Montuesday

Let’s start the post by saying that today sucked. It stands out in my mind as a truly terrible day. Not for anything momentous but simply from a compiled minutia of negativity. I’ve never had some many small things go awry. From a professional standpoint there were three issues that surfaced, nearly simultaneously. Upon further reflection, it was remarkable. Let’s start at the start though. So the day started like most others. Breakfast bullets and a coffee. I was planning to savour the coffee with the extra time I had from waking up earlier than required but found myself gulping it down and hustling to the helm. I started working on issues from the hop and reached out for help from several sources. The morning itself was fairly uneventful. Lunch was a heaping bowl of leftover pad thai mixture. After lunch I had a Zoom call scheduled. I couldn’t get in. It was telling me I don’t have an account. I’ve been using the service for months now. Emails slowed to a crawl so getting myself back into Zoom was a painful process. I managed to dial-in to the call to keep on top of what was being discussed. When the call concluded the bad news emails started to pop-up like a coordinated attack. By six bells I was able to deal with them all in one way or another. It was not fun. Hopefully I didn’t break anyone or anything I’m the process. When I finally powered off, I turned to a lair of ham and cheese bistro pockets from Stouffer’s to comfort me. I ate the last two granola bars too. It was closing in on seven so I retired for the evening. I closed all the blinds, doors and lights and crawled into my bed with the Outlander audiobook. I feel asleep for most of the eight o’clock hour and was awake again until half ten, falling asleep with great difficulty. Glad that one is in the rear view.

Labour Day

My sleep was deep but ended abruptly in the midst of a tumultuous thunderstorm happening as the sun was attempting to rise. I tried to regain my slumber but it was for naught. Eventually accepting this fact, breakfast was prepared. The traditional Harbour offering was crafted and consumed, breakfast bullets with heavily dosed coffee. All too commonly lately, this was followed by card games on the computer. I took some time to edit my video from the previous night, link is posted below. I have to think my editing skills are improving quickly. I got this one down to around four minutes. Next thing I knew, it was time for a midday meal. I warmed up my shake and bake breast and the remaining fries for a meal. The flavour quotient was set alight by the sriracha ranch dipping sauce drizzled over the top. I cleaned up my mess then toured the house cleaning other small messes. Basically the normal maintenance. I moved back to the computer to try and get that last pesky daily challenge on Microsoft Solitaire Collection done. And I did! Finally I was able to put August to rest. I currently have access to all previous months now that I’m logged in so I went to work on last November and October. Down to the last few of month eleven and the last thirty (six days) of October. That passed a long time and allowed me to consume a pile of podcasts that had quickly accumulated. I touched up the weekend Musings while on the computer too. Supper followed. It was a quick affair, warmed up some Tugboat pad thai. I was in a mood though at that time. A customer had emailed me minutes before five bells. That in of itself would be annoying on a regular Monday but we’re having a national holiday Monday on this continent. That note could have waited until morning for certain. I was annoyed and frustrated with the lack of tact by this person. It felt like an ugly, ignorant tactic. I was pretty hot for way too long. I chose to remedy the situation by firing up some NHL20 and destroying a few teams to adjust my mood. It took over an hour but I figured that it’s out of my control and not to let it ruin my evening. I started listening to the audiobook of Outlander, a free gift from Audible while doing that. So now I have something to occupy my ears for the next thirty two hours. Solid value for the price! After finishing chapter two, I retired to my chambers to continue reading my actual book, Baptism of Fire by Andrej Sapkowski. It is better known as the third Witcher book, sixth that I’ve read. Enjoying them so far. Watched season one on Netflix then went hard on the books. Same move I made for Game of Thrones. The reading carried on until sleep. Enjoy the video!

Fast then Slower, Big Sunday

Another solid sleep! Maybe the curse is finally broken. I got myself cleaned up and ready for the day in a relaxed and measured pace. I went out and grabbed a couple things I’d forgot during my groce. Namely sriracha, lightbulbs, and shake and bake. A curious assortment. I fuelled myself and the truck. One with a McBreakfast and one with pure gasoline. That gas gave me a tummy ache. Just kidding, I was fine. Anywho, Cheese showed up to the minute on time and we set out on a pre-arranged adventure to pickup a new vanity for their bathroom. We got it hauled all the way back to his place then realized it was 93kg. That’s heavy. I used to be able to “Lance” stuff like that around but not anymore, I’ve grown weak. Luckily, two strapping lads from across the way stopped their work and came and helped us shift it into the house. What a relief! We could have done it but it would have taken much, much longer. I was perspiring as it was.

Having a scheme for the afternoon, I took my leave somewhat abruptly and made the return trip chilling to the acoustic brunch on the radio. I got home and cooked some lunch. I made fries first then started some shake and bake. I realized I had two different things and was close to a real meal so I biked a can of green beans. The plate turned out to be divided in thirds instead of quarters but it is a start to eating more appropriately. Anything green is an improvement. For future reference, I cooked the other two chicken breasts from that package in the Instant Pot.

Having taken down a nice lunch, done my exercise for the morning and helped out a friend I felt like I’d earned some TV time. You’ll naturally recall that I discovered that the Lord of the Rings films looked amazing with my projector so I undertook a second replication of that trial. I watched the Two Towers. It wasn’t as lame and slow as I remembered, but I was also more engrossed this time around. It is a three hour film so when it ended it was time to start cooking my more elaborate dinner. I wanted to use up those two breasts from earlier so I decided to make my version of pad thai. I’ve been told it is not actually pad thai and I shouldn’t call it that but the sauce dictates that I have to. I filmed most of the process and will be editing that footage into another Tugboat in the Kitchen video tomorrow and posting it. For now you can enjoy the picture of the finished product. After cleaning up I put on the third instalment of Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King and that took me right up until bedtime. I enjoyed it immensely and was optimistic for cool dreams.

Scintillating Saturday

Big full sleep finally. What a refreshing feeling. I felt so energized that I opted to skip out on breakfast and coffee. I lounged around a bit then went to work on Microsoft Solitaire collection again. I even streamed it on Twitch this time. I still haven’t finished the last, lingering challenge from August and it’s becoming bothersome. After completing the daily challenges and missing on that last one I tried once again to resurrect my hotmail account in order to track my progress for these card games. It became apparent that I didn’t have the info to do it. I can’t remember the last emails I got in 2002 and what their subjects were. I tried a few dick enhancement subjects but I was denied by Microsoft so I created a new account and have access to the last year of challenges. No shortage of challenges now! I transitioned from this C&C since I was already there. I played out the last of the Nod campaign. Felt pretty strong about it so decided to finally break my fast.
During lunch and immediately after I watched the first two episodes of season four of Sons of Anarchy. I was ahead of my parents at one point but they have flown past me now. This has decreased my interest in finishing the series but I haven’t ruled it out. I managed to have a nice forty five minute nap after this. I worked on finishing up some Musings drafts then I watched some YouTube for awhile before deciding I was a bit peckish and downed three chocolate chip granola bars in lieu of a real meal. I picked up my novel after that and kept on it until bedtime. A nice early one, looking for a repeat performance slumber.

Phoned In Friday

woke up from a full sleep for the first time in several moons. And at a more appropriate hour too! Things were starting out nice. The early rise accommodated for a terrific hot shower and more time for a tasty breakfast. I gently warmed a cheese bagel which I’ve recently procured and halved it. I heated a pair of sausage patties and slipped a thick slice of Kraft single between them then inserted that into the bagel. I topped it off with the dregs of the bottle of sriracha ranch dipping sauce for a bit of zip and a hint of zap. It was a fantastic meal and much more appropriately portioned than other culinary experiences. With my mess cleaned up it was time to work. After a couple hours I realized that most people were off or laying low. I finished the thing I was working on and decided that was it. I worked through my summer hours last week and figured I could use that owed time in lieu and take advantage of my last summer hour opportunity of the year in the afternoon. With that I was set to enjoy a nearly four day weekend. It felt like a good chance to enjoy some of recently acquired toys. Before that, and because I was at the computer, I worked on my Microsoft Solitaire Collection daily challenges. I’m down to just one for the month of August and I only have a few days to finish the pesky beggar. When I tired of that l saw it was nearly two o’clock so scuttled to the kitchen. I cooked up a very crispy batch of tater tots. These were far crispier than I considered in the realm of appropriate. They were quite good but somewhat hampered by the injury I sustained previously in the week. I have a cut or scrape on the top right side of my mouth and it makes everything less pleasant. I had to drizzle on some three cheese ranch dressing to try and soften up the moisten as the expression goes. That was lunch. I attempted a nap afterwards but it didn’t take. I watched a bit of YouTube in the attempt and thought about starting a new book but got scared that it would takeover my long weekend. Instead I went into the garage. About two weeks later than planned I started to shift the boat around. I realized that I had picked the wrong wall to put it against in my schemes and adjusted the plan. With some careful maneuvering I got it over. But it also became clear that the jack was not in a favourable position for this plan to be executed. I stared at it, dumbfounded, for a time before noticing that there was nothing keeping me from moving it to the other side. The biggest issue was going to be finding the right socket. A quick search turned up nothing but luckily I had it in the old JobMate set of tools that Admiral Bonesaw and I had got when we first struck out into the world on our own. The process of flipping it went surprisingly smooth. I was sweating at the end but that’s nothing new. That done, I was able shimmy they boat forward just enough so that I could close and open the door.

Made a sausage bagel this morning. Decided mid-morning to use last weeks summer hours combined with today’s last summer hours of the year to take some time today. Make it a big weekend. Played with new toys. Played some computer game. Made some super crispy tots. Shifted the boat, moved the jack, cleaned it out some more. Flew the drone in the house a bit, need more practice with controls.

This gave me so much more room down the side and at the front of the boat. Now I can step around the hitch and use the garage again. This is key as the lawn finally needs to be cut again. First time since mid-July. I won’t get into why that is yet. I cleaned out the boat now that I could move more freely. With that out of the way my next toy was the drone. I haven’t had much opportunity to fly since returning South. Also, I’m in a heavily restricted airspace living near a hospital helipad and all. The raging winds this week have made outdoor flight next to impossible so I decided to try it inside. I attached the prop guards and did a circuit of the upstairs. I can’t post the video here yet, I’ll work on cracking that nut. After carefully putting the drone away it was dinner time. Another round of crispy tots. This time I doused it in cheese, hot sauce and three cheese ranch. I think a few minutes less is going to be required next time.

Quietly Productive

I am filling in the details for this day after the fact, several days after the fact…..in fact. I don’t recall much other than I spent long stretches on the phone. I knocked down some important milestones in my professional world. I had a smaller lunch which I supplemented with this expired strawberry Jello. Or to be honest, Great Value brand strawberry jelly mix. The picture on the box was of Jello so I’m not scared that I consumed some kind of jam making additive by mistake. It was best before some date in 2017 so it never really set properly and could be consumed. If you know me, you know that I’ve had several failures in making Jello in the past. I suspect that they were for a similar reason, that being that I used expired product. I did manage to pick up some fresh boxes this week in the grocing so we’ll put that to the test as soon as the mold is empty. I was really hoping to de-mold it and show off the cool detail of this vintage mold. Hopefully it’s just the age of the gelatin and not my ineptitude for making one of the simplest household treats. In terms of the rest of the day, not much else of note happened. I got caught up finally in Microsoft Solitaire Collection in terms of the daily challenges. I polished off a number of big September tasks for work and I finished my book. All in all it was a quietly productive day.

Unremarkable Hump Day

Very generic, routine day this one. Mediocre sleep. Breakfast bullets to start the day strong, used up the last of the previous package of eggs in the process so we’re starting with a fresh eighteen going forward. Work continued to be awesome. Limited customer interaction, no major lingering issues, just hammer down and be ready for the fall. Soup and pizza buns again at lunch which was at a more normal time. More of the same work in the afternoon. Went hard on the cards again after work for an hour or more before seeking some sustenance. It was a weak effort as I was feeling drained of the will to do anything better. It was a pair of microwaved meatball and mozzeralla Stouffer’s Bistro things. I wish I hadn’t ate them so soon in the run. After that I returned upstairs to put a few hours into my book before trying to pass out at ten. Ended up closer to eleven again.

Long Awaited Groce

After many weeks of pressure and eventually realizing that I could hold out no longer I succumbed and once again got groceries. The last time I did so was ahead of the August long weekend. I did spend a week away in between and I was furnished with some treats upon my return but to maintain the status quo was quickly becoming untenable. Especially as I dipped deeper, and deeper into my food reserves. Items with longer shelf lives were being depleted over the course of the last week and that trend needed to be remedied and my stores replenished. So with that in mind, I rose early and was at the door to the store only minutes after they opened. I was so early in fact that it was several minutes of frantic searching before I saw another customer. I was worried that I’d barged in while they were weren’t open to the public and was trapsing around unbidden, no staff with the heart to tell me to vacate. I got through the experience and arrived home to begin the storage process which nowadays includes several handwashes. While I was out I grabbed a McBreakfast to expedite things upon my return. An unexpected turn was that during the unpacking I got a knock at the door and expected to see some soliciter wanting me to help with their charity of supplying organic food to babies or something but it was the elderly lady from next door offering me some tomatoes. Apparently she is having difficulty keeping up eating them and wanted to offer some to me. I happily accepted and thanked her as she rushed away. Very nice of her to share in her bountiful harvest.

As it was I got a later start than normal to my work day. Once it began though, things were rocking. I was making sweeping progress on a number of fronts. With only a brief meeting later in the morning I was a runaway freight train of momentum and the work was very satisifying for me. It was just the kind of monotenous, tedious, mindless task that I cherish. Mostly formatting data in spreadsheets to be appropriate for end uses. It felt like the blink of an eye and it was lunchtime. I’d powered through the traditional dining hour because of the late start and breakfast so I found myself in the middle of the afternoon before consumption was deemed necessary and practical again. I sated myself with a pair of pizza buns and a stout can of soup. Late lunch means that it was a hop and a skip until quitting time, at which point I deftly transitioned to Microsoft Solitaire Collection, working to get caught up on my daily challenges. I used my momentum of the day to get a lot done in that realm also, enjoying all the puzzles thrown at me. I delude myself into thinking that it helps keep my mind sharp but really I just enjoy it and feel the need to rationalize extra time spent at the helm. In order to make myself feel better about this I wanted to do something productive. I decided that since I’d purchased more wall hanging supplies I should hand the birthday gift that the Beer Guy/Meat Man had arranged for me to receive. It went up in the guest bedroom and looks fairly sharp even if I rushed the hanging of it. It’s off level by one degree on one side and it’s about an inch too far into the room to be perfect but it looks good to me. I skipped a formal supper and relegated myself to a small snack before consuming a big portion of my book. That led right up until lights out.

Manic Monday

Today I was ejected from sleep prematurely and found myself ahead of schedule. I had a deep, cleansing shower that left my refreshed and feeling pure. To counter that I decided to go at my foot talons. Overall it was a great success, except that one thing. I’ve had something going on with my right big toe for a few weeks. I’m thinking some kind of infection or something. I’ve been applying some ointments and it comes and goes as a result. The moral is that I wanted to take out some nail there to allow for this coming and going. Expansion and contraction ballet. I clipped flesh. It was unpleasant and bled too long. Not a phenomenal start after all. Staunching the wound consumed my allotted feeding window so it was right into work. I got the ground running. Without wall to wall calls this is the week to fall back in love spreadsheets and knock down some cumbersome tasks before fall sprouts up. I’ll be on the road touring before I can believe it.

The morning flew by. Lunch was at the normal time and featured Mr Noodle. Actually it was more of a solo act than a feature. The cupboards and starting to wear thin now. I had a team meeting with my boss and his other report after lunch. We all remarked that it had felt like months since we’d had such a meeting despite the bi-weekly nature of their scheduling. Odd that we all had that sentiment. The rest of the afternoon zipped by as I was able to immerse myself in the sheets! Supper was so unremarkable that I don’t recall what it was. Haha! That’s terrible. The rest of the night was patently wasted. Between YouTube and Microsoft Solitaire Collection it was a write-off. Bedtime was attempted ahead of ten bells but only frustration was available until nearly eleven. It is hard to believe that August is over. I’m not sure I notched it even beginning. Pandemic time is passing even quicker than normal.

SoA Sunday

If I thought Saturday was wasted then I’d never met this Sunday. I ended up sleeping in or at least staying in bed for a long time. I was up very late the previous night so did manage to sleep a bit. I watched foolishness on YouTube for a couple of hours and was lazy while lounging. I finally emerged from my stupour and cooked up a big perogie breakfast using my demonstrated boiling method. I let them go a bit too long at the very end, forgetting I’d cranked the heat before running upstairs for something so you can see a bit more char than desired. They were heavenly though. I also boiled them longer than I wanted as I was distracted in the cooking process. I took my sauced bounty down to the lair and that is where I stayed for the entirety of the afternoon. Starting around eleven in the morning I watched Sons of Anarchy all day long. I did manage to tear myself away long enough to ram some leftover bacon into a bagel with some three cheese ranch while popping some corn. I finished those to items off with a Pepsi and the last two energy balls that Mother gifted me. It was eleven when I finally powered it all down and crawled into my bed. I totally wasted day doing nothing of relevance. I was cognizant of what I was doing and didn’t like it but didn’t have enough drive and discipline to stop it. I think my recent troubles sleeping has me in a funk, feeling down. If nothing improves over the course of the week I’ll have to break out the big guns. Hope things are well on your end.

Listless Saturday

Saturday passed by with no critical activity. It was a day thrown into the abyss. There was no restful sleep. There was no sleep in. There was no breakfast. Instead there was a movie on Netflix that wasn’t memorable enough to be shared. Hunger came calling and was quashed with a brunch meal of two packages of Knorr’s Chicken Sidekicks. Yes, the same dish I had for a midday meal the previous day. It was so good I wanted to play it again. Plus it is so easy and quick to prepare and clean up. So a strong feed there before slimming down to my lair to enjoy hours and hours of Sons of Anarchy. I was into season three and just keep going. Around six I paused to prepare a classic Tugboat delicacy. A garlic tuna pasta dish with green beans in the sauce. Mother had a strong negative reaction when I shared the news. It is sneakily delicious. Has some spice and depth of flavour. Fish in pasta sauce isn’t a traditional move that I’m aware of. Strong meal. The rest of the day and a portion of the night was spent in the lair watching the Sons.

Full Friday Frenzy

Things started not long after sunrise today after another short night. A quick shower and I was off. I needed an excuse to get out of the house so I went for a McBreakfast. While I was out, to further justify my outing I stopped at a store and bought an item to keep up with the Jones’s so to speak. There will be more on that later. With a full gullet and a coffee in hand I approached the workday with unexpected zeal. I accidentally called into a meeting with customers an hour early and was getting frustrated that they were late. Luckily I realized my error before reaching out to anyone. That meeting went well and fed me some positive vibes. Which is good because I was able to live off those until nearly three bells when I finally succumbed to my desires and had an actual lunch that consisted of two Knorr chicken sidekicks. An underrated move I often make is turning a side dish into the star. I give them the entire stage to show me what they’ve got. I was not disappointed. There have been underwhelming experiences, such as a can of green beans barely warmed, but not today, not this. I was supposed to have my penultimate summer hour experience of the year but was rolling so hard that I missed the normal lunch window then after I did eat I could taste the finish line and powered through into the evening to complete my task. That being complete I switched machines and worked on my Microsoft Solitaire Collection daily challenges. I have to play catch-up after my week away of course. Now it was getting well on in the evening and I ordered an order of chicken bites from Pizza Pizza and several sauces to treat myself. I enjoyed a beer with it because Friday. I dabbled in some YouTube then tried to read a little before partaking of some tossing and turning until nearly eleven o’clock. Slumber followed.

Thursday 27

Another restless night. Well, maybe some rest. The records reveal that I was able to cast off ahead of high noon but only after much struggle and strife in the sheets. Eventually I had to fire my shirt at the wall and sleep bareback. I’m not sure what is at the core of my unrest. Perhaps the slight alteration of the thermostat, perhaps the pending sense of dread that accompanies my fall season, perhaps not rotating my mattress in months. Who can tell? I had my classic breakfast for the first time in a couple of weeks after complaining to Theodore Complete that I eat too big of breakfasts. Coffee was required. I used some golden sugar to kill the bitter today. It worked triumphantly. The morning zipped by at a breakneck speed. I wonder what I did in that time. I decided to replicate the previous day’s lunch but with a little more zip on it, much like the name Eva (if you get that reference I’ll shower you with complements and favour). So pictured below you have the spicy chicken and Noodle, times two. Simple and delicious. Still not sure about nutritious.

The afternoon didn’t bring much excitement. There was one email that begat several more and elictied a response from me. Then I called most of the people on the chain individually to discuss that email and the three or four lingering topics that needed to be covered off. That consumed the vast majority of the next couple of hours. I transitioned off phone talkin’ to update some online data bases next then went about tightening my already slim inbox. I’ve mentioned it before but I don’t move an email out of the inbox and into the personal folders until the issue has been resolved and questions answered. Or a newer email on that topic arrives. It’s something that needs to be worked at but for me it serves as a living to-do list. I managed to hammer away at things until nearly half five. By then I was starting to feel hungry and I cobbled together a meal out of leftover wedges and a can of chili. Stagg’s Silverado Beef was dumped on the chilled wedges and I heated them to a steaming mountain of flavour in the microwave. It was a nice, easy, quick dinner with limited mess. I made a dessert out of some marshmallows again, needing some sweet. I highly regret doing that as now my teef kinda hurt. I’m not sure what I did.

She Day

Another late night and disruptive sleep in. I managed to choke down a black coffee and a bagel to get life going. I guess there was some life ahead of those perilous moments because I used some Guy Wipes for their intended purpose. I also wiped my armpits clean and re-applied anti-perspirant with them. They say flushable but I’m still opposed to the concept. I don’t think they will be integrated into my routine. But yes, the day was when She came into the world some years ago so I made sure to wish her a happy day. I got some response but she is a busy woman these days so I didn’t want to inundate her with well wishes. That accomplished I got into work. I had nine consecutive conference calls of varying length. Luckily I booked myself some time for lunch in my calendar or who knows what could have transpired. That lunch was quick and simple. I tossed two packages of chicken Mr Noodle in a pot and after straining them in my new strainer I dumped the two flavour condoms on top and mixed until delicious. Easy to make, easy to clean; my kinda meal! The barrage of calls continued into the golden hour. I also added a phone call to the end of it, one that I wanted for a couple of days to make. By the end of it all I was in no mood to cook and starting to get hangry. I leaned on Pizza Pizza to bring me a salad and some chicken bites. The salad sucked! It was actually terrible. It was meant to be a crispy chicken salad with ranch dressing but it was almost devoid of chicken and the browning iceberg lettuce had no fewer than ten “hearts” in it. It was disgusting and if it hadn’t cost so much I would have tossed it in the yard for the rabbits. A colossal disappointment. The chicken bites were pretty average too. I really have to stop dealing with them. Their nosedive into mediocrity has not been subtle. It was well into the evening by the time this was all wrapped so I sat around and watched YouTube trash for an hour before trying to get to bed early. Hopefully I can catch an early sleep. Hopefully She had a better supper for her birthday.

Receiving Day

Tuesday has a nice scheduled plan. Things are nicely spaced out. Meetings to be had, time between to process and work on other things. A solid balance to the workday. I ended up sleeping longer than ideal and had to rush things. After a delightful shower, McBreakfast seemed like a strong choice. They were promoting some kind of chicken breakfast samidge that peaked my interest. I took it on. I will say that it was okay, very peppery, but didn’t ring the bell as a good breakfast option. Let’s keep chicken where it belongs mmmk? I described my shower as delightful and I feel like maybe I owe you a better explanation of that wording so you don’t make any perverse assumptions. Nearly a year ago, I had difficulties with the government mandating mixing valve on my hot water heater. I finally bit the bullet and got it replaced, mostly when it started leaking and shorted out the hot water heater. This small change moved my maximum water temperature from lukewarm to hot. It enabled me to once again have hot showers rather than simply warm ones. This has been a five or more year issue. The other significant piece is that I repaired the secondary shower head. I Mused about this some months ago. I do all my rinsing with it now. My shower game has improved dramatically. So when I say it was delightful, I mean it ignited my spirit and soul to tackle the day. Back to the day at hand, one of the meetings was a leadership mandated motivational session. It was centered around ways to stay motivated during the isolated, pandemic mire work in. There was some interesting information and advice shared. By some coincidence, as the call ended I got a ring of the doorbell and there was a package dropped off. It was a thank you gift from out leadership group.

It was a very nice gesture but I find myself left with a bittersweet feeling. The thank you aspect is nice but for me personally, not much has changed and I don’t feel like I’m going above and beyond what is expected for me to cover my responsibilities. My cheapness also gets bothered by these things, I start considering the cost of this initiative and I am being asked to cut costs all the time and this feels counter intuitive to that request. I could rant at this juncture about that being the corporate way, bottom levels fed scraps while top levels feast but I’ll just say my momma didn’t raise no ingrate so I’ll plan to dust my chicken with spices next time out. For the moment I was pressed for time so I grabbed some of the food Mother shared, an energy ball and two bagel balls, and hustled back to work. There was a long call that I led after my short lunch and then a few lower impact calls after that to round out my business day. The Chef arrived shortly after that point and we had a quick chat before his partner arrived. We hadn’t spent any time in each other’s company save a few moments when I dropped off coolers back a ways. Circumstances worked that it would be convenient to dine together in my town so I dared not refuse. Selecting a restaurant to enjoy in such situations can be cumbersome so I reached into my bag of tricks for a foolproof method.

I used random.org to do fifty “spins” and placed a mark in the appropriate option’s line and at the top to track the spins. After the fifty spins and some poor counting below we had our winner. Chiba Sushi. We headed out to brave the world of all you can eat sushi but arrived to a very empty parking lot and a sign that said closed on Tuesdays. It was a “classic” moment. I’m sure I was making a fantastic first impression. Did I mention I was wearing camo crocs? The international footwear choice of people telling you they gave up through their wardrobe? Luckily I’d memorized the results and knew that Montanas had finished second. I ordered my requisite order and a beer. They ordered fancier things. I don’t stray far from antijitos to start and a smokehouse wrap. I was decidedly stuffed by the end. Since I’d gotten the last meal with the Chef he covered the costs. They deposited me at my home and in my satiated stupour, I published a number of Musings that were in a shorthand format from the previous week of vacation. That took me up to bedtime.

Forgettable Monday

Monday didn’t hesitate to start but I sure did. I must not have had a restful sleep because it was a very sluggish start to the day. This reluctance on my part to engage with the outside world meant that I was deprived of a luxurious amount of time for a relaxing breakfast. In lieu of that I consumed two bagel balls and rather than coffee I chugged an energy ball. My commute was manageable and I was working away before I knew it. I had a few meetings lined up and that made the morning pass by quickly. I had only a half hour for lunch between meetings so I microwaved four pogos and dashed back to my office. The afternoon was filled with calls that I led. Towards the end of the day I had to return a number of phone calls and the next thing I knew it was after six bells. I was low on energy and didn’t have the stuff to make an elaborate meal so I went back to the well and fired up three more pogos, bringing the daily count up to seven. I made a side out of some leftover wedges slathered in the famous sriracha ranch dipping sauce. For some green I had a can of Ginger Ale. By the end of that savoury feast I was craving something sweet so I had a handful of marshmallows. I guess I won’t be making rice crispy squares now. The evening was entirely consumed with Sons of Anarchy. At the end of the day, looking back, nothing exciting happened all today. Very routine, boring day.

Readjustment Day

Sunday, the day of rest, was going to live up to that name. I wasn’t particularly exhausted or gassed but wanted to take a day off and do very little. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to get groceries and would instead survive off the food that Mother had sent back with me. Or at least that was the idea. I started into that concept with a fried egg adorning one of the homemade bagels she had sent. With my fast shattered I got laundry spinning and finished my unpacking. I used my early momentum to get some cleaning done. The house wasn’t left in shambles but I did some of the regular chores that needed doing. There was some lollygagging later in the morning and eventually I decided to watch the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring on the big screen in my lair. I’d never thought to investigate how it would appear on a larger screen. I was so happy with it. It looked amazing. It has been years since I’ve watched it and doing so on the large screen was the right move. I outsourced lunch to Pizza Pizza in the form of chicken bites and a crispy chicken salad. The salad had the “hearts” of iceberg lettuce in it. I’m all for texture but that was pretty bush league. After the film I folded and stowed my laundry. I cleaned a couple of bathrooms then had a muffin and energy ball for supper before tying into Sons of Anarchy. I picked up where my parents and I had left off and watched a whack of episodes before passing out at bedtime. It was a very low key day that was used to readjust to a different speed of life and to get prepared for my return to work after a week away.

Harbour-bound

The cricket relented slightly and kept it’s volume lower. Maybe it tuckered itself out the previous night. This was inconsequential however as I needed to be up early anyway to get packed up in preparation for the long journey back to the Harbour. Breakfast was the thawed egg bites from earlier in the week. I mentioned that nine eggs made twelve “muffins” and four were frozen to see what happened when they were thawed. I warmed them for nearly two minutes in the microwave before destroying them. I put two in a samidge with some cheese that was several months old. The experiment seems to have been a raging success. After eating and loading up all the extra cargo I brought into the truck I headed for the shop. There was more more wiring task to cover off and I needed to fully packup the boat and get everything ready for many, many hours of travel. The Big T came along to help me out and to make sure that I didn’t leave anything behind. I wanted to sweep the floor for them after the boat was out again but I never got the chance, one of my life’s deepest regrets. Once things were loaded up I did a ride back home to use the bathroom one last time. The next stop was to get fuel then stop at Canadian Tire one last time. I think I went there nearly everyday I was in the area. This time I purchased all the tools I would need to replace the wheel bearings on the side of the road. Only four things but it cost over a hundred dollars. I’ll have them forever now and keep them with the trailer. I also had the old tires so if anything went wrong with the rolly bits of the trailer I was ready for a quick solution. The lights worked great when I checked them for the third time. I guess I’ve gotten a bit anal in my year away from regular trailering. I departed for the first leg of the journey at this point and made it safely to North Bay. I stopped in to see She at her place of business. When I stopped I check the hubs and they were cool. The tires were a bit warm so I decided to fill my stomach with coffee and empty my bladder to give some time for things to cool off. I didn’t get much of a visit with She as she was busy with work but I was able to give her a gift to celebrate her upcoming birthday. On the road again I stopped only an hour away at Huntsville. I took this opportunity to fill the fuel tanks of the truck and myself. Another hour or so of driving later and I was past Barrie where I stopped again to inspect the tires and hubs. The temperature was much higher this far south and tires reflected that. I used the facilities and hydrated before moving on to the next leg. The plan was to scoot off the big roads and take more minor roads most of the remainder of the trip but when I was approaching the exit I realized that the traffic was light and moving well so I stayed the course on the major routes. It saved me thirty or more minutes overall and since I’d been on the move for many hours at this point I was willing to take the risk. I made one final stop out of caution near Cambridge and the tires were quite hot. I gave them a few minutes to cool down before tackling the final leg.

The trip itself was a success, there were no unexpected events. I was overly cautious during it both the number of stops I made and the speed I chose. The additional bonus I found when I arrived home was that I was able to rearrange things to fit the boat in the garage. You can see from the photos that it was a relatively tight fit but it is inside without modification. I am playing with the idea of getting the tongue modified to be a swing tongue but that introduces something else to worry about. I will also take the motor off once the season is over. There might be some adjustments made to reposition things later to allow me to actually use the garage better but for now the boat is safely ensconced in the Harbour. The rest of the evening was spent unpacking and getting some laundry started. Groceries are needed but that will be a problem for another day.

Ups and Downs

Friday started off in an interesting way. My parents thought I was sleeping in. Mother wanted me to have that boon since I was on vacation. Big T was making perogies on the last full morning I was around and wanted me to get up and enjoy them. The thing was that I wasn’t asleep. I was up before six bells due to the incessent chirping of a stupid cricket. A second cricket had invaded my space and I couldn’t track this one down as easily as I did the first. I thought it was in the ceiling above the windown but couldn’t get into the drop ceiling without making an epic mess so I tried to suck it up. This resulted in me getting up later than planned and thus getting some blacker than intended perogies. They weren’t burnt but they weren’t perfect. I doused them in sriracha ranch dipping sauce to make up for it. After eating I wanted to watch a video on changing bearings on a boat trailer before work. Today was going to a be a half work day, half summer hours day. Everyone had left for work or their daily adventure so it was just me and the dogs. Titi, the rescue dog was crying and barking, thinking himself abandoned again for a few hours but I called out to quiet him. He came to see me in the basement and was very excited. He managed to clamber up on the bed and was circling, I figured he’d lay down and sleep, his favourite thing. Then I felt something hot on my side. It took a second to register but I jumped up yelling. I looked down and saw the comforter that he’d pissed all over. I ripped my freshly laundered shirt off in a rage and yelled at the dog. He got me, got me good.

I ripped the comforter off the bed before it could soak into the sheets and screamed at the dog a sufficient amount that he knew that wasn’t a smart plan. I composed myself and went to work for the morning. It was really just a few conference calls that I dialled into, providing input when asked. It was fairly low impact. I took the last hour of the morning light to work through a few things that were lingering a bit. It was good to get them off the list. I was wrapped up before lunch which consisted of the previous night’s leftovers being rolled up in a wrap and some mushroom soup that I split with Mother. While that was heating I noticed a squirrel mocking Titi and generally being a dick. I went and got the old pellet gun and took some shots. I probably nailed it four or five times out of eighteen shots. It took a couple to get the gas right and a couple more to get my aim back. By then it was up in the top of the tree with the sun behind it. I wasn’t shooting to kill or maim, simply to teach. The dog wouldn’t leave the tree for a long time after that.

After lunch was over and the excitement died down I hustled down to the shop to continue working on the boat trailer. I finished more of the wiring and started tearing about the hub on one side. The plan was to get the bearings out then go get new ones, pack them and re-install everything. We did get the wheel torn apart but had to rush home to meet up with GRP. I’d invited him out to visit, fly the drone, and see the boat. We had a nice visit and played out a couple of the drone batteries. He felt the boat was bigger in person. He also hadn’t really seen the Corvette in person so we looked at that for a bit, same with the motorcycle. I guess he doesn’t get into the shop much. We parted ways shortly after and it was time for dinner. Mother was getting some video assistance to make rolled up chicken jalapeno poppers, or some such name. The rest of the meal came out of their garden that day. The tomatoes in particular were fantastic. The beans were good, third round of those in the week though. The cucumber was interesting. It was very bitter. Apparently when cucurbits get stressed from heat or drought they react by producing a lot of cucurbitacin. This chemical can be poisonous in large quantities, usually only resulting in mild illness though. The strange folklore cure for it is to cut the end off and rub the cut end vigoursly until a white foam comes out. This flushes the toxin from the cucumber apparently. It sounds both perverse and unlikely to me but I’ll try it if I have to. Nobody died from dinner so I went to Canadian Tire and got the bearings I needed and the Big T and I toiled until ten bells working on that. We got the tires all done, new rims, new tires, new bearings. Every possible step we could take to ensure a successful journey home. We went home for a beer and then to bed. Saturday is the day of the return voyage.

Mean Spirited and Hateful

Now I was fully a year older. It was BDP’s birthday. He’s 366 days younger than me. I wished him a happy birthday early. Apparently his wife unleashed his boys on him quite early in the morning. I started my day with another one of Mother’s egg experiements. This time it was little muffin tin shaped egg delights. She spread nine eggs across twelve spots. There was garden fresh tomato, bacon, etc. in them. I don’t know all what. I shot in to town to get some more parts for the electrical work I was planning on the boat and to grab the new wheels. While I was in town I grabbed a couple of coffees and stopped in on Theodore Complete. We had nice chat and he showed me his new setup and what was left of the Space Bucket project. Check out Week 10. He had a meeting to deal with so I got the boot ahead of half ten. I scuttled home because I had my own critical meeting to tackle. I ended up working from eleven bells through to half noon before crushing some soup leftovers. I took an hour for some relaxing after lunch and did some reading and YouTube research.

After the break I slipped down to the shop and replaced the tires and wheels on the trailer. I decided to give the GoPro the Chef had given me a try. I put on the chest mount and filmed the few minutes of replacing the tire. I’m going to have to sort out how to edit that into a video for YouTube at some point. When that was done, I took the camera off and got back to work. I pulled off the old lights that were a bit broken and older and started wiring on the new lights. At some point I decided that I wasn’t just going to replace the lights but I would rip out all the old wiring and replace that too. I wanted it to be a clean job so I needed to snake the wire through the frame. A normal person would have taped the new wire to the old wire and pulled the old wire out. But I had other plans. I found a long length of plastic tubing that was stiff enough to hold it’s shape when jammed through the frame. The first side was done in less that five minutes. The second side…..well, that was a different story. I had stuffed a length of the wire into the end of the tube and lightly secured it with duct tape. Then I lightly taped the wire to the side of the tube. When pushed through the whole length of the trailer the tube decided to lodge on the far side of a bolt near the lights. The trailer frame was grinded open to allow for wiring to be pulled through but there was one little chunk of metal in the middle that was a very inconvenient obstacle. It made getting ahold of the wire nearly impossible. I was getting to the point that I needed to be home for supper before I finished it. In the end it was nearly ninety minutes of frustration and rage on that side. I said some very mean and hateful things to that trailer in the latter half of that period. I had a strange assortment of tools also. I was using a piece of wooden dowling at one point that I put a nail through to try and hook the wire. I ended up using a piece of wire that I custom bent in two places to fit into the frame to get it out. I was so angry and upset that I took no photos or video. I actually missed a lot of stuff that I wanted to video this week so far but I’m a man on a mission. I’ll try to cobble something together later and maybe a short review of what I accomplished. I made it home just in time for dinner which was burrito bowls. I ate my ferociously, still filled with rage and frustration. I took the drone out after the wind and rain stopped for a few minutes to practice flying it. After that we settled down to watch something. I suggested Sons of Anarchy on Netflix. They dug in hard and watched the first four episodes in one sitting. I know where my bingeing ability comes from. That was the evening.

Photo credit: The Big T