Odds & ends

• It's spring break this week here in Ontario. Even in pre-covid times, dh & I tended to hibernate during this week to avoid the masses of parents & kids running amok in stores, malls, movie theatres and restaurants -- and given that covid is still with us (really, it is! -- despite what certain politicians & others might be telling you...), AND our provincial government recently abandoned capacity restrictions and vaccine passports (and will soon abandon mask mandates as well)... needless to say, we are (still) staying home this week.  ;)  
• Posts related to spring break now have their own label/tag -- find them all here.  :) 
• It is 0C/32F and it has been snowing outside ALL DAY (again). It does look pretty -- but as I said to dh and to a few friends on social media, "it would be prettier if it was December instead of mid-March...!"  (Not that it's uncommon to see snow here at this time of year -- but it's been a LOOOONNNNGGGG winter! and most of us are more than ready for it to be over...!) 
• It IS gradually getting milder. And the first day of spring officially arrives this weekend...! 
• I noticed, as we went to & from the car on Saturday night, that the property managers (or -- someone??) have already taken down all the posters around our building reminding people about the requirement to wear masks in common areas. Just a wee bit premature -- the provincial mask mandate is lifting -- but not until March 21st.  
• Dh & I were thinking of ordering takeout from a local restaurant we hadn't tried before. It's close by (within walking distance), with an extensive menu and good reviews. Then I looked at their social media accounts.  It seems they were not checking vaccine passports when they were in effect (and posted to that effect), and they also openly supported the convoy in Ottawa (although they also claimed they were not anti-vaxx or anti-masks). I understand these past two years have been extremely hard on restaurants and small businesses, and I suppose they got a lot of business (and good reviews) from people who also objected to the passports and/or other restrictions (and knew they could go to eat there without questions), and/or supported the convoy (judging from the number of "likes" and enthusiastic comments), but... they lost this potential customer.  :( 
• I saw this review in the Washington Post of a new memoir by Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who got caught up in the first Trump impeachment scandal and ultimately lost her job because she refused to do the President's bidding. I knew she was Canadian-born (moved to the U.S. as a child), but I did not know that she is both single and childless. Adding it to my reading wish list. 
• I listened in live earlier this afternoon to this week's New Legacy Radio podcast, with Christine Erickson interviewing childfree-by-choice activist, researcher and author Laura Carroll about her new book, "25 Over 10," a longitudinal study of 25 childfree women over 10 years. (Laura is also the author of "The Baby Matrix," an eye-opening and thought-provoking look at pronatalism, which I read & reviewed here and highly recommend.)  They also talked about how to bring together the childfree and childless communities, to build a shared movement for meaningful change. ("We have more in common than we think," says Carroll, and I agree!)  You can listen to their discussion here, or on most podcast apps. 
• Also available today on most podcast apps:  Jody Day of Gateway Women was a guest on the "1 in 5" podcast with journalist Geeta Pendse, which focuses on life without children, whether by choice or chance. 
• Lots of buzz among UK CNBCers about "Again, Rachel" a new book by Irish author Marian Keyes (and a sequel to her 1997 novel "Rachel's Holiday"). I've never read any of her books, but I feel like maybe it's time to start. ;)  Keyes is in her late 50s and childless-not-by-choice, and apparently her heroine Rachel is too. She (Marian, not Rachel) is a regular on the BBC podcast "Now You're Asking" with Tara Flynn, and a recent episode talked about the pain of infertility (the first 10 minutes of the 28-minute episode). Worth a listen (plus you get to listen to those wonderful accents...! -- I wound up listening to the entire episode because I loved their voices and loved their advice!). 
• I can also recommend this article by Keyes in The Times (UK) where she writes about the obstacles she's overcome in her life (including alcoholism, loss, grief, infertility and childlessness). You may need to register to access it.