Three Acts

Finally a day that started at a decent hour, half six. All the morning routine was done quickly and there was lots of time to get back to a more routine breakfast. The breakfast bullets were as I remembered them. It was like taking a walk down a familiar hallway and sitting in a familiar room looking upon it’s familiar walls. I had to haul them upstairs with me though as I forgot I had a call first thing. I munched them down while listening to my American team talk about their tours and when they’re going to have their big meetings in the fall. Thus began act one of my day.

The meeting ended on time and then I had a call from a colleague to ask some questions and that dovetailed into another call then I had some emails that needed answering right away. I only had an hour or so to do the task I wanted to get done, planning my tour through Quebec. During the meetings I had also started a load of laundry and needed to make sure that it got finished in the dryer before it was time for me to start the second act. The energy was somewhat frantic in act one. I did get pretty far into my planning for that tour by making a list of every site they’ve got and what trials are in them. I then planned a route by day. I think I need to check the priority level of the sites with the researchers running them before locking things down, that will have to be next week. I have a bit of time next week before everything kicks off and I’ll be on the road running plot days and taking endless notes on corn and soybean candidates. Hopefully I can get it all done in time. Lunch was a can of Campbell’s Chunky Chicken and Sausage Gumbo with some crackers. I hurriedly gathered my things and rushed out the door to start the second act of the day.

I started to pull away from the Harbour when I realized that my fuel level was about half. The truck was telling me that I had enough juice to travel 350+km and the GPS was telling me one way was 110km. Worst case I’d have to get fuel on the way home somewhere. That line of reasoning took me until halfway to the closest gas station to realize and as such I lost five minutes of my precisely planned trip. I had departed such that I only had five minutes to spare. Luckily for me I soon realized that both I didn’t really care if I was a few minutes late and also that I’d likely make up some time on the way and be on time. The latter came true, I made up the five minutes and was there two minutes before the scheduled start. Furthermore, I was the third one there and got a decent parking spot. What were we doing you ask? Well, we were meeting with some academics at their tarspot research location down in the southwest. They had some trials looking at different control methods as well as some genetic screening. I learned that not all fungicides are created equal in controlling or suppressing this pest and that multiple applications might have to be considered. I learned that 40% infection of an individual leaf is the tipping point and then the whole leaf essentially dies. And I learned that genetics is a major piece to getting this new to us disease under wraps. It seemed to us that the later germplasm was better at holding it off, this is a significant nugget. There were a few early ones that worked well against and it really stood out as a row of green in a sea of brown. There was a wild barn kitten running amok the whole time we were there. It was great to learn about this disease and the measures being tested to control it from the master. Also it was good to see some colleagues, even if they were from the branded side. I realized I don’t see many people in person anymore. When it ended I didn’t stick around for a cold beverage, I said goodbye and raced to my truck, eager to get act three started.

Act three is my personal time in the evening. I listened to my Drizz’t book on the way home and I made the meal I generally make before D&D, cardboard pizza. Because I haven’t done any shopping since returning from my holiday and I didn’t leave the fridge stocked, I didn’t have any fun additions to make to the disc this time. I wolfed down the Pollo Pizza by Dr Oetker. Then I did some light reading online before preparing for the session. I got the water filled, I went to the bathroom, I grabbed a couple of relevant texts and my notebook, tested my headset and started going over the ideas we had collected to beat our foe. We were at our temporary base and immediately heading into a big encounter. I guess they are all big from here on out. We had a fun time and will have our hands full, I feel less terrified compared to last time when we faced the purple worms but we’ll see how it goes. Things were quiet and a bit tense in the pre-game time and everyone had to get a move on after but we may try having a session before our next regular one. It was awesome to get back to it.

I stayed on the computer for a bit after the session and did some more Amazon perusing. I decided to get a battery charger and extra battery for my new GoPro9. Then I took my Marvel Strike Team on some missions before heading to bed at about quarter to eleven. It was a satisifying close to act three and to my day in general. Nice mix of activities to keep things fun for everyone, well just for me at least.