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Wow, I'm more behind in updates than I thought.
Ziggy's havarti slices is the worst havarti I've ever had. Possibly the worst cheese I've ever had, and I've had Velveeta.
Saturday: took streetcar to Kensington Market, which seems to be a dense a neighborhood of small shops, rather than some big open air market. Definitely busy and lively. It shades into Chinatown, which seemed pretty damn big. I didn't find any walk-in dim sum bakeries, and ended up risking dine-in for a dim sum cart experience at Dim Sum King. Only 3 carts going around, I had to order siu mai and ha gow separately. Decent. Later I Found Juicy Dumplings, which does have ha gow to go, though shinier and more to-order than te SF bakeries that would just have dim sum steaming all day.
Then walked along Queen, down Yonge, made it to the lakeshore. Found myself surprisingly long from home, Google said 28 minute drive, 44 subway (half of that walking to and from stations.) Took the 510 streetcar, which has underground termini and possibly actual right of way, up to the 2 subway.
Couple days of bad weather and just staying home. Took advantage of an English-speaking city to have an eye exam (and dental cleaning next week.) Some local walks.
Today: walked west along College, had a nice, large, and very cheap falafel sandwich from Arabeque Cafe. Ran out of friendly territory, so took the 506 rest of the way to High Park. Not a park to explore in the dark, though later I found a map indicating interesting things by day. Walked up to Bloor. North side: 8 story buildings, and US-style 1-story stores behind parking. South side: older two story office/res on top of shops. Visited Subway for water, $2.80, and a cookie, $1.00, those prices seem bizarre. (I hadn't planned to be out this long, so didn't have my own water, and all the park water fountains have been turned off.) West, then noticed the subway seemed to be aerial, so took that, but it stopped being aerial. Got off at Old Mill, where there seems to be a large riverbed park or something. Home.
Toronto has a LOT of cannabis shops, chains even, with names like "Dutch Love" (understandable) or "Tokyo Leaf" (because Japan is so well known for its drug culture?) I haven't smelled much, apart from a whiff today near the park.
I haven't taken any buses yet, but looking at Transit, one bus was every 30 minutes, while a few others were 8-15 minutes, which is better overall frequency than Montreal or Boston.
I still don't know what I'm doing after Toronto. Spain and Portugal cases are ticking up rapidly, and there's the new Nu variant to worry about. Starting to even consider staying in Canada for the rest of my 180 days, or trying to extend the stay, despite winter.
Ziggy's havarti slices is the worst havarti I've ever had. Possibly the worst cheese I've ever had, and I've had Velveeta.
Saturday: took streetcar to Kensington Market, which seems to be a dense a neighborhood of small shops, rather than some big open air market. Definitely busy and lively. It shades into Chinatown, which seemed pretty damn big. I didn't find any walk-in dim sum bakeries, and ended up risking dine-in for a dim sum cart experience at Dim Sum King. Only 3 carts going around, I had to order siu mai and ha gow separately. Decent. Later I Found Juicy Dumplings, which does have ha gow to go, though shinier and more to-order than te SF bakeries that would just have dim sum steaming all day.
Then walked along Queen, down Yonge, made it to the lakeshore. Found myself surprisingly long from home, Google said 28 minute drive, 44 subway (half of that walking to and from stations.) Took the 510 streetcar, which has underground termini and possibly actual right of way, up to the 2 subway.
Couple days of bad weather and just staying home. Took advantage of an English-speaking city to have an eye exam (and dental cleaning next week.) Some local walks.
Today: walked west along College, had a nice, large, and very cheap falafel sandwich from Arabeque Cafe. Ran out of friendly territory, so took the 506 rest of the way to High Park. Not a park to explore in the dark, though later I found a map indicating interesting things by day. Walked up to Bloor. North side: 8 story buildings, and US-style 1-story stores behind parking. South side: older two story office/res on top of shops. Visited Subway for water, $2.80, and a cookie, $1.00, those prices seem bizarre. (I hadn't planned to be out this long, so didn't have my own water, and all the park water fountains have been turned off.) West, then noticed the subway seemed to be aerial, so took that, but it stopped being aerial. Got off at Old Mill, where there seems to be a large riverbed park or something. Home.
Toronto has a LOT of cannabis shops, chains even, with names like "Dutch Love" (understandable) or "Tokyo Leaf" (because Japan is so well known for its drug culture?) I haven't smelled much, apart from a whiff today near the park.
I haven't taken any buses yet, but looking at Transit, one bus was every 30 minutes, while a few others were 8-15 minutes, which is better overall frequency than Montreal or Boston.
I still don't know what I'm doing after Toronto. Spain and Portugal cases are ticking up rapidly, and there's the new Nu variant to worry about. Starting to even consider staying in Canada for the rest of my 180 days, or trying to extend the stay, despite winter.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-26 15:07 (UTC)From:$2.80 is paying for the bottle, the shipping, and the brand recognition. Last time I needed water near a Subway, I asked for a soda-fountain cup full of water and got one at no charge. I think they might be legally required to do this upon request (I know some jurisdictions have that, but I'm not sure if Ontario is one of them), and even if not they'll probably be amenable.
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Glad to hear you're getting a chance to take care of your eyes and teeth.
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Hadn't heard of the Nu variant yet. I'll have to look into that.
(Edit: looks like they named it Omicron today, presumably because "nu" vs "new" would be confusing in English-language speech. Apparently it was found to be dominating the most populous province of South Africa, and governments around the world are acting swiftly to enact the same measures that failed to stop every *other* version of SARS-CoV-2. One of the news articles has an embedded video about whether the general public should default to wearing N95s instead of cloth, and comes down *against* it. *headdesk*
(There's something there about the distinction between "what am I *required* to do?" and "what am I *allowed* to do?". That video seems to take the position that one should wear the *worst* mask one can get away with (and aims to answer the question "can you get away with cloth?"), while I generally aim to wear the *best* mask I can get away with. Thus, the video ends up recommending a risk threshold (above which one should wear an N95) that is roughly the same as the threshold above which I would add goggles to my P100.))
no subject
Date: 2021-11-27 03:26 (UTC)From:I was thinking about this at work, and upon reflection this is not quite true; furthermore, the ways in which it is not quite true are relevant to another post that I've been contemplating recently. I think I will let this percolate a while longer, and perhaps I will write a post about it after I have [finished + recovered from] working split shifts three days in a row.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-27 17:29 (UTC)From:Officially my best masks are the 3M N95s or the elastomeric respirator. But the comfort is low and I'm not at all sure how good the fits are, and the elastomeric technically isn't friendly to others with the valve and is really hard to take a drink with. Mostly I wear KF94s, supposedly good, and way more comfortable, including in glass fogging. Other option is surgical + mask brace, though the brace keeps slipping above my chin.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-27 20:06 (UTC)From:I hear disposable N95s (and KF94s) are hard to fit, but elastomerics are generally fairly easy as long as you're well-shaved. Fairly easy to test, too: you stick it on your face, cover the valve with your hand, and blow. If no air escapes, you should be good.
You can also, of course, do a classic N95-style test, where you arrange for a strong particulate scent and then see if you can smell it through the respirator. (Traditionally one sprays sweetener into the air for this, but the basic idea should hold for any particulate. I have been known to use my respirator while cleaning out rotten food, to prevent gagging from the smell.)
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>>the elastomeric technically isn't friendly to others with the valve
I taped a layer of cloth over mine (with medical tape) for exactly this reason. Nobody around me actually knows enough about elastomerics to detect an uncovered valve, but *I* would know.
(Two layers of cloth, unfortunately, makes it too hard to breathe; one layer of cloth reduces the maximum air-exchange rate *somewhat*, but as long as I don't do anything more strenuous than a brisk walk it's fine.)
Plus, removing yourself from the chain of transmission protects the people downstream of you. Everything you do to help keep yourself from catching a disease also helps keep you from spreading it, since you can't spread a disease you don't catch.
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>>and is really hard to take a drink with
I've found that the main trick is to use a straw.
When I drink water at work, it goes like this:
* Bring a cup with a straw hole in it. Place it way in the back of house, as far away as possible from both the front door and from other people.
* Take a straw from the container of straws for customers and put it in the straw hole.
* Undo neck strap.
* Inhale.
* Lift up respirator.
* Stick straw into the gap.
* Drink.
* Put respirator back down.
* Exhale, flushing the unfiltered air out of my personal airspace.
I also sometimes eat granola bars in this manner (I think wider foods, like that Subway cookie, would be a lot harder), holding the bar in one hand and using the other hand to hold the respirator in place while I chew each bite.
With an only slightly out-of-date vaccine, this is a level of exposure I am comfortable with (and it is, notably, much less overall exposure than "cloth mask and never taking it off to drink", which is what I did for most of 2020†). When a sufficiently escaped variant and/or entirely novel plague comes around, I'll have to go back to not drinking water in public for a while.
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Anyway, I probably shouldn't push too hard: as long as your KF94s are genuine and well-fitted (how does a scent test go with them on?), that should be a decent option.
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†And was *not* comfortable with, but all of my other options were worse.