Pandemic Times

It's hard to believe this is week #6.   One loses track of time and the days blur into one another.   I am not too busy at work because my main project for HBS Recap in Thunder Bay is on hold due to the pandemic. It's still cold here, was snowing again earlier, but not staying on the ground. On Saturday, Richard and I went to Arnprior to pick up mail, and to the cottage for a bit of outdoor cleanup.   Brought Maisie with us, who had fun swimming, chasing ducks and playing cannon for 2.5 hours.   Then she came home and slept for 2 days!   The good news is that her swimming technique has gotten much less awkward. We also picked up our first Wes' fries of the season.  It looked a little different, they now take debit/credit and NOT cash and the line up system is different. On Sunday, Richard and I did grocery shopping for Richard's parents and my parents and then delivered them. Lineups at the grocery...

Easter weekend was quiet.   We had Easter dinner for 6 people (Our family plus Lobban).   We had turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, and roast sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, carrots, rice, gravy.   For dessert, we tried to make a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake.   Faith made a chocolate nest for some Cadbury mini eggs. We finished the 2000 piece puzzle yesterday!   Our first ever completed family puzzle.   I have placed an online order with Walmart for a 1000 piece Harry Potter puzzle.   Not sure how long it will take to come in though. I lined up for over 30 minutes this morning when Costco opened and purchased $668 worth of groceries (some items for inlaws, Will and Sue and some hamburger for my parents. It is still cold here and it is a crazy windy day, so I was FORCED to wear my brand new Helly Hensen long down coat which is just beautiful and everything I have ever wanted ...

I spent 4 hours today going to Walmart, Superstore, and Dollarama.   It is the Thursday before Good Friday.   The province is closing all stores for Good Friday and Easter Sunday.   So I knew today was going to be nuts. Richard woke me up at 6:30 and said 'Let's go to the store right when it opens because it is going to be nuts.   I got up, got dressed and was downstairs by 6:45am.   Then we realized the stores didn't open until 8am. 10 residents died at a nursing home in Almonte in the last two days :( Leanne had a contact in Kanata who was coming to Shawville area today and was willing to bring Walmart groceries to her.   So I arrived at Walmart right at 8am and waited 30 minutes in the pouring rain waiting to get into the store.   I bought a VERY full cart full of groceries for Leanne.   I accidentally ripped the big bag of dog food and left half the bag in the parking lot, unfortun...

As we went into Week #4 of Stay at Home guidelines in Ottawa, I wanted to make note of things as they were changing.  I had started at the end of February tracking daily stats of Confirmed cases of Covid 19 and deaths around the world in a spreadsheet.  But there were other things that were changing so fast, I wanted to capture it bullet journal entry style.  I started this on the 4th week of working from home.  Here are my notes from that week: Going on week #4 of working from home. I have been tracking worldwide infection and death rates since Feb 26.   Watching exponential growth happen in real-time is unreal. Kaitlin did her final exam of her nursing education yesterday.   She did it from her laptop at home, with a proctor verifying her ID and a camera recording her while she wrote the exam.   Yesterday was Richard's mom's birthday. Most of the family (except Will and Cindy) joined a Zoom chat to light a candle ...