A quick trip to the Greek Islands

Since Heinrich has made it impossible for me to sleep more than about two hours a night and I've had enough of this whole Covid BS, I decided that since it seems like every single other person doesn't care about what one should or should not do to get us out of this ridiculous situation and as far as I can tell is flying to France or Spain or wherever and if you say something like "oh so that's why this F-ing thing is never going away" they kind of smugly smile and say "I don't think it has anything to do with it. Besides, you need a negative test to fly" and I work really hard to not hit them (actually I don't have to work that hard because I'm talking to them virtually), I decided to just up and take a trip to the Greek Islands.

I flew to Santorini and going through the airport didn't wear a mask because I figured "everyone who is here had to show a negative test so everyone is safe". On the plane I drank 3 bottles of Dom Perignon because why not and when I landed I rented a Landrover (cause fuck it) and drove straight to the marina obviously not wearing a seatbelt because I figure everyone driving there has to have passed a driving test.

I rented a sail boat and gave a fake driving license and used a stolen credit card because I can't afford to rent a sail boat this big (actually it was a yacht) and it's just been a really long time (actually my entire life) since I've sailed a 40 m long yacht and so even though the government suggests that you shouldn't pay for things with stolen credit cards these last 40 years have been tough so I kind of feel like I deserve it.

Before I took off I quickly hired a staff to do catering and all that other commoner stuff and got them to make sure I had enough Champagne and other expensive goods like I guess foie gras and caviar -- "whatever rich people normally ask for" were my instructions because if I'm paying with a credit card that's not really mine it would be silly and selfish if I didn't go the extra mile as it were and since we're in a pandemic (not that anyone on the full plane seemed to have noticed) I felt I should support the people who are making sparkling wine and the livers of force-fed goose and the fish eggs from beluga sturgeon before they finally go extinct and since I was basically a fugitive from the law (but apparently crimes aren't prosecuted anymore as long as you're stealing enough money) I also bought a bunch of guns and hired some mercenaries in case I wanted to do some pirate-like stuff from my giant yacht like plundering or whatever.

We sailed to Crete, then Mykonos, then Corfu, and finally anchored down in a bay on the island of Kos. I chose that one because I thought they might be into Cosplay there but apparently they're spelt differently. Nobody got Covid (well, most of the staff did but they don't count), and I only crashed the yacht near the end but it's somebody else's credit card and the ID I used was totally fake so I'm in the clear. All in all it was a fun quick trip to the Greek Islands even though I didn't really like the foie gras or the caviar so just ate like a shit ton of tzatziki, feta, and pita breads.

Update: I actually did get Covid and now I'm dead.

Last hours of my 30's

It's hard to believe but tomorrow Pemulis will be 40. Years old, that is. Fourteen thousand, six hundred days. That basically means I'm most likely halfway through my life.

What does it mean? It doesn't really mean anything, but it's a culturally important age and gives an excuse to maybe "take stock", as it were, and ...

Hello again. It's now about a week and a half later and I've been 40 for nearly 10 days. Looking at that life expectancy graph above, combined with the obvious fact that I never really got around to completing the original "last hours of my 30's" blog post, suggests that actually I'm probably for all intents and purposes well beyond halfway through my life if for no other reason than with kids and work and all that it's extremely difficult to actually get around to anything and so if "normally" -- i.e. pre-grown-up and for sure pre-kids -- something might take you, say, four hours to do, then at the grown-up and with kids stage then it will instead take you probably around seven hundred and thirty hours, give or take.

So the 40th birthday party celebration, deep in the thick of the Covid European 3rd Wave, was naturally nothing too crazy. I did cook a huge steak on the BBQ and drank some exceptional Piemonte wine that had shown up at my door unexpectedly.

Since it's impossible to plan for anything these days, we don't know exactly what the future holds, but we do hope to go on vacation as soon as humanly possible. Well, not actually as soon as humanly possible because all kinds of people are already going on vacation because they're selfish. But, once it makes sense to be able to go on vacation we will go somewhere where an airplane does not have to be involved and hopefully where it's a bit warmer and we will drive there and hopefully relax! I'm thinking maybe here:

The first person who guesses where it is wins a prize!

Pandemic Life Update 2

Remember like a week ago when, although we were still in the proverbial woods, there was that major breakthrough where the kids were out of the house and our sanity was somewhat returning and they were getting the social experiences that humans crave and children require to become functioning members of society / human beings and even though it was Hell on Earth to wake Helga up and get her ready for school the trade off was worth it because we could actually survive a little bit and get some work done and all that? Well, that's all over.

Two kids in Heinrich's daycare tested positive for the 'roner last week so he is under quarantine and the facility is closed until at least March 15th. Being the good citizens that we are, we are also keeping Helga at home (despite the good news which is that we have two negative tests from Joelle and Heinrich) until we're a bit more positive that all is safe to proceed. Separately from that, Helga woke up this morning coughing away so even despite the whole Covid thing we're not sending her under such conditions.

So we're right back to struggling along with two children at home 24/7 and things are actually a little bit worse than before (who'd have thought that was possible?) because Heinrich is not allowed outside even for a little walk. The home has never felt smaller!

Disclaimer: we are well aware of our privilege and the fact that most are struggling through this Pandemic Life with much more difficulty than us. But it's fun to complain!

Pandemic Life Update

Hello fellow so-far survivors of the Covid-19 Global Pandemic. How are you today? While in the grand scheme we are very much still right in the thick of the woods, there was a big breakthrough for us personally this week as today marks the end of an entire week where, for the first time since a few weeks before Christmas, the kids were back at school / daycare! What a different world that is. For one thing, I have time to write something here. For another, I can actually concentrate on work a little bit. For even yet another, they are learning to socialize and learning to speak other languages and they come home exhausted and fall asleep quickly. Of course, we have to wake them up in the morning (well, Helga anyways) and to describe what that's like, let's turn to my favourite reference book, the Oxford English Dictionary, Pemulis Edition:

So too bad on that front, but overall I am more than happy to take the trade-off. In other news, we've seen unseasonably warm temperatures as of late and I even went for a bike ride for the first time in a long time yesterday in sunny 20 degree celsius weather. Good old climate change.

Monday could turn our world upside down yet again so let's see what it brings us!