Thursday, January 6, 2022

Bad Week

This past week has been incredibly difficult.  And I am aware that I am sheltered from the worst of things, as I can work from home.  I just don't like being told I must work from home...

Anyway, last Thursday I had an extremely unpleasant encounter in the foot court with a guy who was causing a huge disturbance, cursing out other customers and then the security guard.  I really had hoped that another guard or even the police would have tossed him out.  It didn't help that this particular restaurant is pretty slow even on a good day, and of course they were still mostly retraining staff, as they haven't even been allowed to be open that long.  With the current restrictions, they can technically stay open, but they may well give up again as the foot traffic is going to be cut way back (and potentially customers will just not want to bother because guards can tell them not to eat anywhere else in Union Station).  

I can't remember if it was Thursday or Friday that I learned a bunch of model runs were flawed and would have to be redone, but that cast quite a pall on things.

Basically, the only thing that went right last Thursday was that I finally got my booster shot.  I was a bit worried that either 1) my failed attempt to get an earlier appointment would have knocked out this appointment or 2) that they would not have received enough vaccine at the clinic.  However, things went pretty smoothly overall.  

I walked over to Spadina and caught the extremely pokey streetcar up to Bloor.  I  ran into BMV, though they were closing early, so I didn't have a lot of time to browse and didn't see what I was looking for.  Then I went to the Toronto Reference Library only to find out that the art and literature floors were both closed for some stupid reason, so that was another wasted trip.  As I said, last Thursday was a pretty bad day overall, though of course worse was still to come.

Friday I was working from home.  I certainly wasn't expecting a bad reaction from the booster, but there was no point in taking chances.  In the end, I just had mild soreness in my arm, and that was it.   (Just enough of a reaction to feel assured it was working...)   I actually had booked a swimming lane in the early afternoon but the lifeguard got sick and all the appointments were cancelled.  I could have tried Jimmie Simpson, but those lanes were all booked, and I didn't want to go over and get on the wait list and then not get in.  I didn't think my odds were great, given that others would have the same idea as me.  So that was frustrating.  The next available appointment at Matty Eckler was Monday evening, so I booked that.  

New Years' Eve was pretty low-key.  Then there was very little to do on Saturday, though I did go to the gym to do a somewhat shortened workout.  Fortunately, my arm didn't bother me too much, even when lifting weights.

The kids already knew they had a couple extra days of winter break, and I guess it was Monday that we got the news that Ontario was going back to Stage 2.  Not a total lockdown, but a lot of restrictions and the return of virtual learning for what should only be 2 weeks but will surely be longer.  For me personally, I am impacted the most by the gym (and swimming pool) closures, then the shutting down of concerts, plays and movie theatres -- for 3 weeks but will surely be longer... I had 2 additional concerts cancelled, as well as the Crows' Theatre show get postponed (but probably cancelled in reality).  At the moment, Coal Mine Theatre is putting on a brave face and saying they can still put on The Antipodes, but I don't believe it.*  Basically, every company that thought they were being smart by pushing things to Jan. 2022 has just gotten majorly screwed.  I'm so tired of all this, and the fact there seems to be no end in sight.  I can just feel a blanket of depression weighing me down.  (It's actually starting to impact my work in a way that I don't think it really did last year, though I may be overstating my resilience last year.  Looking back, I can certainly see weeks when I didn't feel that connected or productive at work.  But it still seems worse right now, and everything feels particularly pointless, which isn't how I want to start the new year, to be sure.)  And while it is a small thing in the grand scheme of things, even finding out that Robarts isn't going to restart allowing alumni to pick up books until Jan. 10 (rather than Jan. 3) seems like another kick in the teeth.  There's just a limit on how long we can put our lives on hold, and I've hit my limit.

Given that my chances of getting enough exercise are very limited, as I'm not even supposed to bike to work for the next several weeks, I made sure to go swimming Monday evening, then I went to the gym on Tuesday.  It was less crowded than I expected, honestly.  

So yeah, this has been a particularly crappy week with almost nothing to look forward to until February at the very soonest.  (They've even cancelled SFYS in Jan. while they try to regroup and see if it is worth carrying on.  Blah...)

 * They've bowed to reality and pushed The Antipodes to April and Detroit to June.  Hopefully that will be enough.  Village Players still thinks they'll perform in February, but I can't see it happening.

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