Birthday Boy

Today was my birthday. I turned [undisclosed] years old. I did this for the first time in my life, can you believe it! I was allowed to sleep in a bit but was up anyways. No need for parents or dogs to rouse me this day. Today was the day of the boat trial. The Big T and I went into town first thing to get a fabled McBreakfast and to drop off my truck. I noticed previously that the lights on the trailer did not agree with my truck. They did work with the T’s truck which is odd in of itself since they are quite similar. To remedy this anomaly I brought it to the dealership to leave for the day on the off chance they had some spare time to have a look at it. It took a few attempts to explain my issue with the mask on and their protective sheet of plexiglass, nearly had to shout. We returned home and started loading up for our trip to the lake.

The first item of note is that the Big T didn’t remember how to get to the lake. I did, in vivid detail. I probably haven’t been there since I was around fifteen, which was many years ago. It is so much the same that it delights me. We got the boat backed down the surprisingly good boat ramp and into the water without much fuss. I paddled in and picked him up and we paddled out a few feet into some deeper water. I hadn’t given more than a couple of tugs on the cord when a police car stopped at the top of the ramp and fully uniformed OPP officier sauntered down the ramp to the water’s edge. He wasn’t there for us though, he was checking on two gentlemen out fishing in a canoe. Not sure if he knew them or suspected them of drinking or what was happening but he wanted to watch them for a moment. We chatted cordially with him before he walked back from whence he came and departed. Good thing he didn’t run the poorly wired on plate from the trailer, ha! After a few tugs and some worry I got the motor running. There was an element that I didn’t comprehend and still haven’t figured out on the tiller. It affects the speed and limits things to enable better trolling. I’ll have to research how it works. We were going quite slow with it wide open until I fooled with that knob and the front end shot up in the air and we started to fly across the water. I nearly dumped the T out of the boat with that move.

We stayed out on the water for nearly two hours which is pretty good considering the Big T is not a fan of boats or fishing. I did kill the motor and list for awhile, trying to fish some weeds to find the namesake of the lake. I didn’t get many bites but I did remove a good amount of leaves from the lake. I was using a nice new soft plastic paddletail on a jig head and am excited to get more use out of that sharp looking combo. I’d bite it if I was a fish. We explored the lake for a bit, it was much, much larger than we anticipated. Very sneaky. When the fun was done we headed back at a fair clip. I dropped the T off then started getting in position to load. The issue we had was the Big T backed the trailer in on an angle and there were no guides to tell where it was sitting. There was also a crosswind to make things difficult. It only took one try to get it on the trailer and then one adjustment to square it up. All in all the virgin voyage went much smoother than anticipated, I’m such subsequent excursions will pose more problems for me. On the way home we stopped off at the house for lunch. We found some leftover sausage in the fridge and mixed them up with scrambled eggs in a wrap. A fairly modest lunch, but tasty. After eating, we hauled the boat back to the shop and were in the process of unhooking when we got the call that the truck was ready. We decided it was a nice enough day to open the T roof of the Corvette and take it for a trip into town. The Big T’s maiden voyage to town in the car he had for over a year. He was pretty cautious but we had to make a stop before getting the truck. We went to my aunt and uncle’s house who had mocked him for buying the car and drove up their driveway and proceeded to rev the engine until they came outside. It was pretty awesome. Beautiful cars like that tend to make people smile.

After shoving it up their collective hoop we drove through town to pick up the truck. They said there was nothing the matter with my truck and everything was working fine, no errors, etc. They gave me an invoice for $0.00 and I was on my way. I drove down to the marina to try the lights on my uncle’s boat trailer (with his permission) and everything was perfect. I headed back uptown and stopped in at the tire place to see if the new tires and rims I’d ordered were in yet and to drop off the rim they’d lent me the day before to ensure it fit on the trailer. It’s amazing what goes on in a small town, that’s what I remember about growing up there, that the people were fantastic. It’s not something I see anymore. The stuff wasn’t there yet and he said it would arrive later and he’d mount them for me and to come back in the morning, which was fine with me. I went to the shop and tried the truck on my trailer and it still didn’t work. I found a ground wire that was broken and rammed it together and everything worked fine. That was a win. Time for dinner.

After some debate, we opted to order take-out from a lesser known place in Earlton. I got a maple sriracha chicken sandwich that was exquisite. Best thing I’ve had from a restaurant in months. Hi yo! I also got a small brisket poutine just cause it was my birthday and poutine from Earlton is better than where you get your poutine. When French people make it, it gets made right. Most of the world doesn’t even know how to pronouce it. Anyways, I’ll avoid the soapbox and tell you about the cake. When I woke up in the morning there were three different boxes of cake mix on the counter. I chose carrot cake over angel food or chocolate. I guess that was my mood at 6:30am. It was a strong choice. We took a break and flew the drone and had some laughs before cake but it was great. We watched whatever was on until it was near bedtime then everyone shut it down hard.

Working Vacation

With the boat in my possession there was a list of actions required to be completed before I could haul it back to the Harbour. The day started off great with Mother preparing some breakfast wraps. She told me at the start of the week that she was gonig to experiment with some breakfast ideas. Today’s experiment was a success, no photo because of how successful it was. She filled up some small tortillas with eggs and bacon. At the end of the carnage I asked how many eggs that was and she sheepishly revealed that it was four. I was alarmed. I suggested that next round she stretch less eggs acros and then could have a better shot at closing up those little wraps. After that hearty meal it was off to the shop to work on the boat. My intention was to paint another coat where the winch goes then go get some items to help in my quests. This was accomplished. I got some help from the T in the form of some old field sign stickers for defunct products that I would use to create a temporary license on the hull. I need to post my number but don’t want a permanent solution at this time as I plan to destroy any efforts when I paint the boat. So I used my arts and craft skills at lunch. The morning was mostly spent working on the jack and the trip to town.

Lunch consisted of a warmed up bowl of the previous day’s soup. It was thick and hearty. I may have skimped on the warm up though and eaten it prematurely. There were some light reprecussions. I returned to the boat in the afternoon and got the stickers on and I mounted the winch. I called into a work call just to listen in. There was a three day meeting on-going during my three day break, which was actually not planned. With the jack installed and winch operational the front of the trailer is looking sharper. The stickers make it legal to use. The plan is to have a maiden voyage the next day, the day of my birth.

I returned home in good time for supper which was a delicious garlic parmesan shrimp concoction that changed the leftovers from the first night dramatically. Adding this to the stirfry leftovers made it something else entirely and what it became was awesome. After dinner I invited Mother to come down and look at the boat and what I’d been working on. She scoffed at the boat and the other toys in the garage. The Big T started fiddling with some tasks and we had to wait for him to finish what he was playing at before we went home. The evening was spent having a couple of beers and watching the Blue Jays disappoint everyone again.

Boat Day

I called this post boat day but that is misleading. For one thing I bought the boats months ago as you know. I also took possession and looked at before. Today was really the day that I (emphasis on I) took control of the boat. Previously it was Big T moving it and the shop making moves on it. Now it’s real, now it’s mine. It’s not just a moment in time for me, I’ve long said that I consider owning a boat to be a sign of success. When the inevitable eyebrow of the questioner raises to that assertion I am obligated to explain that they are completely frivolous, very costly and overall a nuisance. They are expensive to run, to maintain and to store. Take up lots time and effort too. You can’t really enjoy a boat unless you have both time and money and I knew that I would have to be in a place with extra of both to get one. So here I am, a real boat owner.

I bought an older boat with a lot of work needed, a true fixer upper. The sale price was reasonable and I have the opportunity to take the “blank canvas” in the direction I want. I’ve got some plans in mind and long lead time to enact them. This gives me a nice project to work on in the winter months. I’ve already made a considerable investment to this point and I’m just picking it up. I will try to give a bit of an accounting of what I’ve done, bought, and am planning here and possibly on YouTube if I can figure out moving video and editing. So let start back at the start. I bought the boat, motor, trailer from a relative, sight unseen back in June. The Big T hauled it home before bringing it to a shop that I arranged. It sat there for a couple of months as they worked on it and waited for parts. I’ll try and pull together a cost table at some point to list out everything. But for the quick story, that was to get the motor operational. And a new fuel tank, a very small one at that. In the meantime, I bought all the required safety equipment and a cover for the boat, which was all expensive. I mentioned that I invested in a winch and jack previously too. So even before I got it, I had a decent investment on top of the purchase price.

The first priority now is to get the trailer up and running in a safe and legal fashion. First move was to replace the rusted old winch with the new one. I decided to paint the spot black now since I have no plans to remove the winch later. The debate is raging on what colour to paint the trailer overall but this piece is black. So in day one I started cleaning where the number will go and preparing to replace the winch. I’ll try and give more updates as we go.

The other story of the day is that I worked all day. I didn’t go for the boat until late afternoon. I was on my computer at half past seven in the morning and went until after three in the afternoon. It was a productive day. This allowed me to save a day of vacation, mostly because there were already a number of important meetings scheduled. Work turned into the boat adventure. Some sketchy steps were taking in the retrieval but I’ll elaborate on those later if I choose to. I was treated to some delicious homemade soup for lunch and we had an excellent dinner. My day ended in triumph also, there was a cricket chirping all afternoon while I tried to work and then again towards bedtime. I was able to search it out and end it. Peace was restored once more to the basement realm.

Sunday Errands

I was up good and early this Sunday morning. I had been taken by a deep sleep the night before. Likely the voyage tuckered me out. Big T had prepared some perogies, the last of the ones they bought when visiting me a month ago. We ate those then started into some errands. We went to the shop to work on Big T’s motorcycle. He had picked up a battery for it finally. Previously he’d needed a new fuel tank. Someone stole his previous one. He had brought the bike to a neighbour for him to look at but he died shortly after. His common law wife was concerned she wouldn’t get much inheritance and started selling assets. Allegedly in the shuffle the fuel tank disappeared off Big T’s bike. Turns out the replacement has a broken valve and fuel dumps out as fast as it goes in. This caused some frustration. I suggested we test the battery. It didn’t work. Turns out he bought it without any fluid. Not a good start to things.

The Corvette wouldn’t start either, a dead battery being the cause. We charged it up and got that running, it rumbles like I’d have dreamed. While it charged we ascended the barn to hunt for combine parts. I convinced him not to salvage in this case. We took some time to sort through the work bench. It’s embarrassingly messy. This took us up to lunch. I got to enjoy some mushroom soup. After lunch we started playing a shell game with the wagons. The ideal was to get them all down the hill one at a time then couple them into pairs for transport to the elevator the next day. With that complete we started trimming trees. The tenant complained that squirrels were getting on the roof so we eliminated the branches allowing this and cut them up for her firewood pile. Some time was spent developing a list of items that could be done cheaply to improve their quality of life while working. Mostly small jobs they’d wanted to do for years. We met the repairman for the solar panels and headed home. It rained all afternoon so a few beers for drank which led to some naps. We had a fantastic dinner of potatoes, corn, green beans and sausages. Mostly cooked in their precious Air Fryer. They really do love it. It was tasty. The evening held more of the same with an early bedtime.

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.

Full Friday

As I alluded to, Friday was a full schedule. There wasn’t even time for breakfast. I had another poor sleep and scrambled into my regular Friday morning meeting. I had left myself a half hour to have some lunch (which ended up being some sliced then warmed chicken breast dumped into a wrap with three cheese ranch dressing and some yellow mustard). That time got eaten up some side calls and tasks. I also had a half hour reserved for meeting preparation but I got a request to help a colleague with some IT questions and that ended up using most of the time slot. I filled my afternoon spare half hour when She asked me to help her with a speech she was working on for her sister’s wedding. She was looking to leverage my above average experience of speaking at such events over the years. These few additions made it nearly wall to wall from eight bells to the sixteenth bell. So much for my summer hours this week! I’ve been getting worse and worse at those in August. So a full day of work and the like meant that I didn’t have a considerable amount of time to prepare for my voyage. I was hoping to get the laundry done, get the lawn cut off, keep on the Musing, get a haircut, and start the packing. Making things worse is that I was feeling off physically by the end of the day so I decided to lay down for a few minutes to see that fixed things for me. I still felt rough after but decided to power through. I ended up grabbing some McDinner on my way to my old research farm. I needed to grab some stencils they said I could borrow. I also nabbed a few ears of sweet corn from the row that was ready, since I was there. It seems like it was lack of sustenance that was bringing me down because the food perked me back up by the time I was ready to head home. On the way, I talked myself out of a haircut in favour of doing another video like the last one with Mother doing the heavy lifting. Once home, I cut the one section of lawn that was the worst when I got home so the neighbours know someone lives there and I packed up a bunch of boat stuff that I had pre-bought into the truck to save time at sunrise the next morning. The laundry was also passed upon, I used a separate sack within my sack to house the few items of dirty clothes that I wished to have at my disposal, problem solved. The Musing was also postponed (this was written on a different day) and I got a bunch of packing done. I ended up taking way more stuff that I’ve even brought on a trip home. I’ve got a bunch of A/V stuff with me this time to try and document some of my adventure up here. I’ve got the drone and GoPro3 that I mentioned previously and I also packed an older laptop and an external hard drive. I’m hoping to pull video off the one card I have (128GB) at the end of each day and stash it on the laptop and the external to have a secure storage network. I also need my work machine for the two days I plan to actually work, so that was another bag filled with electronics. In theory, with it here, I could just stay up here for a bit and continue to be productive but the drive home will take an entire day so it wouldn’t be plausible to accomplish that during a weekday. Anyways, the moral of the story is that I was scrambling and rushing from the moment I woke up to the moment I fell asleep. All that activity had me like…..

Missed Opportunity

With a pending departure upcoming on Saturday and a full, tight schedule coming up on Friday it was shaping up that Thursday would be a day that I’d have the opportunity to take on some of the preparation required to be ready for a very early departure time. Launching myself into vacation in the process. The day started normal and there were several longer than average meetings slated too occur at regular intervals during the day, not sure how that came to pass but this is the way of things. I was going to be the primary presenter on about half of them so I needed to be sharp for those especially. To start and stay sharp I fed my body and my brain with the usual fuel. I also used the time waiting for the samidges to cool to get out and water up my flowers. I started thing about halfway through watering that my efforts may be in vain since it’s very likely that while I’m away the following week, the flowers will burn up in the hot conditions with no water. There is rain forecasted on Sunday but it’s unlikely that the benefits of that will get things much past Tuesday. It’s a shame really, I’ve put in considerable effort (if not dollars) to string those plants along all summer. This is the way of things though, as I mentioned a few seconds ago. So the morning sessions went reasonably well. I made it to lunch in strong condition. I had a meager lunch and moved back into business. I participated in a fairly private and important call about a corn pest. I’m hoping we can avoid any terrible situations on that one. Then, scheduled at the end of the day was something a bit more personal than business but maybe has strands of both woven into it. I was asked by the wife of a mutual friend to spend some time with a young, passionate plant scientist. She was looking to establish some connections in the industry and was really looking for things she could be doing to get started in it. She is still in school for another year but is very excited to learn more about how things work in agriculture. I spent almost an hour answering her questions and giving her advice. I hope I was able to help her out. I recall that time in life not being super easy and was lucky enough to know what I wanted to do on my journey. From there, there was some supper and then the evening faded away. Nothing productive happened. There was an attempt at going to be bed early but it was marginally successful. The time spent asleep each night this week seems to be trending downwards. That will have to rectified or there will be some kind of reckoning.

Wild Moves

Today started the same as the last two. Early and tired. I had a piping hot shower in an attempt to fire up my body and muscles. It had the desired effect, especially coupled with the coffee and breakfast bullets. I got the plants watered before the heat of the day. It’s been a struggle this week to combat the mini heat wave. Damned things seem to need liters of water each day just to survive. That all squared away, it was time for work. For whatever reason I decided I would try to get used to my new mask style while sitting alone in my home office. The nose area reminds me of Skeletor’s nose.

Work was quite steady and productive. The morning was a string of overlapping meetings. I ended up flapping my gums a lot in one of them which meant I was hard on the water in the other ones. Good habit but less fun when you’re glued to the helm. Before I knew it we were up to lunch time. That meant I would take down the remainder of the chili. It was a nice ride while it lasted. I had the perfect amount of shredded cheese left for it too. Getting things cleaned up before I move along next week. The afternoon ripped by. I took my 3:30pm call on the road when I went to my old farm. I had to drop a few things off and pick a few things up. I arrived right at 4pm and there wasn’t a soul there. Vastly different to when I was in charge. I guess both the game and the players have changed in this case. They were kind enough to lay out what I needed for me. Next I was on my way to Cambridge to meet up with a colleague to deliver something from the farm. I arranged the meeting in the BestBuy parking lot because I was about to make the wildest, most impulsive buy in a long time. I dropped a bus of money on this puppy.

This is the Mavic Mini Flymore combo. Basically it is a small, basic drone with limited features that comes with all the bells and whistles you’d likely need to eventually buy. It was costly and I had to wait a good while before someone came to assist me in opening the locked cabinet. Every soul in the store was masked which is how it should be. I also got a mini SD card for a decent price. I am thinking I should have got two. There is a fifteen percent restocking fee if the box is opened so I’m going to leave it in there for at least the first night. See if any buyer’s remorse creeps up on me. That being purchased, I hustled off to meet the Chef at one of his restaurants. We had a beer, some appetizers and light dinners while we chatted and caught up on our various adventures, recent past and future. Sounds like we both might be off next week. I’ll just be further away. Maybe I can convince him to water my flowers. He is already doing me a favour though. He’s lending me his older model GoPro3+. All I have to do is clean it up before I return it. My idea is to try using one to see if I should invest my company points in a GoPro8. I’ll have a few chances during my upcoming adventures to investigate capturing video with both these toys and learning to sew them together into a narrative. I settled the check. We bought more than we needed and didn’t take a discount (that he has access to) in order to help the owner out, times have been tough for restaurants. After chatting at the truck I took off home and spent a long while diligently wiping down everything he gave with the GoPro. I got it all cleaned up nice, though I may have to do it again after next week. That lead me to some YouTube videos and reading the manual of the GoPro. It’s batteries are charging then we’ll see how it works. The chest mount does actually fit me so I’ll have to try that out. That’s about it, later bedtime tonight with all the excitement!

Another Blursday

I don’t have much for excitement it chat about here either. I’ll work backwards to mix it up. I ended my day watched a series of YouTube videos on restoring an old bass boat that a dude in Florida got for $250. He made a great job of it and it was an impressive restoration. Before that I was doing some shopping online in preparation for my trip to Bass Pro Shop on Saturday. I choose the three most pressing items to make the trailer safer that I could think of. I’m sure I’ll be dropping a couple hundred bucks on that trip. I had a relatively late dinner because of this after work shopping. It consisted of some piping hold chicken rice soup and a Stouffer’s Bistro ham and turkey club thingy. Not glamorous but filling. I went hard on work and ended up going to half five. The afternoon was busy getting little chunks of various projects done. I kept variety high and jumped around. Lunch was warmed up chili with a nip of cheese on it. Nothing exciting about it except the promise of satisfying farts later. I had the first of my lifecycle meetings in the morning. I’ll have a pile more in the next 2-3 weeks. They are good, get to clean things up and spend some time talking to customers about their business. Ahead of that was some prep work and getting lingering items handled from the previous day. That gets us back to breakfast which was the usual fare. The coffee was savoured this day. Savoured and required. The previous sleep was not fantastic. Going to bed sooner has only caused me to wake sooner with my body only wanted around seven hours of time under rather than the preferred eight hours.

Business as Usual

Today was a normal workday. Nothing too exciting. All of the meals were either coffee or leftovers. It was super hot but I wouldn’t know, I didn’t really go out. Just went out once early in the morning to water the flowers and then scuttled back inside. The evening was quite lackluster. The only bright spot was when I chatted with the Chef and made plans for later in the week. Preparation is ongoing for my upcoming vacation, so I was focused on some of that. Trying to get ducks to line up, that sort of thing. It was a fairly mundane twenty four hours that I wont’t bore you with. Made all the more less exciting after such a jam packed weekend.

Storm Cooking

Light on sleep again. The trend continues. I don’t want to say it’s been this way since the playoffs started but the dates line up pretty close. I’m sure the two things are unrelated, the whole correlation/causation phenomenon that people don’t understand but it is fun to insinuate. I woke up to some messages from my family and a photo from the Big T of his perogie breakfast. It has been a long standing tradition in our household that he makes perogies on Sunday morning. I’ve continued it on my own, eating way too many on the Sundays I actually remember to do it. I took his photo as inspiration and decided I would try and do it different and maybe a bit better if I could. His method is to dump the frozen sack of perogies into a pan with some cooking bacon and onions and finish them all together. Because of my long standing hatred of onions I have always done mine different. I generally cook my bacon and drain the pan then dump the frozen nuggets in. I’ve tried grease in too. Either way it takes longer that way. The boil before the pan method is quicker so I decided to try that to be different. Since I had dusted off the video gear, I taped this adventure too and made a much tighter video. I guess a less complicated meal allows for that also. Here is a photo of the end product. The outside was crispy but not rigid like cooking from frozen and the middle was like biting into a flavour pillow. The gooey cheese was a nice touch too and the hot sauce gave it a pleasant zip against the savoury nuggets. Crispy bacon for some more texture and also bacon is fantastic.

While I was preparing this feast a storm started. I thought it was unforecasted but it turns out I was looking at the forecast for back home and not for the Harbour. I didn’t stop cooking at breakfast and had some other things going at the same time. Looking back I wonder if my cooking up a storm spilled over to create an actual storm. Probably. While I was making the perogies I had some chicken cooking away in the Instant Pot for planned use in the day’s dinner. I made a tray of Rice Crispies as well for good measure. I’ll talk about that supper plan after the jump. The storm continues to rage all morning and provided enough rain that I didn’t need to water the plants outside which is always a blessing. As I was finishing cleaning up the kitchen Ron reached out and asked for a match of C&C which I happily obliged him in. We tried to take on four opponents on the same team and failed so we played three and it took us 42 minutes but we were triumphant. It was fun. We chatted sparingly, both intent on what we were doing. As the match ended I got a call from Admiral Bonesaw. I’d asked him some questions the previous day and he and Dutchie were driving into the city, the first break from their newly adopted girls. We chatted for the better part of an hour before they got to their destination. I had another bowl of perogies after that was wrapped up. It was a meager but tasty lunch.

Following lunch I finished editing the perogie video and filmed and edited for another video that I won’t talk much about. I had to touch up a couple of things on my computer for these videos, including turning off the comments. I don’t monitor them and mostly the ones I get are for porn sites or other scams so I figure if I turn them off then I’ll be fine. I’m sure my ten subscribers won’t mind. While I was on the computer I set about trying to pull the photos off my phone. The pictures worked fine but getting video off an iPhone is horrible. Apparently Apple has set file size limits on what you can take off the phone, even with a USB cord. I read in enough random forums that it is 15MB, anything larger doesn’t work. But I had several larger files work. So I was furstrated and perplexed. I spent three hours in this battle and in the end came away mostly beated. There are still thirty something videos on the phone that I can’t get transfer. I’ll have to think of something else to make sense of it. I might have to breakdown and use a third party app which I was trying to avoid because I don’t trust apps.

Anyways, I had planned to make my classic Tugboat pad thai for supper with the chicken I made earlier but lacked the time and the sunny disposition to take it on. I warmed up a large bowl of the pasta from the previous day and chugged that before getting ready for the big game. I elected to watch it on the small screen and after the first few minutes I started checking out. I was paying 2/3 attention by the end of the first and I passed out completely in the second intermission. I woke up hours later to a dead iPad and a pool of drool. I guess all those nights of low sleep finally caught up with me. They predictably lost in frustrating fashion. They worked hard, right to the end from what I’m told, but managed to disprove the old addage of a good offense beats a good defense. Not the case here. It will be interesting to see what they do in this weird off-season. The weekend overall flew by and I kept myself more than busy for most of it. This is in stark contrast to my usual motif, we’ll see how it carries into the week.

Return to the Kitchen

Later start to the day thanks to the heroics of the Leafs. I am still not sure why I stayed up so gosh darn late. I’ve been down sixty to ninety minutes the last three nights and it hasn’t really hit me hard yet. I tried to sleep in but couldn’t pull it off so instead I scrambled out of bed and put together the usual breakfast and got all the plants watered and cleaned up. I floated around for a spell before playing a smidge of NHL20. My guy is hot right now so I’ve been going back to to the well more often. It wasn’t an hour later and I was heading to the kitchen. That slow cooker chili is meant to prepare the previous weekend was still lurking and needed to be cared for. Since it had been awhile since I put together a video I decided to film this and construct something. It was actually a lot of fun. The chili turned out amazing. So good I couldn’t not have a second bowl. Check out the video.

There was a lot of other activity that happened over the course of the six hours that the chili cooked. Since I was in the swing of it and had the time I cooked up a pot of pasta and mixed in a can of peas and a can of beans along with a jar of sauce to create a quick to prepare meal for later in the week. I have plans to make a classic Tugboat dish that isn’t far off this one in the near future, maybe tomorrow.

The focal point of the day was the dinner. I used some of the leftover potato wedges from the previous night as the base for my meal and topped with cheese. The chili tied it together. It was just spicy enough. Running out of sriracha didn’t hurt me this time. It was one of the best meals I’ve made in the pandemic. There was no lunch today in anticipation of the big dinner. The birdhouse was removed today. The birds mostly emptied it out again. More than I was happy with was on the ground though. It was comical to watch them come looking for it then to see their confused look. I’ll save the feed for the fall and winter once food gets more scarce for them. They’ll have to fend for themselves in the meantime. Beer Guy/Meat Man called and we had a long talk while he returned with his rescued son. Time was also spent editing the footage I had of the chili as well as for another video about COVID safety. The evening was consumed finishing that chili video. Hope you liked it. It was a fun day of entertaining myself and making some great food.

Riding the Roller Coaster

I think we all know what the title refers to but let’s save that for later. First we have to dig into the happenings of the morning hours. It wasn’t a quick start out of the gate and I found myself pressed for time. Staying up late to get punched in the heart started me down a dark path right from the first leg swinging out over the edge of the mattress. Every little thing was an amplified personal slight against me. With less than normal time I felt I could get the mail, put the garbage out and McBreakfast. First two errands went well. Waited in the drive thru line for ten precious minutes to be told they don’t have debit at the moment and if need to pay cash when I rolled up on the window. Not only was I not going to get served, I had to gut out the incredibly slow lineup. With a meeting looming, I was in a rush to get home. I was eventually able to go wide and sneak out around the other cars. I needed to put something in my guts before work so I fired up the coffee maker. The stream it produced was akin to an elderly man with a swollen prostate trying to piss in the night. It was fine the day before, just out to get me. I only had enough time to make a half dose. I joined the meeting as it started. I didn’t get a chance to say hello and didn’t speak for the next ninety minutes. To be consistent I didn’t say goodbye either. I was just hiding in the crowd. I actually still had my face covering on the entire time, not over my face but on.

I was able to open some files today and spent the better part of an hour on the phone with IT. No fix and empty promises of elevating to a more specialized team again. The worst. I had a good chat with a former colleague before the lunch bell rang. Campbell’s Chicken Thai soup answered the bell. Rather than take my summer hours, I just hammered down once back at the helm. The inability to work hard the previous day bothered me so I made up some time and went right to the limit. I outsourced dinner and ordered a pizza and sides. Most of it was fridged. By the time it was all cleaned up and put away it was game time. Game four of the Leafs and Jackets with the CBJ squad owning a 2-1 series lead in the best of five. A loss here means the end of the line for the beloved Leafs. The boys had scheduled a group call so some of us were going to gut it out together, like a support group. Things started terribly and got worse. When it was 3-0 for the bad guys with half a period to go I freaked and turned it off. Instead I started watching YouTube on the big screen. I stayed on the call with the boys, although my mic stopped working when I turned off my headphones. Eventually I sorted my issue out. Moments after I switched what I was watching the Leafs scored. Then again! 3-2! I couldn’t switch back, I might jinx it. So I continued with my fishing videos. The best part was that several guys were at different timings with their streams. The guy with cable was ahead of the rest. His eyes would go big then down the line another guy or two before they’d erupt. It was comical to watch the delayed reactions. They tied it up and we talked about how much worse it would be if they lost in OT. The previous night they lost in overtime but it was a much, much worse experience, this would hurt much less. We’ll never know though because they did it. They forced a game five, a final and deciding game five to determine who gets into the actual playoffs. I was a bit ramped up so it was nigh on two in the morning when I finally snuffed out the day. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Long Awaited Migration

Today was a fairly uncertain day. Somewhat unsure of what I was supposed to be doing while my computer underwent another migration. I’d set out several other tasks to tackle that didn’t need the machine. Before I get into that, let’s hit the start of the story. Slept poorly and up early for no reason. Usual breakfast and flower watering, etc. before climbing up to the helm. It’s Blursday again so it is all feeling very familiar. The heavier aspect of the uncertainty of the day is if this will improve my IT fortunes at all. I am hoping against hope that it does and I just need to re-purchase a handful of programs but I have no clue. My guess is that it will further complicates things. I almost want to just send my machine away and hope they can top to bottom fix me up but I’m confident that’s not happening. So, I basically did other stuff instead of what I wanted to do. At 4pm I still couldn’t open files although it appeared things were moving. I’ve left the machine on in hopes that it sorts itself out overnight. I’m glad I hadn’t sent out invites for next week yet as I may not be able to finish my file before that! So lunch, which was extended today, consisted of a can of pepper steak soup from Campbell’s Chunky. I polished that in a few minutes and made sure the birds had their feed before mounting the stairs again. There are actually a growing number of little birdies who congregate at the feeder now. Once at the helm again, I used my personal computer to do some online shopping for the remainder of my lunch. I ordered a whole whack of stuff. Then I went and made a second order. It’s all supposed to arrive in under a week they say. All on the same day too. We’ll see how that plays out.

After that reckless shopping I got back to work. Made a couple calls and answered some questions for customers. I had previously signed up for a webinar and called into that. Naturally it didn’t work so I had to be audio only through my phone. It turned out to be content I was already attuned to so I decided to clean my cowboy hats that live in my office. These two beauties have been with me for fifteen years at least now and needed a firm dusting. I tackled my Biltmore hat first. It is a collector’s item now since the world famous Biltmore hat factory is no more. Unfortunately, it turns out that it doesn’t quite fit anymore. Probably shrunk….. I got it cleaned up pretty good and worked on the black one too. Once the call was over it was back to work for another hour before the quitting bell rang.

Supper followed work immediately. Turns out soup without a sandwich component isn’t as filling. Tonight I took a $3 Great Value brand pizza and punched it up with some Great Value brand nacho blend shredded cheese and some Cholula hot sauce. It was surprisingly light. The thin crust was cooked to perfection and the extra toppings added some much needed panache to an otherwise bland offering. Water and a chocolate dipped granola bar went with it to satiate the beast within.

The rest of the evening was spent waiting for the Leaf game to start and then watching the Leaf game. In the intermissions I discovered Nattie Up North and in hindsight I wish I’d spent my time watching her YouTube than the horror show I watched. I’m not in a place to speak about what I saw and maybe I never will be. I ended up going to bed way later than I wanted and hating it.

Neutral Day

Today was another pretty neutral day. There was a high and a low but other wise I lived in the middle. Let’s get into it then. Start at the start, it was a sluggish start that was boistered by another tremendously refreshing hot shower and the usual breakfast fare. For a guy who was going to tranistion to less breakfasts a week I’ve been doing a pretty terrible job of it. I jumped hard into work and picked up where I left off the previous day. I got really into what I was doing and was making great progress. I worked steady right through until nearly 2pm. I had a couple of random questions pop up along the way that I squelched quickly before turning back to the task at hand. The positive alluded to previously, about 129 words ago, was that I finally got the call from the boat place. My boat was ready. I guess at some point I’d told them I needed to pick it up by August 6th. Maybe some other plan was in the works then or I wanted to set an aggressive deadline to give them some flex time. Either way, it will sit there now until I personally arrive to pick it up. I need it to be that way so that I can work through the bill with them. I’m still scared of huge labour costs during their troubleshooting period of the faulty part the factory shipped. Ideally I’d have the T pick it up and bring it back home but being a cash account for them, that doesn’t fly. They are fine with it staying another week and a half in the elements and so am I.

By noon I’d finished one crop and was more than half down the second, feeling good about my prospects. Then it happened, the negative. Something flashed on the screen and said it had to save my file in a different location and I tried to appease it. Next thing I know my file is gone. Luckily I found a version in the Download folder and put it back where it belonged. I was able to open it but it was not what I had been working on. It was about twenty minutes back from where I’d been. So that’s not ideal. My workaround to open files was also gone. I couldn’t open or access anything from that account anymore and since all of my files are stored there, I was crippled. Being crippled, I decided to take a short lunch break and turn off my computer during in hopes that it sorted itself out. Lunch consisted of a southwest salad kit and some cookies. This smaller portion thing is starting to take a bit, less food is doing the trick. I guess this is how the rest of the world works and are mostly the same general size. I watched something on YouTube for fifteen minutes after eating to bring the break up to a half hour before returning to the helm. There was no improvement on my It condition upon restarting of the machine. I had a three hour call to end the day and ended up taking notes with a pen and paper like a filthy animal in the gutter, no offense to those that prefer that method. I’ve adapted to typing my notes and being able to quickly change things based on discussions and emphasize key aspects, highlight action items, etc. Can’t do that as well on paper. My penmanship has gone to the dogs too. Or should it be penpersonship now? Ugh.

So that call brought me up to quittin’ time basically. I frustratedly powered down and went to order a salad and some chicken bites. I fired up the Pizza Pizza app and got a chicken caesar salad and some bites with a couple of sauces. This is one of my favourite meals to eat but least favourite to deal with after. I felt somewhat terrible after crushing it and that didn’t go away. It was likely part of the reason why I didn’t fall immediately to sleep. There was another changed variable (Theodore Complete style) too, I had added my flannel pyjama bottoms back into the mix and I might have been too warm to drop off on time. I also had a night daydream about someone that lasted a long time. It wasn’t perverse in nature so back off, it was sweet. Night daydream? Not sure on that nomenclature. Hopefully you comprehend what I’m referring to. Anyways, I’m jumping around. The evening was wasted again on various inane activities, nothing productive, not even reading. Mostly joking around with friends, YouTube nonsense and listening to music. But yes, slow start to the sleep and not a happy tummy for the evening. Can’t stop, won’t stop!

Unremarkable

Today was a very slow day for anything exciting. I had my usually breakfast and an unexciting lunch and a snack rather than supper. I hammered away at work all day, my mundane task only being broken up by the soup and spring mix salad at lunch and a pair of phone calls at a couple points during the day. It was a pretty productive workday for that reason. I got more than half the way through my big annual files and got a bunch of sales data loaded where it goes so I can start setting some meetings up. I ended up at the helm later than usual because I put the Leaf game on at my desk on another device and had that ripping quietly for the first two periods before calling it on work and descending to my lair to watch the end of a spirited match. It was bittersweet though as the hometown hero of my current postal code went down with a very scary injury. I hope he is going to be okay. (Update: he is out of hospital and going to miss some time but nothing life threatening.) when the game ended I had my aforementioned snack later in the evening than Oprah would like and then dawdled and fooled in time until bedtime. Which was early. I got into sleep quick. Nice, unremarkable day.

Civic Monday

Monday started off with a pretty good rip. Solid sleep into a real hot shower. There was no sense of urgency to the day as it is a statutory holiday in my geographic region. It is the Civic holiday. I don’t know anything about it other than we get the first Monday of August off. My guess is that it was a created holiday simply to get a long weekend in the summer. We get Canada Day in July and Labour Day in September. My assumption is that it was made up like Family Day in February to give people a break. That one is explicitly held to force people to take a break to spend time with their families. I’d love if it we could get to one long weekend a month. Or even better, try on the four day work week. Now that I’m getting a glimpse of summer hours where you are expected to work 9h days through the week to get Friday afternoon off. Why not make it 9.75h days and give people three days to live in between. That would create more part time opportunity and maybe another class of employment. Managers for the three day shifts. I haven’t found anything negative in the word of mouth research I’ve seen. Wondering how I landed on 9.75h? If you are under 37.5h worked in a week then employers aren’t obligated to pay you benefits as far as I know. That extra fifteen minutes a day gets you over that hump. Maybe could have said ten but I hate long days as much as the rest of you.

All that to say that I wasn’t in a rush to get to work. I took another step in bearding after my shower and did a full trim with my new trimmer. Using the 9mm cover I judiciously did everywhere but the knob of my chin and my mustache area. Is knob the right term? Point of the chin? Anyways, it worked great and got some hair off my face while presenting a sleeker, cleaner look to the world.

Once I was cleaned and proper and had taken care of my mess, it was time for breakfast. The cleaning took a few minutes, those hairs get everywhere. Breakfast was not exotic. The usual fare, breakfast bullets. I did make a coffee to savour as well. With that consumed and the aftermath cleansed and my world in order I proceeded to my computer to work on some C&C campaigns. That was around ten bells. My plan was to play for an hour or two then back to the kitchen to take on some slow cooker chili. I even went as far as to lay out the stuff I had to make it with.

This is not what happened. In fact, nothing further happened. I should be embarrassed to say it but I’m not. I never got out of that chair for the remainder of the day. Not once for food or drink or toilet. I was locked in and the outside world ceased to exist. One mission bled into the next and when it finally stopped giving me new ones it was twelve minutes to ten at night. I’d completely squandered my day off. Maybe not completely, I got those missions done and in the process I enjoyed myself. But most people would look at my day as insane and an embarrassment. I’m kind of impressed how I don’t move during these sessions, I wear it as a badge of honour, rightly or wrongly. In my mind is occupied then other needs go by the wayside. That’s why VR scares me, actually most video games scare me. So no other meals to report. I woke up to all that stuff still on counter, where still it sits. We’ll see what Tuesday brings.

Past Blast

Many years ago I went on a culinary adventure while living at the Consulate that I’m often reminded of to this day. It was on the weekend, likely a lovely Sunday afternoon and I needed to feed the beast. We used to do double headers pretty much every single weekend back in those days so it is probably say to assume that I was partly hungover and needing to power through. I specifically recall it being afternoon though, the rest I’m filling in with assumptions. I cooked up a lot of pasta in alfredo sauce, I assume large shells because that is my go-to pasta and based on the end game it fits pretty well. Rather than eat the perfectly cooked pasta in a bowl like a normal person or even from a plate like dummy I decided that I would put a couple of ladle fulls into a tortilla wrap and slug back the goodness that way. Three of the guys living in the house that summer were fitness and wellness enthusiasts and were immediately horrified by this move. The pasta wrap was something I was ridiculed for intensely for the next month or so and like I said, still comes up. It seemed fairly innocent to me, saved some dishes even. But having that creamy goodness (phrasing?) wrapped up in my fist was fantastic. Apparently it was doubling down on carbs and a ridiculous move but I’d do it again. I have done it again, once, to prove a point. So here we are a decade or more later and I’d just talked to Young Clark this week for the first time in a couple of years. Probably since I randomly mailed him a long letter that he didn’t care for. So the pasta wrap concept is fresh in my mind, plus the Chef and I were bantering about it over the last few months. I’ve got two sausage buns and nothing to put in them on the counter. They are getting to the age that they are going to start to turn soon and I know that 30-40% of food is wasted on this continent and I’m pulling that number back down no matter what. Sometimes at the risk of my own well-being. So what to do. I decided that I would cook up two sacks of Knorr Chicken sidekicks at some point in the morning that would be my meal for the first 2/3 of the day, having skipped breakfast. Sidebar for the sidekicks. I got on the chicken a few years back when I realized that you only need water and butter for this one, no milk. There was a time in my life where I struggled to use 1L of milk before it expired so I stopped buying it. Not wanting to waste and all. Now chicken is the only scent of sidekick I buy, I’ve given up on all the others. I do buy milk and force myself to hammer it down now to support the dairy industry in the country. Make sure you buy Canadian dairy products, look for the logo! Sidekick sidebar over. So if I’m making the sidekick and I have to use the buns you can guess what happened next. If you can’t, I provided a photo.

Also pictured here is the rest of the Knorr Chicken Sidekick. Recall that earlier I said I made two sacks of it. That requires only four cups of water and about three tablespoons of butter, a pot, bowl and spoon. (It used to just need a pot and spoon for dishes when I was younger.) I went about eating it in an irresponsible way, I mean I’d already gone off the trail with the pasta dogs so might as well explore the new landscape. The right way would have been to portion out what I should eat and put the rest away for the next meal, ideally paried with green beans but what I did was consume what I could eat and put away the meagre scraps. At least I’m learning. So that was the meal. Several hours later I chugged the last two pizza buns and a drumstick. Several hours after that but before the Leaf heartbreak started I put down a wrap consisting of the last of the chicken balls in the fridge and some sliced cheese. Water was consumed liberally throughout the day, because that is important, even when you’re eating like a fool.

Activity wise, there isn’t much to report over yesterday. Caught up on cards and livestreamed that on Twitch. I played a couple of matches on NHL20 and then got into the movies again. I watched two more off the list today. The Hater was up first and I’m going to talk about it. It is a foreign film that was dubbed over with english that gave me a small appreciation for what the rest of the world has to go through to watch english films. I had to turn on subtitles to understand the text that was on the screen and noticed that the dubbing and subtitles were rarely the same. The movie itself was a very modern and relevant tale. It was about a young man who is struggling in life and discovers a talent for manipulation of online affairs. He gets hired by an underhanded PR firm and starts plotting. I won’t give more than that but it was a film that left me with a different feeling afterwards, it changed my emotional state and for me, that is the mark of good art. I loved that it was a modern spin on traditional storylines but also was woven together to create a new story. Depsite the launguage stuff, it was a great movie. It is pretty dark and deals with some depressing or scary themes so you probably have to be in the right mindset to enjoy it, don’t be looking for a comedy or anything. Next was the Stand at Paxton County. This was based on true events and starred Shooter McGavin and some other people. Another fairly dark film with some downer moments but it really resonated with me. It covers the struggles of some ranchers in North Dakota who are being pushed around by some higher powers and it felt very familiar for me, working in agriculture. Not everyone is going to get the same level of enjoyment from the story but it is a new tale and fairly well done. Not going to win awards but it feels almost too real for me. There is a clip at the end of the actual people to lend some authenticity to the events. The last thing I did was to watch my beloved Leafs flounder against their opponent. I respect that the teams are evenly matched stats wise but the Leafs have a much higher calibre of players and should smoke them but they are playing a true team. A squad where every one works their guts out and pulls in the same direction. It was frustrating to watch but it was a perfect game by Columbus, I hope they can’t do that twice. It took an hour or so to settle down but I got to sleep this side of high noon.

Sacrificed Saturday

It was a later start on this Saturday. There was rain in the forecast so I didn’t have anything pressing to do, not even to water the flowers. I slept until almost eight bells then I grabbed my Mini and watched some stuff for another hour or so before finally rolling out of bed. I did decide to start my day by throwing everything remotely dirty into the wash for the weekly load. I was cramped for space when I was organizing things before the load went in so I decided to dump the little jug I bought early in the pandemic to hoard into the big gulp. The spout on the little fella can sort of roll up and fit inside the top spout of the larger unit. It’s almost as if they were meant for this. It was a careful process and a couple of drips ended up on the dryer so I dumped some water on them and used it to wash the top of the washer and the dryer. My washer is nearly due for a good deep clean. Do other people wash their washing machine? I figure I should, it’s where I’m washing my clothes, should try to keep it clean. I wash the sink nearly everyday, my food goes in there. Am I the only one that thinks of these things?

Once the laundry was started all semblence of productivity went out the window and I gave up on the day. I did get the clothes dried but they are sitting down there still. There was no formal breakfast this day. But I did ingest a couple of pizza buns and a drumstick towards noon. There was another similar meal later in the day and some chips after that. Nothing approaching healthy at all. It was a true cheat day, first big one in a couple of weeks. I cheated myself more than anything because this was the only day of good weather for the entire weekend. The rest of it is going to be lousy with rain, which isn’t a bad thing. It will finally give me an idea what is left of my lawn. So I rolled around my basement lair watching weird movies all afternoon and evening. I lined up a handful and worked my way through them. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Full but Fair Friday

Friday was a ripping day right from the very start of it. Rising early and getting clean was where it all started. It was a very industrious shower that left me feeling refeshed and ready to get into it. The store followed that as I stocked up on groceries for the next two weeks. Some other things were purchased as well to be ready for future endeavours, including a bird feeder and bird food and two more jugs of my new favourite body wash. If they stop selling it, I’ll be ready. I grabbed a McBreakfast on the way home from the store so I had everything done in time for work. I found a work around for another one of my IT issues and was able to open some Excel files again. It’s complicated what I need to do but if it keeps be moving forward then that’s a win. Especially since I learned that there are over 600 people on a waiting list looking for assistance with their IT. Our IT departments on focused on another big project to merge systems and junk. It’s been over two years in the making and culminated today. I’m sure the world will have imploded when I got back to work after the long weekend. But that’s nearly enough about work. Lunch was a relatively peaceful affair. I had two breakfast bullets. So higher than average egg consumption happening but it was quick and effective. The plan was to have stopped working around 2pm and get into my summer hours but I sort of kept going. There were some questions that came across the wire as I at my 2pm lunch that I felt I could answer in good time. Towards the end of the day BDP called and we ended up chatting for an hour as he drove back from a field call that I used to the one to handle. It was a good catchup. At five bells I decided it should be a bit of a happy hour for me, since it’s the Civic Holiday long weekend.

I decided to dance with the pink lady as the Big T calls it. I mixed up some blueberry pink lemonade with some vodka and ice and I was off. It was very delicious and I’ll do that again for sure. I’ve been going to vodka the most during the pandemic as my spirit. I haven’t had much in the way of whisky or rum. I sipped the first glass as I had my dinner then I made a second one to sip while I watched some YouTube and had dessert. Dinner was two packages of Great Value brand pad thai. It was as simple as that. I just followed the directions to cook them in the microwave and dumped them in a bowl. The chopsticks prolonged the fun for me. Those are the ones I bought towards the end of my trip to Beijing back in 2009. If you look after stuff it can last. I played a bit of NHL20 before retiring for the evening. I wasn’t able to get to sleep right away so there was some more YouTube and listening to a full album before dozing off.