covid-19 blog

Mar 11

March 11th, 2020

This is a chronological collection of posts about my experience (and hopefully others) dealing with COVID-19.

Thursday, March 12th, 2020

Kahvi

The first case of COVID-19 on the island was confirmed yesterday (March 11th, 2020). I’m currently wondering whether I’m overreacting. Seems like I’m on par with the stock market. I worried about the vulnerable people in my life.

The way I hear experts talking makes it difficult to be optimistic about preventing the spread. I heard Michael Osterholm on Joe Rogan’s podcast describing the spread “like breathing”. You wonder what you can do.

It makes you realize the pace at which medicine moves. Osterholm kept saying “you can’t grow crops twice as fast by planting twice as many seeds”. Referring to vaccine development. I guess that’s the bigger point.

It’s even stranger to me because we’ve known about this thing for so long. I’ve had a twitter feed dedicated to “Coronavirus” since early February.

Monday, March 16th, 2020

Kahvi

Waking up to the stock market hitting record lows is now a norm. Everything on twitter is about the virus. Just trying to keep my own situation at the forefront of my mind. Trying to be grateful.

We made some rules about quiet hours and stuff since we’ll all be home quite often. We have a list of things to do during the quarantine:

do some art
Make crafts
Seriously clean upstairs
Play cards
Play soccer outside
Tarot card reading
Homemade edibles
Eggs benny brunch thing
Watch all harry potter/lord of the rings
Play hide and seek

I also bought art supplies and a keyboard today.

Friday, March 20th, 202

Kahvi

The days have been going by quickly. I think it’s mostly due to the incredible weather we’ve been having in Victoria. Getting outside and active has been easy. My roommates are in a similar situation when it comes to school, so we’ve been studying together. I’ve been cooking more than usual. I’ve also been playing around with the keyboard.

Monday, March 23rd, 2020

Kahvi

Read this today. Disconcerting. Been practicing ollies often. I can almost jump over a twig.

Tuesday, March 24th, 2020

Kahvi

I’ve been running often. It’s all tracked on Strava. Schoolwork has become so difficult to do. Lacking any sort of structure is great for procrastination. I’m wondering how students are expected to transition to a completely online curriculum over a weekend with two weeks of classes left in the semester. Apparently McGill has given students the option to show pass/fail on transcripts instead of their letter grades. This makes perfect sense to me. Also the paper towel isle of the grocery store was completely barren.

Thursday, April 9th, 2020

Kahvi

I’m now in Kingston. My sister and I drove here from Kelowna so we could stay at home for a while. The trip felt eerie with so few people on the roads. We did the whole thing in 4 days and 3 nights. I’m very grateful I figured out how to use cruise control in the Civic especially while going through Manitoba. That province is outrageously flat. Going through Toronto took 15 minutes, which is unheard of. We listened to the Joe Exotic podcast. He’s insane.

I applied for the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit yesterday. The process was incredible easy. Trudeau said ‘speaking moistly’ at the press briefing yesterday.

The number of cases here in Ontario is spiking, but they seem to be plateauing in BC. My parents are working at the COVID testing center here. Apparently everything is under control. The shifts are still “boring”.

I’m still running often. I can definitely ollie over a twig now. We’re throwing the frisbee alot.

Saturday, April 18th, 2020

Kahvi

I’ve received the CERB payments. The process was so seamless it makes me want to look for a job at the government.

My last exam is on Monday. I’ll be grateful that charade is over. The transition from in-person to online classes has been brutal. It’s hard to pin the blame on anyone specific though. The professors only had two days to organize a full transition to online learning. They had no warning. The University couldn’t have kept facilities open any longer. It’s difficult.

What am I going to do after exams are over? I have a part-time job that lets me work remotely. And that’s about it. I will keep doing ollies. And cooking. I also recently downloaded Ableton Live. There will be stuff to do. It’s just up to me to prioritize.

I read this article today. It’s written about the United States, but it still offers some insight for Canadians.

So we have to wait for a vaccine. Which is > 18 months away. Or at least that’s what I understood from it.

Saturday, May 2nd, 2020

Kahvi

I’m in a motel near Wawa, Ontario. WAWA.

Me and my sister are driving back across the country. It’s our first of three nights on the road. She’s headed to Kelowna for a few days before flying back to Kingston. I’m going back to Victoria to stay.

We hit a bird today. Or I’d like to say a bird hit us. It cracked a big chunk out of the Civic’s bug deflector. Bug deflector. I didn’t know what to call that thing until I looked it up today.

We’re listening to many podcasts and a Malcolm Gladwell audiobook. We have to pause it after every chapter to argue with him.

My summer courses are proceeding online, they start this Monday. Nothing has reopened yet, but they’re talking about it.

Saturday, May 30th, 2020

Kahvi

UVic sent out an email today. Apparently “nearly all undergraduate courses” will be offered online for the fall semester. That sucks.

I’ve gotten to see a few friends in Victoria since I’ve been back. That’s been nice. I’ve been getting enough sun which is great.

I’m taking three courses online, two of which are interesting. I’m working part-time building web applications for the Digital Health Lab at UVic. I’ve been doing a lot of development in my spare time.

I’ve managed to jump up a curb on a skateboard. Still need more practice to feel comfortable though.

I need to go hiking more. We haven’t had a new case on the island in two weeks.

Friday, July 17th, 2020

Kahvi

I’ve skipped June, sorry about that.

Vancouver Island is now in Phase 3 of the “restart plan”. This happened June 24th. We are at 134 cases currently, we were at 130 last time I wrote.

The days have been going by quickly. I’ve managed to make it to the beach five times so far. The weather has been beautiful in Victoria.

The theaters opened recently so we went to see a movie. It was really weird. Things are definitely not back to normal. But I enjoyed it, it’s better than no movie theaters.

Wednesday, September 16th, 2020

Kahvi

School has started back up again. All UVic undergraduate courses are online, so I’ve been spending a lot of time in the house.

I’m trying to get outside often. Still skateboarding, and I’ve started tennis lately. Also going on walks, which is helpful for my sanity.

The active case count on the island remains pretty steady. There are increases of 3-5 per day, but often it’s zero.

My discomfort with this whole University situation stems more from my dislike of online courses than my longing for in-person classes. That said, there are subtle things I miss. The inadvertent social interactions throughout my day. The commute to and from campus. Being outside between classes. Studying in the company of others. That has totally disappeared.

Oh well. Seeya in three months.

Thursday, December 31st, 2020

Kahvi

We are close to the end of 2020.

I’m currently in Kingston spending the holidays with the family.

My days have been spent appreciating our dog, learning new board games, running somewhat frequently and watching a ton of movies and TV. I’ve also been playing the bass guitar a bunch.

As our dog Winnie has gotten older, she’s gotten more affectionate. Or maybe less irritable. We can hold her for longer and cuddle more which is nice.

Canadians are starting to get vaccinated. But the restrictions have increased. My brother will be doing school from home for the month of January. Everything is getting more political. Hopefully summer 2021 will be enjoyable.

I’ll have to write up some New Year’s resolutions.

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Thursday, March 18th, 2021

Kahvi

Big jump this time.

Both my parents have been vaccinated. UVic recently announced they are planning for a “full return to face-to-face teaching and learning this September”. All good news.

I will update this post if I think of anything else.

Thursday, March 23th, 2022

Kahvi

Hi, it’s been a year.

Christmas was difficult. The wave of omicron hit and BC shut down gyms for a couple months. The “Freedom Convoy” shut down Ottawa and inflamed the public discourse.

But they’ve been easing measures. BC public health just lifted their masking mandate. It’s been weird operating without a mask in the grocery store and around my apartment complex.

There’s still some COVID anxiety in my friend group. Some people are deciding to still wear masks. I’m choosing not to because of the Bangladesh Masking Study. The difference in outcomes is too small for me to justify.

Hopefully, I won’t need to update this page again.