Long Voyage North

The responsible bedtime didn’t translate to a full night’s sleep. For whatever reason I woke up at three bells after noon and couldn’t will myself back to sleep. Then I was stressed that I wasn’t getting enough sleep ahead of my long voyage and it spiraled until the fifth bell after low noon tolled and sleep again flooded my vision. The alarm sounded at nine minutes after six and it was time to get hopping. A shower to enhance the waking and cramming the few piles of pre-packed stuff into the truck preceding fuelling of both the truck and the Tugboat. Then I was away, probably five to ten minutes later than originally planned, not too bad considering the break I took from sleeping in the middle of the night. First stop on the multi point voyage was to see Rek. I had a great looking painting of a breakfast that I knew he’d enjoy more than any of my other friends. He’s a simple man, he likes pretty, dark haired women and breakfast food. His wife was nearly as excited about it as he was, but she might have just being nice. We had a coffee and visited from a safe distance for the better part of and hour before I needed to get moving, I had a hot date that visit.

I was going to take on Cabela’s. The whole purpose of leaving so early was to be there before it got crazy busy. I’m not sure that was achieved. I also left out on Thursday’s Musing that the evening was actually spent shopping online and identifying things I needed to get versus what I’d like to get. I had a list of four to five items that I was going to hunt down and I knew that they were in the store too. That process ate up a couple of hours but the preparation paid off with the execution. I did have to ask for help from a very pleasant and sharp guy named Matt. He was older and likely landed working there after a full career doing something else (he shared as much) and it was plain that he enjoyed discussing products with someone somewhat knowledgeable. We chatted about the boat I was outfitting and what I wanted to do, he was agreeing with my plans and approach. I’d heard a few others ask him for help while I was in the fishing section and vapid is probably an apt average for the things people wanted to know. The public can be terrible. I did a bit of freelance shopping too. I had two objectives in mind and was able to meet one before cashing out. At this point I was a full hour behind where I had projected in my planning process. This meant that I was going to have very limited time for lunch, but I had enacted a contingency for that exact eventuality.

The classic wrapped chicken breast maneuver. I learned this from a friend in high school. We were at a Sum 41 concert and without saying anything he pulled out a cooked chicken breast wrapped in saran wrap and proceeded to quietly eat it like a chocolate bar. We were astonished. I’ve been doing it ever since! I happened to have two left in the fridge and week alone would have likely caused them to turn bad and possible harass or assault the other food so I decided to take them with me. I crushed them both as I kept things moving Northward. My old boss had reached out on Friday but I was pretty slammed so I indicated that during my drive would be a better time to catch-up and I called him at the prearranged time and we had a nice chat. Both his wife and daughter broke bones in their arms this year and both had the same doctor. At one point they had consecutive appointments, which is too funny. Once our chat wound down I flipped over to the stockpile of podcasts I’d created before leaving until I arrived in North Bay to visit the Booj. I remarked to him that I was likely the only one who had been to see everyone in their new homes. Getting him and Rek is a big reason as they both just moved a couple months ago (yes, during COVID). I take that as a great point of pride. He toured me through their home while his boys napped and then we chatted after they had woken up, not in the political sense. Next stop was home. I thought about stopping for some more food and drink but the more you put in, the more comes out and I wanted to make a straight run for the last leg of a long trip. I pulled into the driveway just after five, pretty much at dinner time and Mother had it on the table waiting for me.

After wolfing down a tasty chicken and pepper stir-fry on a bed of rice it was time to check in with the Big T. He was in the field south of the house rushing to get the barley off the field. He had filled all out wagons and a neighbour passing by happened to see he was nearly done and without asking just dropped another wagon and went on his way. That’s how things used to be, that’s how neighbours once were. The world used to be a better place. It was all for naught though as a part of the knife assembly exploded detached. You can’t see the arm off the right side of the photo that is supposed to be in the center, between those two bolts. The outside of the loop that held it in place busted off and without the knife bar moving to cut the crop, it’s non-feasible to continue. So we spent the evening moving wagons around. We got the two without covers inside and the others out of the field. Rain is a-comin’ and it wouldn’t be prudent to have wildly overloaded wagons in a muddy field. I was hoping that he would be able to continue and I’d have a chance to get some drone footage but it was going to take time to charge it all up and learn to fly. The abrupt end of combining didn’t help matters. I did open the box finally and I had my maiden flight. I just stayed around the yard and didn’t get very high. I’ve got a lot to learn with this little baby, but I’m going to take some time this week to do just that. Once the light started to fade we went inside and had some chips while the T watched baseball and Mother watched her pickle ball on YouTube. We had a couple beers in the process which probably helped me get to sleep quite early, ahead of ten bells. The early morning and long day could have contributed but it’s hard to say.