

During one meeting out of the corner of my eye I saw a thousand legged millipede and had to scramble to kill it. Really don't like those things- it was big!

corona lockdown day 234

 Today was a long day of meetings and tomorrow will be another one as Thursdays normally are. I did get a walk in at lunch. The weather was very nice!

Made pizza meatloaves for dinner!

corona lockdown day 233

 Today I did manage to get out for a walk. I had a training session from 5-7, wrote lots of email in the evening. Tomorrow have lots of meetings in the morning.

On my walk I saw a truck delivering chef's plate but on their website Tuesday is not an option for me to select for delivery. But a lot of houses in my neighbourhood seemed to be getting deliveries and Tuesday used to be my delivery day so I'm trying to understand the system. But glad that other people are enjoying chefs plate.

corona lockdown day 232

 On the day of a project submission it is always a busy day. I had hundreds of emails to get through so it was a very long day- 12 hours or so, but I got through a lot of things so that is good. I didn't get outside at all. Simple dinner of chicken and rice. More work than anything today! 

corona lockdown day 231

 I was woken up early. I had been planning to walk to Metro as it was to be cold and rainy but as it was just windy, I biked and managed to keep control of the bike! I picked up some good meat and so can freeze a bunch. 

I watched Elevation church and Rustle online.

Did a bunch of registration work.

Dinner was a whole chicken and it was early as James had a 7pm skate. James had pasta a bit before the skate. James got a puck to the knee so was limping when he came back.

corona lockdown day 230

 Halloween today and I did not expect any kids as we normally never get any and with a pandemic I expected less to be out. However, one did come while I was making dinner. I was not prepared so we did not open the door.

Dinner was Mediterranean Feta. It was a more complicated meal that others recently. The freekeh cooked in one pot. The chickpeas were on one tray in the oven and the other tray had the feta and pita chips. The pita chips were really good. The freekeh was mixed into a salad at the end. It all turned out very well.

Stores were preparing for Christmas and I was wearing my Winter jacket. I have gotten used to the plastic cups inside my mask and don't think I could go back to the old way of wearing the mask. I thank Karrie for posting this tip on Facebook.

Kingston has moved to "green" covid status for Halloween despite there potentially being an issue in a nursing home and a school. We'll see if we keep it into next week!

corona lockdown day 229

 Today was cold so I had to crack out the winter jacket.

I worked on course enrollments today.

The amazon package has arrived in halton hills so I'm expecting it to arrive here tomorrow. I am interested in where it started from as this sort of order of supplies has been arriving in a day or so more recently.

Here are some recent chef's plate meals- black bean soup last week:

Turkey burrito bowl yesterday

Meatball soup today- very tasty!

The chef's plates always have expiry dates but normally all the bags in one box have the same date - not this time! Luckily the burrito bowl was the one I made first and it had a date of Oct 31, I think due to the pepper and the rest were Nov 3.(but won't last past Oct 31 anyway)

I went out for a walk after dinner and the moon was very bright. I tried to take a picture but this doesn't do it justice.

corona lockdown day 228

 I forgot to note yesterday that I saw a black squirrel chasing a bunny in the yard. If was pretty funny. I always thought the squirrels and bunnies ignored each other. I went out and told the squirrel off but I don't think it cared.

On Monday I placed an amazon order of supplies. On Tuesday I got an email that 1/2 of it had been dispatched and would arrive on Saturday but every time I log in it shows no updates and I can't even tell where it has been dispatched from. On Wed I got an email that the other half had been dispatched and it arrived today. It was sent from Mississauga. I wonder where the other one is coming from now? The things that I ordered from the Tuesday email also normally come from Mississauga so I am curious. I guess I'll find out on Saturday!

I didn't go anywhere today but managed to get an assignment released so that was a great accomplishment.

Made turkey burrito bowl tonight- it tasted good and was easy to make. 

James prefers steak in the instant pot to steak from the slow cooker, just so you know.

corona lockdown day 227

 Today was a lot of meetings and emails so I didn't get to the things I had planned but tomorrow is a Thursday without so many meetings due to it being reading week so I am hoping to get ahead. 

It was still ok enough to bike this morning so I went to the post office to mail the GST forms, went to the bank to drop off the deposit but ran into difficulties as NA paid in coin rolls and they wouldn't fit in the deposit slot. So instead of the deposit taking a few seconds, it took much longer as a lady had to help me even though they weren't open yet. Next time I will break the rolls open so that the coins will fit. Also made it to food basics as James needed meat for dinner. I've grown used to the mask extender and don't think that I could wear the masks without it now. It can cause condensation on my face if I talk too much though.

corona lockdown day 226

 Today I managed to get the assignments out and used some new tools in our website. In the morning I went to Giant Tiger to pick up a few groceries. Then went to Rustle to pick up the deposit by bike. It was cold but not too bad for biking so it was a good trip. But in the afternoon it snowed. I'm not sure if I'll be able to bike tomorrow. I need to go downtown to mail the GST submission.

corona lockdown day 225

 Today was like a Thursday as it was a lot of meetings and we are still working on calibrating an assignment so it was a busy work day. It was rainy and gloomy so I didn't run my errands or even leave the house at all.

I finished up the Rustle GST submission and hope to get that out tomorrow. I'm hoping the weather is better tomorrow but I'm kind of doubtful.

corona lockdown day 224

 Today ended up being a pretty long day. I woke up late and went to shoppers as we were out of eggs. Watched a variety of online church services. Made pasta with meatballs and peppers for dinner. Did a lot of work reviewing calibration of assignments, which went well but took a long time. Now it is over to my lead TAs to do the final review. Tomorrow I have to take the Rustle deposit in. Hopefully it is not too cold so I can still ride my bike and not have to wear my winter coat!

I also in all this managed to discover "inspector wexford" murder mystery. Also British but I didn't like it as much as the midsomer murders.

corona lockdown day 223

 I woke up early today to take a trip to no frills early in the morning before it got too busy. I was not impressed with it on a couple of angles. They didn't have the selection that I went for and their covid precautions seemed less than other grocery stores.

I now seem to be more used to the mask extenders as I didn't notice it today. There was so many other things to freak out about instead. Overall it was a disappointing trip.

I stopped by to see Sarah on the way home and it was nice to catch up.

Tomorrow I need to work on reviewing the assignments to get them posted after Rustle.

corona lockdown day 222

 Today was a beautiful day out so I took advantage my taking a few walks, one to a neighbourhood I had never walked before.

I made chipotle black bean soup for dinner- another good selection.

This headline bothered me today from the grammar side:

corona lockdown day 221

 Thursday is always my day of meetings so are a long day.

James has lost most of his masks. They are like gloves!

Made Japanese pork rice bowl for dinner, very good.

corona lockdown day 220

 Today was a long day but things are on track with the marking so far. Tomorrow is a day of meetings. Today I made turkey paprikash- it was very good.

corona lockdown day 219

 I took a walk today and noticed how quickly houses sell in my area.

I also found midsomer murders on amazon prime video. May just be worth signing up for!

James is off to a billet house for a few days to finish out his Trenton skate.

corona lockdown day 218

 Today was 4 years from when Brooke passed away. I made brownies in remembrance.

I took a vacation day but still had some email to attend to.

I went to Loblaws in the morning and it was actually quite busy, which I found surprising.

I managed to clean the bathroom which has been a long time coming. And did a lot of dishes and laundry. It was good to catch up.

corona lockdown day 217

 In the wee hours, the smoke detector battery died. They always die in the wee hours don't they? So I slept in again in the morning. James had a bad night as well.

I caught Rustle online. A good thing as the in person was pretty much at capacity.

Made peameal bacon with rice and veggies today. Am liking it as it is not greasy like other bacon.

I made it out for a walk today and had to do some work relating to academic integrity issues.

corona lockdown day 216

 Today I slept in until 9am! I worked on washing dishes and laundry as well as cleaning up some things from the garage. I also ran the copycheck for the course.

I found another channel for midsomer murders and this time I went back to the very earliest episodes. While I had been working through season 7 on the other channel, The new channel had the first 2 episodes and they tackled much more difficult topics for the murder scenarios than season 7. They looked at incest and transvestites. Interesting to see how it has changed.

corona lockdown day 215

It was a long day today.  I went to Food Basics before my first meeting. We were working on course progression and I also needed to get some marks out. In the evening I was working on the groups for the second half of the term. I had to bike to Shoppers twice today as the prescription they said would be ready at 9 was not ready. This meant biking through the student village. I have never seen the student village so quiet on the Friday of homecoming. Homestaying it is.

Also the Midsomer murder channel that I was watching got shut down. Maybe a copyright issue. But it is likely another one will pop up sometime.

corona lockdown day 214

 It turned out to be a very nice day today despite the forecast for all rain. Very enjoyable to be outside. I made it to Giant Tiger and then biked down to drop off the Rustle deposit. Make a pasta bolognese for dinner and worked a lot in the evening doing some timetabling and review of course material.

corona lockdown day 213

 Today I went to Loblaws first thing. I used my new mask extender (a piece of plastic under the mask to keep the fabric away from your mouth) Karrie posted about it on Facebook and I ordered it from amazon. When I purchased them they were $9 but now the price is $13. Watching amazon prices is always interesting. The extender only works in one of my masks as the others are too small. It took a bit of time to get used to but seemed to make it a bit better. I picked up some autumn cupcakes.

We had a faculty meeting in the morning where I worked on our notes from the training session yesterday.

Made spicy sriracha meatballs for dinner.

James has a billet home for next week with some other Trenton players but he'll be sleeping on the couch. Just for one week.

corona lockdown day 212

 I spent the day catching up on email, preparing for a training session and preparing for new courses that start soon. The training session ended at 7pm and I made tacos. Then did some laundry and watched the Bachelorette. James does not have another billet and he is not sure how many more days he will be skating out there for. We'll know more in a week.

corona lockdown day 211

 I biked to Metro first thing today. As it was pretty much the only thing open in Kingston I thought it would be busy, but it was not. We were out of bananas but I picked up some juice and cheese that was on sale as well. I caught up on Rustles finances, washed dishes and did laundry. I planned to do more things but I guess was not efficient enough. Also was distracted by a Midsomer murder:

corona lockdown day 210

 Today was probably the most exciting in the pandemic. I hosted at Rustle. I went to see Christine after as she had asked me to do her taxes. Then we did a family zoom. I still had to do some work, not a huge amount.

corona lockdown day 209

 It was very nice out this morning, a nice warm morning. I biked to Metro for 8am and it was super quiet and very efficient, not what I expected. They are open on Monday though many other grocery stores will be closed.

Then for 9am I made it to Shoppers. They already did not have many sale products despite only being open for an hour. Maybe they didn't have them to begin with.

Then I did some work in the garden to try to cut back a bush 

There had now been a case at KCVI. As James was not at the school he is not at risk. He also changed his courses before this announcement so that he has octomester 2 off as well. We'll see what the next weeks bring.

corona lockdown day 208

 Today I was trying to wrap up everything from the week and was not fully successful but am hoping to take most of the weekend off. Today I walked by Loblaws in the evening. Remembering the lineups at Easter I was wondering how things looked for Thanksgiving. While the parking lot seemed busy there was no lineup. Maybe things will get busier as we head toward Monday. I am almost out of juice so I will need to go out tomorrow. Not looking forward to that!

corona lockdown day 206 and 207

 On Wed I went to Rustle for some filming and then worked on launching the course for the week. Thursday is always my day of many meetings. I caught this rainbow over rustle:

corona lockdown day 205

 Today started with a trip to the dentist. Their waiting room had been completely stripped and there were just some plain easy to clean chairs well spaced apart. Normally I have to wait some time but not this time. I was whisked into some plastic tent that they had set up around the dentist chair. My hygienist is very good and I got to catch up on what her family is doing in the pandemic so that was nice. She is pretty worried about the pandemic and was glad to hear that I was working from home instead of on campus.

I scooted over to Shoppers after to pick up some buns for dinner and it was pretty empty. Very different than a sale day!

I made nitrite free bacon for dinner with the buns.

Our streaming server went down meaning no course videos would play, which was frustrating for students.

James told me he likes something called "crispy chicken" which I will now have to buy when he sends me a picture of the package. He's branching out in his tastes! The ice was ruined today as the zamboni broke down and poured hot water on it so they couldn't skate. 

corona lockdown day 204

 Today was a long day with lots of meetings. I hopped out to Rustle to pick up the bills. I biked through the Oak st path to get there that always makes for a nice bike ride. It was much busier than normal.

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, the most dangerous thing so far in the pandemic!

Today there were no cases reported.

RMC is sending all their students home, despite having successfully formed a covid bubble for all these weeks (I think they arrived in August and all quarantined for 2 weeks before they started activities)

sticker

 Because of the corona I guess they aren't mailing license sticker renewal packages and it seems it is not a requirement to renew, but this seems strange to me. I feel like I should still renew?

I watched a few more episodes of the midsomer murders as I really quite like them but as they are on youtube I am watching them out of order (in whatever order youtube deems to give me) and the actors from season to season seem to change which startled me a bit. They all seem good but Season 11 is so far my favorite.

corona lockdown day 203

 I did some shopping this morning, things were pretty light so I was pretty efficient. The three locations I went all had toilet paper. And 2 of them had it on sale and still had the sale ones, so it currently is not as bad as the last shortage. Some places are also starting to have hand sanitizer, so improvements there. I picked up a bunch of cozy socks in anticipation of the cold weather.

One school in the Kingston area has reported a case that is likely not related to Queen's.

Now that covid testing is appointment only that should reduce the number of tests to allow the labs to "catch up", will this mean that the case numbers will go down?

corona lockdown day 202

 I ventured out to Shoppers as normally they have sales on Saturday. Only to find that the sales start on Sunday this week. It was pretty busy and they did have toilet paper. I'll need to read the flyer more carefully to avoid wasting a trip. I biked down in the Queen's area and there were lots of people out and about I guess enjoying the nice weather. I have laundry hanging out, it is nice to still be able to do that.

Last night I had difficulty falling asleep so I watched an episode of "Midsomer murders" that I quite enjoyed.

corona lockdown day 201

 Today I did a lot of content work and we had some training sessions. I am behind on my email though so will need to do a lot of work in the weekend.

Today I got out for a walk after a week of rain and being inside.

The numbers this week have been high. Most of the numbers in Kingston have come from our students, which isn't good but our numbers are still pretty low here. However, the panic buying happened again. We'll just have to wait a few weeks until it normalizes again. I guess. We never balanced out for cleaning products or hand sanitizer so we are more in the hole there.

The rules have changed for households meaning that James is no longer in our household as he is living with the billets and the rules are no more social circles. So his hockey camp rules mean now that if he leaves he will need another covid test to go back. So he is staying in the bubble. Likely a learning experience all around.

corona lockdown day 199 and 200

 Yesterday I worked until 2am trying to get things set up for today as we release our new course materials on Thursdays. On Thursdays we also have our training sessions and today I had a board meeting in the evening so it was a long day.

James had a difficult day as the son of his former coach passed away suddenly and it affected him quite a bit.

corona lockdown day 198

 Today was a rainy day but there was a short part where I could hang laundry. It didn't dry completely.

My computer had technical difficulties and I had to get it restarted to work again. That took a surprisingly long time.

Yesterday I forgot to mention that I tried a different type of mask for Rustle as the last time and hour in my shopping mask was a bit too much so this time I tried a more scarf-like one and that was a bit better.

Tomorrow I have a chefs plate box and a frozen box arriving so that is something to look forward to. The most exciting time of the week.

corona lockdown day 197

 Well, today was bad for the numbers and our numbers in residence are growing so not good things.

But other than that work went well, I biked downtown to drop off the rustle deposit. Made lemon pepper chicken from the frozen box. Rustle had  a prayer meeting in person with 7 people. Those were the good things.

corona lockdown day 196

 Rustle had its first in person service at 9am today. I slept in and needed to pick up some things for James so I opted for the 11am online service.

I went to Giant Tiger which was pretty quiet and enjoyable to shop quickly and efficiently.

James has decided he likes ketchup chips. He also is really enjoying Trenton. They are in a hockey bubble and so far so good. 1 week down.

Generally when I order the chefs plate there are many dishes that are not acceptable for my picky tastes so it makes it easy to pick the 3 that I am ok with or like. I have a week in late October that I am having trouble with the decision though so I thought I would talk through it here. These are the options:

1. Spicy Korean beef tacos- I have made these before and they were ok but I like to try making new things

2. One pot Italian meatball soup- this looks yummy and have never made before so it makes it a YES.

3. Peanut satay chow mein- I don't like peanuts

4. Pan seared chicken and bacon cream sauce- has mushrooms which I hate

5. Souvlaki style pork chops- I think I have made this one before- I found the pork chops pretty tough so not high on my list of approved meals

6. Diner burgers and oven fries- not too keen on burgers

7. Mediterranean baked feta with spiced pita chips- a good possibility but the last time I made a feta dish I overcooked it and it wasn't as good as it could be. If I get this I need to watch the stove more carefully.

8. Creamy cheese and pepper pasta with cauliflower- I think I have made this one before and it was good

9. Naked turkey burrito bowl- I've had a number of their burrito bowls before and they are ok. Not sure why this one is called naked

10. Refried bean and sweet potato burritos- other people in the family object to sweet potatoes

So other than #2 I don't know which way I am going with this week. Let me know if you have thoughts for me! Note that there are more choices than in the past and now 4 veggie options for vegetarians. I have referral codes if you want to try it, just let me know!

corona lockdown day 195

 My green bin was visited by a racoon last night. It was spilled all over and there were tiny little hand prints so I could tell who it was!

I went to Shoppers in the morning and they were out of TP again. I guess moving into the yellow with 9 active cases does that.

It was a beautiful day so I walked to Rustle to pick up the financial things. I have been doing mainly biking but thought it was so nice I would walk. I could tell I had not been doing much walking as it tired me more than it used to. After Rustle I walked to 661 Montreal which is going to be the new housing hub for the city. It is still under construction. I found the K&P trail right by it with lots of needle disposal sites. I walked a bit of it.

Made a nice stew for dinner.

On the breakwater park cams it seems as though police are patrolling it in the middle of the night.

corona lockdown day 194

 Today we had a number of training sessions and I had meetings. In the evening, I made new nitrite/sugar free bacon and it was WAY better than regular bacon. I'll never go back! It tasted much better than regular bacon. I worked in the evening to get report marks out.

James did a golf tournament today after his skate and he did all 18 holes with his team. First time golfing. He had fun.

corona lockdown day 193

 I was up early today to get laundry and dishes done before we had a meeting about how things will look for the winter term. Then there was a couple hour break before my next meeting so I biked over to lake ontario park. It was a nice day and nice at the park so very refreshing before hours of meetings. The meetings finished about 6:30 and I made some chicken from the frozen box with rice and veg.

James texted that he has eaten Jalapeno and cheddar doritos and was not sure if he was going to survive. I was impressed that he ate more than one but I really don't understand the flavor.

There is a positive covid case in our residences but not on one of my kids floors. They are scaling back the people allowed to get tests I guess because too much testing was being requested. However, I think for peace of mind it was always nice for people to get tested if they were worried.

corona lockdown day 192

 Today was a lovely day outside, I thought about popping down to Lake Ontario park but with so many meetings and a test running today I was not able to get away.

James got a slight head hit skating today but seems to be ok.

My pom pom flowers have not turned white yet. I am wondering if that is still going to happen?

corona lockdown day 191

 Today I dealt with a major technical issue for the morning when I had hoped to be working on the timetable but I did complete the Winter timetable plan in the evening, which felt like a good accomplishment. I still have to transcribe it all into the Registrars spreadsheet which will take many hours but it is good to have the plan done.

James seems to be having a good time. There are only 4 defencemen at his session in the camp so he gets quite a work out.

corona lockdown day 189 and 190

 I slept in on Sunday and didn't go to the in person service. James packed his bag in the last hour before he left so he did forget a few things. He is now in Trenton with a nice family and a boy about his age. He was a bit concerned about it being awkward but the other boy is very friendly so I think things are going ok. He made it through the first day at least.

Squirrel Freezes after Feeding on Fresh Snacks || ViralHog

corona lockdown day 188

 Today I tried to catch up on email.

The covid test result site was down most of the evening but just came back up and James' result is not yet available.

He has a billet family and the son evidently knows James so that should be nice for him.

The rules are very strict for the hockey bubble and everyone is aware how tenuous this is. Kingston is still not doing badly  with only 5 active cases but Ottawa nearby seems to have a lot of problems right now.

corona lockdown day 187

 Today was a day of many meetings all day long. But I think many things were accomplished. 

The Kingston cases took an interesting turn as a Tim Horton's shut down indicating an employee tested positive but the Health unit indicated that it had no such test. So there were some discrepancies there.

We have a confirmed Queen's student and walmart employee case and I think 1 health care provider in the last week but no increase today.

James logged into the test site today but his test is still pending.

corona lockdown day 186

 I suppose today was an interesting day in the covid landscape as James needed to get a test for the camp he wants to attend next week. With the return to school and some schools needing negative tests and a walmart employee and queen's student positive, this seemed to lead to an upsurgence of test needs and so the lineup was 4 hours long. He made it through eventually but had hockey right after and he did not play well as he had been standing for 4 hours and had not eaten much. Thanks covid!

Weeeee! Funny jumping trucks

corona lockdown day 184 and 185

 These 2 days I have been buried in email and haven't gone out much.

Yesterday James and I made a quick trip to the bank machine that he used for the first time. It was hilarious to watch him through the window in this foray into adulthood.

The COVID cases in Kingston have begun to creep up. We had a walmart employee test positive and so there will probably be a lot of hysteria at the testing center. Today the line ups were all the way around the Leon's center and it is a big center. James needs to go and get tested tomorrow to be eligible for the camp at Trenton on the weekend so hopefully that will work out and I'll update on the wait time later.

corona lockdown day 183

 Today I went to Food Basics first thing in the morning. Weirdly it was very busy. The busiest time since I've been in the pandemic. Most of their sales were sold out as well so I'm not sure what everyone was doing there! There was only one cash open so the line was a whole aisle long to get out. So I spent a lot more time in the store that I had in many month. So that was not a great experience.

Our outdoor service was cancelled due to rain and instead it was an online service instead.

corona lockdown day 182

 Today I woke at 7am because I had left my alarm on but this was ok as I wanted to do some exploring of the Rideau trail. I had carefully looked at all of the maps to find the entrance and it was good that I had otherwise I likely would not have found it. It took me about 30 minutes to walk there (I didn't bike because I wasn't sure where I was going or if there would be any bike parking (there were some signs that I could have parked at so that was ok) The other disadvantage to taking the bike means that I can't do a loop as I would need to retrieve the bike.

At any rate, I walked out bath road to the intersection point. I walked the way that it had indicated on the map and found I was following some deep red arrows  which I interpreted (I think correctly). It was kind of interesting to be a trail like this in the middle of the city. I only saw one other person on the trail and it was a jogger, which was weird as the terrain was not really jogging friendly. The first bit was pretty open- there were some additional blue trails that seemed very overgrown- they were supposed to be loop trails  but I did not try them. Then the trail veered to the right and it was much more closed in and muddy, which I wasn't expecting. The end bit was VERY overgrown and then it spit me out onto Parkway Street, then I turned onto Princess and walked home stopping at Shoppers on the way.

Then I biked to the other shoppers. Gatorade was on sale. Now just preparing for my training session at 2:30

corona lockdown day 181

 At 5am I woke as there was some animal screeching. There were dogs barking. I am not sure what happened but I did get back to sleep until 7am.

Yesterday there were so many meetings but today was a bit better, only 1 training session. I have another one tomorrow. I managed to get a bit caught up on email.

corona lockdown day 180

 a long day of preparations, email and organization.

chef's plate is on meatball week as there were 2 meatball dishes. Meatball soup today.

at the end of the day I read this with sadness as Izzy was one of my project managers

https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/queen-s-remembers-isabelle-brisson

corona lockdown day 179

 I took a walk this morning before work started and then spent the day getting everything rolling.

James went to school today as he had to fill out some paperwork. He has the first octomester off but will be returning for a final year. He saw a lot of his friends which he enjoyed.

We are now starting to work toward scheduling for the Winter term.

My amazon order that I completed on Sept 5 and that amazon said would arrive Sept 4 that shipped on Sept 6 and immediately ran into unforseen errors and may only arrive on Sept 11 arrived today Sept 8!

corona lockdown day 178

 Today was a very long day as we geared up for day 1 tomorrow. I went to Loblaws in the morning. Then biked to Rustle. There was a van in our parking lot with its door open. I don't know why I'm guessing someone had gone through it. I spent a lot of the day answering email or writing email. I biked over to see Sarah as well. Have lots of financial things to sort out for Rustle this week.

corona lockdown day 177

 Went to Loblaws first thing in the morning, then biked down to the waterfront to see how the pier was locked up. There were some scattered people by the waterfront. Nothing to worry about. There was fencing all around the pier. As I biked down there was clear evidence of some parties the night before but not like it normally was in previous years, so things have scaled back. But have they scaled COVID level back? We'll only know in a few weeks. For now Kingston is holding tight.

Rustle service was online but we are looking to try an outdoor service next week.

Had lots of work to do to get the course up and running. Things are indeed progressing slowly but they are progressing.

I had ordered from amazon- James needed a new charging cord for his phone as his current one is damaged+a new bamboo mask + some pringles. I got a notification that it shipped today. Then I got a notification a few minutes later that there had been unforeseen delays so who knows what that is about this time!

corona lockdown day 176

 Went to Shoppers in the morning and it was a pretty successful visit. I did some things around the house during the day. The laundry dried well but I had to get it in before the rain. Made peameal bacon for dinner. Liked it a lot as it is far less greasy than other bacon and it tasted good. Worked for a number of hours in the evening, still trying to get the course ready to launch! There was some party noise in the evening but that seems to have dissipated now.

corona lockdown day 175

 Today was a long day of emails and working on the course. I got the gradebook and dropboxes set up and we are almost ready to launch the course but it was a long haul and there is still a lot to do.

I did go to Food Basics in the morning and it was the best experience there so far in the pandemic as it was relatively quiet and there was more than one cashier on so I made it through pretty quickly. Even bought a bit of meat, which is rare. There wasn't much good there but they had some pepper steaks that James likes.

At the pier they have started enforcing the 9pm curfew as they said that people had not been physical distancing. So they have enforcement of distancing during the day as well, somehow.

While yesterday did not seem to be a good laundry drying day, today made up for it. There was a good breeze and sunshine.

corona lockdown day 174

 Today was a day spent mainly in front of the computer. We ran a training session which was good but in other areas I made no progress. I am hoping to make progress on the course tomorrow.

The dinner was some nice chicken with green beans and warm potato salad. It took a long time to make, but it was quite tasty.

corona lockdown day 173

 Happy 75th to my dad!

Today we were making some progress on the course. I went to Loblaws first thing in the morning and things were still pretty quiet. James and I biked down to his school to pick up his yearbook from last year. They had contactless pickup outside the school and it went very quickly. James went to a trainer today and also tried his hand at driving!

corona lockdown day 172

 Today was a day of work from dawn to dusk or rather midnight. I think I sorted out most of my enrollment issues. I took a few breaks to make meals and to mow the lawn but not much exciting.

corona lockdown day 171

 I biked downtown in the morning to drop off the Rustle deposit. Since the start of the lockdown I have never seen anyone else in this banks vestibule but today there was a lady standing waiting to be let in the branch. I was in the vestibule for less than 30 seconds. Then to return home I walked up the hill and ran into Diana so we had a chat to catch up.

Lots of meetings today. Made a stew for dinner. I was working on browning the diced beef and I slightly burned the pot so I had to take a break and wash it out. It was a very nice stew made in about an hour so I was pleased.

Then in the evening we had a prayer meeting at Rustle. That was the longest I have worn a mask. I was pretty exhausted after - I don't know if it was the mast or seeing 8 people at once that did it! 

corona lockdown day 170

 Today was a relatively exciting pandemic day. 

I biked down to metro at 8:30am, it was pretty empty but there also was not a great selection. I got some of James' favorite ground beef for tacos for dinner, some juice and cheese and some birthday cake cookies for my dad's virtual birthday.

Then we had a virtual birthday party with family on Zoom. Lots of fun to see everyone.

Then had virtual Rustle.

After that I had seen some advertising for biking on the Rideau trail so I biked down to where the entrance was but the sign said "hiking only" and it was a very narrow path, not good for biking at all. So that was disappointing. But it has given me good ideas for hiking. Instead I biked over to Rustle to pick up the deposit. In total it was probably over a 15km bike ride.

Rustle News Report - August 30th

cleaning the dryer

Quiet street project link

https://kcat.ca/active-transportation-in-kingston/kingston-quiet-streets/ 

Thanks to the rainy and overcast day I couldn't hang my laundry so I decided to try to finish cleaning my dryer to make it ready for the Winter. When pulling it out, it tore a bit of the laminate so the next time I pull it out I will have to put something over the tear so it doesn't catch again. That took quite a bit of time as I washed the walls and the floor underneath before I put it back. Hopefully it is still balanced after all it went through.

corona lockdown day 169

 I forgot to write about a couple of interesting sights from yesterday. As I was walking back from Food Basics, I saw a large black cloud rising from the other side of the kingston center. It looked like an active fire as black smoke was belching but after about 5 minutes it stopped belching and dissipated so clearly had been put out. I was guessing the location was a construction site near there.

The other thing I saw was a giant rat go into the garage!

Today I got up late because of working late. I walked to the shoppers by my house which was pretty busy. I wanted to get Gatorade for James as they had it on sale. They only had one package left. This shoppers quite often sells out of sales very early on so going on the first day is no guarantee.

Then I biked down to the other shoppers which was not busy at all and they had some more packages available. On my way back I found myself on a Covid bike path. That was interesting as well.

It seems to be pretty rainy today so I won't be able to hang laundry.

corona lockdown day 168

 Last night I had trouble falling asleep because I think I have a sinus infection. Yay.

I woke up just at the time I planned to head out to Food Basics so I rolled right out the door. It was not busy but with only 2 cash open things were pretty slow. There were a lot of people not following the arrows anymore. 

I did manage to get a load of laundry dried even though it has not been very warm recently. At least it didn't rain.

Today after all my meetings were done I worked for hours getting my TAs allocated. My email is backed up so I will need to work on that on the weekend. I also have to send out the SOAR prizes from last month so I will need to get some work done on the weekend. 

corona lockdown day 167

 Today it was pouring with rain in the morning and improved a little at times during the day but not enough to hang laundry out. We made some progress in the course and the international student presentation went well. Tomorrow my goal is to get the hiring decisions for the course made but we'll see how many things crop off to throw me off track!

Made a Mediterranean meatball mezza for dinner and learned how to cook Naan bread a new way

corona lockdown day 166

 I went to Loblaws around 8am and as I was approaching the front of the store, I heard a sound like a truck dumping its load. I looked toward the sound and there was some dust or smoke rising from the intersection by Wendys and I realized it was an accident. A car turning left seemed to have turned into a pole or a van that was waiting to turn left (It was hard to see from my vantage point). Emergency services arrived pretty soon after, Loblaws itself was pretty quiet so the shopping went well. I did a lot of work to try to put an outline together for the TAs. The training session was interesting but not particularly relevant for what I need to do. Tomorrow I have meetings and a presentation for international students.

corona lockdown day 165

 Today I was up early and biked down to Lake Ontario park. I have found a route that avoids most major roads and does not have too many steep sections so is quite enjoyable. It was pretty quiet because it was early in the morning. There had been a storm last night so the water was pretty high and the waves seemed pretty strong. The day was more stressful than I expected with new problems cropping up. But overall not as bad as it could be, just I did not make any hoped for progress.

Tomorrow I have to do some equity rep training and I hope to launch our TA training site.

corona lockdown day 163-164

 Yesterday was Sunday- the Rustle youtube videoing was down but we managed on Facebook live.

James came back from Ottawa with a groin injury so he hadn't skated very well at the camp. He seems fine though.

Today was a day filled with meetings.

Yesterday I learned that my old Pastor Ken had passed away so that was sad to hear.

corona lockdown day 160-162

It was a busy few days at work. On Wednesday I did bike down to City Park to see everyone from CR for a few minutes. Thursday we had a board meeting in the evening, talking about a plan for reopening. 

I have to do some complicated paperwork for hiring for work over the weekend. 

Some of my summer students have ended their term of work for us, so sad that the season is coming to an end.

corona lockdown day 159

Well, the amazon mystery was solved. The unexpected delay was that my address was ripped off the package.

corona lockdown day 158

Mondays are always long days. Trying to keep up with the emails while attending meetings is challenging.

I ordered James some hair product from amazon. The last order I did from amazon arrived in their usual timely 1 day delivery manner. This one may not be so lucky it shipped this morning at 5:43am it arrived at the amazon facility in halton hills. At 10:49pm it departed the halton hills facility. At 10:52pm there was a note that said there was a delay in delivery due to external factors. What happened in those 3 minutes? How did the external factor suddenly develop?

James has taken to playing a new game called "Fall guys" which requires his little character to compete against others to run obstacle courses and play other games. It stresses me out to watch it but he seems to enjoy.

corona lockdown day 157

 This morning I went to Food Basics first thing. It was not too busy but there was only 1 cash open so I thought there might be lineups but there were not. The prices didn't seem to be as good as they normally were pre-pandemic. The meat was not very good so I am looking forward to my frozen box so I don't need to worry about meat.

After I got home and unpacked it all I decided to go for a bike ride. I had been planning to go to Lake Ontario park this evening but it was supposed to rain so I thought I would go out in the morning. I did the Oak St. path up to Kirkpatrick where the new school is being built, then down Division to the Shoppers where I picked up some Gatorade for James on sale. Then biked back along Princess. It was not very busy.

Then watched Rustle and the Potters house services.

James returned pretty tired from 2 packed days of hockey. We did try biking this evening but his legs were too tired so we did not get very far. I'm hoping to get some dishes, laundry and ironing still done tonight.