Terrific Tuesday

Usual fare for breakfast. Massive sleep, nearly nine hours. Worked on my database project in the morning and then helped out a colleague looking to understand some stuff I used to handle. Had a bi-weekly call with my Canadian smaller team which lead into lunch. Lunch consisted of some chicken fingers and dip. That polished off a bag and freed up some real estate in the freezer. The afternoon was spent finishing my database project, fielding calls and generally getting after it. It was a fairly solid day. For dinner, on the night of a game I had to support the team. I bought this solely to take a picture to post. It was good and I had something new with it. This is a Crave Turkey & Bacon Ranch melt. It was more flavourful than I expected but over all mediocre.

I took my extra full guts out to the driveway and put in a pretty intense thirty minutes and got it all cleaned out. Now all the driveways as far as the eye can see are clean and glistening EXCEPT for the degen across the street. He’s never once shovelled his driveway in the eight years I’ve lived here so it’s not big surprise. He also doesn’t cut the grass in the summer. Anyways, I came in and crawled downstairs to recover and watched a couple episodes of Outlander. Having read the book, and needing a new show, I decided to dabble in it. By the time the second one ended it was time for the Leafs! They were playing a couple hours later since they are in Calgary. I watched them dominate the first and then be dominated in the second. The third I watched in my bed with the Mini. I fell asleep almost instantly but did wake up magically in time to hear Marner score the eventual winner. At that point I rolled over satisfied and slept soundly until morning.

Lethargic Monday

I woke up late as you’d expect from my late night of reading the night before. I did my whole morning routine but skipped breakfast to save time. I felt a lot more energized that I had any business feeling and got into work right away. We had our Monday morning meeting and enough had piled up during that that I had to take the next hour or so to clear the queue. I cruised into lunch with a bunch of small things crossed off the list and decided that I’d better make a good choice. I whipped up a salad kit and the last expired pizza buns that I’d purchased on discount over two weeks before. The key is to warm them up for a minute in the microwave. It was surprisingly filling and tasty.

The afternoon started off with a team meeting and nobody had anything firm behind it so we stretched it out for an extra half hour. It was the first time we got to interact as a unit without being incredibly rushed in a long time. That left a shorter window to prepare the task force meeting to close out the day. It was on the books for ninety minutes but we knew it would be closer to two hours. It was. I found myself struggling to stay awake to the point that I had to turn off my camera a few times to yawn and move around to keep myself in it. A colleague called right after to debrief and catch up from last week. That ran out the clock on the day. I wasn’t feeling incredibly inspired so I halved two cheese bagels, cooked four sausage rounds, warmed and buttered the bagels, layered in four cheese slices and had me a pair of samidges. Bagel bottom, cheese, sausage, cheese, sriracha ranch, sausage, and bagel top. Repeat. It was fast, filling and low effort. I dropped to the basement and played some NHL20, I’ve almost won the AHL title and the finals have begun in the NHL portion finally. My season is nearly complete. When I’d had my fill of that I returned to the top floor and watched a bit of YouTube before powering down for the night. I was actually asleep before 9pm, best guess is 8:46pm sleep start. I guess I was tired from the short night after all.

Quiet Sunday

I slept like a king and then went through my usual morning routine, the classic triple S. But when I got to the shave aspect I paused. I decided I’d had enough of smooth cheeks and would start the beard back up. We’ll see how far I get with it. When it was time to rise I had a mission in mind. One of my goals. I’d kept back a quarter of the ball of dough from big dinner for the purpose of creating homemade kolaches. What is a kolache? Well, that link does a partial job of explaining what I’m envisioning. This restuarant in STL is my inspiration. Check out their menu! So with all that in mind, and having clicked the convenient links to understand my goal we can proceed. I cooked up the innards to my breakfast burrito with the slight exception that I did the bacon in the air fryer to get it warmed up. While that was happening I rolled out the dough with my trusty rolling pin you can see in the photo below. I put a dab of sriracha ranch dipping sauce and shredded nacho cheese in the middle before adding a couple tablespoons of filling. I closed things up and sealed with remenant egg left in my scrambling bowl and cooked them in the air fryer. There was extra filling so I filled a burrito too, cooking it the original way in the pan.

The burrito was about as good as normal, again it was light on cheese. But you’re not interested in that, you want to know how the kolaches tasted. They were good, not perfect, there is work to be done. the filling was okay in this context, it maybe needed some kind of balance. The dough was pizza dough and it’s not the right dough for kolaches, at least not what I have in my mind. It was good and I’m going to do it again but I might try making my own dough, which I’ve never, ever done before. They were perfectly cooked and a tasty treat but three didn’t fill me out and I know I can do better. Stay tuned for future efforts. Enjoy the cross section until then.

While I was recovering from my opening meal with some MSC challenges and Musings, Mother reached out to let me know that my uncle, the Mayor had given my Dad his birthday gift early. He drew him a picture of his prized dog Titi. While he is the worst behaved dog we’ve every had, people still seem to like him. He growls at my Mom, barks incessantly and mooches like it supplies oxygen but the Big T sure is some kind of fond of him. So naturally this beautiful drawing meant a lot. So much in fact that he hung it immediately, in the living room. Generally Big T will take weeks or months to do a task like this. A definite departure from the norm on this timing, that’s how you know it’s special. I texted the Mayor to thank him for doing that and congratulate him on his efforts and his growing talent.

When I’d finished my computer time I picked up a book and started reading. It was good so I just kept on reading. I read through lunch and then put on the Leafs on my Mini and kept right on reading. They won, 3-2. I only stopped briefly to have my leftover stromboli for dinner. When it started to get towards the time I should be thinking of going to bed I saw that I only had a couple more hours of reading to finish the entire book so I went after it. My eyes were getting very heavy at a couple of points but the subject matter kept me moving. The last twenty or so pages were magnificent. It had an amazing ending, stirring up a number of emotions. I read the entire 517 page novel in an afternoon and evening. I think I started shortly after eleven in the morning and finished around midnight. With the hockey game and dinner in there that’s still not that fast of a pace but I’m no speed reader. I very much enjoyed that book. I was able to text with Cheese about it the next morning, as he also read and enjoyed it. That was the bulk of the day, some fireworks at breakfast then not much else. It was beautiful.

STL Sister's Virtual Birthday

I’m not sure if it was my mind knowing I had to wake up or the amplified excitement of leaving the house but I was awake really early on this day. I had to wait for time to pass before it would be appropriate to go. I got showered up before that and made my list and checked it twice life a weird, one-stop food Santa before “quietly” dunging out the driveway and clearing the truck off. It was five to eight when I eased out of the Harbour. Fuel preceded my groce and McBreakfast followed it. I got a good shop in, timing was crucial for this one as I had obligations to meet. Plus I made getting groceries one of the three goals of the day. Once I’d returned home things got stowed and eaten and I made the Climb upstairs to tackle my MSC challenges and update Musings. Two items that seem to have become linked. I tried to stream the former on Twitch but it keeps freezing as it starts. I suspect it is how my personal computer is connected to the internet as the software is very common and seems to operate normally for everyone else. More investigation is required. I thought I’d be a bit sleepy from the early rising but that has not been the case. Rather I was fired up. I used my newly purchased toilet bowl cleaner to tidy up the two upstairs toilets. If I wash the floor, sink and mirror I’ll have them up to snuff. I put in a load of laundry instead, goal two for the day. I should have started goal three while I was waiting but instead I sat down and played NHL20. Like I mentioned previously, I’m getting very close to the end of the season and want to wrap it up before transitioning over to NHL21. I played a playoff round and changed loads in the middle. When the laundry was done I hauled it up and put it all away. I made a small lunch of rolled up slice of gouda and some turkey with mustard and decided to watch Trainwreck. A film I’d skipped over years ago to protest LeBron and also the progress on my third goal of the day. That goal was to hang my garage whiteboard. I think the cold of the garage scared me off it. So instead I watched a film that was too long or weirdly paced. Sometimes with Judd Apatow films from that era I think he tried to slip in an extra act or two. I’m not much of a fan of Amy Schumer either so I didn’t really like the film. Bill Hader was good in it, which makes me think I should watch Barry on HBO, anyways, enough rambling. That film ended just in time for me to start to prepare for the family feast. My STL sister was celebrating a birthday and we moved to this night from the usual Friday night to coincide with that and she made the selection, choosing Chicken, Pesto, and Cheese Stromboli. The results are arranged below. This time I’ll let you guess who made which one.

I also added a couple bonus photos at the end here of mine. There is the cross section, you can see the dough really expanded. I was the only one who didn’t make their own dough, electing to purchase and thaw some frozen pizza dough. The other is of the second round I made to use up the chopped chicken. It came out much prettier than my first two wrapping jobs. As usual my sister from the North dropped off as her phone started to die and the rest of us chatted. I took the tripod setup downstairs and fired up NHL20 and aimed the camera at the screen. My parents thought I was watching hockey. I had the game volume way down as usual so we continued to banter for awhile. Once everyone signed off I put a YouTube video on the phone and kept playing. Enjoying two things at once. The video I watched was a re-release from a backcountry traveller that explores the North. The scenery he captures reminds me of my homeland and he also does some fishing so I enjoy it from two angles. I advanced to the finals in both the NHL and AHL and decided to power things down at an appropriate hour. Then I got into bed and tossed and turned for over an hour. Luckily I was able to find sleep before midnight, not sure when exactly though, I’ll have to trust my FitBit on that one.

Exciting Crescendo

I started the day early and I started it without food. I was up and showered before the sun and went out before work to shovel my driveway and walk to the mail. I put on my old Aggie jacket to see if it still fit. It does! It actually fits now. It was always too big for me in school. Leaving it in a closet for ten years and gaining a bunch of weight did the trick. Now it’s nice and snug. I forgot how warm it is. Maybe I’ll take it out again. I’ve had it for almost twenty years now, geez I’m getting old. I snapped a picture when I came in, hence the stupid expression here. I made to my desk just in time for the first meeting of the day.

As I was awaiting my computer startup, then restart for some update I got the news. A corn trait that I started working with back in 2015 finally got it’s last layer of approval from our friends in the EU Commission and is free to commercialize without restriction now. We did some sales under very heavy restriction last year to prime the market but now it’s go time. A short while later an announcement went out wider and then on our North American townhall meeting some big shots brought it up. Communication to customers went out and the rest will happen Monday. It was a big deal and an excellent start to the day. My meeting covered mostly US issues so I hung in but didn’t engage. I had three things pop up suddenly at once and I was all over the place to get the fires tamed. I was really starting to buzz at this point, just flying. More things popped up and I was slicing through them like an 8” Paudin kitchen knife. By about half eleven things started to settle down and I chose to take a break ahead of one. I took my Great Value Hawaiian thin crust out of the fridge to find it was broken and breaking. That wasn’t good. I managed to get it into the oven and have it cook. You can see that I added some additional cheese to it, Great Value Nacho Blend shredded to be precise. When it was done I dolloped on some spicy but very flavourful hot sauce. I used the Ring of Fire sauce from Haico Hot Sauce. It was fantastic and really added nicely to the sweetness of the pizza.

A good jag of the afternoon was spent on the phone catching up with colleagues. Everyone was excited about the big news. There were a couple calls relating to the morning’s issues but mostly the big news. Someone scheduled a Teams meeting so we could all get on camera and have a cheers to celebrate finally getting this one over the finish line. It was a long haul and a lot of extra work for everyone. I snuck down at half three and got my ingredients together. I was going to finish some of the very fancy pop that GRP and KJMH got me for Christmas with some Northern Harvest. I even used a mug as an impromptu ice bucket for multiple rounds. I hustled it all upstairs and finished off some last minute items to close out the week and prepare for the toast.

The preparation was likely the actual crescendo of the day. After about twenty minutes it was all done up. I turned my camera off around half past. Mostly because all the booze swarmed into my face and lit me up like Ruldolph’s nose. It happens sparingly and most often when I take long breaks between drinks. So basically everytime these days. I didn’t hang on much longer. I closed down my machine and did the MSC daily challenges on my personal computer before getting a video call from Duffman. It had been a very long while since we’d caught up, let alone seen each other’s faces. His call wasn’t unexpected. I had received a Christmas card from him in the post that morning and seeing a child on it, I text him a WTF type message. He replied that he was hoping to avoid telling me until I came to visit next, thinking it would be a hilarious gag if I showed up and he had a kid with some age on it. I whole heartedly agreed that it would have been an epic stunt. With the world being what it was in our corner of it, he knew it could be a couple more years before I got back there so he sent the Christmas card, the next best thing. We had a good chat for about ninety minutes. Of note was that when shown the device with my super red face on it, their daughter immediately started screaming and crying. It happened again on the second replication as well. Only by the third time did she look at me without fear. Typical reaction for a child seeing me. When that was done I scrambled down to have a bowl of soup as the Leaf game started. Only, my hustle wasn’t really necessary. Turns out I wasn’t allowed to watch the game. The league has imposed ridiculous restrictions on broadcasters for some reason that I don’t understand.

The best I could do was post a whiny tweet about it. I got way more engagement from that tweet than all of my recent ones combined. One commenter suggested I listen to them on the radio instead. I had completely forgotten the radio option! Since I couldn’t watch Cheese’s virtual improv show on Facebook Live without an account this is what I did. I found TSN Radio 1050 Toronto on the Radio Player Canada website and turned off the screen and the lights to let Joe Bowen paint a picture with his words of what I was missing with my eyes. There was some chirping from a co-worker but otherwise I sat listening with rapt attention to what unfolded. The Leafs took the win, four to two and I hustled up to bed to get ready for what promises to be a busy Saturday.

Very Quick Thursday

Up a reasonable time after going back to sleep or something close to it. Breakfast bullets to usher in the day. These were cooked to excellence. Slow trudge to work. Nothing on the schedule so a full day of database maintenance. Some things came up, people looking for this and that. I satisfied all new requests and did away with a couple of old ones too. I realized I was doing too thorough of a job and adapted to a more efficient approach. I can do the other part later if I want, it’s extraneous to the spirit of the task. I held off until one before breaking for lunch. I made the last bit from one bag of chicken bites and started a bag of chicken fingers. I had a few dips and ate until I started to feel full and then boxed up the rest. That was new. The afternoon clipped along much like the morning and before I was done we had crossed five. I didn’t want to start a new part so I wrapped it up. I had the leftover chicken fingers and a couple pizza buns for dinner. I continued listening to my audiobook after dinner and moved to catch up on my MSC challenges. The book ended just ahead of me catching up on my challenges. It was a satisfying ending and I can confirm the book is better than the movie. I fooled around on the computer for a bit before retiring to the boudoir shortly after nine. Some YouTube entertained me until lights out at ten.

State of Zen

After being wound tight and stressed out for a few days it was a new dawn today. Piping hot shower and breakfast bullets started me right. I fired up my machine around half eight and started some database maintenance. It’s a mindless job that I do once a year. It took me over a week last year but I’ve got things in pretty good shape already so it’s going smoother now. I booked the whole day to work on it. I had a few people ring me up and interrupt in the morning and I had a call scheduled in there too. I cooked lunch while on the phone but it was more commiserating than anything. Lunch was a couple of Mr Noodle packages, one chicken and one spicy chicken. A hollow, filling lunch. Physically and mentally I was in a great place heading into the afternoon. I started a new audiobook with my fresh credit. I got Ready Player One. I loved the movie and I’m counting on the book being even better. That and it sets me up to enjoy the second book. I almost got halfway through my work task in the first day. I’m feeling pretty good about it. It was around six when I warmed up a big bowl of soup and the dregs of my mashed cauliflower. My body didn’t like something about it and I’d pay for it later. After cleaning up I shuffled down to watch my beloved Leafs. They had a weak game and the Oilers played some frustrating defense. The result was a boring game. I found myself watching YouTube on my Mini on the side as they struggled along. After the defeat was complete I climbed to bed and tossed and turned for the better part of an hour, finally getting towed under waves of sleep at half ten.

Tuesday Spelt Relief

Woke early and too stressed out to get back to sleep. Elected to skip breakfast based on the nerves I was feeling. I had a big meeting with a customer to address an issue that I contributed to. A small error on my part has escalated into a bigger thing, with the worst aspect of many other processes pushing the snowball down the hill to make it worse. I hate making mistakes and take them way harder than I should. Probably building it up way worse in my mind. The meeting with the customer was first thing but I was at the helm around seven so was able to get things ready for the rest of the day. I had four meetings on the books with the first one being the most fearsome. In the end it was nothing. Customer wanted to make sure I understood why it’s an issue and to see if I was willing to help with it. I’d already started working on it in fact. With that all out of the way we caught up for the last half hour. I don’t have anything else until lunch so started working on clearing my inbox and I can say that I’ve made good progress. It is getting tightened down to a manageable level again. In that period my big delivery showed up thanks to UPS. Everything was there and intact. I’ll have to hang my new whiteboards at some point now.

Lunch was a bowl of soup, I finished one of the containers off. The afternoon went pretty fast with the various short meetings and I further advanced a number of topics before shutting it down after five. Dinner was quick, easy and delicious. I made some Our Finest pad thai. It gave me a chance to bust out my chop sticks. After patiently enjoying this treat I descended to my lair. I had intended to call into a business call at half seven but I couldn’t get it going in the basement so I decided to crush some IT Crowd episodes. I got close to the end around bedtime and tried to gut it out. I didn’t realize the series finale was a double episode so I ended up staying past eleven to finish it off, but I did it.

Blue Monday

Today is Blue Monday. It is supposed to be the worst day of the year. I think it’s the third Monday of January annually. I’m not convinced that it’s the worst day but it wasn’t the best. Felt pretty middle of the line for me personally. It is also Martin Luther King Day, which is celebrated by my American readers. Many businesses give their employees the day off to celebrate. I saw an interesting tweet that said people shouldn’t take the day off but should use the extra time away from work to try and made a difference in the world. Any small thing they could do with the time would help. I’m pretty sure most people did what they’ve been doing and stayed home and did nothing. Maybe developed their frustration and added to the negativity that seems to be growing thicker by the day. It’s gotten to the point now that it has given me a headache. It’s not bad but it’s nagging. I can’t decide if it is from falling barometric pressure or rising levels of stress. I have a meeting tomorrow morning that I’m absolutely dreading. I’ve had the dread feeling sweep across me several times over the last few days and at this point I’m trying to distract myself with anything I can find to keep my mind from swinging back there. There was no breakfast today and lunch was a small bowl of my leftover soup. It retained it’s splendour. I even shared the recipe with Mother, not that she’ll ever make it. The morning was a series of meetings and preparing for meetings. The afternoon was the same. I called it a day after five and powered down the upper reaches of the Harbour and moved my operation to the main floor, specifically the kitchen where I tried something completely different. Feast you eyes on what I feasted my guts on.

What is that I can hear you asking yourself. Is it a soupy mash? Is it a mashy soup? It’s neither, there are no potatoes whatsoever in there. It is Green Giant’s Cheddar and Bacon Mashed Cauliflower. And I can tell you that it doesn’t not look anything like the picture on the box. Maybe it was because I cooked it in the microwave over the oven because of the speed of preparation, maybe the picture was doctored to boost sales. Who knows, but it did taste good. It was maybe saltier than it needed to be but I licked up the half of the package I’d alotted for this meal. My calorie count was pretty low for the day so I decided I deserved a treat. I whipped up a batch of Rice Krispies Square and ate a big chunk. The remainder would be used as dessert until the fortnightly shop on Saturday.

With the cooking and cleaning of dinner and more completed it was time to slink down to the basement to get ready to watch the greatest team in sports play. I was a bit early for the Leafs telecast so I was able to watch an episode of IT Crowd before the puck dropped. I probably could have consumed one in between periods too. The game went by relatively quickly and the Leafs came away with a solid victory. The one concerning thing was that they didn’t step on the throat. They outplayed their opponent for most of the game but let them hang around and it ended up being fairly close until the end. The Jets were without their highly skilled star this night also which would have made it a very different contest. They play nine more times, mostly in March so we’ll get a feel for how they measure up at that time. The schedule is wild and I’m very excited for it. I hope they can keep the wins coming. When the game ended, so did my day. I marched straight to bed.

Suffered Sunday

The day started like most Sundays lately. Slow to get moving. I was worried that I was going to have an unproductive day and miss out on my goals for the day. I had a carry-over goal of cleaning my ensuite that I was pretty sure from the outset wasn’t going to get done. I’m pretty awful at it because I dread washing the floor. I don’t know why, it only takes a few minutes but I have a mental block about it. The other goals included repotting the new plants into the new pots I bought for them, making some chicken and rice soup, and sweeping the basement. I didn’t eat anything in the morning but instead worked through my MSC challenges to try and get myself completely caught up going into a new week. By the time I got that done and finished fooling around on the computer it was half eleven and I decided to go and work on this soup. I’m not sure if I shared how to make it but I can. I’ll say that it includes two boxes of chicken stock, one of them of water. It has cut up celery and carrots but no onions (cause I hate them). It is finished with a fistful of rice and some chicken that is cooked the day before, chopped, and warmed up. Salt and pepper to taste. Which usually means a lot of pepper for me. It is hearty and delicious and those quantities make for a lot of leftovers to be enjoyed through the week.

Since I was a bit of a tear with the goals I went right after the plants. I had a sweater on and took them one at a time out to the deck to my patio table. I used some soil that I’d brought in a few days ago to allow it to warm and dry in the house before application. The lavender tree went into the large white pot that I should put on the floor in the living room and the other plant when in the shorter pot with the non-skid base and will live by the sink to replace the dead aloe vera plant that formerly resided there. Just like that I was done a second goal and there was only a minimal mess of spilled soil to deal with. I’m concerned with these that I’m going to water them improperly but I’m not sure which direction I’ll go, too much or too little. I guess we’ll see how it unfolds. I clambered back upstairs once all that was done for some midafternoon Musings. I had quite a few drafts to review and publish and when I’d got to the end of that it was late in the day. It was nearly dinner time. I considered having more soup but felt that would pushing it so I had the last Stouffer’s Bistro panini I had on hand with a bag of popcorn. Strange combination I agree but it filled me up enough that I didn’t worry about it. I went downstairs after that and put on the IT Crowd to distract my mind for a couple of hours. When I felt I should focus on other things I swept the basement to complete five of my six goals. The ensuite beat me this round. I watched YouTube instead and completely whiffed on bike club. I got myself to bed in short order, hoping to fall asleep ahead of any cinematic endeavour by the people next door.

Lazy Saturday

It was a later night than planned and a sleep-in didn’t exactly take. I was up and at them around seven. I managed to lounge a bit before making a breakfast. I decided that since it was past nine I’d make it more like a brunch. The thought being that I’d have just two meals for the day if I could get the timing and portioning right. I added some tots into the mix.

Last Saturday I talked about micro-goals to keep myself moving forward and not getting mired in anything. The goals I set for this day were to get my laundry done, order my whiteboards that I mentioned previously and clean the bathroom of my ensuite. Before eating I got my rather larger load of laundry into the machine. It had been ten days rather than seven since I’d put a load in. I asked Siri to warn me when an hour had passed so I could be on top of it. But the time I’d eaten and cleaned up it was already into the spin cycle. I decided to call the Chef to chat, it had been a week or so since we caught up. We can’t see enough other anymore but we can keep in contact. After we finished catching up I moved the laundry to the dryer and set about task two. I made myself an account on Uline.ca and started shopping. I have an account for work already and with such a pretty good idea what they offer but previously I mostly shopped from the catalogues. The website showed me their entire arsenal. It was more impressive than expected. I put the boards in the cart with some markers and eraser gear. Then I added some black nitrile gloves that will come in handy for some of the work I’ll have to do on the boat engine. That brought my total to within a few dollars of qualifying for a decent free gift. So I added a bottle of CLR and that allowed me to add a $50 backpack for free. I’ll make good use of that to hold my tools and parts for the boat trailer. I was looking for a tool bag but hadn’t found anything appropriate. While I was at the helm I went ahead and took care of birthday gifts for my STL sister and her husband. They will celebrate in a couple of weeks. This is probably the earliest I’ve tackled that. I got the laundry free of the dryer, folded it, and stowed it. Now I’d have to worry about the bathroom. First I did my MSC challenges that I’d ignored all week. When I’d had enough of those I had the leftover tots and a chicken breast. Those were getting long in the tooth now so needed to be eaten. Were they in the fridge for two weeks after being cooked? To procrastinate I snuck downstairs and fired up NHL20. I managed to play it for a couple of hours and before I knew it, it was almost time for the Leaf game. I had finished my virtual regular season and just have the playoffs left. It’s funny how I play so sporadically but then when we get to the final handful of games I get really into it. I had just enough time for a meal before the game. I suppose my two meal plan was forgotten because I made a cardboard pizza with extra cheese and some hot sauce. I had a can of Dr Pepper with it in front of the projector. After the first or so I got on a video chat with Meat Man and Admiral Bonesaw. It was the first time in years, if ever, that we three had attempted this. It took us several tries to get signed up. The Admiral didn’t have the right app, having deleted it to avoid awkward, obscure interactions with people from the deep past. I had a couple of vodka drinks during the game and we had some laughs and got caught up a bit. We started into the second game but soon grew too tired. It was between eleven and twelve when my lights went out.

Surviving Friday

Strong sleep led to a strong start. Breakfast was a short stack of four Eggos with syrup. Fired straight into work from there. Calls from half eight thru until half eleven then talked to a colleague for the better part of an hour. He was in a dark place, bubbling over with frustration from several different directions. I was feeling a bit of the same, like the walls of the trash compactor closing in. Lunch was soup and Stouffer’s panini again, Campbell’s Chunky Butter Chicken and turkey club respectively. Had a chat with my boss after lunch and he was really feeling my comment about being in survival mode. I feel like the world is simply trying to get by at this point. Had a couple of meetings in the afternoon. Not sticking with meeting free Friday afternoons, that will change going forward, calendar is blocked for the next fifteen weeks now. I finished up with work shortly after five and marched to the kitchen. As soon as I flicked on the lights my motivation abandoned me. I settled for breakfast samidges for dinner. I had some issues with the new carton of eggs. I found it impossible to open and quickly saw why once I cut the cardboard and pried it open. After eating and doing the dishes I went down and played some NHL20, I’m pushing to finish my season. Then I tried to watch the Leafs but they were on TSN. So I watched the IT Crowd and roared with laughter until bedtime. But at bedtime I started thinking about a stressful meeting I have upcoming and couldn’t sleep. I disappeared from consciousness between eleven and twelve.

Thursday

My work calendar was fairly light for this day compared to the last two but that didn’t stop me from waking up early and having a short stack of Eggos again. The expedited breakfast routine means that I hit the ground running for work. Both in terms of timing and also being cranked up on sugar. I doubt it’s better than coffee, maybe more sustainable. I had a couple open hours to tackle lingering issues and push for answers to question I wasn’t able to fulfill. I hate having to my destiny in the hands of others. I’ve been let down too many times in the past. There is a lot of it in this job, high stakes items that are handled by others while you act as the face to the customer. It’s no fun when it doesn’t go well. I think a few of those, the lockdown and general frustration have started to wear on me. I’ve finding myself in a negative state of mind more and more. My colleagues seem to be heading down the same road and I don’t like the interactions that are happening with some. I don’t know how to steer them back. Because that is a theme across the organization we were asked to participate in a survey to take the pulse on morale. I filled mine out before lunch and found myself worked up by the end. I hope they listen and it helps identify where the problems are and we can work on solutions. The rest of the morning was spent in virtual meetings. Lunch happened at half twelve and was soup and paninis again. It’s more food than I should have at lunch but it’s really quick to make and my tummy likes it. The afternoon was spent reviewing results with some field folks. After we got through that we caught up in general and eventually things turned to US politics and I bowed out of the conversation. I could lament but wasn’t in the mood. Instead I called my banker and shared my plan for short term investments. I spread some savings around with him. Some went on my mortgage to knock the principle back and save myself a bundle in interest. Some went into my RRSP to make sure I don’t owe tax for 2020 and some went into my Tax Free Savings Accound (TFSA) in the form of investments into different mutual funds. He’d chided me previously that my money could be working harder for me. I also expressed my adversity to risk and we settled on something in the middle. I guess we’ll see how this plays out. I gave him some for that and scheduled another chunk to go in there in thirty days. Hopefully that helps my reserves rebound slightly after I make some planned purchases this weekend. I did some more work and cleared some more emails before shutting down shortly after five. I wasn’t in the mood to cook so I threw a half a sack of fries in the air fryer. These were the same fries I’d originally tried. Turns out they are Cavendish brand, not McCain’s. They were spectacular. I ate them at a furious pace. The white you see in the photo below is some three cheese ranch dressing to enhance their flavour. It was very good. I’ve also included a flower from the morning glory I’ve nursed back to health on my kitchen table. I did that because I thought it looked beautiful. After dinner I played some NHL20, watched some YouTube and listened to a podcast before an early bedtime, just ahead of ten.

The Return

There isn’t much to report on this day, it will be a short one. I woke up at a normal time and had a normal morning routine. I went with the short stack of Eggos again and then got right to work. I was able to get some things done before the meeting got going at ten. I didn’t have side meetings to contend with so I settled in for the whole shebang. There were some things that came up as the day went on but in general I was able to get them or other questions answered as we went while still focusing on the task at hand. Lunch was unremarkable, much the same as previous days. Supper consisted of the final amount of my burrito mix. I do find it much improved with it mixed together first and salsa added. There was just enough to wrap up a pair of tortillas but they weren’t bursting by any means. I found out during dinner that a photo the Big T had taken of the sunset had made it on the local news station as part of their weather forecast. I’ve included the photo below for your enjoyment.

Photo credit: The Big T

The really exciting thing that took place on this day, as the title would suggest is that the Leafs were back. The inter-squad game they played on Saturday was neat and all but this was the real deal. And they were taking on the long time rivals, Montreal. It was a game that looked like parts were shown on fast forward. It was thrilling to watch. I treated myself to a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and a can of Dr Pepper in the second period. What a treat it was. The Leafs pulled out the win in overtime with a beauty goal and all the Leaf fans like me got to go to bed full and happy. The evening portion of the day was pretty magnificent.

Full Meeting Day

It must have been a combination of the short night of sleep before and then the early bedtime but my sleep time came to an end earlier than expected. I was up very early and that gave me time to prepare a proper breakfast. It was good to get back to my usual fare of two breakfast samdiges. All the usual suspects were present, the muffin, the sausage round, the sriracha ranch dipping sauce, the cheese slice, heck, even the juice. It was liking sinking my teeth into a memory. Eating early means I was at work early. Where I was surviving the day before, I went on the offensive today. I started firing off emails at half seven. It took a few until I realized that was a bit rude but I was already in for the penny. I cleaned up a big chunk of my inbox before the horn even sounded on the day. I had a big chunk on the calendar and then a couple smaller meetings on the sides. The big one ran from ten until nearly five. It was after a side meeting that I broke for lunch. Today was Campbell’s Chunky Chicken and Sausage Gumbo and a couple Stouffer’s Bistro Mozzerella and Meatball paninis. It was delicious and quite filling. You can see what the meal looked like below.

I had to jump out of the main meeting part way through the afternoon to attend an important side meeting. Some aspects of this meeting would go on to reshape my week and not necessarily in the positive. By the end of the main meeting later in the day I was getting pretty tired. It’s crazy how much these virtual meetings can grind you down. I had a chat with a colleague before trying to keep ahead of the inbox. The six bells had chimed by the time I found my way back to the kitchen. As I was getting down there I got a message that part of my birthday gift for the Big T had arrived and Mother and I decided to let him have a go at them early. He’d called me for a moment on his way home and wasn’t in a particularly great mood so I thought this would brighten his day. He has been wearing these old Duckie brand slippers to shoot outside for years now and they are old and don’t function great. I thought he’d benefit from some nice, comfy Crocs. I got the lined, winter version for him. He was happy with them, which was surprising as he’s been generally against them for years.

Dinner is a loose interpretation of what happened next. I had a bag of dill pickle flavoured rice crisps and a can of Sprite before crawling into my bed and disappearing from the world. I enjoyed some podcast, some French lesson and then some YouTube before once again finding sleep at a relatively early hour. With another big, full day of the same meeting coming again I was happy to power down early.

Unpleasant Monday

I had an incredibly bad sleep. I got myself to bed ahead of ten but then the neighbour decided that a movie was necessary and that full cinematic sound would be appropriate. I quickly grabbed my phone and headed to the guest room. I passed out immediately and was asleep for a deep three hours until about half twelve when I had a new experience. I started to feel some dread and was suddenly conscious of whatever dream I was having and it felt like I was choking. I woke up quickly and started coughing. My mouth had some hot, bile type fluid in it and I was almost choking on it. It hurt my throat and I was very scared, not knowing what the hell was happening. I went to the bathroom and drank a lot of cold water but nothing soothed my throat. Once my brain started to work I realized that I’d just experienced my first ever bout of acid reflux. I’ve had heartburn a few times but generally it has been quite mild. This was something other than that. I chewed two Tums tablets and climbed into my own bed. It was about 1am by the time I felt more comfortable. But I was fully awake at this point and not sleepy in the least. I tried my usual moves but nothing helped. Eventually I put on YouTube on very low volume intending to lull my brain to sleep. This worked but it was a lot closer to five in the morning when it did. I slept soundly once I found sleep and didn’t wake until eight. I had to scramble at that point to make sure I was ready for work. Within minutes I was cleaned up and dressed. I decided that I should eat something to help wipe the gross Tums taste out of my system but didn’t have time to make my usual fare. I recalled a special purchase I’d made during the shop and had to go down to the cold storage room to fetch the toaster from it’s slumber. I had got some blueberry Eggos when I saw them in the store and was overwhelmed by nostalgia. I had been thinking about the syrup in my fridge door that was getting older and what I could do with it and when I saw the shining yellow box it all clicked for me. That and nostalgia can be a very powerful inspiration. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep but I like to picture it personified as a powerful wizard called Nostalgia who whipsers in our ears to make foolish decisions. Or at least ones that we’d never made on our own. Foolish or not we are generally rewarded with some much needed chemical rewards when we follow the advice.

The morning of work was very much uneventful, just meetings and calls galore. More problems arising than solutions going out. A recipe for a frantic spring. So at the midday point I was ready for sustenance. My innards were awakened and happy with my early offering. I decided that after my scare the night before I should mix in a salad. Luckily, I’d bought one of the kits and made a small southwest style salad in a big bowl. It was decent but I’ve never loved salad. Work came on again after that, I had steady calls through the afternoon and wasn’t able to tie up some of the loose ends I thought I’d get wrapped up. Then I got some action items on a later call that I’ll struggle to complete this week. All in all it was a busy day made harsher by the weird night spent awake. I was hesitant about dinner and feared that anything I picked would potentially harm me. I had some All Dressed Crispers and then enjoyed a small meal of Campbell’s vegetable soup. The rest of the evening was spent double checking my fantasy hockey lineup and worrying about how I would do my 2020 investments to avoid a hefty tax bill. I fell asleep readily before ten.

Disgusted: A Rant

The day had finally arrived. Well, the non-disputed day. I had returned from my fully sanctioned journey to the North on December 27, 2020 and yesterday was the fourteenth day since then. So I’d self-isolated for a full fortnight. I don’t think any such requirement exists for simple driving within a province but I could do it and it was better than not doing it. This means that I could go interact with the public in an appropriate manner. Which for me, would be to go get groceries. I’d made a list of three things for yesterday and three for today that I wanted to do, small goals, easily attainable. Yesterday I was thinking I’d clean my rainfall shower head, some little nipples are gunged up with crud, tighten the towel rack in that bathroom and hang the painting in the basement. For today I’d like to get groceries, vacuum the house, and fold the laundry I put in on Thursday. Small goals. Since I only did the shower head yesterday, I’d have to be extra productive today. First order of business would be the groceries. I try to respect the first hour for the elderly, especially since we’re back in lockdown, so the plan was to wake up between half six and half seven to get ready, fill the truck with fuel, grab a McBreakfast and be ready to enter at eight. What actually happened was that I opened my eyes around six and went back to sleep to dream some phenomenal dreams and then wake up naturally at eight. Oops. So I went directly to Walmart at quarter to nine. It took me around an hour to complete my shopping. Since I only get out and about once every two weeks in lockdown I took my sweet time doing the shopping. I wandered into the health and beauty to get some body wash, I tarried down to the garden area and bought two nice pots for plants I’ve got that are expanding, I wandered electronics looking for the headphones I bought to suggest them to Mother. Those areas were pretty quiet, not many people milling about even at this hour on a Sunday morning. Next I found my way to the food area, different story. Most people were wearing masks and keeping distant. Some weren’t. Even now, as local numbers swell to three or four times the level of the first wave. I saw exposed noses and some exposed mouths, one ear hanger. I saw people crowding in together to get at the same items. I saw groups of two or three adults shopping together. I was disappointed. I was determined not to be rushed by anyone but repeatedly people were in a huff behind me as I perused the aisles. I had a list and wanted to get everything on it. The store looked like it was recovering from a round of panic buying again. There were numerous items I wanted that were out of stock. Most of them I was buying the next round I’d need so could likely survive until next round but still, it was disturbing that we’re still in that pattern. I found a woman walking towards me in a clearly marked aisle. It had about four of us all spaced and moving in unison with the arrows. She stopped when she saw me looking at her and we made eye contact, I glanced down to the arrows on the floor and she did the same then our eyes met again, then she started apologizing profusely. Maybe her mind was elsewhere or something, but it’s been over ten months now, aisles are one way, figure it out bud. I told her these things happen and she joined our parade at the end of the line. The checkout was a slog, they were only operating half of them to space things out, which is fine. They have barriers in place to operate them all when it gets busier but it wasn’t there yet. As you well know, I don’t mess with the self-checkout. I won’t support that element of corporate greed, trying to squeeze more profits by hiring less people, no thanks. I patiently waited my turn and got out of the store. While I waited they closed a cash down so someone could take their fifteen minute break. The woman first in line had been there when I arrived so I offered that she go ahead of me with her smaller load of goods, I really loaded up. She was grateful and went through. Cost me an additional five or six minutes but made her feel a lot better (she was pretty annoyed with their move). I loaded the belt quickly when it was my turn. My final tally was $320.77. I’d got those pots, extra body wash and some cleaning supplies that I generally buy once or twice a year as well as restocking the shelves after a long run without fresh ingredients. It felt good to be reloaded.

I did notice something that disgusted me. I saw a half dozen people walking out with one bag. Some were in pairs and leaving with one small bag of goods. The rule is one adult per household and the implied suggestion is to only go shopping as necessary. Some people don’t understand the difference between need and want I suppose, or maybe they are so disorganized they can’t plan ahead effectively. That pissed me off an appropriate amount as I folded up my detailed list I’d made before leaving the house. Then in the parking lot I find another form of “me first” behaviour that never fails to make my blood boil. There were several carts abandoned in empty parking spots, some only a couple spots from the cart barn. I even saw a woman take her bags out and leave the cart and drive away. That’s a major eff you to future patrons looking to park and a selfish thing that seems minor but illustrates to me how people behave, how decency is almost extinct. At least walk it over to the cart storage. The other aspect of cart ettiquette is to stow your cart correctly, that’s more minor, the major part is to put it over there so they can be efficiently collected. I’ve had to bring them in a few times and it’s not a pleasant task, especially in winter, in snow. I take it one step further and seek to tame the chaos of the storage area but putting like carts together and pushing them to the back so that there is a “trainer” example for others to follow. Today there were five carts willy nilly so I started two rows with those five carts so that hopefully those people with enough decency to bring them over see the example I set and store their carts appropriately. It’s not hard to not be a jerk.

Think about the consequences your negligence has on other people, take two seconds to consider that. Too many of us are so focused on ourselves and our immediate families that we ignore everyone else. I’m not innocent of this myself, not even close but at least I have a mixed record. How many of you can say the same. Whether it is following the COVID protocols and mandates of the business or of the province, why do you think you don’t have to follow them? I get frustrated when I go out and see various levels of compliance. In my view, if we all followed the rules we’d have things under control quicker and we can get back to a more free way of life sooner. The people that flaunt the rules are being disrespectful and selfish. And the more that do it, and the longer we do it the further we’re going to skid along mired in this restricted lifestyle. Beyond people having to pay for this with the very lives, it’s also eating months off the calendar of my life. If I’m going to be selfish that’s the aspect of it that I’d like claim. You’re ignorance is wasting what precious little time I have left alive.

I organized all of my food by storage area, as I always do, and got it all stowed in short order then had a relaxing McBreakfast that was nabbed on the way home. I forgot to get fuel. I guess I’ll fill it in two weeks when I go out again. I looked at my list of small goals, groceries were done, cleaning the showerhead was done. Next I sought to tighten the towel rack. I assumed it was an allen key to do this. It took a lot of frigging around with the camera on my phone trying to see up there but eventually I laid down on the dirty floor and looked at the toilet paper holder of a similar design. In the end it was a 5/64th allen key that did the job. I tightened all of them in the room while I was at it. After eight years of a loose rack, it was finally fixed. Next I took down my MSC challenges for the day and caught up on several Musings that had been drafted out. Next up was to start tackling the tasks. I started the dryer to refresh the clothes therein and used the interim period to vacuum the main floor and hoist the terrible and now audibly offensive vacuum to the upper levels. I folded the clothes and then finished vacuuming. That completed the tasks for today and only hanging the painting remained of yesterday’s tasks. I took my time and centred it off the area that went to the ceiling, not sure if that was a clever move.

With all the work done I set about finishing my book Starship Troopers. When that was done I had some ketchup chips and a Dr Pepper around four. I wasted my life listening to an audiobook for several hours before making a snack of a Stouffer’s Bistro Chicken Parm panini and some very rich and fancy hot chocolate before starting a fantasy hockey draft. I had a video chat with Booj during that. When it was over I went back to the audiobook and laid in the dark enjoying the story until it was bedtime.

Sleepy Salsa Saturday

The day started at 5am with a pee. I felt that was too soon for a Saturday and crawled back into bed and found the warm spot and immediately went back to sleep. The cooler temperature I’ve elected to live in this winter to try and offset the government’s pointless, gauging carbon tax means that you don’t always get back to sleep quickly if you can’t find the warm spot. I spent another two glorious hours asleep and dreaming some fantastic dreams. I don’t remember the bulk of it but I know that parts were lucid dreams, which are the best. It’s like the original VR. I got up and had a fulfilling shower, not only because of the refreshing nature but because I finally remember to bring a new bar of soap into the system and because I’d finally cleaned the showerhead. I find it best to do so when the water is running and you can see who is working and who isn’t. I got dressed in clean garb and started my day. I went about my MSC challenges and shopped on Amazon then watched some YouTube. It looks vastly different on the TV in comparison to the iPad Mini, as one would expect. When I’d tired of all that I decided that I should have my meal. Recall that I had some leftover burrito components and my first through was to make a burrito bowl. I mixed the cold rice, corn, and bean together and added some salsa, thinking it would act as a binding agent. I didnt’ want to deal with another pulled chicken breast quantity so I browned off some ground pork that was getting aged with some taco seasoning. I added half into my mixing bowl and reserved the remainder for future use. I divided the remaining shredded cheese onto two wraps and added some warmed up filling. I knew there was something missing from the first attempt and I’d found it. Salsa and seasoning. I think the mixing into a homogenous pile helped also. These were delicious. A huge victory for leftovers. I made a third one without cheese to fill the guts up and started the surprising amount of dishes.

With a full gut and a clear schedule I went down to play some NHL20 and simultaneously watch a YouTube video from Backcountry Angling Ontario. His videos are getting super long now but I still enjoy watching someone living that rustic life that I think would be cool to do but don’t want to do myself. The scenery his captures I find mesmerizing as well. So that ate up ninety minutes of my time, which I enjoyed. When it was over and I’d finished my match I switched over to Netflix and watched a couple of films. I watched Gold, which ended in a satisfying way for the character. It was a underrated film that definitely was probably overlooked by mainstream critics. I watched Tomb Raider next, not sure why, just did it. Then it was time for the Blue and White game. The Leafs were having a controlled scrimmage and decided to air it. With a lack of hockey for months and essentially no exhibition schedule, this was a good way to get the fan base engaged. Plus it showcased some of the AHL talent to the fan base that don’t often get to see any Marlies action. I watched it all, lapping it up eagerly. When it ended, so did my time in the basement. I climbed to the top of the house and made ready for bed. A few minutes of YouTube later and I was sawing logs.

Remember Friday

I had booked off the day today, I was planning to celebrate the Remembrance Day 2020 that I was unable to have off. Our company takes the day in Canada but not in the US and there were critical meetings happening that I couldn’t take so I was told to take a day in lieu at some point. Since it was late in the year and deep into the most busy time for me I didn’t get the chance. Heck, I barely was able to use my allotted days off. So I said planning. I foolishly called into my usual Friday morning call and I’m glad that I did. I again skipped over breakfast, something that is becoming more habit now, which is odd for me but did fill my thermos with water. The call went well, there was a large portion devoted to a candid airing of the grievances and review of the past year. We’d lost a few members of that team during our last pass through the calendar and other aspects had been reorganized. Some folks may have been feeling a bit raw, especially since it took ten months to fill the first departure and another was a year in the making. The team is being asked to do more for the same pay in the interim and there may not be a good path to backfill some of the positions. It was a good discussion. I’m more affliated with this group than directly on the team but I found the level of engagement, openness, and transparency refreshing, so like I said, I was glad I called in. I spend the next ninety minutes or so tying up some loose ends and answering questions before going dark just ahead of noon. I put myself down for working three hours, some time donated I suppose. With the rest of my actual team taking the day and with what had gone on in the US and overall the whirlwind of the first week back I was pretty glad that I’d made the decision to take the afternoon off. It was good use of my time to take a break. I broke completely with reality and just plopped myself done on the couch with a pizza order from Pizza Pizza and didn’t move until it was bedtime. I think I got up to pee once but that was my entire afternoon. I just sought to escape reality and eat my feelings. Some would carry-over into the next morning but still. I finally took some me-time in relation to stress like they always say to. I guess I’m growing?

Robot Mode

I was up fairly early. No breakfast was prepared. I put a load of laundry in to start the day instead. The basket was full more than I was in need. I decided to take a walk up to get the mail. I went a bit further but didn’t have a warm enough jacket and turned back before it turned into an actual walk. As a corollary, I started work ahead of eight. I was hopping from virtual meeting to virtual meeting all morning. I think I was actually making progress on things, it was a nice feeling. Lunch happened around midday, as one would expect. I took it old school and had a can of regular Campbell’s Vegetable soup with wrapped up Kraft Singles with mustard and Cholula hot sauce. Somewhat underwhelming but it did the job. I hadn’t really noticed from office perch but it was truly a beautiful winter day. Cool, crisp and clean. I took a quick photo out the back after I had cleaned up the lunch dishes. I weirdly stood and took in the warmth of the sun and the peace of the day for a few minutes, not a usual habit but it was a good break. My mind drifted and it was nice.

Then I went back to work. I got through some items but my to-do list was starting to swell more and more. It was making me think more and more it would be nice if we had our Licensing Associate person back. They sort of eliminated that position through a couple of moves. The person doing it was let go and not knowing what the job entailed at all they added it to the trait marketing person who promptly left the company and when they hired a new person that aspect of the job responsibilities was tactfully left off so the position poofed away in a cloud of ninja dust. Quite unfortunate as all of those resposibilities fall on the few of us remaining. Anyways, I could whine about work for eons but let’s talk rather about what I schemed up for supper. I’ve hinted over the last week that my larders weren’t exactly swollen lately. Best estimate is that I got groceries most recently on December 14, 2020. Even with a week away I’ve gone over my fortnightly limit. That means that I’ve had to think a bit more about my meals. I mentioned Sunday what I was considering and enacted the plan. I’d cooked up those chicken breasts, four of the brutes on Sunday. I had corn and black beans on hand so rice, shredded cheese and wraps would be the other elements. I painstakingly drained the beans while I warmed up the corn. I made rice then warmed the beans. I shredded or pulled one chicken breast, which actually made quite a heap. Then I put the individual elements on a wrap and heated them up in the air fryer. They were good but lacked something. I’ve got enough innards to have another go at some point. I stowed the leftovers and crawled into my bed with a full belly. It was ahead of seven. I didn’t get back up. I snuggled up with my iPad Mini and watched nonsense for an hour or two then passed out early. I think the meal and the day had tuckered me out, best guess anyways.