Many, many years later I'm finally willing to put some time into this blog again. I saw the last post was about a car I bought 3 or 4 cars ago. So it's been a minute.
Today life is different from then. My "firsts" are mostly experiences with the kids, not purchases. Canada as an experience has become tamed and normal for me. Mind you with small kids I have not explored Canada as a whole as much.
As with COVID-19 I'm bound to my office at home - similar to many other office workers. So the kids have become a great source of distraction.
I will admit that I'm not missing the commute from the suburbs of the GTA in my daily routing. I like to think that this gives me roughly 90 to 120 minutes back in my day. However considering that I'm crowded every time I want to grab a quick coffee upstairs it probably is be much less.
And yes, I'm in the basement. The coolest and quietest of all the places in the house. Unfortunately, it's also the ugliest and darkest part of our dwelling.
We have been in lock-down for 4 months now and I have pretty much settled into a routine. It's hard at times to distinguish the weekend from the work week.
I won't complain about the situation at home or working from a basement though. I think we have it pretty good here. I know there is a lot of people out there that have lost their job, health or even life.
But enough about myself, let's do a 360 and find out what has changed in our world.
The most obvious change is the caused by the emergence of the SARS-COV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. In March 2020 it became a recognized issue here in the GTA and even a pandemic worldwide. So by mid March I was working from home and that brought on a number of changes already mentioned.
Stock markets reacted with fear and regulators even shot the trading down for stretches of time. In short notice the FED and eventually the Bank of Canada started adding vast amounts of currency to the economies. Eventually the funds showed up in the stock market and the markets bounced right back in a few short weeks. The never ending upwards trend attracted retail investors - mostly unexperienced parties; think baby with a loaded gun. The additional funds pushed the market even higher. I'm a noob in stock markets, but even I would wager a guess that this cannot last forever.
At the same time the virus had spread to a deadly level around the world that no one any longer should drive comparisons to a "bad flu". Treatments are getting better and less people by percentage die every day, still the situation is dire and regions and states are locking down. Locally, here in Canada a sense of victory has allowed the government to open for business again in a try to revive a halted economy. Unfortunately with that directive many citizens have begun to grossly underestimate the virus and caution has deteriorated.
I don't want to catch that thing! I don't want my family to catch it!
Even with a mild case you can be left with permanent damages to vital organs. I personally don't feel like a round of Russian roulette.
In all of this I have learned that statistics are mostly for show and to bring home a point. Numbers can be faked or even just interpreted to which ever point you want to make. Also in fear, we give up liberties very willingly to feel safe.
It feels like a great wave of change is yet to come.
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