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.

corona lockdown day 156

Today I went to the $ store (there is a Halloween aisle- not that I did shopping there, just of note) and Shoppers. The last time I was at the $ store, they had security but no so today. There were not a lot of people in the store though. Shoppers was not much different. When I walked home though, the LCBO had a line up of 6 people already. Maybe it was close to their opening time but I wondered what would happen to people in the winter. The LCBO had an active security guard.

The forecast yesterday suggested showers for the afternoon but it has been very sunny and have had 2 loads of laundry done.

James' hockey this weekend is online for viewing and very weird to watch with no spectators- it is very quiet! I can't watch too much as it is still stressful for me.

There was a news article about a strip club worker in Toronto testing positive for the covid, possible infecting 550. I don't know why strip clubs would be open in a pandemic. 

corona lockdown day 155

Today I got groceries first thing in the morning. When I got back the surveyors were here. They did a lot of work and clambered all over the neighbours property as well. Kiwi lives 2 doors away and I wasn't sure if they were going into that yard. They looked with interest at Kiwi. At any rate it took them a lot longer than I thought it would take to do a survey. That would explain the expense. 

One of the IT guys solved my technical problem in like 30 seconds that we had been waiting for 4 days for. So that was good and I got all the groups out.

I made a chef's plate that had a cheese sauce. I may have done something wrong as the sauce looked grey but it tasted good!

In the evening I put Micheline's students into her exam onQ site. Tedious work but I was the only one with access to do it.

corona lockdown day 154

A heavy load of email and problems today.  I biked downtown in the morning to put the Rustle deposit in. As I was biking on Bagot St. there was a largish van/truck that said something about care and concern on the side. It had very large mirrors on the side. I could see he was very close to the truck parked on the side of the road. There was a large clack as the mirror hit the truck. It clearly was designed to snap back toward the vehicle, which it did and the van/truck lumbered on. As I biked past the truck I saw that there was a guy inside the truck that had been hit! He much not have been very happy. I wondered if he was working on getting the license plate. I couldn't see any damage but I wasn't looking very hard.

There seemed to be a regular amount of people downtown. I went for a walk after dinner and there was no one out, very quiet.

Made a pork rice bowl.

corona lockdown day 153

James said he saw a teeny tiny baby bunny today but I did not see it. Hopefully we will see more in the coming days.

I biked to Rustle in the morning to drop off some cheques and pick up the offering. I biked the long was as I went up the Oak street garden trail (so further north than needed) and back via Brock St. (further south than needed). I choose my route based on enjoyability. I like roads with bike lanes better. They had painted the Oak st trail with a line down the middle, which was new.

My friend Barbara who lives in the States lost her son to suicide yesterday. He struggled with substances and depression. I feel very bad for her.

James had hockey today and then he had hotdogs for dinner and went off to play ball hockey, so he is pretty happy with that.

I have been waiting for ITS to complete a task for me and it is taking them days which is frustrating. I am also having some frustrations with hiring process. These are not good weeks to frustrate me with all that is going on.

corona lockdown day 151 and 152

Yesterday I was up to 2am working on project teams. I'm hoping that ITS will post them tomorrow so that I can review them, its a complex process. 

I think I have figured out why I am not sleeping well- a while ago I had an infection in between a couple of teeth that the dentist looked at a long time ago and felt it would go away. And it did but now I think it is back.

But I have made some good progress in work. James and I biked to queen's as I had some library books to return.

corona lockdown day 150

Last night didn't go very well as I felt like I had too many things to do and I tried to force myself to sleep but my brain didn't want to go to sleep. I eventually slept and woke up a bit late- maybe 8 or 9. I was showered, made stew and was ready for 10am elevation service. Then 11am Rustle service. It rained a lot today so I had to hang the laundry inside. Things cleared up for the baptism that was really very beautiful. Then I worked for many hours in the evening. 

corona lockdown day 149

Today was a pretty useful day - I got through the probation enrollment and I managed to clean some parts of the house, which is good. Also there was a national day of prayer that I listened to. Tomorrow is a pretty packed day as I have to deal with some other enrollment issues and review some hiring things and write some letters in addition to online services and heading to lake Ontario park for a baptism service. Planning a stew in the slow cooker. Got to talk to my parents on Skype :)

MABRIKA - The Blessing - La Bénédiction

corona lockdown day 148

Today I didn't have meetings! Yay! I got to do some interesting (to me) things in SOLUS. I loaded the transfer students and some probation students into classes. Made a nice pasta chef's plate. Stayed up into the wee hours working but it feels good to have a lot of it behind me. There are still some conflict complications that I will need to sort out.

corona lockdown day 146 and 147

Well, yesterday was a day of meeting after meeting so not much exciting to share. This morning I braved Loblaws at 8am and it was pretty quiet. We were out of milk. I got some more fruit spears which I am really enjoying. I haven't seen the bunny in  a few days. The backyard was getting a bit overgrown so I mowed it but I tried to leave some of his/her favorites. The chef's plate for the evening was super easy a Saigon beef bowl with rice, beef with spices, carrot and cucumber topping and a nice sriracha sauce. The beef I didn't find as good quality as usual but other than that it was good and I could make it in the time allotted. James prepared the carrots and cucumbers himself!

What is an ACE-2 Receptor?

corona lockdown day 145

Yesterday was a challenging day work-wise as there are lots of problems to solve and I'm kind of tired of solving problems at this point.

And poor Beriut, they have so many more problems to solve there now.

For my lunch I went over to Rustle as I had to drop off a cheque and pick up some paperwork for the T3010 form that I am working on. I also went with Christine to see an apartment. They were doing construction on the apartment and there was a lot of water damage but they were working on it and would have it fixed for move in at least. But when they found out she was on ODSP they told her it was not likely that she would be chosen. It is just so disheartening for her to hear that everytime she goes looking. And it is not about not getting the rent paid as ODSP will direct deposit the rent, it is the stigma I guess.

It rained in the night, hopefully washing into a new day.

corona lockdown day 144

The tornado was quite localized, indeed the whole storm itself, though we did have a lot of wind through the night. The wind was not enough to move my recycling boxes. That is my bar for defining high wind.

I had a lot of plans for today but I did not accomplish all that I had hoped.

I did go to Loblaws at 8am. First thing on a holiday and it was very quiet. The quietest since the pandemic had started.

The stew turned out well last night and I had leftovers today.

I got some melon spears at Loblaws and they were very tasty.

Napanee has opened up its rink and James had his first skate there today.

tornado camden east

A suspected tornado touched down near where Kim used to live in Newburgh. We are now expecting that storm system in the next hour. It has been rainy off and on and was just blue skies but now clouding a bit.

corona lockdown day 143

The rain has arrived. Early in the morning it started and woke me. I took a shower, not in the rain but in the bathroom for the first time in a couple of days as I had been so focused on work! I'm planning to go to Shoppers this morning and then will have some online Church viewing.

corona lockdown day 142

I spent a lot of time on the last 2 days rolling out the schedules, such as they are. Despite there being way less time in their schedule, there is still lots to complain about. I was looking for the complaints department but I forgot that I am the complaints department.

I went to Giant Tiger first thing in the morning and their greeter was not there. There were not a lot of other people at all. Their hand sanitizer they had changed to one where you put your hand under and then it drops on you hand. The timing of it was not very good and when I took my hand away it was still dropping sanitizer. There was lots of sanitizer on the floor as well.

I bought things to make stew tomorrow.

corona lockdown day 140 and 141

Today I was working on the block load of courses so it was a very focused day from 9am to midnight. I have most things prepared now so hopefully I will be able to finish tomorrow.

James went to Ottawa for a skate. I was thankful for the chef's plate- honey sriracha chicken tonight