FEBRUARY

For some people the last two years have flown by and that feeling doesn’t seem to be ending. January is already over. I guess the perception of time flying by this month was helped by the fact that I didn’t go back to work until the 13th.

January is already in the books. It will be spring soon.

OH YEAH WINTER

After weeks of rain, temperatures well above zero, and lots of fog, it got cold again this week in the greater Vancouver area. It’s currently zero degrees Celsius outside and my apartment feels chilly. Sometimes you can forget it’s winter when you live in Vancouver. I’m not sure if you can say the same in, let’s say Winnipeg, where it’s around -20 right now.

Along with the milder temperatures, I can also see that winter is retreating ever so slightly. The sun lingers just a bit longer during the late afternoon. Today for example, I was able to still see a hint of sun even at 5:30pm. We might even have a pleasant and sunny afternoon in about six months.

STILL A TOMORROW THING

I still haven’t rescued my lost items of laundry from the dusty and forgotten side of my washer/dryer. After making dinner and watching the hockey game, I vacuumed my living room and bedroom. I took out my compost and recycling, then stopped off at Safeway for pickles and hot sauce.

I then watched some TV shows over the streams. It is too late now to get the lost laundry. I shall endeavour to rescue them tomorrow.

A TOMORROW THING

I need to get to bed but about five minutes ago, I looked into the gap between my washer/dryer set and the wall and realized that I have missing laundry stuck in that gap. My washer/dryer is in a really small and narrow closet. It’s so narrow that they had to install the sliding closet doors after the washer/dryer was put in otherwise it would be too narrow. Unfortunately the gap is on the side where the sliding doors bunch up when they are open. This means I can’t stick my hand easily into the gap to fish out my missing underwear and socks.

It’s too late to fashion a rescue stick or something so I’m gonna leave this for tomorrow.

SOFA

I’ve been searching for a new sofa for weeks now and I discovered that, like many things, stock is limited, prices have risen dramatically, and you’ll have to wait a long time for some items.

I was looking at one sofa that seemed promising but the store estimates that they won’t have stock until the end of June. The end of June! I can’t wait six months for a sofa , so I kept looking.

This weekend, I bit the bullet and bought a sofa from a local furniture store. I still have to wait around eight weeks for it, but at least it’s not six months. Part of the reason why it won’t take as long to arrive is because it’s made locally, within the province. It’s still subject to the availability of materials, some of which comes from overseas. It will also be custom-made to my liking. I was able to select the fabric, colour, and firmness of the cushions. I have never bought a custom-made piece of furniture before, so I feel pretty baller. It didn’t come cheap though. I think it was almost 4x the cost of my previous sofa , which I bought back in the before times of 2010.

I can’t wait to sit on my new sofa in about two months.

WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND

It maybe Thursday tomorrow but I am already looking forward to the weekend. Most of my American colleagues got Monday off but I did not. The next long weekend for me won’t be until near the end of February, which is Family Day. That’s almost two months in between New Year’s and Family Day.

With the pandemic, I feel like most people’s “batteries” get depleted much quicker. Long weekends are great but once they are over, you’re yearning for the next one much sooner than before.

Well, I gotta get to bed.

LUCKY FORTUNE

For the first time in my life, I held stock in a company when it was announced that company would be acquired by another company. This has never happened to me before, so I had no idea what was involved or what I should do as an investor.

I discovered that the deal would be a cash-only one and the stock price for said company logically shot up immediately but was still lower than the stated purchase price for each share. As such, I could hold onto the shares as theoretically I would get more if and when the deal completes. The “if and when” is something to think about because not all announced deals get completed because they are subject to government oversight potentially. Even if the deal goes through, I could be waiting for months for it to be done.

Unfortunately, I won’t be retiring because of this. At best, it’ll pay for my new couch but if you’ve seen couch prices recently, you’ll know this isn’t small change either. I ain’t complaining about a free couch.

A&W COFFEE

I used to think it was too bitter but I’ve come to love the coffee they serve at A&W. From what I can tell, the coffee they serve is a special roast from the people over at Van Houtte. My perfect cup from A&W is a regular coffee with two creams and a single sugar. That’s enough to take the edge off but still let the coffee flavours come through.

I’d have a coffee from A&W every day if I could and on some stretches, I do make that happen. I’m looking forward to having one tomorrow.