Odds & ends

• I have not dared to step on a scale since COVID started keeping us all at home -- at least since early March ( = 2.5 months). (Even before that, the numbers were... ummm... not good.  :p )  And until just recently, the weather has not been conducive to walking, to try to keep those numbers down. A few days ago, however, I screwed up my courage and put on my jeans, which I have worn just ONCE since March 12th (for under an hour, on April 2nd, when we went over to BIL's house to deliver Great-Nephew's Easter goodies).  I could still zip them up. :)  #winning? 
• Most retail shops with a streetfront entrance ( = not in malls) were allowed to reopen here on Tuesday.  Also this week, the premier (finally) announced the cancellation of the rest of the school year this week (although online learning will continue).   He said he just didn't think it was worth the risk to the kids. There were only a few weeks left in the school year anyway, and from what I remember and have heard, June is generally kind of a writeoff month anyway -- field trips, track & field days, movie days, etc.  Overnight summer camps will not operate this summer, although it's possible some day camps will.
• I thought we were done being woken up early every morning by noisy construction equipment, after the townhouses behind our condo building were finished and occupied last year. Nope!  Landscaping work has been under way for the past several weeks: workers have been building decks built on all the townhouses, erecting backyard fencing around the perimeter of the property, and (best of all) planting dozens and dozens of trees in the open areas behind the townhouses, between the creek and the laneway, and in the big open space that lies between our building and the townhouses. A lot of trees were (sadly) razed to build the townhouses;  I am very glad to see some are being replaced.  
• I was so excited to learn that CBC Gem, the CBC's streaming service, will be showing "Normal People," based on the novel by Sally Rooney (which I read last fall & reviewed here), beginning May 27th. There are 12 half-hour episodes;  two new episodes will be released every Wednesday for six weeks. The book was wonderful and the casting & settings look perfect, from the trailer. Looking forward to this! 
• A rare article about choosing to live without children after infertility, from Chatelaine (one of Canada's oldest & best-known women's magazines). Head & subhead:  "The Fertility Outcome No One Talks About:  I thought I wanted kids. It turned out it wasn’t that simple." Excerpt: 

I didn’t care if motherhood was still on the table. I just wanted this nightmare to be over. I wanted to go back to a life where fertility was not all I thought about. To wake up in the morning and go to the gym before work, instead of the IVF clinic for cycle monitoring—the daily blood work and ultrasound that had been my routine for the better part of the last 18 months. To fill my evenings with Netflix instead of acupuncture. To not feel pitied by those who knew what I’d been dealing with, or like I was leading a secret life when I spent time with those who didn’t.

• Thank you, Miranda Steele!  (Caveat: there are links to pregnancy-related articles & photos in the "related stories" at the end and interspersed throughout the article.)