Matthew

Has the isolation taken it’s toll on you yet?  If so, you are not alone.  And it’s not going to be over any time soon.  In Quebec, they have pushed the closures till at least May 4th, however this will more than likely be extended once again as we get closer to that date.

There is good news though… according to an article posted by the Financial Post entitled “Google publishes tracking data showing 59 per cent drop in normal movement patterns“:

Within Canada, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec have seen the biggest reductions in traffic to workplaces, all slightly ahead of the national average.

Well, today marks the 3rd week since I left my home in Montreal.  Yesterday (Thursday) the world passed one million reported infected.  A small number compared to the 7.5 billion world population for sure, but the shear rate at which this virus has spread is astonishing.  In my last post I mentioned a video which had data from March 15th, a few days after I left Montreal, when the world had just passed 150k infected.  It took 3 months to get to that number, now almost 3 weeks later, we have risen by more than 850k, with over 100k reported today (friday). …

Yesterday Montreal announced that there were 149 new cases bringing the total of cases in the city to  1361 which accounts for almost half of the cases reported across Quebec at the time (2840).  Of the 1361 cases, 82 are healthcare workers, the front line that we rely on to help us through.

I am glad that I left the city before this all happened, but I still have friends and co-workers in MTL that I keep in contact with and make sure they are still healthy and doing well.  This virus is just starting to grab hold, I am hoping that with social distancing, and other measures being put in place at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels will hopefully start a decline in those affected.…

I know I have not posted in the last few days, I have just been trying to wrap my head around this whole situation.  The world is going to hell in a hand basket, and the leader of “The Greatest Nation in the World” (cough, stuck up asshole, cough) is more worried about the economy then the health of his crumbling nation.  The US has now surpassed every other country’s reported cases:

This is a time when we, as a people, need to come together, this is a global crisis.  The virus does not care what ethnicity you are, doesn’t care which country you call home. …

As the days go by, and the effects of isolation set it, I find it harder and harder to do anything.  Seeing the new today that the number of confirmed cases almost doubled in Quebec over night, and news that Quebec is shutting down, I realize more and more my decision to leave the city was the best decision to make.  We are weeks, if not days away from Martial Law being enacted and all because a small few have decided for themselves that partying and having fun is more important than the health of the country.

I called my mom the other day… those who know me know that that is a rarity. …

With Montreal calling in an extended State of Emergency, and with the numbers of unemployed reaching new heights as businesses close, many people are turning tot he government and banks for relief.  But how much will the relief help those in need?  As I found out earlier today, when my friends called their bank (RBC) to try and get mortgage and credit card relief for their personal accounts and business accounts.  What they found out was shocking.  Now unlike most blogs on the web these days, instead of forcing you through 17 pages of back story forcing you to click the Next Page button and view a million adds before I explain why it was shocking (God I hate those sites) I will explain it right here and now.…

Today is not going to be of numbers.  To tell you the truth, I spent the day engulfing myself it getting up our Wurm Unlimited game server to keep us busy during these rough times.  Instead, bellow you will find links to all sorts of things to help those out in times of need.  Government sites, Banking sites, and other stuff to keep you busy.  We will save the numbers game for another day.

Canada’s top 6 banks to provide relief : BMO, RBC, CIBC, TD Canada Trust, National Bank of Canada, ScotiaBank

Government of Canada sites: Employment Insurance, Ontario E-learning Website, Covid-19 Outbreak site, Economic Response Plan

Sorry for the short post today, but I really wanted this one to be positive. …

I was hoping to get to this earlier today, but with work and the fact it’s Friday, the time sort of got away from me.  I read over my last few articles, and I realized that the tone wasn’t very positive.  Can you blame me?  It’s hard to stay positive when the world is in peril.  The facts are not pleasant… Today I watched as the number of reported cases soared by ~30,000 world wide, over 5,000 of those were in the United States to our south, which almost surpassed the new cases of Italy! (US: 5,594, Italy: 5,986).  I try to keep a pleasant and positive demeanor but, how? …

It’s strange stepping out onto my friends back porch… the only noise you hear are the distant transports and the Canada Geese flying above… other than that, complete silence.  Inside, my friends wife is keeping up to date on all the Covid 19 news videos on YouTube, and catching up on articles posted throughout the day.  Almost 900 confirmed cases in Canada, 257 of which are in Ontario.  Although it does seem to be slowing down a little in Canada compared to predictions, it’s still not over.  Militaries around the world are prepping for the worst.  There are rumors of the possibility of Martial Law and other military actions starting to brew on the net.…

Yesterday the Prime Minister of Canada announced that no one should leave their home unless absolutely necessary.  So we are now on official lock-down. We broke our volunteer lock down the other day just to make sure we had enough food as it looks like this is gonna be a lot longer than 2 weeks.  Most stuff was stocked, as long as you were looking for fresh goods… toilet paper, most pasta, canned goods, mac & cheese, those were all gone… But we got what we needed.

Last week, before I left Montreal, my work sent out a notice that they were going to test the feasibility of working from home by sending the IT workers home for 2 weeks starting Monday, that was last Thursday.…