Right now

Right now...* 

*(an occasional (mostly monthly) meme, alternating from time to time with "The Current"). (Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first "The Current" post, here.)

Pandemic diary/update: Mid-March marked 36 (!!) months -- THREE YEARS -- of living with the COVID-19 pandemic. (On to YEAR FOUR!!)  As I said last month -- there's no sense that things right now are much worse... on the other hand, I have no confidence they're a whole lot better either. It's really hard to tell these days, in the absence of robust reporting. :(   There certainly continues to be a dearth of masks being worn in the stores we've been in lately (albeit I have noticed a few more than usual recently, which I chalked up to cold & flu season).  

Marking the occasion, the Toronto Star recently published a "three years later, here's where we stand" article. 

Early in March, the National Advisory Council on Immunization (NACI) released its recommendations on spring booster shots. Given the previous "six months since your last shot" guidance, I had figured we were due for another round in early May.  HOWEVER -- unlike previous rounds of covid vaccines, not everyone will be offered a spring booster: the vaccines will "probably" be limited to people at risk of developing severe disease if they become infected with the virus -- mostly seniors or those with compromised immune systems, etc.  The definition of "high-risk individuals" would NOT include me (and I am NOT happy about that!).  :(  It *would* include dh -- "those aged 65 to 79, particularly if they have no history of a previous COVID infection" (he will be 66 soon). (Not all doctors agree with this guidance, as the linked article points out.)  

March was also 25 years (!!) since I learned I was pregnant, back in 1998. (I wrote about that time here on my blog, 10 years later, in a series of posts:) 

• Late February/Early March 1998: Pregnant! & unaware 
• Sunday, March 22, 1998: Two blue lines!!
• Tuesday, March 24, 1998: (Finally) Pregnant!!
• March 27-April 5, 1998: Mom visits

On the personal pandemic front: We remain covid-free (knocking wood, loudly...) -- and we while we have ventured out a little more often lately, we're still being very careful (more so than most people we know).  We still mask in public places and when we're around Little Great-Niece (for now, at her parents' request), albeit we usually don't in smaller/family settings. Further incentive to stay home:  it was March break, mid-month -- even pre-pandemic, we always stayed close to home then to avoid the mobs of people everywhere! 

On top of dh's solo trips to the supermarket for groceries (about once a week), and for occasional takeout lunches & dinners, we: 

• Saw Little Great-Nephew 5 times: once at home (Older Nephew's house), and four times at his grandparents' house (including once when we spent most of the day taking care of him while his grandparents were out for a lengthy medical appointment). 
• Met Little Great-Niece at home (Younger Nephew's house) when she was one week old, and saw her at her grandparents' place a week later. :)  
• Dh met up with a couple of his cousins at BIL's house on a recent Saturday afternoon. 
• Stopped at the drugstore twice to pick up diapers and formula for Little Great-Niece on Seniors Discount Day (20% off regular-priced items on Thursdays!). 
• Went to the supermarket with dh twice. 
• Went shopping at Michaels, Chapters (bookstore -- twice) and the Carters/Oshkosh children's wear store (twice). 
• Served as dh's navigator when he drove BIL & SIL to an appointment in downtown Toronto. Spent a couple of hours hanging around waiting for them. 

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 3 books in March (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads, & tagged "2023 books").  

• "Oscar Wars" by Michael Schulman. You all know I love me some Oscars!  lol -- and my goal was to finish this book before this year's ceremony on March 12th. I did it!  (My review.)   
• "Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Raybourn, which I originally read in December & reviewed here. It's the March pick for my Gateway/Lighthouse Women NoMo Book Club, to be discussed on March 18th. (My latest review here.) 
• "A Fatal Grace" by Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache #2), for the Notes from Three Pines Readalong online discussion on March 22nd.  (My review.) 

This brings me to 13 books read to date in 2023,  29% of my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. :)  I am currently (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books ahead of schedule to meet my goal. 

Current read(s): 

• "Surrender:  40 Songs, One Story" by Bono. 
• "Living the Life Unexpected" by Jody Day.  Re-reading (for the 5th time, I think!) and discussing one chapter per month (for the second time) with a group of other childless women within the private online Gateway Women (now called Lighthouse Women) community. If & when I/we complete the full 12 chapters, I'll count it as a(nother) re-read. (I missed the mid-March meeting where we covered Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 is coming up in mid-April). (My most recent review -- with links to previous reviews -- here.) 
• "The Empty World" by D.E. Stevenson, together with my D.E. Stevenson group. I will count this as a re-read once we're finished, in late April. (My original review here.)  
• "Anne of the Island" by L.M. Montgomery, with my LMM Readathon Facebook group.  I will count this as a re-read when we're finished at the end of May. (My original review here.) 
• "The Menopause Manifesto" by Dr. Jen Gunter. (I will re-start this one... someday...!) 

Coming up: Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and listing them here helps me keep track of what I should be reading next. ;)  

• For my Gateway/Lighthouse Women NoMo Book Club:  The group is on hold at the moment, looking for a new co-host. 

• For the Notes from Three Pines Readalong:  
• It hasn't been formally announced, but I'm assuming that book #3, "The Cruellest Month" will be the next Louise Penny read??  and that the discussion will be in mid-April? 

A few recently purchased titles (mostly in digital format, mostly discounted ($5-10 or less) or purchased with points):  

• "Pineapple Street" by Jenny Jackson (paperback) 
• "The Patriarchs" by Angela Saini (hardcover) (recommended by Jody Day of Gateway Women) 
• "Newsroom Confidential" by Margaret Sullivan 
• "The Twist of a Knife" by Anthony Horowitz 
• "Agatha Christie" by Lucy Worsley 
• "Breasts and Eggs" by Mieko Kawakami
• "This Time Tomorrow" by Emma Straub 
• "Bleed" by Tracey Lindeman 
• "Women Without Kids" by Ruby Warrington 
• "The Mitford Affair" by Marie Benedict 

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Watching: 

• The Oscars.
• A lot of curling (!) -- it is well covered on the sports channels here, and dh has become quite a fan. During March, we had the Scotties Tournament of Hearts (women's national championships), the Brier (men's national), and the World Championships (women's in Sweden, and then men's in Ottawa).  
• Our prime minister's wife, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, took U.S. First Lady Jill Biden to a local curling club to meet some high school students and watch them demonstrate how the sport is played, when she and President Biden visited Ottawa recently.  :)  (The art exhibit they visited later at the National Gallery debuted last year at the nearby art gallery where I have a membership.)  
• The World Figure Skating Championships, from Saitama, Japan, last weekend. (Next year, they'll be in Montreal!)  
• Not watching: March Madness basketball. U.S. college sports do not interest me in the least (although, to be fair, neither do Canadian college sports, lol -- although they do not get even a fraction of the media coverage & fan interest that their American counterparts do). 
• Funny March Madness story for you: some years back, I remember vaguely wondering why the Americans were suddenly so interested in Yukon?? I kept hearing all these TV announcers talking about "Yukon, Yukon, Yukon."  It finally took a written headline for things to click and for me to realize they hadn't suddenly taken an inexplicable interest in a remote northern Canadian territory (neighbour to Alaska) -- they were actually talking about the University of Connecticut ("UConn") and its basketball team!!  (lol)  Different frames of reference...!  
• Still not watching (despite my best intentions): "Magpie Murders" (PVRd from PBS after reading the book), or anything after the first two seasons of "The Crown"...! 

Listening:  I'm still enjoying the daily Heardle challenge(s), including some of the decades versions -- although (as you'll see from the stats, I do MUCH better on the 60s & 70s versions than the others...!). Current stats as of March 31st: 

• Heardle (original/all decades): 25.4% correct (61/240, 17 on the first guess), down from last month. 
• Heardle 60s:  78.9% (153/194, 77 on first guess), same as last month. 
• Heardle 70s:  67.5% (137/203, 84 on the first guess), down slightly from last month. 
• Heardle 80s:  34.7% (17/49,  6 on the first guess), up from last month. 
• Heardle 90s: 32.8% (62/189, 20 on the first guess), down this month.  

Eating/Drinking:  Not well enough lately, I think. :p  We've resolved to try to do better (again...!) and eat more veggies & fruits and use frozen convenience foods a little less often. I'm browsing Pinterest for ideas for new things we could try to make.  

Takeout dinners on Saturday nights this month included McDonalds (! -- chicken nuggets for me, a spicy McChicken sandwich for dh and we shared an order of french fries), rice bowls from the supermarket takeout counter, Swiss Chalet rotisserie chicken (with a baked potato for me, fries for dh), and our favourite wood-oven pizzas.

Buying (besides books, lol):  

• Easter goodies for Little Great-Nephew and Little Great-Niece.  :) 
• Quite a while back, I was on an online cleaning & organizing forum and mentioned that I was trying to figure out a better system to organize & store all the boxes & bottles (detergent, bleach, dryer sheets, steam iron, etc.) sitting on the floor of our laundry closet.  Someone suggested I get a wheeled cart to put them all in, and at first I rejected the idea. I didn't think one would fit in the limited space available.  
• Then I saw an article about how some readers are using these three-tiered wheeled carts from IKEA to keep some of their favourite reads or "to be read" books handy. The cart in the photos didn't look too huge and I thought something like that might work for the laundry closet.  
• Dh LOATHES IKEA (lol) and refuses to go there. There are several stores in the Greater Toronto Area -- including one just a few miles down the road from us -- but the last time I was in an IKEA was, sadly, was more than 30 years ago.  (I suppose I could have ordered a cart online and had it delivered, but I wanted to have a look at it "in real life" before I bought one.)  
• Then I saw that Michaels (arts & crafts supplies store) had essentially the same thing for the same reasonable price ($49.99 Canadian) -- and so I recently had dh take me to our local Michaels (he waited in the car) and emerged with the box under my arm. It was fast and easy to assemble, fits perfectly along the laundry closet wall and holds most of the items that previously cluttered up the floor.  The washer door will not open or close with it sitting there -- although I like to leave my washer door open anyway, to help prevent mould buildup (it's a front loader, with the dryer stacked on top) -- but all I have to do when we're doing laundry, or want to vacuum or mop the floor, is roll the cart out, and then roll it back in when we're done. Easy peasy. :)  (See the photos below.) 

A glimpse inside my laundry closet --
new cart at right, stocked with supplies. 

A closer look at the cart, 
stocked with detergents, bleach, dryer sheets,
vinegar, steam iron, etc. 

Wearing: Towards the end of the month, the weather warmed up enough that I was able to switch from my winter down "puffer" jacket to a zippered tweed jacket, which seemed like progress?? (Albeit I had to return to the down jacket again on a recent day that was particularly nippy...!) 

Noticing:  Sunsets, again!  I know they don't go away during the winter months, but they seem to be less visible/noticeable, for some reason.  Here's a recent one, taken from one of our windows:  

A recent sunset view. :) 

Appreciating:  Our healthcare system -- which is under strain at the moment, but still manages to provide a high standard of medical care to the vast majority of people, and at no cost for most things. (Exorbitant hospital parking fees (excepted, lol.)  

Enjoying (while it lasts...!):  This isn't from March -- but the sky is blue, the sun is shining this morning (April 1st) and it's currently 14C/57F (forecasted high of 16C/61F!)(albeit it's going back down to -6C/21F overnight...!).  We currently have the balcony door open!  :)   

Wondering: How long it's going to take me to adjust to the time change from earlier this month??  I'm still wide awake at the time we normally head off to bed, and feel groggy when I wake up, often 8:30 a.m. or later (unless we need to be somewhere and have an alarm set).  (Insert red-faced icon here.) 

Wanting: To see more of Little Great-Niece than we have so far. But that's not in our control -- and we should be getting to see her on the Easter long weekend...!  :)  

Prioritizing: Being there for BIL & SIL right now and helping them out however we can.  

Hoping:  That our upcoming trek downtown (of which I will write more later), via subway, will be uneventful. Our local public transit system has always been extremely safe, but there's been a lot of crime on there lately, fuelled by staff cuts, fewer passengers since the pandemic began, and increasing numbers of homeless and mentally ill people who have been taking shelter in stations and on the trains. The last time I took the subway was to one of the downtown hospitals to have a mammogram done in late February 2020... well, you all know what happened next and why I haven't been back since...!  (I had another mammogram last year, but I arranged to have it done at a local clinic.)  

Trying:  To put more reminders of things I need to get done on my phone... they seem to help! 

Worrying:  About BIL's health problems -- and the impact it's having on SIL -- and on dh.  :(   

Realizing:  That it's possible BIL's health problems may preclude us from going home to see my family this summer -- which would make it the FOURTH summer in a row, and the FIFTH in six years. (The last time we spent time there in the summer was 2019. FIL was ill and died in summer 2018;  2020 & 2021 -- well, you know what was happening then...!  And last year I was dealing with my own medical issues and procedures.)  But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there... 

Loving:  Spending time with Little Great-Nephew (while we still can, before he starts school this fall). (Yes, I know, I often say this, but it's true!)  

Feeling:  Tired of the never-ending winter-ish weather/impatient for spring. (The few tastes we've had this month have been far and few between and generally don't cut it...!)  Tired from the time change. Tired from more than the usual number of early morning wake-up calls -- to take BIL to appointments, to stay with LGN, to attend our own appointments, etc.