Category: Uncategorized

Today was the day that I drove my Dad to get his first vaccine shot. He had a confirmed appointment for 12:15pm. We chose to go to a drive-through clinic located at the Coquitlam Park and Ride lot, since it was the closest location to my parents’ place. We got there about five minutes early and there was a small line-up of about five cars to get enter the lot.

That line-up went relatively quickly and when I got to the entrance of the lot, the first health care worker asked me why I was here today. I showed her a printout of my Dad’s vaccine appointment confirmation. She pointed me to a line of cars that had been already queued up ahead of me. I drove up behind the car that I was directed to and I could see another covered tent ahead that I would eventually have to pass under.

Here’s where it got weird and where my first complaint started. After a few minutes, the line moved ahead and I was able to get to the tent where another worker was talking to all the cars. She handed me two forms and asked me to fill it out. I was surprised by this request. No where in the confirmation e-mail did it warn us there would be additional forms to fill out. I didn’t bring a pen or anything to help me write on forms. I told her I didn’t have a pen and I guess this was something they’ve dealt with because she handed me a pen.

Now I’m trying to navigate a moving line of vehicles while simultaneously trying to fill out forms for my Dad. I looked at the first form and it’s asking me to fill out his name, birth date, address, and personal health number. What? Should the Fraser Health authority already know this? They made us fill in all this info when we made the appointment in the first place! Why would they not know this on the day of the appointment? What was the purpose of us filling that info in when the appointment was made? It was frustrating to have to fill this out in the car, while trying to steer through lanes of the vehicle queue.

It turned out that I had plenty of time to fill out the form because we waited 45 minutes for us to finally snake our way to the tents where the shots were actually administered. I’m not sure what caused them to fall so far behind schedule. I have no reference point so this might have been either a day where they were relatively on time (I hope not!) or this might have been a terrible day for being on time.

Everyone is supposed to have a specific time they are supposed to show up and I know that when I booked, time slots had a limit before they were all gone. I feel like they got behind early in the morning and just never recovered.

The actual process of getting the shot was smooth. They asked my Dad a few questions, he took off his jacket, the nurse leaned into the car, swabbed his arm, and gave him his shot. My Dad said it was painless and he felt almost nothing.

After getting the shot, we moved into another lineup where we were supposed to stay there for 15 minutes, to ensure no side effects were present. After ten minutes, I heard one of the workers say that the lineups were getting too long and that they were gonna ask people if they wanted to leave before their 15 minutes were up, they could. I asked my Dad how he was feeling and he said he was feeling fine. We’d been at the clinic a lot longer than I had anticipated and while my Dad had a bottle of water with him, I knew he was getting hungry. So, I decided to leave a bit early and got the hell out of there.

I took him home and I had lunch with my Mom and Dad. I stayed with them for another two hours or so and he said everything was ok. He’s looking forward to his next shot in a few months. My Mom should be getting her first shot in about two weeks ago. Based on our experience today, I’m wondering if she should go somewhere else to get hers.

I did the most challenging hike in recent memory on Saturday. I tackled the Diez Vistas trail which is Spanish for “ten views”. Lucky for me, I also chose a Saturday that was so cloudy, only two of the ten views were not obscured by a curtain of gray.

The hike was a six-hour ordeal, very steep and challenging in parts. The Buntzen Lake recreational area closes at 7pm this part of the year and I had to run the last bit of the hike to ensure I was able to get in my car and be beyond the gates before they were locked for the evening.

By the time I escaped the gates, I was exhausted, very dehydrated, and hungry. I knew I was dehydrated, so I forced myself to drink water the entire evening. Evidently, I still didn’t drink enough water because the next morning I woke up feeling terrible. It was an odd feeling because I wasn’t just feeling dehydrated, there was more to it. It took me a few hours to realize what it was. I felt like I was hungover, which is something I haven’t felt like in years.

I went downstairs to buy two bottles of Gatorade, came back up, and parked myself on the couch to watch a movie. While watching it, I drank one of the Gatorades. In the two hours that the movie ran, I had to pee three times. Was that the Gatorade working? In any case, I felt way better after drinking the Gatorade.

Parts of my body are still sore. I don’t think I’ll be doing that trail again for a long time.

I work for Respawn Entertainment and our studio was just nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Documentary (Short Film). Colette was co-produced by Respawn and tells the story of Colette Marin-Catherine, a former French resistance fighter who travels to Germany to visit a Nazi concentration camp where her brother was killed. As you might imagine, the subject matter is heavy and emotional.

The film was included in Respawn’s Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, a World War II VR game, which had a gallery section with interviews from veterans of the war. I’m not sure how many other studios I’ll work for that will manage to snag an Oscar nomination, so I hope we win this one.

I keep reading stories about people randomly getting COVID-19 infections in the local Vancouver area. They say they’re doing all the right things but they still manage to get infected and they’re not sure how it happened. How much of this is just random luck, or I guess bad luck?

Have I just been lucky all this time? There’s a light at the end of this pandemic tunnel but I’m afraid my luck will run out just before I get to the end.

This morning I registered my father for his first vaccine dose. We are lucky to live in a public health jurisdiction that has an online system for booking. I know other jurisdictions in this province require phoning in, which I think is less convenient.

I was able to get him an appointment next Monday around noon. The location closest to him had about 100 remaining appointment slots and I chose one that was pretty much close to the earliest available. Waiting less than a week is acceptable in my mind. The location we’re going to is a drive-through one but the instructions also say leave time to park, so I’ll have to figure out if we’re staying in the car or having to actually to a tent or something.

I’ll be taking the day off to drive him as Mom doesn’t drive anymore. He could probably drive their himself but it’s probably safer if he has someone else drive him home afterwards. Exciting times indeed!

One year ago, most of us were wondering how all of this was going to turn out. There was and continues to be worry and uneasiness. I am, however, excited to report that tomorrow my Dad will get registered for his first vaccine shot. If all goes well, he should be getting that shot within seven days.

Now, I could mention that in many jurisdictions around the world, people several decades younger than my father are readily getting the vaccine. It’s difficult not to ask why some places are moving faster with vaccinations than here in British Columbia. Complaining, however, won’t magically make more vaccines appear. I am just thankful that my Dad will be getting his dose of a vaccine soon. Since my Mom is a bit younger, she’ll receive her shot a few weeks after.

Once both my parents are fully vaccinated, I’ll be able to relax a bit more.

If you know me, you know I love poop stories. Did you know that in a 1990 World Cup match, Gary Lineker defecated while playing on the field? If you didn’t, then the above video describes the whole incident. How does one keep playing after that?

I guess everyone is doing it this week, reflecting on a year of living in a global pandemic. Right off the top, I recognize that other people have way more to complain about. People have lost their loved ones, jobs, and businesses. At the same time, very few people thrived during the last 365 days. I think most people just tried to cope, adapt, and survive. I fall into that category. As I reflect on the year, if I had to live it again, there are definitely a few things I do differently.

I’m tired of living in a pandemic. I know with the vaccines coming or already here for some, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Nevertheless, we all had to live through this crappy year to do it. I am thankful for some things during the last year but in general, I wish none of us had to go through it.

My greatest wish is the next few months will bring some much deserved happiness to us all.

We are almost coming up to the one-year anniversary of me working from home. Some of you might remember that as soon as I started working from home, my desktop computer decided to stop working. It seems like that was a million years ago but it was actually just a year. What a year it has been.

My damn computer plagued me for about a month. Imagine trying to deal with your first global pandemic, toilet paper shortages, and also not being able to work efficiently. Well, it appears that my computer also has a sense of nostalgia. I woke up this morning to start my workday and turned on my computer. Rather than be greeted by the familiar Windows 10 logon screen, I was stuck in a BIOS screen which stated my computer had encountered a BIOS error.

I know my computer has no sense of irony or has any context of what happened a year ago but it’s hard not to think the universe has some sorta sense of humour. Reading the error message more carefully, it said that whatever settings it had before must have gotten corrupted but I had the option to load some optimized default settings and then it would try to boot into Windows again. I decided to go that route and luckily, it loaded into Windows fine.

The entire workday was normal after that. I’m hoping today was just a temporary error but I’m concerned that the error message popped up in the first place.

On Friday, I went to Ikea for the first time in well over a year. I was not there to go inside store however. I made a purchase online and then arranged to pick up my items securely in the parking lot. This was the first time I used Ikea’s collection point service and I was quite impressed.

After you pay for your order online, you’re given a choice of time windows to select when you want to go get your order. In many cases, same day pick-up is possible. I chose a two-hour window the next day. You’re given clear instructions on where to go once you arrive and where to park. My Ikea has designated spots and you cannot park directly next to another car. The spots are numbered and you click on a link on your order, where you enter in the spot you’re at. That begins the process of an Ikea worker bringing out your items.

I waited about five minutes and a masked Ikea employee pushed a cart with my stuff out to my car. They looked at my order number on my phone and then just left the cart with me. It was all very safe and very distanced. I loaded all my stuff into my trunk and then returned the cart to a holding area. It was all very quick, convenient, and safe. I was impressed at how streamlined it was. They should continue having this option even when all of “this” is over.