Jenobi's World

During this time of closures in the Hospitality Industry due to the world pandemic, I have been lucky to still be working. I am employed in a union which gives me seniority because I am full-time, although where I work is different than my usual 6-3 job. Different in that it isn't feeding 60-80 hungry pro athletes, coaching staff, and auxiliary staff, but rather back to my beginnings, flipping burgers as a line cook. I am currently placed in the kitchen at one of the university pubs and the work is ingrown into my blood. I spent most of my career leading the kitchen in sports bars and pubs, creating similar menus and flipping my share of burgers on the grill. I feel like I have gone back in time, and obviously the "higher-ups" know this as they trust me to close the kitchen every shift I'm scheduled. This puts a wrench in my day a bit considering the business is so slow that I am planning on bringing a book to read during the day. I am so used to working early, wher...

It's been just over 2 months since the world as we know it here in Vancouver, shut down and I am wondering about the Stage 2 re-opening plan in the hospitality industry. I believe it can happen successfully but only if everyone abides by the new policies. I walked down Denman Street on Victoria Day and was confronted with "summer of 2019". This street is lined with small food establishments with a narrow sidewalk, partially filled with sandwich boards and patio seating, and a busy road with buses speeding by in the curbside lanes. Every open establishment had a lineup to order, and another waiting for orders, making the walking path impossible to take on without rubbing shoulders. Other pubs and restaurants I've seen open in my travels too and from work have patios open with alternating tables closed to permit the physical-distancing needed, although the lineups waiting for a seat were as long as the shopping lineups. Everyone out and about in these places was 35...

 I was introduced to a new line of thinking about the frontline workers, me being one of them in the federal description of the term. I have an issue with this description for many reasons, but when looking at the medical workers, I think most people haven't realized what they are going through. The dashboard for the provincial Covid-19 cases  currently states that 79 cases are in hospital and 33 cases in the ICU, in British Columbia. With that note, there are hundreds of open beds in hospitals awaiting more patients with the virus, but people waiting for surgeries are not allowed to utilize these openings, yet. Some people I have spoken with have said that these hospital medical staff couldn't be overworked with the small number of people in the hospital with the virus. I doubt they understand the work that goes into working with patients with Covid-19.  From what I have read each patient in the ICU gets their own specific team: nurses, doctors, specialists, cleani...