Meat Mistakes

Today is the big day, travel day. One thing I haven’t been forthright about is that the Chef and I have been plotting something, a scheme to benefit our families. We took orders from them for some meat from a restaurant supply outfit and I would mule it up and deliver it. He has been doing this for months locally but not really over such a distance. He’s actually done it every week of the pandemic except one. It gives the supplier some support when restaurants are closed and helps people get good quality product when supply hasn’t been as solid as normal. Each week, one of two drivers deliver to him between 11am and 1pm, usually around noon. For months this has happened. I spent my morning packing the truck up and getting work done. I departed at 11am, using the drive to return some phone calls and arrived at his place at precisely 11:30am. He had coolers ready to be packed.

He showed me around the house, updating me on what work he’s been able to get done recently. Obviously he is in the bubble. He’s got some ambitious plans for the yard that I’m excited to see him complete. Once we’d gone through all that, we waited. And we waited some more. Both taking a pessimistic stance, we started to speculate on what was happening. We sailed right through the window. He was starting to get really anxious. I did a Headspace session then assumed the meat never got on the truck and it would be the next day maybe, or never, we didn’t have a clue what was happening. He went outside to make inquiries a few times and was getting more agitated. At one point he put the film Goon on, knowing it is one of my all-time favourite movies. He probably thought I was getting mad by being delayed, I wasn’t. I was resigned to the fact that if it showed up, no matter when, I had to deliver it. We had no ability to store it, even overnight so had to get it out there. He had plans at 4pm and as we sailed past that, we both were thinking it wasn’t coming. He called, texted, emailed, and left voicemails with the sales guy we worked with but no reply, we wanted to know if it was on the truck. Finally, at 4:23pm, five hours late, the new driver showed up. A small Asian man who was not good at driving or delivering had left us as the very last stop on his route. Remember, for months things had been working like clockwork, first time I’m involved, it all turns to garbage. We went like mad and re-packed coolers by order and got the truck loaded. I was out of the city shortly after 5pm, an impressive feat.

With the bed completely filled and the race against the clock started I decided to drive straight to it, no stops. Keep in mind that we skipped lunch already. First half hour of driving was slowed by heavy rain and thunderstorms. Then it was traffic in the Smoke. Then it was a couple of accidents heading North. Then it was cottage traffic. For a city that is supposed to be mostly locked down, Toronto sure seemed to be its normal miserable self in terms of traffic, most which I had planned to avoid. Thanks to the delivery idiot, I got to experience full Friday night rush hour. Despite that, I made good time once I got through the main thrust of the cottage area and arrived ahead of the GPS for my first drop with an uncle in North Bay. I reached the promised land shortly after 11pm and it was midnight by the time I found my bed. The five hour delay was inconvenient for everyone and I’m not a fan of that little dude that caused it. It was a mildly stressful and long drive. I had to do the last couple hours in the dark which is stressful this time of year due to very real dangers of moose or deer collisions. It was a bit more white knuckled than I planned. The whole day made my 5am wake up even more painful. I have to be up at 7am to see my parents off on their journey so I guess I’ll sleep when I’m dead.