Daily life in pandemic times has taken quite a turn for most people, myself included. The pandemic era started with an email mid-week letting me know that my Saturday work, opening and closing the Bowen Island Building Centre, was no longer needed and like everything else it seemed no one had a firm grasp on what the future held.

For me, it was a blessing in disguise by releasing me from a job that was increasingly different from the one I started twelve years prior. Not in a bad way, just not the direction perhaps that was more comfortable. And the owners did the right thing and checked the right boxes to get Employment Insurance benefits and along with that came an automatic CERB payment which was about the same income while working.