This Is Surreal

Well, hello there. It's a temporary return of Daily(ish). I think there's something about what's going on in the world that kinda made me wanna have just a bit of an outlet, to talk to myself really and whoever else might happen to listen, but mainly just an outlet for some thoughts. So it may get interrupted by kids screaming as you all are probably experiencing as well. Working from home is nothing new for me, but having the kids home twenty four seven plus my wife is working at home in the basement below me in our laundry room now, her home office, and so our life has been a little bit twisted upside down.

So in case you're not aware, we're up in Canada and we actually just returned, on this is now Wednesday as I record on Saturday, Sunday, we kinda flew home from Mazatlan, Mexico with a from a family extended family vacation into, Canada that is very different than when we left two weeks prior. When we left, there was the looming threat of the corona COVID nineteen virus. And certainly, at least I was very aware that it was potentially gonna grow into something bigger. And if not in Canada, for sure in The US, just somehow something about it felt more threatening to United States than it did in Canada. We have a lot of space, I guess.

It's easy to keep apart from each other, especially in winter. And even where we were in Mexico was fairly removed from sort of the masses of city. We're not in a all inclusive. We're not close to where cruise ships land, but obviously, you know, you go to a restaurant and all it takes is as we know now, one person spreading it around and all of a sudden it spreads like wildfire. So all that to say when we were there, it was we were fairly immune from immune is maybe a bad choice of word, but we were fairly, isolated from the the world sort of paranoia, hysteria, all and fear and justifiable and all of those things and didn't we're kind of in a bubble almost of of calm as you are sometimes on vacation I suppose, but we're still reading Twitter.

We're still keeping up with I was anyways with news and family as well and Facebook and everything that's going on in the world, but you're kind of like on vacation. And then as it sort of switched to the state of North America kind of being starting to get more and more cases and governments, starting to slowly shut things down, close things down, close borders, stop flights. It became apparent as we were packing up to leave basically on the Friday and then to the Saturday as we headed to the airport that it was a very different world now than when we left. And so even going to the airport, getting on the plane, we weren't sure. I heard the attendants talking about something about like, would we be able to fly or that kind of stuff.

And it really wasn't known. And, as it turns out, was one of the last, not the last, they're still flying out, but one of the last flights that was allowed to go out into, international airspace, I guess, from Mexico. Not not the only flight left, but just we're in sort of the the final stages as we know now of of the airlines shutting down and even Canada allowing flights back into Canada. Not that Canadian citizens aren't gonna be allowed to return, but just anybody who is not a Canadian citizen wouldn't be allowed to fly in. It would complicate a flight obviously and, and borders being closed, that kind of stuff.

And so when we landed, we weren't sure what we were allowed to even do because it was still in flux as to what exactly was the plan and what we were supposed to do. We knew we it was it changed the wording changed almost by the hour of you it is suggested you isolate for fourteen days to it's recommended to it's required. And so that did that mean that on Saturday night, were supposed to go to a hotel room and then drive home from Edmonton where we flew into? Do we are we allowed to go to the hotel? Are we allowed to get food for our family as we just flew in?

And walking around with a daughter who has her hair in braids like often kids do or people do in Mexico. And it's got a pretty clear signal on your tanned obviously, but it's pretty clear signal you came from somewhere else today or in the recent past. And, as everybody kinda like, it felt like a bit of we're a bit of pariah. So we just decided in the morning, we packed up quickly, drove home just to get home so that we could actually be in our house and be where we knew what things were going on and how to stay, I guess, safe. And so that's where we sit now.

We're on fourteen days of, self isolation quarantine. Especially for me, I feel like I'm I'm the sort of hypochondriac nervous about getting sick at the best of times. And so sitting and waiting for the virus to kick in or not, sounds like somebody's upset outside, and kids who go from playing games happily for five minutes to screaming and yelling at each other twenty minutes later to then being happy again, and meanwhile trying to work and or record podcasts or edit podcasts. All lots of fun and a very mild struggle to be honest compared to what a lot of folks are going through. We have food, shelter, warmth, and reasonably understandable normal kids.

So I don't know if I'm gonna keep this podcast going. It's just kind of a bit of a outlet for some thoughts during this time, and we'll see where that leads. And, obviously, if you're a part of Good Stuff, part of the Patreon community, patreon.com/goodstuff. In Discord, we've got a health talk health talk channel where you can chat about with the rest of us about what you're experiencing in relation to all this, as well as a working for a living channel where more just talking about life and working from home and things related to that. And those are the two main ones.

Then, of course, lots of other fun stuff just to take a break from all the seriousness of life right now that's going on as everybody kind of adapts and changes and, works from home and or is forced not to work from home and struggles with that. So wherever you are in the world, hope you're doing well. I hope you're able to stay safe, and I hope you have space, food, toilet paper, and and also just, time to spend with your loved ones, even the noisy annoying cats in your life. So I'm Chris. I'd love to hear from you if you want to, reach out.

IChris on Twitter. [email protected] is my email address. If you're really alone and or hurting for community wherever you are and the $5 a month for the the Good Stuff Discord is, just too much right now because with all the uncertainty going on, maybe you're laid off, maybe you don't know if you're gonna have your job next month and you don't really wanna put $5 into something that might be the difference between a meal or something in the future, please reach out to me. Like I said, [email protected], we can figure out a way and unique community. We can figure out a way to get you into the community and and just even if it's temporary or whatever, I don't know.

It doesn't really matter right now exactly, but I'd love for you to be able to be involved if that's something that's hindering you and, just wanna join others in chatting and commiserating and celebrating and laughing and crying about all the stuff that's going on. So anyways, on that note, I'm gonna go back and edit a podcast now. Thanks for listening. Hope you have a great day. Bye.