Transition Monday

I was up earlier than expected to prepare for work. It was going to be a bit of an experiement this week, trying out remote working for the first time in the pandemic. The idea was to try out working from the North to see if I can swing it some extra time up here in August. We’ll see how the week progresses. Breakfast was a success at least, it was my Northern usual. Fried egg and cheese in an English muffin with some sriracha ranch dipping sauce. Consitent, persistent and delicious. It’s a great way to start the day.

After some food, a shower, and tidying up my room I was still early for work, well ahead of eight. That was fine as I had some work catching up to do. As I usually do on holiday I quietly managed my emails so that I wasn’t coming back to a mountain that caused me to throw my hands up and let things get out of hand. I also had to read the notes from last week’s weekly meeting and prepare to chair this week’s meeting. I started the workday at Big T’s desk in the basement, in the dank, dingy, disgusting, depressing, dark, derelict, dungeon of an office. I had to make sure that I had a solid background for the call, I’d be on camera the entire time and nobody wants to see what’s going on in there. I also needed to check the audio. I managed to chair the meeting successfully, including taking robust notes for anyone who happened to be unavailable as I was last week. After the call, I let the dogs out, answering the lingering question of who did that. It was ME!!!!!! While upstairs I took it upon myself to try another spot that was less basement. The sun was out and the day was nice but it was a touch warm to work at a computer and overall the situation was mildly uncomfortable. I worked from the kitchen table until Mother returned from her morning adventures and then scurried back down to the depths.

With the return of Mother it meant that it was pretty much lunch time. She prepared a wrap from the previous night’s leftovers. There was some leftover salad, some chicken, stuffing, etc. Some sriracha ranch dipping sauce was splashed over the top and it was rolled up into a wrap. She used to work part time at the high school cafeteria so she knows how to roll up a wrap proper. This lunch suited me just fine, so much that I ate two of these leftover wraps. I’d need the fuel for a long afternoon of work. I’d grown unaccustomed to the efforts and wanted to sit and watch nonsense for the afternoon. Not this time.

After lunch I moved a meeting and listened in to another. There was also a COVID info session that I consumed. I spent a good swatch of the afternoon on the phone. I was able to catch up with the Key Account Managers and then help out my teammate Brack. He had an interesting quandry going around some Excel data that I was uniquely qualified to assist with, based on my institutional knowledge of corn product names. That issue took two quick calls to resolve but it was worth it, saved him hours of toil. It was half five when I finished up and when the Big T returned. We met in the kitchen to discover that Mother had been busy. She made delicious salmon fingers, which are just cleverly breaded salmon chunks. Some of the tasty potatoes from the night before were warmed and added. There was a gross for me coleslaw too but I passed so hard on that. Instead I had a double helping of salmon and dipping sauce, cause it was great.

After the dishes were done up and the news ended it was time for a little job to help the Big T out. In a classic game of farm equipment chess we had to make a few moves to have everything in the right place to quickly complete some tasks tomorrow. My part of it was to ride with him to fill the water wagon and then drive the tractor home from the shop it was at. Some work had been done to tighten up the front end steering which would in turn improve the auto-steer. I hadn’t driven a tractor in two years now and not a real sized tractor in a lot longer than that. It wasn’t an issue except I’d also have to do so for the first time in many moons along the trans-Canada highway. Only for a quarter mile though. After a way too basic refresher from the T I was off. I got passed by three vehicles before I shot down the sideroads. I met a dumptruck on the hill and a wide track machine and sprayer on my journey. I think we got back close to eight. Mother was watching Celebrity Dating Game when I returned so I sat and looked at it. Ridiculous. It’s so bad that it’s entertaining. The T rolled in towards the end of it and then American Ninja Warrior came on. Mother couldn’t stay awake past nine and around quarter past I realized I didn’t care about that show at all and retreated to my chambers. Some YouTube kept my attention before I passed out at half ten. I was aiming for sooner because I knew my plans for tomorrow would have me waking up quite early.