Midweek odds & ends

• If you've been following the saga of the Elton John concert that SIL & I had tickets for -- originally for March 2020, rescheduled for Feb. 15th this year and then March 13th, before it was cancelled altogether & our money refunded -- here's a new chapter, or perhaps a coda. He's also playing the Rogers Centre here (a.k.a. SkyDome) on Sept. 7th -- and last week a new show was announced for Sept. 8th. 
• As someone who had tickets to a previous show that got cancelled, I got an email telling me that we would have first dibs on tickets -- which were going on sale the next morning. (Not exactly a lot of notice!)  I also got an email from Elton's Rocket Club around the same time, announcing a special advance sale for club members, the day after the previous ticketholders sale. 
• I debated whether I should call SIL & ask her if she wanted to try again. I eventually decided to let the matter drop. We'd kind of decided we weren't interested anymore anyway, especially with covid still very much in the picture hereabouts -- and I am not confident that things will have normalized enough by Sept. 7th to make me comfortable enough to sit in a crowd of 40,000 people, many/most of them unmasked, even if the dome roof is open (which is not a given). (Besides, the previous venue we were supposed to see him at -- Scotiabank Arena -- is half the size of SkyDome, so our seats would likely not be anywhere near as good.)  
• Sorry, Elton. I loved seeing you with my sister in fall 2019, and it would have been fun to see you again before you retire from touring. But not with covid still lurking around. :p 
• One year ago today, dh & I very happily received our first covid vaccines (Astra-Zeneca) -- followed by the second in July (Moderna) and a third (booster -- Pfizer) in mid-December. 
• Today, Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) said that "provinces and territories should rapidly prepare to offer fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the coming weeks."  The priority will be people age 80+ and those living in long-term care homes -- although Ontario's health minister said that the province is preparing to offer fourth doses to those 60 and over -- which would include dh & me. 
• The second booster is recommended 6 months after the first -- which for dh & me wouldn't be until mid-June.  I'm fine with that. I know vaccine protection wanes over time, but being triple-vaxxed/boosted already, I don't feel anywhere near as vulnerable as I did this time last year, before I'd even had one shot...! 
• (Shall we go for Novovax this time around, just to keep things interesting?? lol It was just recently approved for use in Canada.) 
• It's now more than two weeks since mask mandates here were dropped. Dh reported seeing a LOT more unmasked people at the supermarket on Monday morning versus his last couple of visits. :( 
• Also on Monday: hospitalizations in Ontario were up 30% over the week before, and the test positivity rate (on the limited number of PCR tests still being done) was 19%.  
• Today it was reported that hospitalizations were up 27% in a single day, with more than 1,000 new hospital cases. 
• Not only did we get to meet the new puppy and see Older Nephew & family on Sunday afternoon at BIL's, we also got to see a couple of the local cousins. (BIL called to invite them over after he called us.) One cousin arrived with her husband earlier in the afternoon and stayed for coffee, but left before the other cousin and her daughter came over later. 
• We hadn't seen either cousin in more than two years, since before covid, and while it was good to see them, I'll admit I felt a little uncomfortable being around that many people at once in a smallish space, with covid levels surging again right now. Short of leaving before they arrived (and we'd only just gotten there ourselves, plus we were invited to stay for supper), there wasn't much we could do. They were all vaccinated (one of them said her whole family had had covid back in January) and no hugs were exchanged, albeit they are all much more social -- out and about a lot more  -- than we have been. (One cousin is heading off to the Bahamas next week with her daughter and some friends.)  They also both have young adult kids living at home who go to work &/or school and like to party with their friends. 
• (The cousin who's going to the Bahamas breezily assured me that "things are getting better now!"  Really??)(She's obviously not following the same news sites and medical experts that I am...)  
• Recent reading: 
• Further to my recent post on the new diagnosis of "prolonged grief disorder,"  an opinion piece from the Washington Post (from a young woman whose father died in 2020 of covid):  "Grief is love, not a mental disorder." 
• In "What I wish I’d known before I froze my eggs," a young woman learns a harsh truth that many of us have learned about infertility treatments: they don't always work. "I wish I'd been more prepared," she says now. 
• There's currently a pandemic-related shortage of surrogates who are willing to carry other people's babies to term. 
• I had never heard of Australian journalist/broadcaster Sian Prior, but she has a new book out that has been popping up in my social media posts recently, a memoir called "Childless:  A Story of Freedom and Longing." I listened to a lovely podcast interview with her yesterday about her experiences (which include pregnancy loss, infertility treatment and reluctant partners) and now I want to read the book. Alas, it is not available in Canada. (Yet? -- her previous book, "Shy," is available as an e-book, albeit an expensive one -- $30-35 (Canadian)!  I'll continue to watch for it!)