Month: September 2021

As many of you know, Canadian comedian Norm Macdonald passed away today after a long, courageous, and private battle with leukemia. Norm remains one of my favourite comedians, who I first noticed when he was at the “Weekend Update” desk at Saturday Night Live. He later became well-known for his appearances on various late-night talk shows, namely David Letterman and Conan O’Brien.

I had the pleasure and honour of seeing Norm Macdonald perform live once, about six years ago. In typical Norm fashion, he was dressed in what looked like a windbreaker, as if he was going on a walk outside but decided to step inside briefly to do his set for us spontaneously.

Norm was funny in a way that no one else could be, probably because no one else could match his comedic genius. He was taken from this world far too soon. All we have left are our memories of Norm, but what memories they are.

I recently renewed my car insurance and as part of the process, I had to put on a new decal on my license plate. As such, I’ve been looking at the decals on the cars in my parking garage. This is when I noticed the car that is parked next to mine has a decal that indicates that their insurance expired in March of 2021. As some of you know, it is no longer March of 2021. Indeed, it is six months past that.

Now this might not be a huge deal if my parkade neighbour wasn’t driving their car but there have been multiple times where I’ve seen that car not be parked in their spot. I’d say it’s gone multiple times a week in fact. One can only logically conclude that the car has been driven away. In this country and province, it is illegal to drive without valid car insurance.

Why would my parkade neighbour break the law and more importantly, why would they put themselves in a situation where they maybe liable for a massive amount of money? How could they continue to pay for rent or the mortgage in the building but not have enough money to pay for car insurance? I’m not saying I live in a luxury building but this is not some welfare shack either.

Perhaps they did renew their insurance but forgot to put on the new decal. That’s a possibility but that would be an odd thing to forget. Another mystery to solve.

In most North American homes, hot water availability is something we just take for granted. Even in the most budget friendly living arrangements, people have access to hot water.

Several months ago, the hot water situation in my building changed slightly. I can’t nail down the time window exactly but at night, the hot water supply is heated to a lower temperature compared to the daytime. Normally, in my building if you turn on the hot water to the highest setting it gets hot enough that you could burn yourself if you exposed it to your skin for long enough. It gets plenty hot.

A while ago, I noticed that sometime during the night, after midnight or so, it no longer gets that hot. I can turn on the hot water all the way and it’s basically warm water, no chance of injuring yourself at all. This was never mentioned in any of the strata meetings so I have no idea why this was done deliberately. If I had to guess, it’s a cost savings measure. The boilers were probably programmed to lower the temperature of the hot water during the night so it takes less electricity or energy to operate the boilers when people are using the hot water less. This sorta makes sense, why waste money and energy to keep water at a certain temperature when the demand is so low?

I do feel sorry for the late-night owls like myself though, I certainly do not wash my dishes or shower during this time window because the lower water temperatures are challenging for those activities. Does anyone else experience this in their building?

Tomorrow is Friday and this was a short work week but it certainly felt like a regular week to me. The week seemed to drag on. I feel like long weekends aren’t as restful as they used to be. I’m not sure if it’s just me or if others feel like it as well. In my opinion, the entire world needs a long, extended reprieve from all their troubles and stresses. For a lucky few, they will get that but for the most of us, we will not.

When is the next long weekend? October?

Now that the majority of the carpet in my apartment has been ripped up, I am visiting a flooring showroom/contractor tomorrow. Earlier in the summer, I visited a “discount” flooring retailer but I didn’t get a good vibe from them. I have no doubt this new place will cost more but they have really great online reviews and the two times I’ve talked to them, they seem friendly, eager to listen to what I want, and have asked great questions.

This place is also about a ten minute walk from my place, so I’ll go visit at my lunch hour. I am looking forward to looking at their product and discussing installation.

It rained heavily on Saturday. It wasn’t just a light rain, it was a heavy and sustained rain. The type of rain that would soak a person if they just spent a few seconds out in the open. Not only was it wet, it felt cold to be outside. All of this was just a few days removed from the end of August.

Of course today, it was sunny and the sun felt hot on my skin, a completely different day compared to Saturday. I’m not sure if September will bring us an easy transition into fall or if it will be an abrupt one like Saturday proved it can be.

So I found this website while exploring the Internet. I’m not saying anyone should be deriving any pleasure from reading it. It should be used to inform yourself and to expand your knowledge. Whatever feelings of satisfaction you might get as you read it is not my fault.

Last evening I went to the Pacific National Exhibition, which is a local fair that has rides, food vendors, a marketplace, and an animal exhibit (featuring mostly farm animals). In 2020, the PNE was not held because of the pandemic. This year, it is proceeding but with a smaller scale and limited capacity.

I’d say that 90% of the fair is outdoors, so it’s fairly safe thing to go to. When I arrived, I was pleased to see the crowds were very reasonable. In past years, PNE organizers were able to cram so many people in that it would be wall-to-wall people on the fairgrounds, the exact opposite of what you want during a pandemic. This was not the case last night. It was very easy to social distance and many people were wearing masks, even outdoors. It felt very comfortable.

I went mostly for the food and by the end of the evening, I bought a bucket of mini-doughnuts for the trip home. Now this wasn’t the first time I’ve brought home mini-doughnuts. From past experience, I know that these doughnuts taste great when fresh. They are warm, moist, and soft, a sugary delight for all. When you take them home, however, they get hard and dry. The next day, the easiest thing to do to warm them up is to either microwave them or bake them in the toaster oven. While this might get them warm again, it just makes them even drier.

This year, I was determined to keep them delicious, even on the next day. To start, I stored them in a airtight container. I have these plastic containers that I can use a hand pump on that removes all the air from inside. I am able to keep food much longer using these containers. Storing the doughnuts prevents them from drying out too much.

Ok, so sure, they won’t be that dry the next day but how do I heat them up again? I can go the oven or microwave route but both those solutions involves drying out the doughnuts. I settled on steam, it can heat but not dry out the food you’re trying to heat. The only problem was how to let the steam heat the doughnuts but not get them excessively wet. When I steam stuff, I use a medium-sized pot, throw my food into a bowl, and put the bowl into the pot. Condensation forms on bottom of the pot lid and drips into the bowl. This might be ok for dumplings and stuff but having water drip onto the doughnuts would just make them soggy.

So how do I allow the steam to circulate around the doughnuts in the bowl but not get them showered with water? I immediately thought of cheesecloth but I didn’t have any. I settled on a sheet of paper towel on top of the bowl, sealed into place with a rubber band. This worked flawlessly. I steamed the doughnuts for about five minutes. The paper towel absorbed all the excess water but still allowed the steam to heat and moisturize the doughnuts. They tasted just like they did last night.

I did all that work to get more fat.

I’ve been lounging around in my home every night in just a t-shirt since about late May or early June but tonight, I felt like putting on a light hoodie because it was so cold. The low tonight is just 10 degrees Celsius. We’re almost down to single digit lows again.

I was also outside this evening and I wore a light jacket over a t-shirt. I felt ok but I definitely also felt a chill in the air as well. I don’t think it’s coincidence that we’re into September now and the weather has seemingly changed overnight.

Next up is the closing of the windows.