Tag: ontario

Trip to PEC

Black and white beach in Prince Edward County.

We selected Prince Edward County as the destination for our first post-retirement vacation together. Although we waited until late enough in October that we missed out on all the unseasonably warm Fall weather, we were still able to get some hikes in. And despite having visited this area a number of times previously, we still had some new experiences.

Highlights were:

  • The quite fascinating tour of the S.S. Keewatin, a decommissioned luxury cruise ship, at the Great Lakes Museum in Kingston.
  • Staying at the Jackson’s Falls Inn in Milford, where we enjoyed a king suite with Nespresso machine, excellent breakfasts, and an included Netflix account (hello, The Diplomat Season 3).
  • The informative and basically private wine tasting stop at Sugarbush Vineyards in Hillier, makers of excellent Viognier and Cab Franc and experimenters with adding a bit of maple syrup to wine (not bad!).
  • Dinner at the cozy Hartley’s Tavern in Picton, whose casual name belies the excellent food and service provided.
  • A rather stunning beach walk at the Prince Edward County Bird Observatory.
  • Finally making it to Three Dog Winery in Picton, where we enjoyed their excellent charcuterie board along with tastes of a good portfolio of red, white, and sparkling wines.
Front view of a narrow and tall cruise ship, flying a British flag.
The S.S. Keewatin. We went aboard!
A black and white view of a lakefront beach, with a cloudy sky and some trees.
The beach at Prince Edward County Bird Sanctuary.

For more details (and photos), see Trip to PEC, October 2025.

Niagara in summary

Espresso ice cream and chocolate moelleux.

Though we’ll probably be taking a break from this “tradition”, this year we again spent a few days in the Niagara-on-the-Lake area. I wrote up the full blurb here: Return to Niagara. This post is just a summary of the more notable items.

Best discoveries

Caroline Cellars and Farmhouse Cafe: Menu items almost all under $20. Glasses of wine $7 or less. Bottles of wine (to take home) under $20. And it was all very good! Not blow-off-your-socks good, but both food and wine were very enjoyable. Staff were friendly. A nice visit. A nice change.

Niagara Custom Crush Studio: It features the wines of multiple small wineries all under one roof, a cool idea that is well executed. On this visit, we tried wines from two wineries with very different approaches to wine making, which was super interesting.

NOTL: Treadwell’s sister restaurant, with a simpler menu and lower prices, but still excellent quality. And a bonus beautiful sunny dining room.

Weather report

Mixed bag for sure. We had one warm but cloud day; one cool but sunny day; one day with torrential rain / freezing rain / thunder / snow / wind; and yet another cool but sunny day. In between the inclement weather events, we did some walking and hiking.

Winery round-up

Best guide: Strewn, where our private, sit-down tasting was led by someone with a lot of experience and knowledge. Most fun: Fielding Estates, because we’re suckers for the snow globe experience (now done for the year). Best refuge: Reif Estates, from whence we watched the crazy storm while tasting wine and eating charcuterie. Most chaotic: Malivoire, who were supposed to be closed due to storm damage, but finally gave up and gave tastings.

The other dinners

Jean was underwhelmed by the offerings of Trius Winery, despite their Michelin star. Nothing bad—but maybe not star worthy? Beautiful plating, though.

Chicken pate with ornate topper.
Adorned chicken pate.

Treadwell’s was up to its usual high standards of food quality and wine pairings, but compared only to itself in the past, it was disappointing in terms of the experience. It was just your usual three-course meal with good service. We didn’t get our past feeling of it representing a really special night out.

Espresso ice cream and chocolate moelleux
Espresso ice cream and chocolat moelleux.

Ontario election or voter suppression

Well, I voted, and it was really easy. Just needed some basic ID and some time to wait in the line I was, I admit, rather surprised to have encountered. Nobody tried to intimidate me or influence my vote. I went on just one of the several days that voting was possible. I didn’t have to register in advance. My vote was private. I saw it go into the machine and be counted.

And yet…

Holding a snap election in February in Ontario seems very much designed to ensure low voter turnout.

  • Weather: February’s always kind of miserable, but this year the province has been hammered with record amounts of snow. Some people literally cannot get out of their homes to vote, because they need clear sidewalks, and those are hard to come by. It’s also tough to get campaign signs in snow-covered lawns, or volunteers willing to stay out very long knocking on doors.
  • Condensed time frame: The election was announced one day, started the next day, and runs for only four weeks. It’s very little time to even let people know it’s happening, let alone any campaigns to gain steam and make an impression. No party started with a full slate of candidates! A lot of people won’t receive voter cards in time. (They can vote without it, but not everyone knows that. Or even realizes an election is happening.) Those who want to vote by mail are hard-pressed to get that completed by deadline.
  • There’s a lot else going on. The US keeps talking about annexing our country, along with doing various appalling things daily. The Federal Liberal party is having a leadership race, the winner of which will be Prime Minister. Shortly afterward, a general federal election is expected. Lots of competition for Ontario politicians trying to let people even know there is a provincial election, let alone who all the leaders, candidates, and positions are.

There’s nothing illegal about all this; but it kind of feels like it should be? Because this is not truly a free and fair election. Especially if you consider:

  • The governing Conservatives have been found to have inappropriate used taxpayer money to advertise themselves, before the election, and party money to advertise the Premier’s trip to Washington, which is also not allowed. The penalty? Bupkus! More votes for them, even though they’ve cheated!
  • The Conservatives have told their candidates to not attend any local debates, something they have followed, with few exceptions.
  • The Conservatives have not bothered to release a platform. (Today they did release one…)
  • Conservative leader Doug Ford has mostly avoided the media.

So the governing party, the one with by far and away the most funds, is doing its level best to ensure that voters are uninformed about anything.

They clearly hope that hardly any people will vote, since low voter turnout tends to favor incumbents and conservative parties. And polls have consistently shown them to be in majority territory.

Do the Conservatives deserve re-election?

I would argue no—and not only because of their “keep the voters ignorant” campaign style. Fortunately, I don’t have to personally write up all the reasons why, as many others have. One of my favourite examples is Please: Anyone but Doug Ford by Justin Ling. A few excerpts:

His years in office have been defined by shortages — a lack of homes, doctors, teachers, jobs, skilled workers, subways, buses, and bike lanes. Worse yet, his plan for a third term is ambitious only in its plan to build a massive new white elephant.

Let’s start with housing, inarguably the priority for any incoming government. But, somehow, Ford remains indifferent. Ontario is, in the full swing of a housing crisis, breaking ground on fewer units of new housing today than it was in 2012. It’s a stunning failure.

…

There are few problems in Ontario which don’t flow out of this acute housing shortage. Tent encampments, rising crime, the opioid crisis, sluggish growth, a stagnant culture, and declining productivity: All things that could be ameliorated by cheaper, abundant housing. 

…

Ford is addicted to giving private companies public money, often for no benefit to the province.

…

He has had nearly seven years to fix the province, and he hasn’t. What is he proposing for the next four years?

Ford’s healthcare plan is absolutely anemic, little more than a vague hand-wave at the crisis. If he has actual new plans to boost housing construction, he’s certainly been holding out on us. Does he have a real plan to improve education, reduce homelessness, hire more doctors, provide care for people struggling with addiction, or get real economic growth started again? No.

What Doug Ford has is a big dumb tunnel.

The opposition problem

If not Doug’s PCs, then who? And therein lies the problem. Both Liberals and NDP have new leaders that aren’t well known. Neither has managed to bust out a fantastic campaign to make them the clear alternative. The Green Party has a appealing leader and great platform, but are strong only in a limited number of ridings. The voter who wants “not Conservative” has to do the frustrating dance of whom exactly to pick instead.

I have voted. I will say it: I voted NDP. I live in a riding with an NDP incumbent who is excellent. I was happy to support her. I was less happy to support some aspects of the NDP platform. Really, you’re going to make the 407 toll-free to “reduce congestion” (which it won’t). Really, that’s your first announcement? And that whole grocery rebate thing? That sounds… complicated.

But as whole, it’s still a better platform than what the PCs have on offer. The party leader, Marit Stiles, is more appealing than Ford. And their Instagram ad today is one of the funniest political ads I’ve seen in some time (here’s hoping they also post on YouTube or somewhere more accessible than Instagram).

And they know the mission: Focus on the ridings they hold, and the ones they might conceivably take away from the Conservatives. From the Conservatives. Not so much from the Liberals or the Greens.

The Liberals haven’t played too much of a factor in my personal consideration, with the Greens having earned my “heart” vote, and the NDP clearly being the smart vote. But being someone who frankly doesn’t really understand political strategy, it’s been interesting periodically dipping into the writings of Evan Scrimshaw, who lives and breathes this stuff.

This one, pointing out that with Conservatives sitting at 45% support in polling (it’s since dipped a bit, not enough), there is no “rearranging of the deck chairs” possible to prevent them winning a majority, was particularly interesting: Ontario: Progressives’ Absurd Focus.

The idea that if you could magically optimize the Liberal and NDP votes, somehow Ford would be defeated is nonsensical. Not every vote who is voting for one or the other is a vote for the other. Not every Liberal trusts the NDP on fiscal policy or some of their more out there social values ideas (remember safety zones around drag bars?), while plenty of New Democrats are union, working class, blue collar voters who oscillate between the NDP to advocate for more health spending and the Conservatives because they’re mad at progressives, wokeness, and the general fact that the world isn’t how it was in 1995. Only 62% of Liberals and New Democrats think the OLP and ONDP should merge into one party, per a Friday Research Co poll. 

….

The unfortunate truth is that if you were to do head to head polling, Ford would easily beat Crombie’s Liberals, Stiles’ NDP, or some merged entity. He is what Ontario wants. The reason he’s what Ontario wants is in large part because the Opposition have not been good enough.

…

If there was some option of a merger or a deal, the Greens would also be a big impediment to it working. Green voters aren’t idiots who think the Greens can win, they’re about building slowly and adding to the conversation through presence and generally not making the compromises that the NDP and especially the Liberals make. It’s a party that is on some level about being anti-Liberal and anti-NDP more than it is about the environment or ecology or whatever else. It’s a statement of principles, and about one’s self. 

…

What both parties of the left have failed to do is create a coherent narrative for why they need to be elected. The real problem for Ontario progressives isn’t how the opposition splits their votes, it’s the fact that 45% of Ontario is about to vote for Ford, and any person or any organization focused on anything other than driving that down isn’t helping.

Vote anyway

The weather forecast has improved this week. The NDP still looks perky. The Greens are are encouraging you to not feel bad about voting for some other party if you don’t live in one of their favored ridings. The Liberals… Well, I’m not too sure what’s going on there, but they do have some good candidates.

You can vote any day between now and Thursday. Go here: https://voterinformationservice.elections.on.ca/en/election/search?mode=postalCode, enter your postal code, and it will tell you where and what form of ID to bring.

It’s not really a fair election, but it helps nothing to sit it out. Happy voting.

Doing what you can

Hansen, recuperating in his cage, was very sweet, full of purrs and head-butts. But his blankies and towels all seemed to be somewhat damp. Not smelly, though. And his water dish was really low. So perhaps a bit of water bowl spillage.

Following the morning protocol, I removed his food and water dishes, and replaced them with new ones, topped up. But before putting those back in the cage, I gathered up all his damp bedding and replaced each of those. Litter scooped, a few more pets doled out, then I gave him his new food and water dishes, and closed the cage door.

Whereupon he flicked, flicked, flicked almost all the water out of the dish and onto his newly installed bedding.

Good thing he’s cute.

Black and white cat with missing ear tips and pink nose.
From https://www.instagram.com/p/DFjK4W-o1a3/?img_index=1. Hansen was rescued from the cold outdoors, and his ear tips didn’t make it.

That was on my first day volunteering for Pet Patrol, the cat rescue organization from whom we acquired Gus and Mac (and previously, Zoë, McSteamy, and Mocha). Some cats in cages, but most were just loose in the sanctuary, and all seemed a bit crazed with energy after a night without people. It was a flurry of litter scooping, cage cleaning, food exchanging, and floor mopping, with just a side of cat petting.

I solved my Hansen dilemma by not immediately restoring the water dish after providing him with yet another set of dry blankets and towels. I snuck the water bowl in later, when Hansen had settled for a nap.

My next shift was in the evening, and the cats were much more mellow then. There was still a certain amount of crazy-ness, as several were heading to surgery the next day, and had to be given canned food to make sure they got a fill of food before their dry food was taken away overnight. Might not sound complicated, but remember that there are tons of cats loose who are not getting canned food—but would like some.

Fluffy black calico.
This is Monet. She got canned food that night. She is now ready for her forever home. From https://www.instagram.com/p/DFxwwnvIH2S/?img_index=5

My third shift, also an evening, was the quietest yet. Newcomers included a couple ferals temporarily being sheltered from the extreme cold. There was no point in trying to socialize them, but I was getting to know a few of the others.

So far, it has not been difficult trying to resist the lure of adopting one of these babies myself. It probably helps that there’s been a slow but steady stream of adoptions occurring. But it’s also true that Gus and Mac are enough for us right now.

Fluffy black cat.
Gus says hi.

I also heard from Mask Bloc WR recently, asking me if I’d like to join in their latest meeting. Per Mask Bloc. org,

Blocs are formed when individuals or groups unite around a common goal. Blocs can take many forms, ranging from voting and political pressure groups, to advocacy groups and mutual aid organizations.

Mask Blocs are independent mutual aid group providing high quality masks to their community for free. They may also provide other tools and information about COVID-19, clean air, testing, vaccination and accessibility.

I’d been hearing about them in various cities, and it seemed like an interesting thing to try to help out with. At the meeting (which was virtual), I learned that the Waterloo Region group, which is relatively small, has been making high-quality masks available to those who want them but can’t afford them for some time now. They have a number of community locations, but will also deliver for people who can’t easily get to those.

Recycle your used masks!
From https://www.instagram.com/p/DD2ZBEEOG1D/. I’m personally excited about this service, as I do have some guilt about all my disposable masks ending up in landfill. Now they won’t!

Recently, they have also expanded to providing rapid tests. The challenge there is that while the masks get donated to them (by the companies who make them), the tests are not. So they need to focus more on fund-raising now. Not really my forte, but they have other initiatives and ideas:

  • Holding more COVID-safe events (one of which is happening tonight!)
  • Providing assistance to those suffering from serious Long COVID
  • Doing more advocacy and research

During the meeting, the subject of the current Ontario election came up, and they noticed that I was able to rattle off various political facts and events rather easily. They asked if I could come up with a list of the Ford government record in this area, for potential use on their Instagram.

I did, though I did not really see how what I provided could be “Instagram-able”. It was stuff like this:

August 2022
Ontario eliminates the mandatory five-day isolation rules for people with COVID-19. (8)

September 2022
The Ontario Science table working group, which advised the government on COVID protections, is disbanded. (9)

November 2022
The Chief Medical Officer of Ontario requests that Ontarians mask in indoor settings to assist overwhelmed children’s hospitals. (10)
Most Conservative MPPs refuse to do so in the Legislature. All opposition members wear masks. (11)

December 2022
Statistics Canada reveals that 2022 was Canada’s and Ontario’s deadliest COVID year, and also the year with the highest number of COVID hospitalizations. (12)

March 2023
The Ontario government ends a program that gave workers’ access to three paid sick days.

(Covering not the early pandemic years, but the subsequent ones.)

But look what they came up with! At https://www.instagram.com/maskblocwr/p/DFqg7devZc4/

On graph of Ontario Wastewater data March 2022: End of mask mandates in most public settings, including schools, daycares, gyms, stores, restaurants, and offices (1) June 2022: End of mask mandates in public transit and healthcare settings. (2) August 2022: Elimination of mandatory five-day isolation rules for people with COVID-19. (3) September 2022: The Ontario Science table working group is disbanded. (4) November 2022: The Chief Medical Officer of Ontario requests the people maks indoors to help overwhelmed children;'s hospitals. (5) December 2022: 2022 was Canada's and Ontario's deadliest COVID year, and the year with the highest number of COVID hospitalizations.
March 2023: End of program that gave workers access to three paid sick days. (7) June 2023: End of free rapid tests in pharmacies and grocery stores. (8) August 2023: The Toronto Unity Health Rehabilitation Program for patients with Long COVID is shut down. (9) October 2023: The Ontario NDP introduce the Improve Air Quality for our Children Act. It has not gotten past first reading. (10) December 2023: There were 1199 emergency room closures in Ontario in 2023. ER closures were extremely rare before 2020. (11)
My additional comment: Note the change in the y-axis here. That was a hell of a peak in December 2023.

(If you don’t like Instagram, you can also see the whole thing—just five slides—here: A message from MaskBlocKW.)

A pretty smart group, and they seem quite nice also. There is a hope to safely meet in person at some point—likely in the warmer weather.

Times are nuts. I’m hoping that by finding community, and doing what I can to help, I won’t go nuts myself.

More summering, more updates

Because it’s the most important topic ever, I’ll get y’all up to speed on my latest hair colour, while also providing a bit of a “tour de restaurant patios”.

First up, at Loloan Lobby Bar, you can see that the hair is kind of rose gold (and also windswept, and also my makeup is quite faded, but oh well).

Diner with rose gold hair in front of plate with scallops.

We biked over to the Loloan that Tuesday for dinner, and partook of their new summer menu. It was very good!

Then a couple weeks later, behold the blonde look at our anniversary dinner (32 years married, 36 together) chez The Odd Duck.

Blonde in white dress at patio table with red drink in foreground.

I now I understand why Jean commented on how their patio lacked charm—I hadn’t realized til looking at these pictures how much of the street view he was seeing! My view was pretty different…

Coffee pot, cheesecake, man in sunglasses against patio walls.

… because the canvas did block the streetscape for me. (Also note Jean’s weight loss, hey?) We’ll have to trade seats next time to be fair.

Regardless of charm or lack thereof, we both really enjoyed the meal. They know their food, and their wine, at The Odd Duck.

I ended up selecting a semi-permanent colour called light golden brown to dye my hair. I was quite happy with the result. You can pretty much see it in the photo below (along with more faded makeup—I’m really bad about reapplying makeup) from our dinner at Arlo, in Ottawa, last week.

Woman with golden brown hair in front of plates of appetizers.

Arlo also had excellent food! It’s been a good run. This isn’t even a complete list.

A couple days after our anniversary dinner, we biked over to Babylon Wine Sisters to meet some friends for vino and a meal. Less elaborate than these other places, but still très bon. And perfect weather for it.

Woman with cheese ball and sauce.
This was some sort of cheese bombé situation…

And our other big dinner in Ottawa, at Fairouz Cafe, was also fantastic and creative. Halloumi cheese with cappuccino cream, dates, and figs; duck confit flatbread; babaganoush with shaved truffle!

Foregrounded Brussels sprouts, duck flatbread, with cappuccino cream and babaganoush in the background.

And between meals…

we did a few other things. The Friday before leaving for Ottawa, we went to see Something Rotten in Stratford. Lordy, that was funny! It’s set in the time of Shakespeare. Two brothers are trying to compete with him as playwrights. With the help of a soothsayer, they come up with the idea of producing the world’s first musical!

It ends up mocking / paying tribute to numerous musicals, as well as various Shakespearean plays, and it’s all just delightful.

As for the trip to Ottawa, that went well! It was very hot and humid, but we managed by doing our longer walks more in the morning, and spending afternoons in cooler museums or drinking iced beverages. Our hotel, the Sonder Rideau, was very spacious and well-equipped, and located right downtown, so that was all good. We visited KIN Winery, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and Rockcliffe Park. If you’d like more details and photos, I’ve posted them here: Ottawa 2024.

Ottawa Rideau canal.
Great photo by Jean from that trip

The poop scoop

I and fellow activists have not been successful in saving the Ontario Wastewater Surveillance Program, but there have been some minor accomplishments:

  • Quite a few media articles about it, in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, CBC, CTV News, the Tyee. The Health Minister got asked about it at a media scrum, which seemed to make her cranky. It’s definitely something, as other program cancellations have gone mostly unremarked.
  • The cities of Ottawa and London have come up with funding to continue the program, in a somewhat reduced capacity, for 2 or 3 more months. (Peterborough and Windsor might also have cobbled something together; not as sure here.)
  • The Federal government has given official statements that confirm the Ontario government has been lying about the reason for cancelling it (their claim was that the Federal government was taking it over):
    • The Federal program does not duplicate what the Ontario one did.
    • The Federal expansion will not result in a system as comprehensive as Ontario’s was.
    • Ontario did not consult or collaborate with the Federal government on coordinating wastewater testing programs.

I personally got a flurry of email responses about this in recent days, from the Mayor of Waterloo, the Chair of Waterloo Region, and my Federal MP, Bardish Chagger.

Don’t let our waste go to waste

Imagine, if you will, a system of disease surveillance that doesn’t rely on expensive and painful tests. It does not require us to get swabs stuck up our noses, needles poked into our arms, or even to answer banal questions about symptoms. Instead, this system asks us to go about our regular day, sleeping, waking, eating, and…. defecating… exactly as we would normally. In this system, heroic nerds—out of sight and out of mind—scoop and test samples of sewage in order to tell us whether disease rates are either concerning or tolerable.

Now imagine that shortsighted policymakers decide to defund such a surveillance system, just as its worth and pioneering quality are being celebrated worldwide.

Dr Raywat Deonandan, When The Poop Hits The Fan — Ontario wastewater testing needs to be expanded, not stripped back, Canada Healthwatch

Of course, you don’t have to imagine it, because that’s exactly what’s happening in the Province of Ontario. Dr. Deonandan’s short article linked does a great job of explaining why this is bad; the key points being:

  • It’s really the only metric we have left for informing the public about current infection risk
  • Vulnerable individuals require such information to determine what activities they can do when
  • It’s a useful source for ongoing scientific research into various infectious diseases and conditions
  • It can serve as an early warning system of new threats

The Ontario government points out that the Federal government is planning to expand its wastewater system in Ontario, suggesting that means that the provincial system is no longer needed. Problem is, all evidence suggests that the Federal system will be a poor cousin to what is in place now:

  • Far fewer sites (59 now, down to maybe 8)
  • Much slower release of information
  • No direct ties to hospitals, universities, and public health units
  • Less informative: fewer diseases covered, weaker data analysis

Let’s do a chart comparison. In Winter 2023, Ontario experienced the second biggest Covid wave ever. In Spring 2023, Ontario Covid rates dropped to the lowest level of the Omicron era. Which government agency’s wastewater data conveyed this information most clearly?

The Federal government’s?

Toronto wastewater data, federal

Or the Ontario government’s (GTA = Greater Toronto area)?

COVID wastewater signal GTA, Ontario chart.

My response

As I still (quite unfashionably) feel that Covid is a disease best avoided, I still (even more unfashionably) make some efforts to avoid catching it. This has included periodically checking these charts to assess how much vigilance is currently warranted.

I’m not really sure what I’ll do without that option. Just give up? (I don’t think I can just give up.) Stay at highest alert levels always? (I don’t think I can do that, either.)

It seems very unfair for government / public health to say “Make your own risk assessment!”, then remove any way doing that. So, I have tried to both raise public awareness about this, and contacted various levels of government to complain.

ActionResult
Emailed CBC KW (the region’s most popular morning radio station) to ask them to cover the story.They did a story on it the following week. And they emailed me back to thank me for suggesting it and for giving them a lead on who to interview for it.
Emailed the Big Story podcast to ask them to cover the story.No response and they haven’t covered the story.
Wrote a letter to the editor in the Waterloo Region Record (the local paper).They published it.
Wrote to complain to the Premier, the Minister of Health, and the Minister of the Environment of Ontario.The Ministry of the Environment emailed back saying to not worry my pretty little head about it, that they’re working with the Federal government to keep something going. (I might be paraphrasing.)
Wrote to my MPP, who is an Opposition member.She wrote back saying she agreed it was a terrible decision, and encouraged me to also complain to the government. (Her party has also spoken out against this decision.)
Wrote to some Waterloo Regional Council members, suggesting that they should lobby the Ontario government to not cancel the program.Did not hear back a thing from any of them. However, at one of their subsequent meetings, they did agree to contact the Federal government to try to get them to keep the program going.
Wrote to MPPs in the region who belong to the governing party to point out that it appeared that other cities were going to get some wastewater monitoring, but Waterloo wasn’t, and that wasn’t fair, since we pay as much as taxes as they do (that’s me trying to speak Conservative).TBD, because I just did that.

What you can do

Various sites make it pretty fast and easy to write your own letter of complaint (thanks to John Dupuis for compiling)…

  • Safe Care Ontario: Email template you can copy (and adapt, if you’re ambitious) and a list of the email addresses to send it to you. (Also material for other valuable campaigns you can join in on, should you be even more ambitious.)
  • Still COVIDing Canada: Handy-dandy mailto: links for key provicial politicians, and another email template. Bonus: email template and contact information for municipal politicians in Waterloo (hey, that’s my town!) and Ottawa.
  • Wastewater Advocacy Resources: Google Drive with contact information, email script, phone script, and social media post suggestions.

And I dare say that even you don’t live in Ontario, don’t let that stop you! (Though you might want to adapt the email wording…) The data is serving international research purposes; as with this article in the scientific Nature journal: SARS-CoV-2 viral titer measurements in Ontario, Canada wastewaters throughout the COVID-19 pandemic:

When integrated with other types of epidemiological data, WBS can contribute to a more holistic understanding of disease incidence at both the provincial and national levels in Canada. The extensive dataset and comprehensive methodology outlined in this manuscript, which includes specific normalization techniques, is not only instrumental in improving the current understanding of SARS-CoV-2 WBS but also holds promise for helping public health units and researchers make better predictions for future outbreaks of similar viral diseases. This set of protocols can be adapted by other research institutions or public health agencies interested in employing WBS.

PSA for Ontario

I’ll try to keep this short. It is Thanksgiving weekend in Ontario, meaning a lot of people getting together with friends and family, which is great.

White cat on autumn cat tree.

Weather, however, is not fabulous, making outdoor gatherings not all that appealing. The updated vaccine rollout has been kind of slow in these parts, and it won’t be available to everyone for another three weeks or so. And the Covid wastewater signal for the province is as follows:

Covid wastewater signal for Ontario, October 5 is rising.
A bit outdated—guess they took this week off for Thanksgiving. But the trend is clear.

So I feel that this a good time to point out that if you’re not feeling well in the coming days, or hear that some of those you gathered with aren’t:

  • There’s an excellent chance that you qualify for PCR testing, to find out for sure (because if you’re an adult who hasn’t had a vaccine in the last six months, which is about 96% of us, you’re in the running!).
  • If the test results aren’t what you’d hoped, there’s an excellent chance you qualify for Paxlovid, as the criteria is similar. This drug could make you feel better faster, and reduce your risk of Long Covid. Also: cinnamon candies can help with the “metallic taste in your mouth” side effect.

Above links are to my other site, which I give more information about this. You can also go right to the source (even though it says nothing about cinnamon candies!):

Government of Ontario: COVID-19 testing and treatment

Thank you for reading. Here’s my other cat!

Black cat dismounting from autumn cat tree.

But we didn’t dine on patios 24/7

Other semi-interesting things we did on our fall 2023 vacation.

Like wine tastings on patios! 😁

Well, we did start in Prince Edward County. We headed to Black Prince Winery first. We’d visited in 2020 and quite enjoyed it; I was wondering how much the vibe would have changed since then.

They have expanded in subsequent years, with a wood-oven pizzeria on site now. But the vibe was pretty much the same: casual, funny, personalized, willing to throw in an extra taste or two. And the wine was better than last time, if anything. Jean and I didn’t agree on everything: he thought the Chardonnay was amazing and I thought it was just OK; I thought the Pinot Noir was amazing, and he thought… But no mind. We agreed on enough to get six bottles or so, along with some of their excellent vinegars: pinot noir, peach, raspberry, apple cidar…

Four bottles of vinegar.

We then headed for another repeat visit, to Lighthall Vineyards. They had changed even less, a small winery offering tasting with cheese made on-site (indoors, but uncrowded and with excellent cross-ventilation from doors open at each end). We once again enjoyed the wares, and did some purchasing here, too.

We’d had a heck of a time booking accommodations for this trip, because hotels are just stupid expensive now. For this leg, we had choice of Kingston, Gananoque, Picton, Wellington… But ended up in Belleville (about a half hour from Picton), because that’s the only place that seemed reasonable. It was at a Hampton Inn, which is unexciting, but quite nicely furnished.

On Monday, we found that the included breakfast was nothing amazing, but did the trick. Unlike the Hampton in Sudbury, they had no problem with us taking the food and eating it in our room.

Then as a break from tasting and dining, we started the day with a walk in the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory. It was a shortish walk, particularly given the longish drive to get there, but we did get some nice views of flora and fauna.

Swan
Jean got a beauty picture here, eh?
Brown and green frogs.
Not just birds
Asters
Or just animals
Bird drying wings
But also birds.
Continue reading “But we didn’t dine on patios 24/7” →

“You have an *outside*?”

Patio summer, travel edition

Most people don’t really get our restaurant thing. They enjoy eating, but to actually see dinner at a restaurant as an experience in itself (not just as a good place to meet friends), or as something you might build a vacation around (versus something you might have to do while on vacation)… It’s not that common.

And I get it. I don’t think most people are weird because they wouldn’t rather spend time and money on that than other experiences. Clearly Jean and I are the weird ones. (On a lower budget scale, we are the type of people satirized in the movie The Menu.)

But I just don’t love restaurants enough to throw all caution to the wind and risk crowded indoor meals night after night. This has made travel planning stressful, because on the other hand, I also don’t think I’d be very happy with my trip if it mainly consisted of street hot dogs and takeout meals eaten in my hotel room.

So for Fall vacation this year, I pushed for September instead of October, with the thought that maybe the patios will still be open.

This is how it went.

Continue reading ““You have an *outside*?”” →

Purple haze, purple rain

Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now

“That Would Be Enough” from Hamilton

A few days after my last post, about how bike helmets get the respect that masks deserve, Jean had a fairly serious bike accident—one that would have been far worse had he not been wearing his new, high-quality, full-face coverage, bike helmet. He was out mountain biking with friends when he lifted his front wheel to go over a small cliff, causing his back wheel to flip him up and over and onto his back—or something like that; I wasn’t there and he doesn’t quite remember.

I found out when I got a call from him that there had been an “incident” on the trail and that his friends were taking him to Emergency.

“Oh, my God,” I said. “You need a good mask!”

On the drive over to the hospital with his best N95, it occurred to me that I should have asked which body part he had hurt.

Continue reading “Purple haze, purple rain” →