a month in bullet points

[the_siobhan]

It was is Axel's birthday last week. Our normal go-down-t'pub routine is obviously not happening, so instead we spent the night sitting in the backyard and burning things and drinking beer until we didn't notice the mosquitoes and having extremely laggy conversations over Zoom.

**

The retirement residence where my mother's husband is living has managed to remain completely Covid-free during this shitshow. They are now open for visits, by appointment only and with strict rules around visitors - for starters, they want proof of a negative test done within the last week.

Testing is now open to everybody so off I trot to the local centre and get my brain swabbed. I did this last Tuesday, figuring that way I would be able to visit over the weekend - their posted turnaround time is four days. Our roommate, who got tested a month ago, got his results in two days. A friend who got tested on the exact same day as me got her results the next day. Mine? Crickets.

I've left a message with the centre, but heard nothing back yet. At this rate I might as well just go back in and get re-tested, the results will have aged out by the time I get them.

**

Carlin, our venerable old beardie, finally died at some point Friday morning. It wasn't a surprise. He had been all but blind for the past year to the point where we had to feed him by hand. The last couple of weeks he had given up on food entirely, spending almost all his time sleeping. We took him out to sleep in the sun when we could and he finally just... stopped.

Their average lifespan is 10-12 years in captivity and I think he was 14 this spring. A good age for a dragon.

**

So it goes.