What day is it? My wife asked me earlier in the week to join an online web call for Ms Sarah’s school and so last night at the dinner table she asked “How was the call?”. And I told her that the call is scheduled for tomorrow - Friday. She politely reminded me that today was Friday. Oops. So, I guess I missed the call. Am I the only one - now that we’re in a complete lockdown, I’m finding it challenging to figure out what day is it? Oh well.

When all of this began (feels like a century ago), I thought we that we were living in increments of two weeks and I’m sure many of us thought - okay, I can do this, it will only be two weeks. Well, as the headlines said in the paper it’s a going to be a lot more than two weeks.

It really is quite incredible how fast this has changed the way we live:

• Jan 23rd - first case is diagnosed after a man returned to Toronto from Wuhan.

• March 12 - the Government of Ontario announces schools will be closed for an additional two weeks following the March break.

• March 17 - the Premier declares a province wide state of emergency closing all bars, restaurants, and gatherings of more than 50 people.

• March 23rd - the closing of all non-essential business and that schools would continue to be closed past the original April 6th date. A state of emergency was declared in the City of Toronto.

• March 30 - the state of emergency was extended through April 13.

• March 31 - schools would remain closed till at least May 4th.

• April 3 - the number of essential business would be reduced to 44 and the government released data indicating that without extreme public health measures the death toll could rise as high as 100,000 deaths and if further and stronger measures are taken the number of cases and deaths could be reduced.

In a very short time our economy has come to a standstill, many people have lost their jobs and the world has gone topsy, turvy. Whatever your point of view, things are sure different.

For people who are still employed they may now find themselves working from home using technology that in some cases they had to learn on the fly.

While I was working, I actually became used to working from home - using the companies Internal Video Software program. I didn’t have to go to the office and could save at least 1 hour a day of driving.

I don’t mean this in a crass way but some of us may be looking at this through our own lens - which is understandable. So, here are some of the things I’m missing (in no particular order).

• Going to the tennis club - even though I have a few injuries, I could still work out and meet with friends and enjoy a glass of wine.

• Walk around the city - okay, we can still do that a little bit but nothing is open and you should be practicing some sort of social distancing. It doesn’t feel the same.

• Seeing people - since I’ve retired I had to force myself to get out and talk to people otherwise you could go mad. Now we are all inside and so far we still have peace in the family. (Check back later for an update on that).

• Making plans - it seems pointless to make any type of plan? I had hoped to go to New York City in April (forget that) or every spring, I get the urge to go to Paris or London. (forget that)

• Go south to the Florida Condo - (forget that)

• Tickets to see Hamilton - (forget that). Our tickets were for the end of April. There is another story to that and I’ll write about it soon.

• Enjoying some of my favourite restaurants. (forget that).

Hey, I well aware that these are not big problems especially compared to what other people are facing.

I have noticed that the lineups are getting longer at the few stores that are open. I suspect this is happening because the guidelines continue to change and I’m sure that people who work in these stores are concerned for their own health.

I also had two Zoom calls this week. I’m on the Membership Committee at the club and they conducted the meeting using the app and I’m also part of a group of people who play tennis on Monday and we’ve now done two calls using Zoom. Works pretty good, I must say.

This time year the weather can tease you. We are looking for a break - warmer temperatures and some sunshine! It’s still cool and often wet but I did manage to sit outside twice this week and if you can get out of the wind it felt a lot warmer than the temperature indicated.

I am trying to reduce the amount of Internet use and how much we watch the news. It can be a bit overwhelming. We have a few shows that we typically record so we’re working through those slowly. We just finished Season 1 of Billions - which we are watching via the Prime App. It’s trashy so it’s perfect for me.

Its fair to say that the lack of a “good routine” is not perfect. Too much food and too much red wine! I am looking forward to this ending so that we can re-start our lives again. So, that’s it for now. Nothing earth-shattering here. We are all safe and bored.