— पांच हजार तीन सौ चालीस-चार —
I threw out a box of covid tests this morning. That was a first. But, it was a week from expiring, and when I tried to test Shobhit and myself for covid this morning, not even the main line appeared on either test. As in: one line means negative, two lines mean positive, and these tests showed no lines at all. Into the garbage (and recycling) those boxes went.
I opened another box that had a month to go before expiring, and those tests worked. They still came back negative, thankfully, although Shobhit woke up this morning coughing and deeply congested. Mind you, he seemed to have a brief cold for maybe three days back in the fall, I can't remember if it was November or December now, and it wasn't covid then; it may well not be covid now either. We'll test again tomorrow. I clearly need to burn through more of my tests, which I get two new boxes of
for free from the state every month.
In fact I just took a break from writing this to place my next order, as I had not yet ordered in January. I guess I'm only getting one box this month; in the past they sent me two. There must have been a change. I guess it's just as well, since I've now got backlogged tests going to waste. (For all I know this box was defective from the start; I know that also happens sometimes.)
Anyway, I had plans to have an afternoon Happy Hour with Laney in her new apartment in downtown Renton tomorrow, after once my conscience finally got the better of me, I emailed her to postpone a week. This will work out better for us anyway, as I am reading a novel she recommended (
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber) and we are eager to discuss it after I finish; this will give me time to hopefully get it done.
I had also hoped to go to Gabriel's from Laney's, since I'd be kind of halfway there already, but postponing with Laney but not with Gabriel would obviously be psychotic. So, I texted Gabriel as well. For all I know, Gabriel had forgotten about possibly getting together tomorrow anyway, or is now busy with something else he has to do or whatever. I'm still holding out hope that we can make that work next weekend instead as well.
I'll probably keep my plans for a movie night at home with Alexia tonight though. I'll give her the option, and she is never concerned about these things. Other than that, no other socializing this weekend, until at least Friday next week. I want to put some distance between further socializing and the time I've spent around other people this week, between Action Movie Night on Wednesday (8 people), a wine tasting class at Total Wine & More last night (a much larger group), and even this morning, when I waited nearly forty minutes in the elevator bank just to get into the office, because a freak occurrence happened and none of our key cards were working. By the time a building maintenance guy arrived, at least 9 of us were waiting in that small space in front of the four pairs of elevator doors, to get through the glass doors into the office.
Now that I'm in here, I'm sitting at my desk with no one closer to me than two desks away, only two other people even in this large section of the office. Pretty typical for a Friday, actually. It was just in the elevator bank when we had a concentrated little group for a while. Thankfully one of them was Krish, the CEO, so once he started texting people, they sprang into action.
Prior to him, it was just Steve, who apparently typically arrives every morning at 6:30, and me. I had taken the #8 bus to work thanks to barely missing the #11 outside my building, and when I saw the #8 over at 15th & John was running seven minutes delayed, I hustled over there. I only mention this because it meant that I gained access to my office building via the building across the street that is owned by the same company, having come from the bus stop at Denny and 1st Avenue. I go down one level to that building's garage, cross Elliott Avenue in the skywalk that connects to my building's third floor, and then caught the elevator from that level.
Steve was in the elevator when I got in. I learned shortly thereafter that he had been waiting in the lobby, reading, and I guess was coming back up to check once more if either anyone else had arrived or his key card would now work. No luck: neither his nor mine worked. I had the idea to try the stairwell, and Steve followed with me, going down the elevator and through the parking garage and learning for the first time where the stair access was. Huffing and puffing, we made it to the fifth floor, only to find that the key car reader there wasn't working either. Oh well, it was worth a try.
So, back down the stairs we went, back through the parking garage, into the lobby, and up the elevators once more. That was when we found Krish, also unable to open the doors. Eventually we got into discussions about books we were reading, and then movies and TV, and later Krish was like, "We talked about books and movies, what about music?" And then we talked quite a bit about music.
By then Chris L, from IT, had also arrived. Shortly after his arrival, Krish took a group selfie of the four of us together. Over time, Chris J from Accounting came out of an elevator, and then Francine the Receptionist, and then another lady I didn't know. I want to say at least two more came before the building maintenance guy arrived but now I can't remember who they were.
At first the building maintenance guy thought it was an issue with every one of our key cards, and started to say he needed to take a picture of each one. But then the stairwell idea had come up, and he said he has an actual, physical key he can use to get inside from there—which the rest of us do not. He got into the elevator, went down one floor, came up one flight of the stairs, and finally managed to get in. He opened the doors for us from inside, and that was at about 8:05. I typically start work at 7:30, and had arrived a few minutes prior to that.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ चालीस-चार —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ चालीस-चार —
I guess I can recount what we did last night, which was the largest group of unmasked people I have been around indoors since probably before the pandemic: the first wine tasting class Shobhit and I went to since we went last summer, which itself had been the first we went to since before covid. That one in July had just a handful of attendees, though; I only learned on the way there last night that it was booked with some thirty people or so. I opted to go anyway. It's a free dinner!
Shobhit, as an employee, can go to any of these for free, and he can bring me along. I can't remember if I am free or just steeply discounted; all I know is I have never had to pay for it. There's always cheese and bread and salad and such. Last night we tasted 8 wines from Spain, plus a sherry that Jayne, the woman who is always hosting these classes, added to the mix herself.
Shobhit and I wore masks into the store, but of course, in the classroom drinking wine and eating, the masks come off. Whatever is going on with Shobhit today is not from that anyway; he texted me yesterday afternoon that he was "feeling something in his throat." He says that to me every few weeks, you must understand—you would not believe how much of a hypochondriac he is, the very definition of "crying wolf"—so I rarely take it seriously, and he seemed to feel okay once I got home. He didn't have definitive cold-like symptoms until we got up this morning. Or rather, he woke me up at 4 a.m. getting in and out of bed, and I never could get back to sleep, so I am quite tired as a write this.
I've never done a covid test on a weekday morning before work, but I did today. Both came negative, as I already said. I don't think it's covid, but you never know; we'll test again tomorrow. Even a cold is contagious, of course. I haven't had a common cold since early 2020. Three years! I should knock on wood. Maybe bang my head against it.
Okay, back to the wines. First four were whites; I wasn't particularly taken with any of them, and I seem pretty reliably not to be a huge fan of sparkling wines. The four reds we had after the break, I enjoyed much more. I don't often pay that much attention to the details being shared, but I enjoyed learning about Spanish wine regions and landscapes and such—not that I really retained any of it. I did find myself looking up the largest cities in Spain on Wikipedia. It seems their largest city, Madrid, has a metropolitan population of about six million. That makes it comparable to Toronto.
Shobhit had me drive us there, but he drove us back home, which is just as well, as I think Shobhit spit out more of the wine than I did and I didn't really feel fit to drive. Before we left, though, we did buy these
fun 54oz flasks on clearance that are in the shape of gas cans, and are stenciled with the words HOLIDAY FUEL. They'll be perfect for booze we bring with us to Australia next month.
When we got home we watched an episode of
His Dark Materials and then an episode of
Abbott Elementary.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ चालीस-चार —
[posted 12:30 pm]
