Semi-Detached
One reason I like Nova Scotia is that it’s more distant from everything, but the perks of living in civilization remain all accessible: a semi-detached life, if you will. Fittingly, a year and a half after moving to Halifax, we have bought a semi-detached house and moved into it.
It’s one side of a 3BR/2BA duplex in Cole Harbour, with a nice view of the rolling wooded hills of Nova Scotia through the maple trees out back, and even a glimpse of the nearby ocean in winter. This house, and most of the houses in the area, were built in the 1990s, and so are newer and generally better equipped — and better insulated — than a lot of other homes in the HRM.
Local real estate market has been surprisingly competitive, despite the pandemic; we were outbid on multiple properties and had to put in a rather aggressive offer to win this one. Closing was in early May (via videoconference), and we spent the rest of the month moving things ourselves, piecemeal, day by day, with the help of a rented pickup truck.
Cats have been enjoying the changing landscape of boxes and new views out the window.
And Ezra has a new room, bigger than his old one.
The place has needed some work: sewer line replacement, new water heater, new closet doors in the basement, new stair handrails, patching up a cracked bathroom vent pipe and cleaning up the resultant attic mould, and eventually we want to re-floor the basement and replace the old oil furnace with a ducted heat pump.
After 18 months of renting, I guess we’re back to the joys of home ownership.
Meanwhile, the duplex we had previously rented sold within weeks, and local prices continue to rise while supply remains tight. I can’t help but feel like a new unsustainable real estate bubble is forming, and we might have bought near the peak. Still, I’m glad we were able to get this place when we did; it’s far cheaper than our old townhouse or the previous condo in VA, and this new semi-detached house is hopefully going to be our long-term home.
Ezra Turns 4
This guy is now four years old:
I know it’s not much of a birthday being isolated from a worldwide pandemic in a new and unfamiliar home still full of moving boxes, but Happy Birthday, kid.
The adventure’s still just beginning.
Hero8
The loss of my GoPro Hero4 Session during my last Philippines dive trip gave me an excuse to splurge on a new GoPro Hero8 Black.
Main draw was Hypersmooth 2.0, built-in stabilization, which made for some decent sledding videos — and for cool TimeWarps: smoothed time lapses with smart speed adjustment. I tested this out on a snowy day in late winter (audio added later from a non-timelapse walking video, the squirrelly effect from sped-up footsteps was unexpectedly comedic):
Amy’s also been finding the camera useful for art education, prerecording art lessons and project timelapses for her classes. Meanwhile, though I enjoy the Hero8 for its stabilization, features, and high quality video, I kind of missed the old “little cube” form factor of the Hero4 Session, so I got a used replacement off eBay.
They live together now, sharing a case and accessories. Watch my GoPro playlist for updates, I guess.
More PicPedant Coverage
Some recent media appearances, all relating to PicPedant suddenly being back on the journalism radar lately:
Interview with Alexandre Capron of Info ou Intox on tips to spot and debunk viral images and detect when image mongers are automated spambots:
Quelles sont vos bonnes résolutions pour 2020 ? 🤔 ❓
👉 Pour bien commencer l’année, @PicPedant vous donne 3 conseils de bons réflexes à avoir sur @Twitter pour éviter les #intox ! pic.twitter.com/GUgGsY7jDH— Info ou Intox 🔎 – France 24 (@InfoIntoxF24) January 6, 2020
More recently I answered some questions by email from Natasha Daly for this National Geographic article on people sharing false feel-good animal stories in the midst of the pandemic.
The NatGeo article caught the attention of twins Hannah and Cailin Loesch, who interviewed me over the phone about my debunking process for their show “Double Talk.”
I’m not sure why, but the run-up to each of these interviews has been giving me more personal anxiety lately. In retrospect I feel like I should have done PicPedant anonymously, or under a pseudonym. Too late now, that train has sailed.
Lockdown Life
Just because the pandemic has us staying the blazes home doesn’t mean we can’t go outside — as long as we avoid close human contact. Glad we’ve got a backyard.
Also we live in a place with nice walkable forest paths and scenic lakes; just have to make sure to walk on the other side of the trail from anyone passing by.
One of us goes out for groceries once a week; the stores are limited-entry with socially distanced queues. Also been ordering eggs, cookies, bath bombs, and other staples via delivery from Alderney Landing Farmers’ Market. We try to disinfect all our shopping before storing, out of an abundance of caution; this is probably the most stressful part of the week.
I’ve come around to mask wearing and found a keffiyeh to tie bandit-style over my nose and mouth. (Also lucked into a pack of washable cloth masks online; they feel like Face-Speedos.) Fabric isn’t N95 surgical-level protection, but properly folded and tied, it’s enough to keep me from breathing and speaking moistly on others, so in case I’m an asymptomatic carrier I can try to be moistly harmless. [UPDATE: Cloth masks are insufficient and I’ve since upgraded to N95 Auras.]
Keeping in mind that “romanticization of the quarantine is a class privilege,” be sure to be generous, tip more, be kind to front line workers, and do your part to help overthrow the kakistocracy.
NS Mass Shooting
Mass shooter in Nova Scotia killed several over the weekend.
Killer was a Canadian denturist who loved guns and wanted to be a Mountie, even owned a replica RCMP cruiser and uniform that he used to lure more victims. Partial screenshot of his Facebook profile before it was pulled. Note the American flag paraphernalia; he was Canadian but seemed to adore all things USA. His denture clinic in Dartmouth that we sometimes drove past (photo by tony07 on Flickr):
Coming from the Philippines and the USA I’m so horribly inured to daily news about nearby gun massacres that it didn’t sink in for me how much this has affected my Nova Scotian and Canadian friends and neighbours. Seeing hearts and flags and blue NS silhouettes in house windows, hearing from online acquaintances who knew the victims’ families.
(And no one—that I’ve seen anyway—screaming about crisis actors or that the solution is more guns as would be more common in the US.)
Easter 2020
Easter egg hunting around the living room with Ezra:
First Baptist Halifax Easter worship service
First Baptist DC Easter worship service
In these days of plague and separation and death, I guess we need some of the hope that comes from the promise of Resurrection. He is risen, He is risen indeed.
COVID-19
Empty toilet paper aisles at stores, as the world is currently being swept by a highly contagious viral respiratory disease. We’re on our third week of social distancing: staying home, avoiding physical contact with people (min. 2 metres distance), and only going out to stock up on groceries once a week or so.
Since we’re reclusive introverts who already wash hands frequently, living in a low-density neighbourhood with access to uncrowded outdoor areas, working jobs that can be done over the internet, in a country with free universal medical care, we’re adapting okay—but I wish we could say the same for others. Everywhere, thousands have lost work and income. In the US, it has not gone well.
The world has become a bit more fearful, our connections to each other turned tenuously electronic. “Together apart” and “flatten the curve” have become the catchphrases of the day, “stay safe” the farewell of choice. Weeks later, at least toilet paper is available in the stores again, though hand sanitizer is still in short supply.
Useful resources for this modern era of plague-avoidance:
- Visual Guide to the SARS-CoV2 Coronavirus (added June 2020)
- In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm (added June 2020)
- IBCC COVID-19 entry: lots of clinical info on the virus from a medical perspective, but much of it understandable to the layperson
- JHU COVID-19 Map
- Worldometer Coronavirus Tracker
- Locally, Nova Scotia has provincial disease charts and maps, and I’ve also been looking at these charts from Shotwell.ca
- Coronavirus symptoms compared with cold, flu, and allergies
- XKCD on the “coronavirus” name
Taal Eruption
Here’s me and Amy in December 2019, and me in November 2016 in Tagaytay, with Taal Volcano sitting peacefully in the background.
And then, in January 2020, boom.
My younger brother Javi was in Canlubang at the time and got this photo of the eruption plume:
Various satellite and radar views from YouStorm:
Visible lava fountains would follow soon after.
From NASA Goddard Earth Observatory, satellite views of the eruption, and before/after satellite views of devastation on the volcanic island.
At the time of this writing Taal’s alert level has been lowered to 1.