Glimpses of Normalcy

I woke up this morning early and wasn’t feeling getting up, preferring to get some more sleep so I rolled over and slept another big jag. It was tremendous. Just as I was starting to be conscious, the phone started ringing and it was the Chef. He’d heard about me going to a restaurant with my parents and wanted reinstate our longstanding tradition of meeting up for breakfasts. It had been since at least February that we were able to do this. We ended up dining inside the restaurant. It was a first for both of us since the world re-opened. The experience was different, not entirely because the staff were all new and learning their craft but there is the sanitizer, the masks, the blocked off tables, etc. There was an element of urgency or intensity when we were seated but I think that was more the staff trying to hustle us into an order to get us out the door as it was getting busier and busier while we were there. We quickly settled into conversation and catching up. It was pretty close to normal. That’s what I’ve been trying to recognize in this wildly changed world, the little moments that remind you of what was. I don’t think it is the fact the world has changed so much that is the shocking part, that is a factor of course, but I think it’s the speed at which it all happened. A few months ago everyone was living as they had for years, enjoying the lifestyle they were used to and suddenly, almost overnight everything changed so dramatically that it was hard to recognize anything. And it’s gone on for so long that most people are numb to it, some to the point that they are in denial. I am not in that state. I think with the two years of constant change in my professional life I was getting conditioned to handle sweeping changes and as a result I haven’t felt the same stresses as others. My social life had been changing too but that has been a trend for a decade. As more friends have kids they grow apart from me, busy with their new life. It’s the way of the road but it does make for some changes and I’ve grown used to that.

All that to say that we had a good breakfast, which he treated me to, being quicker to his wallet. After we paid and moved on, I gave him a quick tour of the house to show the changes I’ve made, much the same as when I go to his place. I made him smell and rank my six hand sanitizers. We were of like opinion on those. We walked the yard and surveyed the permanent damage that was inflicted during my parents visit. Then it was time to part ways. After he’d departed I turned to NHL20 for a few matches while the laundry finished up. I folded and stored it before some Microsoft Solitaire Collection catch-up. I had a fairly late lunch due to the fairly late breakfast and had a normal Tugboat dish and I tried on a salad. You can see the Pink Whitney in the below photograph as well, that finished the first bottle off finally. It went straight into my face and stayed there for an hour. That one glass mellowed me out pretty good.

I spent some time watching nonsense on YouTube before starting to worry about dinner. I had some of the rice and chicken balls like the previous night. This time I framed a face with some three cheese ranch dressing and made a sad face with srirachi. Having a little sauce on each of the chicken balls was genius as it worked to alleviate the dry husk encasing the meat. The spice in the rice and from the sauce was faint and delightful. I cracked a beer to go along with it since it was a relaxing Sunday. I tried the Shindig session, a Huron county lager from CowBell. It was very light at 4.2% and refreshing. Something you could drink through a hot afternoon. It’s exactly the kind of beer that I favour so happy I took a shot on it. The remainder of the evening was spent doing non-consequential things that I don’t exactly recall at the time of posting so we’ll leave it at that.