Wistful Wednesday

I made sure to get up nice and early and make myself a terrific breakfast today. I was showered up and scrubbed my left arm to a high sheen. There were reports of more people fainting because they didn’t eat before and the recent heatwave so I wanted to make sure I was fed and watered and ready to rock. I had the route all mapped out but found some bonus construction, maybe I should be using Waze like my phone keeps suggesting. The instructions were very explicit that you should not be early for the appointment, that was going to be a challenge for me. I ended up being seven minutes early but waited in my truck until I was only two minutes early and then made the walk to the door in the rain. I confirmed my name and appointment time with the two security guards and then answered the COVID screening questions asked by a woman in a very small kiosk. After her barrage of questions, that I’d reviewed before leaving, I was directed to another girl in a box. This one had a computer. She asked for my health card and my demographic card. She asked me what exemption I booked with. That is only relevant because everyone I talked to who was encouraging me to book early said they don’t ask such questions, just honour system. Luckily my exemption was valid and I was allowed to proceed. This time the plucky young girl wasn’t in a box, she led me down an aisle with a number of booths (6 on either side) to the first one on the left. There was a chair and three walls. The back wall was about four feet across and featured a large digital clock. The side walls were about eighteen inches, just enough to give some privacy if you needed it. I took a seat as directed and found a young paramedic rolling up in an office chair dragging a cart loaded with medical supplies. I was asked which arm I’d like it in. I have been told that your arm hurts for a day or two after, as if you’d been punched in the same spot repeatedly. Just like that nameless game we used to play in grade school. I chose the left and as such I had to spin my chair around the other way to face the rest of the room. Before I knew what happened I was being handed a sticker with my release time on it. I didn’t feel any pick but did look in time to see him depress the plunger. There was no blood and there was no mark. If I hadn’t stolen that glance I’d have questioned if I got it or not. He confirmed my email for the receipt and then rolled on to the next person. It was very efficient. When my fifteen minutes were up I followed the arrows on the floor to another girl in a kiosk who asked me to confirm I got my receipt email and then wished me a good day. I was out of there twenty minutes after I went in. Very efficient, as I said. I rushed home in the rain to in my seat for the start of day two of the meeting.

It wasn’t all roses and vaccinations though. I had a slew of questions again from customers looking for their last item. I really can’t wait until this stuff arrives and I don’t have to deal with it anymore. My patience is wearing very thin. That measured email got a response and I had to deal with that situation and the border was not letting my corn go. It’s already a week late and really pissing me off now. That put a bit of a damper on my morning. Luckily lunch often cheers me up. I like to eat! Today was very similar to yesterday. It was a can of Campbell’s Chunky Potato and Bacon soup, which tasted saltier somehow, and a pizza bun. Quick, easy, filling. The afternoon was more of the same as the meeting continued. We got some interesting updates and speculation in one session. That will cause some thinking on behalf of the team. The rest was fairly mundane as meetings go. I fielded a couple calls at the end of the day and powered off around six. I was supposed to make cardboard pizza, as per D&D night tradition but it was uncertain if we’d get to play so I decided to clean up some leftovers that have been hanging around for too long. I warmed up some wedges, vegetables and leftover pasta sauce in one dish and then warmed up the leftover salmon. I didn’t notice that I had too much seasoning on the salmon when it was originally cooked but this time it wasn’t blackened enough or something, I could tell there was a thick layer on there. It was a tasty and quick meal that was just the perfect amount of filling.

We logged on for the game but due to family engagements we didn’t get everyone. We decided to postpone until the following night. Most of us just hung out and chatted anyways for a couple hours. The three of us who did are all fairly new boat owners, the other guys having got boats that day, so we chatted about that. We complained about work and generally laughed it up. The GM joined later on and joined in the fun. We went our separate ways around half nine and I didn’t dawdle. My arm was starting to hurt a bit and I wanted to carefully nestle into my bed to sleep it off. I was asleep around half ten.

Boring Tuesday

Very regular start to the day. Woke around seven and had my breakfast. I was showered and dressed nicely for my day long meeting. We are having our Quarterly Licensing meeting this week. That will mean two days of ripping through a packed agenda. The agenda itself is split nicely to accomodate Eastern and Mountain timezones this time. I was able to get after for a couple hours before the meeting started. I had a number of customers looking for updates on their last seed items and I gave them all the information I had. For one customer they felt like I was holding out and said as much. That is going to require a more measured response to explain why I don’t have up to the minute updates on their product. I’m not looking forward to that. The morning pretty much buzzed by. I discovered that the last corn shipment is hung up in customs and hasn’t been delivered. That is frustrating, I just want it to end! There isn’t much else to share about the morning, I sat in a chair and watched a screen, contributing when appropriate. When my half hour for lunch came I knew I had to be quick. Since the Leafs were playing tonight I decided that I would try to support them with my choice in soup. I ate the can pictured below, well not the can obviously, but it’s contents. The sandwich portion of the meal was a pizza bun.

The afternoon was much like the morning. Answering a few concerns and questions on the side but mostly focused on the presentations and discussions. At one point I filled in my demographic card electronically to make sure I had that ready for my vaccination appointment. The meeting wrapped for the day around half four and a colleague called me immediately to discuss the last session. I took the opportunity to discuss that measured response email I had drafted with them, since they are more experienced in such discussion. It was half five by the time I ended the workday and wandered down for dinner. I didn’t want a big production dinner, the game was upcoming. Luckily the board agreed and I made up some perogies with the air fryer. One of the quickest meals I have in the arsenal right now. With some shredded cheese and some Kraft Three Cheese Ranch dressing I found these to be deliciously cheesey.

After eating I watched a bit of YouTube to kill time until the game started. I watched it in the lair with the sound at a respectable level. The Leafs won it, that gave them a 3-1 series lead. Everyone was hopeful that they can close it out in one of the next three games. It would be nice to see them escape from the first round to silence those criticals that continually lob that in their fanbase’s face. It wasn’t long after that I found my way into my sheets. I did toss about, mostly with excitement about the Leafs and my pending vaccination appointment. I think it was around eleven when the lights blinked out.

Victoria Day

The morning started earlier than expected. The annual barrage of cosmetically pleasing artillery fire was more sporadic last night than the previous but it lingered later this time. I checked around and saw it was coming from a street or two to the North of me, in a very densely populated sector, not sure how that is allowed or safe. Anyways, the noise affected the efficiency of my sleep. I found myself in and out of slumber until after one, then it firmly took hold and lasted until seven. I couldn’t get it going again after that. I decided to shower and break my fast as I would on a normal work day, rather than a statutory holiday. I wasn’t feeling fully refreshed after my deliberate unplugging from work the last two days and was glad for this bonus day. Breakfast consisted of breakfast bullets and an avocado. A very tasty treat. My next move was retire to my office with my books and a notepad and work on a few things for upcoming sessions. We had talked about marking a path last week with a symbol in chalk for someone to follow and I had been imagining what it would look like and sought to get it out of my head and on to paper. I did it and then found a page that showed the alphabet of other languages and I drew those letters in a similar design. I was going to share that with you but I realized that I was using the wrong letters! Luckily I hadn’t invested my time in it but still, what a bummer. Nice job rookie. The reason I was doing that was mainly to procrastinate in cutting the lawn. In that spirit, I tried to investigate why the Apple podcast app on my phone had ceased functioning. I discovered that in their new iOS update to 14.5 many issues had surfaced, but i’d updated weeks ago and was on 14.5.1 now. I’m not sure what happened and I fear my company had a hand in it. Either way, I had to use the Mini to rip through the pile that had built up the last couple of days. As that was happening I dozed off for a tight ninety minute nap. Very impressed with myself on that front, taking back some sleep. I guess it was sunny enough for my brain to want to doze, like a giant cat in the sun, picture that. When I woke up I realized it was time and suited up for the job. I did forget to take my allergy medicine, which would haunt me for ten minutes after I was done. I also neglected socks which formed a gruesome looking blister on the big toe of my left foot.

I have to admit, it is starting to get back to form. There is a massive population of thistle that needs to be dealt with but the big open patches have started to fill in. I watered the bare dirt extensively along with all the plants. It wasn’t as warm today but enough that it was well warranted. That was all done by two in the afternoon. I checked on some Musings and emails briefly, this chewed up the better part of an hour. At this point I went down the stairs and fired up the lair. I spent some time watching a forgetable film before powering that off and finding my way back upstairs to have a snack. I ate some leftovers from the fridge before hustling back to watch my beloved Leafs. They played a very close game and ended up pulling out a 2-1 victory over their forever rivals from Montreal. It was a stressful finish but nice that they moved ahead in the series. After the match I made my way to my bed but didn’t fall asleep immediately, preferring to roll around in a frustrated fashion until sleep arrived.

Fooled In Sunday

Sunday was much like Saturday in many regards. I woke up early but rolled around in hopes of poaching another few hours of sleep. There was no quick breakfast. The computer was the first order of business. But I went to the basement mid-morning with a partial bag of chips and a Dr Pepper in tow. I watched the movie 10 Years to start my day and got my laundry in the machine. When that was done I had an ice cream sandwich and two pints of water. I returned to the basement to watch something else. I happened upon a film called Words on Bathroom Walls. I found myself emotionally invested in the story. It was slow moving but not slow enough for me to lose interest. When one of the turns happened I found myself reacting a lot more than I expected. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything but it really made me think differently after the film. I was impressed. I changed loads finally and went upstairs for another two pints of water. My lack of vigilence the previous day had me feeling dehydrated and I sought to rectify that. When I was in the kitched I considered eating again but decided to grab a picture of the food board for your perusal instead. I’ll have to add more checks beside the items on the to do list as some seem to have become recurring. In terms of food you can see that I was mildly successful. I wasn’t able to come up with something for Tuesday and ate some chips instead of a real meal.

That memory must have triggered something in me because I grabbed a bag of the same flavour I’d had on Tuesday and took it downstairs for a dinner substitute. I took it in a bowl to make sure that I wouldn’t go too hard with it. I also warmed up a Stouffer’s Bistro Crustini Chicken Parmesan panini and brought it down with me. That was my dinner, simple and easy. I watched a couple episodes of Superstore and then capped my evening by watching Honey for the first time ever. It was not a fantastic film by any means but was a neat trip back to that time. It came out around the time I was heading off to school. I spent the next hour listening to a podcast in my bed and thinking back to those times. That was it, that was the day. Laundry was cleaned and dried but left in the machine and that was about it. I watered the plants at some point, this has to be done daily in such violent heat. Otherwise I just ate and pooped like a farm animal with Netflix.

Slow Down Day

I woke up earlier than required and could hear a slightly fainter version of bass pumping. I think the neighbour was just watching TV this time, I’m glad they seem to have adjusted the volume downward for the time being. After rolling around for a half hour I leapt from my bed into the shower. Instead of following the normal course of events I instead moved to my office and tackled some Musings drafts. My sisters like for me to upload the Family Feast episodes as soon as possible for their review. I got that up and cleared the queue for my MSC challenges, a handful of days worth. By the time that was all done it was after ten and my guts were singing for some sustenance. But still I abstained. It was close to one by the time I took action. Not wanting to cook anything myself for some reason I grabbed the iPad Mini and ordered some Pizza Pizza appetizers again.

Recycled photo alert! No Dr Pepper or wedges were consumed in this sitting though.

I don’t suspect that I will order the double size of cauliflower bites again. This round was somewhat terrible. The saying goes that you often live long enough to see your heroes become villains, well it is trye of the cauliflower bites in this order. The chicken bites were excellent luckily. I dipped the popcorn chicken in my Frank’s buffalo sauce and it tasted like I was eating chewy salt. I drank deeply of three pints of water during the course of the meal and would continue to imbibe heavily the remainder of the day from the tap the in the kitchen. After my feed I cleaned up the meager mess and set up camp in the living room. It was warmer than I like but I decided to gut it out rather than adjust the AC, I’d rather sweat than give more putridly unnecessary money to this excuse of a government through their mockery of a carbon tax. So I sweatedly put on some YouTube. I watched an hour long video about ex-NHLers playing golf and then I flipped over to Netflix to chill. I watched Army of the Dead while the sun was still out. It was interesting. I have further thoughts but in the spirit of not spoiling anything I’ll share them with you privately if you wish to know. They are not profound by any means. When that was over I watched the Leafs triumph. The game started off weekly but they totally redeemed themselves and evened the series. Only mild feelings of dread remain after the first two games of the series now. Next I watched Lost Girls & Love Hotels, it was not a movie but a film. It left me feeling uneasy and distraught. I can’t tell if the acting was good or the story or the directing but either way, it left me in a weird mood at the end, the mark of good entertainment, when it can affect you like that. I decided it was close enough to bedtime so I retired with that weird mood smeared across my brain. When I didn’t fall asleep fast enough I watched a few comedic YouTube videos to cleanse my palette and that did the trick, allowing me to fade to oblivion. It was a very slow day, with little accomplished.

Freewheeling Feast Day

After staying up too late it was tougher to get up and get going in the morning. I was able to kick the doze and get a hot shower together to inspire my body into action. First order of business was to get the garbage out after missing that task the last couple of weeks. That sack was getting ripe. I was also able to fit all the foam I’d removed from the boat into one bag so two of my bag tags were used up in the process but I also got a lot of space back in my garage. After that, there was ample time for a delicious breakfast. Made possible by my restocking of the sausage rounds this week. Getting a supply of eggs, cheese and english muffins didn’t hurt. I also got a backup bottle of sriracha ranch dipping sauce for good measure. I’m set for at least nine days. These ones were so tasty looking that I couldn’t help taking a picture.

After savouring my breakfast and cleaning up it was time to start my abbreviated workday. I had a call that was primarily focused on my US colleagues but I’m usually included and asked for updates and information. It’s a great team doing great work so I gladly join to learn what I can from them. I returned a couple of calls after that and tried to push my last corn item along. I also monitored how the in-progress shipments were going. One was being delivered and the other two were hung up with customs. I alerted the customer that they needed to get their broker moving on it. I also tried to jockey my winter soybean material to the front of the line but it’s waiting on customs too. My hands were tied at this point. I prepared another couple of slides and had another meeting. I setup an afternoon meeting with Theodore Complete to review some of my preparations from the previous night. I had another meeting to round out the morning and worked through a few items. I’m under ten open issues now. I stopped working at half noon and went to have a lunch. I cooked a can of Campbell’s Chunky Pepper Steak and Potato soup with a Stouffer’s Bistro Crustini, Chicken Parmesan. Both were delicious and might be my favourite flavours of each component. I topped it off with an ice cream sandwich and then got to my computer. If you haven’t figured it out yet, and I haven’t given you much to do so, I was invited to join another D&D party. This one consists of the guys I normally play with, plus their spouses. That would make eight of us involved, essentially double what I’m used to. I had to slap together a character in short order and spent hours in the night doing most of it. I then had a conference with Theodore Complete to take advantage of his access to a site that allows you to build character sheets. I then spent a couple of hours transferring that into the website we use to play on. I found some shortcuts afterwards but I won’t talk about that. I had a nifty afternoon immersed in my imagination. Around four I was done and answered some work emails (I know) and then watched some YouTube. I weeded some of the lawn that I missed previously and watered all the plants, they needed it. It was a scorcher. Eventually it was time to kickoff the Family Feast. I had already laid out my ingredients and thawed my salmon. I was quick out of the gate once we started. This was for sure the easiest and fastest recipe we’d ever done. Blackened salmon with cucumber & avocado salad. I skipped the red onions naturally. I had a picture more closely resembling the cookbook photo but decided to include one showing the whole meal instead. This is what we produced.

Parents rendition with white rice.

STL sister version with a baked potato.

Sudbury sister version.

Tugboat version with spicy rice.

My Sudbury sister was true to form and ran her phone out of battery after an hour or so. Mine was fully charged this week but I had to drop off at half seven. I thought I was doing something clever but I think it likely came across as obnoxious, I intentionally hung up mid-sentence. I had to get switched over for my entrance into this new campaign. Apparently their adventure is nearly complete and they are picking it up after several months. They’ve been at this on and off for a few years by the sounds of it. Hopefully I can squeeze in and help them complete whatever it is they’re trying to do. The game started in earnest at eight and we stopped at half ten. We lost a couple of adventurers when they had had enough and wanted to get to bed but most stuck around to the end. We got embroiled in a puzzle that was not easy to solve. We were fed breadcrumbs and finally were able to solve it. One of our comrades was turned to stone and that was rectified. Seemed like a good place to end for the time being. I’m not sure when that group will play again but it was a fun experience to try and create a full blown character with a backstory, etc. in a day. I think it went okay. I purposefully picked a lot of things that I wouldn’t normally do to try and learn more. We’ll see how it goes. After it was over I fooled in a half hour trying to get to sleep, it was shortly after eleven when I passed out.

All over the Place

I was up surprisingly early for how late I stayed up the previous night. I had to be too, it was my day to get groceries. I last shopped two weeks previous. I started the adventure like I usually do, with a McBreakfast that was hastily eaten in the truck parked outside the Walmart. I got the bagel option which apparently is back. I didn’t know it was gone but by them saying it is back I had to have it. Advertising sometimes works. I think I talked about this already. But I didn’t mention the change in egg. They went to the circular fried style rather than the fakish folded sheet of scrambled egg at some point and that was when I stopped getting it routinely. And I discovered the difference in calories. The bacon and egg McMuffin is the second lowest calorie sandwich option. The McMuffin is the lowest but I find the ham chewy. Anyways, leave your thoughts on McBreakfast in the comments if you want to continue this topic. The store was pretty quiet, generally one person per aisle. I missed the best window right at 7am and was coming in closer to half past seven. I filled my cart more than I expected. I was able to find everything I needed for the pending Family Feast. I don’t think my cucumbers are persian but they are mini and I’m counting that. I actually had to wait to check-out and that frazzled me enough to forget to ask about how the Garden Centre worked under COVID setup. I guess I’ll hold off buying any plants for a bit longer. I loaded up my haul and headed home.

I put everything away quickly and got to work at half eight, eight when I had scheduled it. I only had one meeting for the day, an information only session about something that was a US process. I listened in because I was invited but didn’t take much from it other than who to contact if I need information at any point. I worked away on my slides and on checking through some documents for various people. It was shaping up to be a very quiet day. I whipped up some lunch shortly after noon. A bowl of Campbell’s Chunky Potato and Bacon soup and a Stouffer’s Bistro flatbread, steak and cheese. It was a departure from my normal option but was creamy and delicious. As I was shoveling the last nugget into my maw I got a phone call from a colleague. He mentioned he was going to try and witness our new fancy planter in action. I figured it would be good for me to see that too and got the coordinates of the plot. The planting crew got a late start on the day so weren’t arriving to this field until after two, I set my sights at an arrival of half three, enough time for them to unload, setup and be running. I didn’t want to stand around during the setup process. I still had to endure some of the setup but that allowed me to see the loading of the cassettes and the scanning that happens. It is a slick design and really cool to see in action. I brought the drone and captured some fairly brutal video of it going. I might try to knit a few of the videos together for a short one to share with the team. I am getting better as a pilot. I mowed through two batteries and put that way. I always feel a bit self-conscious while running it, like a show-off or knob. But I really like the footage it captures. Anyways, the moral is that I got out in the field, got pretty sweaty doing nothing of consequence and got to see how the fancy new machine works.

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Gerbs loading the next batch of cassettes. You slide them in, scan the cassette and then the row unit and it links them together in the system and lets you know if you’ve made an error. Moving from six rows from the two we were using only a couple of years ago is huge too. It has 2x2 banding with the split press wheel as well as in furrow liquid, no-till capable, and loaded with all the precision planting gear you could think of, except smart firmers, for now.

Here is the front view of the unit, when it is empty. The cassette dumps into those holding cells and the fresh one is slipped above that to await the time it is needed. The cassette shifts forward as each row of cells is planted. When it is empty it automatedly opens the second cassette and dumps it into the cells and plants it. Very cool, wish I could have seen that transition. No more assistants dumping packets on the back with this. They have to organize the next set of cassettes and be ready for a quick swap out.

The cab is now like a cockpit. I’m not even sure I could drive the tractor, let alone run the planter. The screen on the top right is the 20/20 monitor watching the performance of the planter as it plants. The highest screen on the left is actually a portable computer. It runs the software for the planter and also measures performance of the planter. It is what is tied to our interal systems and will tell you if you try and plant the wrong cassettes in the wrong place. All the maps are created geo-spatially with GPS, can’t mess up now. The screen under that is the Trmible montior for the GPS system and autosteer. It looks to be a sweet upgrade to the old monitors from my time (two years ago!). The iPad below is there to map the field with Climate FieldView. It also measures the performance of the planter but maps each component as a data layer that can be reviewed later and placed over yield maps or fertility, etc. It is the same data as the 20/20 but mapped as the planter travels across the field. There are also a lot more gauges and specific output for the tractor itself than I’ve seen. I guess I haven’t been in a real tractor in a long time, generally using the no cab plot planters. Quite a rig anyways.

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When I got back home I had a number of texts and various messages to reply to, as well as the big pile of emails. I was feeling pretty tired from the sun exposure and minor exertion of not sitting for more that two hours in a row so didn’t want to put much effort into dinner. I had a number of containers of leftovers so I decided to combine them all into one big bowl of tasty. I had the steamed brocolli and cauliflower from the weekend. I had some extra pasta sauce, because those cans are about 1/3 bigger than they need to be. I had some fried mushrooms that I cooked in bacon grease the day before and I had tots. I heated each element in the microwave and dumped them in a bowl. The crucifers are on the bottom so you can barely see them. I added some cheese and microwaved everything together the rest of the way and then added some dried parsley. It was very good and I chortled it down at a reckless speed. Look at that, had some vegetables even.

The messages I got were an invite to something for tomorrow night, luckily it didn’t start until after the Family Feast generally ends. There was going to be some preparation required. My initial thought was that was going to be a lot and I wasn’t sure how comfortable I was going to be in this setting. I decided to throw caution to the wind and make a run at it. I had previously booked the afternoon off, part of using my phantom Q1 vacation days (only 1.5 of those left) so I would have some time to get ready the next day. I put the Leaf game on and started the prep work. The Leaf game took a tragic turn when their captain nearly got his head broken off and had to be stretchered out of the building. They played hard but I knew then that they would lose the match and I’m worried the series. That is a big piece removed that drasitcally affects strategy now. They lost as I figured they would. I turned up my reading and notes after that and passed out in my books shortly after eleven with a smile on my face. Today was a pretty good day all things considered.

Transitional Day

I overslept again and decided to try and cure my malaise with a piping hot shower. It partially worked. Clipping the talons on my feet brought some added measure of relief to bare. Or is it relief to bear? What does a bear find relieving? I’m not sure I’ve ever considered the plight of the bear. Once an alpha predator, until mankind appeared. Anyways, I don’t want to chew up your time considering what bears are up to in order to seek out relief. Cutting my toenails was awesome though. I always put it off, like cutting the lawn. With my fresh shorn piglets I went downstairs to start my usual breakfast. But was soon disappointed when I recalled that I’d eaten the last two sausage rounds the previous day. What to do? I was already late to the day so I decided to make a proper fry up. I had some mushrooms and spinach that were getting older than they wanted to be in the fridge. I crisped up some excellent bacon, three fried eggs, and the aforementioned. Combined in a wrap with some monterey jack cheese slices torn into strips and I had a winner. It wasn’t as heavy as I would have thought either. A nice start to the day for sure, much to the relief of those bears.

I worked on my slides for a big meeting and then had a short meeting with my boss to further discuss said slides. We’re preparing our section together so I shared what we’d discussed we’d cover off in a meeting he wasn’t in. I had about half of them started and he had the other half done so we should be done these well in advance of when their needed. I spents some time checking my other project on the go before prepping for the meeting I was nervous about. I had scheduled some time with the core team and their managers that are responsible for aiding me in ordering corn seed for my customers. I had to move the timing up because the individual who had been the bottleneck of the process was having their last day with the company today. I’m not sure the circumstances of their parting but I wanted their feedback on the happenings of the last month so moved the meeting up. Their boss and replacement were also there so I was hoping there would be some open sharing of ideas and suggestions. I was supposed to go pickup a package of food at half eleven from my previous Sysco shopping but decided I would just show up later and continued to work on my “script” for the meeting. I was writing out my observations and potential solutions to review with the group. The meeting actually went pretty well. There was open discourse and cross-functional sharing of ideas and suggestions. The person leaving the company was gracious and helpful and we gave them a hearty thank you at the end of the meeting. My boss said that it was well played and cautioned me to follow up on it through the summer to keep driving the improvements that we’ll need to make to correct the weak results of this spring. That’s right, I’m already preparing for next March. I cleaned up some items after that meeting and decided I’d better go get my package. It consisted of 100 sausage rounds and 90 ice cream sandwiches. I’d missed the mark by only a day on the rounds. I carefully stowed all of that in the fuller than expected freezer before tucking into the Wendy’s I got on the way home. I got the data sorted to create a couple more slides and did some work on a few other side issues that had cropped up. I think these things were lingering for weeks and they got to me and I put them to a swift and decisive end. I like being able to make it happen for people. I worked through until half five, enjoying my audio book the entire time. I went and watered all the outside plants again, it being a scorcher out there, mind you without abhorrent humidity and set about dinner. I made the now traditional Wednesday fare, a cardboard pizza dressed up with different cheese and hot sauce.

After knocking that back while it was piping hot I went out into the lawn armed only with a trusty trowel and destroyed a number of dandelions and thistles. Those I couldn’t dig free I destroyed with a slashing motion. When I couldn’t no longer tell the living from the dead I went back in and started to prepare for highlight of the week. We had a crackerjack of a session tonight. We started off at the end of a fight in a tense situation with things happening on three fronts. We made some questionable choices maybe but we ended up the night in a big battle and some new moves were made by a couple of party members. Both were high risk. We ran out of time though and we’ll have to wait until next week to see what happens. There is a lot going on right now. I find myself wondering things and generally thinking about it outside of the game more and more. I find it very enjoyable, as evidenced by my sore cheeks from smiling and laughing so much tonight. I took some time after the session, despite the late hour, to get Theodore Complete’s next post ready to go. I’d link it but it doesn’t come out until tomorrow. Things are looking good on that front, he’s learned a lot and improved his skills greatly through this year long experiment. After getting that done I wrapped up the day and went to bed around half ten.

Trixsey Tuesday

The day got off to an electric start. Everything was awesome to start the day. I like to take note of when that happens because I find that we often don’t note the good times, but only recognize the bad ones. If you are feeling good, realize that and enjoy the feeling in case it doesn’t last. I took down a nice relaxing breakfast eaten whilst looking out at a lovely scene in the backyard. It wasn’t perfect, I’ve got another crop of thistles coming in and there are some rogue dandelions that need my attention but the sky was a beautiful blue and just a few clouds to accent it. I wished I didn’t have to work. As it was I was at my computer at half eight, a bit of a later start but nothing alarming. Work started fine, like most days now. I worked though the small cache of emails that had arrived in the night. I don’t bother with them as then come in after six in the evening, that’s my time. I had some projects to work on today so I set about that. There were a few calls sprinkled across the day. I got an email from a customer that set me on an unfriendly path. For some reason I took it entirely personal and it severely darkened my mood. Then by eleven my energy level started to sag dramatically. I was not feeling it at all. I had a call shortly afterwards with a small team and some light hearted banter changed my tune. That call led right into lunch. Today I warmed up some of the McCain’s cheesy tots that I’d cooked pre-emptively the night before. I kicked the cheese level up two notches with some shredded cheese and some torn up monterey jack slices (that I forgot about). I also lubed it up with some three cheese ranch dressing. It was a pleasant meal, but heavy.

I finished lunch very quickly and hustled back to the helm to carry on with my project. I had some actions from that jovial meeting to deal with and then a call with a once retired colleague who was back a few days a week. It was nice to catch up and also get some institutional knowledge back in the fold to help move things forward. The interaction was tainted somewhat when the pandemic came up towards the end of the conversation. Their views are a little more extreme than what I’m used to hearing. I have to say I didn’t agree with a lot of the sentiment and didn’t bother to mention that I personally know people who have lost their lives to the virus and others who have been changed forever. It made the parting on the call somewhat awkward but that’s what I get for sharing. I had an open schedule the rest of the day and package that needed mailing. While I was out I figured I’d make a second stop and get bag tags to enable my household to put garbage out. I usually buy twenty at a time which always causes the cashier to double take. This time was no exception. I had seen a gaggle of teenage boys outside the convenience store, mostly on scooters, mostly mask free and no where close to properly distanced. They must be a household that includes nine brothers all around the same age. Maybe I was inspired by their youthful nonsense but I picked up a few more items, things that lads of their age would probably buy. Well, maybe not all the items. I haven’t had any cigars since March 2020, so I thought I’d get a few cheap ones for fun. In case I find myself outside on a warm evening, watching the sunset. Never heard of this kind so we’ll see what they’re about. The water was free and the ice cream was magnificent.

I got back home and put in a few more hours of effort. It was half five when I moved on to other pursuits. I played a big of HomeScapes and completed my MSC challenges for the last two days. By the time half six appeared on the clock I was a bit hungry. I sampled some of those delicious chips. Chiiiiiiipppppppsssssss!!!! I had more water than food and decided that was enough, maybe it was the iced cream in the afternoon. I went outside to work it off and ended up repotting a morning glory that I started off the seed from another morning glory plant I was growing last year. Its in a large pot now. I watered it generously and decided to leave them both outside from now on. I think I’ll start a new one once I get the chance to buy a proper trellis system. After some minor exertion around the yard and across the road I found myself cooling off in the basement with some NHL20. When I’d tired of that I found my bed and enjoyed my audiobook. I’m racing through book four of the series already. It has been an enjoyable story so far. I didn’t close my eyes until after half ten but was completely out at that point, a gentle decent into sleep.

Mixed Monday

Late start from late night. I awoke to some tragic news, a friend and colleague’s father had passed away in the night after a long battle with illness. He asked a few of us to cover for him this week and I’ll gladly do that. I try to be there for a friend in need, it’s ingrained in my definition of friendship. After letting that news sink in, I needed to get moving and I needed the quicker option for breakfast today so a short stack of eggos was employed to fill the void. Tasty and quicker. I was in my chair by ten after eight. Work was a Monday.

Started with a meeting then had a half hour before the next meeting and so on. This was the pattern of the day. The middle meetings were with smaller groups and more lively. I had lunch sandwiches between these. It consisted of leftovers from the previous night. I called the Chef as I ate and he was also eating. He got his vaccine earlier in the day and I wanted to hear about it. He was pretty excited about getting the first dose. While crushing my leftovers and chatting I noticed I had a successful week last week with the meal board. My strategy changed to making meals I normally would but simply scheduling them, is that appropriate? Mother wants me to be more adventurous and eat better.

The afternoon was more of the same. I chatted with a colleague after the last meeting for a bit. Nice to just laugh. I had been needling people all day to get my last two items shipped and we got right to the finish line and stopped to make sure we had all the paperwork. So close. By the time my day ended it was twenty to six. I put down half five in my notes, that’s how you balance a late a start, I always put in the time. Dinner was perogies. Cooked in the air fryer. Quick and easy. I also cooked a sack of tots for later use. There was some YouTube on the living room TV and then I returned to my office. I checked the weather and did some shopping at Sysco. I required some sausage rounds for the breakfast samidges, I only had enough for one more day. I booked an appointment to pick them up in a couple days. I also booked my vaccine appointment. With the gates opening from 40+ to 18+ in the morning I wanted to get something before it’s flooded. I got Wednesday the 26th by booking in the next town over. My local clinic was booked into June already. That is big news. I also learned that the paperwork on the last bit of seed was done. And I’d heard some of my soybean items from winter were ahead of schedule. So things were looking pretty sunny by the time I was ready for bed. And the forecast was the same! Beautiful weather to come and hopefully good times along with it.

Low Sunday

Sunday didn’t have a lot of promise for me. I didn’t sleep well and wasn’t feeling great in the morning. My physical condition was okay but I was feeling low, no drive to seize the day. I fooled in part of the morning on the Mini then moved to my computer for a spell, not doing much of consequence. Eventually I tried to eat to change the course of the day. I made a bowl of perogies and took the time to dress them up with sriracha ranch dipping sauce, shredded cheese and parsley. They looked and tasted phenomenal.

My next move was to shoot upstairs and get back on the computer but in earnest this time. I needed to update Musings so I set about turning rough drafts into posts for the preceding days. I got pretty consumed by my work for the better part of an hour but eventually noticed a persistent chirping. It sounded close. I knew my fan vent had been compromised by weathering but today I learned that my house was also invaded. Stupid grackles had made a nest in there. I could see it happening on neighbouring houses for the last couple years but was disheartened to learn that mine had also fallen victim. There has been something funky in that spot since I moved in. It’s the bad spot of my home. I got a picture of a few of them poking their devil heads out. There were five of them in there by my count and they are pretty big. Their stupid bird parents were bringing them food and they were freaking out about it. I started thinking of ways to get them out. I thought to check if I’m allowed to do that and found that I’m not. I can’t unnest a migratory bird, not legally anyways. I was planning on snaking the shop vac hose up there and trying to blast them out. Sink or swim style of flight school. But I’ll have to wait it out and then clean their mess of a nest out and put some mesh over the hole. I’m glad this is the case and not having them in the attic or something. I spent way too long fussing about this issue.

Suddenly it was mid-afternoon and I was still feeling like junk. I decided to try and nap. I put on some YouTube in the office and stretched out in my comfy chair. Sleep never came, but I did watch over an hour of quiet calming video. After this I went downstairs to check on my plants that I had put outside for the afternoon. They were loving it. I kept my downward voyage going and ended up in the basement where I played NHL20 until it was time to feed again. I made some pasta and dumped some spicy canned sauce in. I steamed the last bit of the bag of baby brussel sprouts and air fried some very old chicken balls. If you’ve been around a bit you’ll know these suck, that’s why they’ve been around so long. It’s the batter. I also steamed off a bag of frozen cauliflower for later use. I had the gear out and the time so might as well right. To the pasta I added a lot of greek seasoning mix. Like way too much, it was a free pour and it dumped faster than expected. Ah well. To that I added some sriracha powder to give it a stronger punch to the tongue. That worked. Between the overload of spices and the terrible brussel sprouts, it was a strange mouth adventure. It was good enough for another half bowl.

I watched a comedy special on Netflix during the cooking and eating and then long after. James Acaster, a brit, had a special that was much more than I expected. It is four, hour long episodes, essentially four specials that are interwoven. I really enjoyed it and watched the entire thing in one sitting. That took me right up to nearly bed time. I got ready around twenty to ten and snuggled into the cloud. Then waited, and waited. I stripped down again and employed the fan but nothing seemed to work. I was very much in and out of consciousness for a long spell. I think I eventually checked out completely around high noon, but I can’t be sure. Not a great day but it beat work!

Slow Moving Saturday

Not a lot of activity today. I had no formal plans for the day. I woke up around six and lolly-gagged in my bed for too long. I eventually rose, showered and started my day. I put a load of clothes in the laundry and lined up a further three loads of bedding behind it. I put off my breakfast and elected to work on my MSC challenges instead. I had the most of the week to work on. I set the timer on my phone to go off an hour after each stage of the laundry so that I was moving things through the process as efficiently as possible. The lady next door had moved two plants into my front garden the previous afternoon and I went out to check on them only to find that she’d watered them for me. Very nice of her. The swiss chard looking number was added by her and then she put in some black-eyed susans at the far end, under the dryer vent. We’ll see how that goes. I’ll have to keep them moist. I played a bit of NHL20 in the morning, I need to transition to NHL21 but I’m not really in a hurry to do so now. I’ve made the decision to transition my gaming console to the new Xbox X so getting invested in NHL21 on PS4 is less attractive to me now. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with that game. I can’t get an Xbox right now, they just aren’t available anywhere. No supply. I broke my fast on some leftover takeout. I ate some warmed popcorn chicken and some wedges that I put cheese and hot sauce on. Super healthy start to the day.

As a few of the bigger ticket items were finishing up in the wash I moved them out on the deck to dry further and for the sun to do it’s magic on them. I spread out my mattress cover and duvet on the deck. While I was outside I also moved my inside plants out for the afternoon to start to harden them off, to prepare them for outside life. I’m going to move only of my morning glory plants out there tomorrow and try to come up with some kind of temporary trellis system. I really wish I could go to garden centers and buy one, that would be much easier. I’m hearing that some are open and might try and visit one early in the morning this week. I have to go out for groceries at some point, and also have to mail my Amazon return package and buy bag tags. My list of things I need to do outside of the house is growing long.

I had some tots for lunch. I added some buffalo hot sauce, shredded cheese and some three cheese ranch dressing to them to kick it up a notch. It filled the hole within me for a bit. It was after two by the time I tackled this. I had been listening to my audiobook since waking up. It is 31h long and I’m doing it on 1.3x speed to shrink it down. I think I started it on Thursday night and I’m hoping to finish it today or early tomorrow. It’s compelling stuff.

After lunch I played a bit of FS19 while I waited for the laundry to wrap up. I bought two big fields that were a half million each. That’s right, I dropped a million bucks in one shot! I have plans to combine these two large fields into one super field. Big T called while I was playing to tell me about his real life farm activity and after that the game malfunctioned and spit the disc. I think the console got too hot and that was it’s reaction. I pulled it out of the shelf some to let it cool and went about my day. I brought the load of clothes up to be folded and stowed and eventually put the bed back together. It smelled terrific. I just collapsed into it around five and listened to my audiobook. I spent a stupid amount of time on the deck untangling the morning glory plant from the kitchen table. I want it to be the one I leave outside because it’s so big. The other one from the counter was planted last summer and I kept it inside all winter, effectively cancelling out it’s annual characteristic. For supper I had four blueberry eggos around six. Not exciting. I was way too into my book and couldn’t find much else I wanted to do. I wandered about my estate for a bit before returning inside and enjoying the speed of the tale. Around nine I brought all the plants back inside and found my way to my great smelling bed. The book ended at half ten and I asleep about ten minutes later. Very unproductive but enjoyable day of rest.

Furious Friday

Normal start to the day. Up before seven, great shower, trememdous breakfast, everything was rolling smooth. I had missed the recycling previously as I was feeling low a couple Fridays back. I didn’t get it out and the pile grew. So essentially I was putting out the month’s worth of recycling today. I had a big smelly bag of trash too but since I’d apparently run out of bag tags I wasn’t able to put it out. Now I have to rely on illegal dumping or just wait until I get the chance to go out and try and buy more. Either way, the sack of trash gets to hang out longer in the garage, and with rising temperatures that is not going to be a fun situation for my nose. Either way, I got everything out on the curb and wanted to take a walk but I have a very full morning today so felt I would be better off working on preparing for that. My first meeting was mostly a passenger experience and then I had a couple that I was the focus on before three more that were lower priority. I had a window at one to eat lunch and that is what I did. You can see the photo below of my can of Campbell’s Chunky Potato and Bacon soup with a pizza bun. It filled my guts back up.

I had a couple of calls in the afternoon to catch up with people, the rest of the time was spent clearing tasks in my inbox. I pushed on getting my last three corn items out the door and I answered some customer questions about why their last soybean items are going to be so late. I don’t have any good answers as that process is out of my hands for the most part. I can push people once it starts to move from South America but I’m at the mercy of others until then. Things wound down dramatically after four and I powered down at five. I ordered some takeout from Pizza Pizza to follow the meal board. I probably should have picked somewhere else, somewhere better, but it happened that way. I only got through about half of what I normally do on that particular order. I was feeling very full and gassy. Perfect lead in for a virtual birthday party. I was told it was going to start at six and given a link for Zoom. I sorta hate Zoom because it sucks on my phone and I haven’t used a computer for it yet, outside of work. Just before the party started the group chat erupted and the host asked if we could push it back until half six. I was fine with that, gave me more time to recover from dinner. There was some more chatter, not sure what was happening. I tried to sign in about five minutes early and nothing happened. I asked around and apparently they’d already had the whole party. Um, what? I guess a few of them signed on around ten after six to say hello and the connection was bad and the birthday couple wanted to eat so that was it. It was planned for over a week and they had a ten minute call. I was assuming with all the people invited that it would morph into an hour or two with drinks and fun but it was ten minutes. I didn’t like missing it but not much I could do. So I played HomeScapes and listened to my book again. That chewed up a couple hours and then I went to my bed and listened to my book, dozing in and out. I had to make bookmarks and go back, I think I heard a couple section three times. Eventually I passed out fully after ten, again having to strip down to my gitch. It was a forgettable day outside of that birthday miss.

Field Day

I mentioned at the close of yesterday that I was expecting a big day today. I was up an hour before my alarm, which was odd cause it was the first time I’d set my alarm in many, many moons, maybe since the start of the original lockdown. I showered, dressed and packed up a lot of gear to be ready for all weather situations. I was going to get to work outside for part of the day. The most time I’d spent outside my house in a long time. I had been invited to come help with a plot. We were going to put it in old school. I stopped and got myself a rare McBreakfast, rare because it included a bagel, which they had taken off the menu for a time. I stopped to pick up some supplies. I was told what to get but not necessarily how much of the items to get. The overall plan was shared with me, but not really the specifics. The planter didn’t have GPS and we were going to be doing a replicated trial so we’d need to measure out some stuff and have a lot of markings. It was around a ninety minute drive for me to get there and I was the first one to arrive. BDP was right on my heels and we started getting things setup right away. The planter showed up not long after and then Brack. Once the field was bordered we quickly measured off two rows of flags on either end using three different coloured flags for the driver to use to guide them. Further to that, Brack and I stood on the appropriate flag for each pass to give the driver bigger targets to aim at. It really took me back to my roots as a summer assistant. It had been a very long time since I got to plant a field scale trial, especially one without GPS assistance. The local agronomist showed up with a vacuum and generator thankfully. I was not looking forward to shaking those style of boxes. We planted all 18 strips and cleaned the planter thoroughly before handing it back to the operator.

I was back at the old research farm by half noon. I stopped for a bit to chat with Gerbs, my old assistant, and his new colleague who is running the farm for a year on a growth opportunity. That place changed a lot in the two years I’ve been gone. They have almost all new equipment, new buildings, new parking lots, re-arranged all the blocks, very different from my seven year tenure. As I was pulling out of the yard, they pulled out their fancy new toys. A new to them tractor and cassette planter. Crazy amount of new technology on those. They were just going to set them up. I gave them some grief about the state of the farm and tried to instill a sense of urgency in them to get moving. Inspired by my words, I got moving back to the office.

I made lunch as soon as I got home around half one. It was a can of Campbell’s Chunky Jerk Chicken soup and a pizza bun. Very basic lunch today. I did drink a couple of pints of water though. Over the course of the afternoon I was informed that both trucks had delivered the seed. I was also told that some of my plot seed that was delayed frequently was shipped and on the move. So by the end of the day I was down to my last three items for corn. I have five on the soybean side but those are going to be happening sooner rather than later too. Not as soon as I’d like but I’m pushing on those too. I got caught up on the small pile of emails that had accumulated and worked through a few issues. It was a pretty quiet afternoon. I powered down about quarter past five, feeling that my much earlier start warranted a slightly earlier finish. The meal board said I should be having chili rice for supper so I cooked up two cups of instant rice in the microwave and then added a can of Stagg Dynamite Hot chili on top. I added some cilantro for further seasoning and the cool look. It was filling and tasty, the cilantro added more to it than I suspected.

After supper was mostly a waste of time. I took my full belly upstairs and caught up on a few more YouTube videos then played HomeScapes. I have a streak going. I spent some more money in the game. I need to watch myself, it has been adding up. I can waste money on much better things than that. I watched a bit of Superstore in my bed but ulimately I wanted to sink my teeth in my audio book so everything was fairly limited if it had an audio component. I was into the third book of the series at this point and looking to consume a good jag of it by the end of the weekend. There was some issues getting to sleep, eventually I had to strip down to my gitch to successfully pass out. The fan was involved too. We in that awkward part of the year where the house heats up a lot in the last afternoon and evening and slowly cools overnight. It was too warm to fall asleep. I will have to start checking on the AC and getting that running soon, just to keep an even temp again.

Walking it off Wednesday

Got the day started early. After a shower and getting dressed I quickly ducked out for a fast walk. I can see on the photo below where I stopped to get the mail even. I have to admit I still loathe Apple Maps for some reason. It was nice to sneak in a mile before work, I’m gunning to do that three times a week. I was back in time to munch down some breakfast before starting work just ahead of eight. It wasn’t a particularly exciting day today.

I followed up on the trucks from yesterday and learned that the main had been back and reloaded and left again with the same driver. Late in the morning the other truck arrived and got it’s two pallets and three cardboard boxes loaded and sent. The person who was quarterbacking this stuff is not good at cost management. I’m sure they’d blame me for it but I’m in no position to worry about it at this point. The important part is that the paperwork was done and the seed was moving to the customer. Week later than it should have been of course but at least there was some progress. I’m not even sure what else happened in the morning, most of what I recall was related to that topic. Lunch was later than normal, I was pulled into a Western Canada meeting for ninety minutes to review some survey results. That nicely broke up the day for me. As I was preparing my lunch the older lady next door rang the bell and wanted to talk. She has some plants she doesn’t want anymore and wondering if she could plant them in my front garden. I said sure but needed to add some soil to top up the settled flower bed, thus giving myself a project. After a lengthy chat about the pandemic, I had my late lunch close to two, it was the normal type of stuff. Soup and a sandwich component, pizza bun in this instance. The rest of the afternoon was just work, nothing exciting. The only part worth mentioning is that I tried to get an ETA for those trucks delivering the seed. The trip from the plant to the customer is roughly 9.5h on the road. Both trucks started the journey before noon. Even with hours limitations for drivers it should be an easy calculation. They told me it would be Friday morning. That is the information I had to provide to the customers, the already impatient customers. I suggested that it could be sooner and gave the logic that even if they have to take a 8h break in the midst of the trip it should still be earlier than that timeframe. I wonder if that is when the carrier thought the drivers would be back in Iowa. I don’t know, I’m just sick of not being able to provide customers with appropriate information. It’s honestly like pulling teeth sometimes to get info. After work ended at half five I decided to rip apart YouTube for a bit and just veg out in my frustration. I did that for abount an hour and then moved to the kitchen. Dinner was prescribed to be a cardboard pizza. I just added some cheese and hot sauce to this one. The base was a Great Value four meat pizza. It was pretty tasty.

I finished eating and cleaning up around seven and went back to my computer. I made sure to send a few replies to emails on the personal side. I cleaned up my banking and bills and then started preparing for the weekly session. I read over a few things that my character can do, I got my books out and ready, I had some water, used the washroom, opened some pages on the Mini. We were going to have a late start this week as one member of the party was getting vaccinated so would be a few minutes late. I updated my inventory and generally got ready to rock. Last week we ended off just ahead of encountering a big monster. Turns out there was a bunch of trouble and after a couple hours of playing we’d mostly cleaned up the streets now we have to unravel the aftermath. I was pretty excited by my character’s showing, using more of the tools I have available to me now. We had a good time for sure. I was nervous afterwards as I needed to get to sleep early but was still somewhat jacked. Tomorrow is going to be a big day.

Stepping Out

I woke up early today after getting a magnificent sleep. I had dozed off watching YouTube before nine and woke briefly closer to ten before passing out until half six. That was a thick one. I think the knowledge of most of the remaining seed going out yesterday calmed my mind enough I could get a deep sleep. I used the extra pep in my step to expand my walk to the mailbox. I got a new pair of MeUndies in the mail and wanted to go get them, I turned left before the mailbox though and got some steps in. The funny part for me was that I did it in my slippers, I didn’t want to put on socks and for some reason I was wearing them when I made the decision to leave the house so I went for a rip in them. They are hard soled, it was fine.

When I returned from my walk I made breakfast quickly. I ate it piping hot to make sure I was at my desk at eight. I worked on something for my boss and started reviewing some other files. Things were slowing moving in the right direction. I had a meeting that went ok, then a team meeting that went well. Then about halfway through that meeting the wheels fell off. I got a call from a driver asking me for customs documents. The very same ones that the team that has been causing me so much grief are responsible for. I immediately reached out asking them to forward a copy to the proper recipients. No reply. I had to have lunch to accomodate my afternoon meetings but it wasn’t a pleasant affair. Here is the scoreboard for last week. I was a lot more successful at making my meals but Mother wouldn’t be impressed with my level of adventurousness. Lunch was just a big bowl of leftover soup. Pretty much the same as I had for dinner the night previous.

I was watching my phone and filling up with dread at the same time I was filling up with soup. I’ve had too many heart dropping moments this spring, it’s getting to be absurd. I got re-added to an email chain from earlier in the morning. The load was missing paperwork and needed to return to the original shipping point. I nearly lost my mind. I had to write my reply three times before it was suitable to send. Frustration doesn’t begin to cover what I was feeling. I was really starting to feel like I was stretching the mantra of the famous philosopher group, Chumbawumba at this point. At some point I’m not going to get back up again. The maddening bit for me was that they cut me out of the chain and tried to find a way to hide that they hadn’t done their job properly. I got to call the customers and give them the news, glad I was able to disappoint them again, in case they didn’t remember the failure I got to share with them on Friday. My mood was pretty ugly after that. I missed a meeting trying to find a solution to this problem. I wasn’t given a very good reason for this entire mess. It’s ridiculous. I had a schedule one on one with my boss and spent most of the time talking about this disaster. It’s really bumming me out. Anyways, I worked away for a few more hours and had a nice chat with a colleague in the West. He’s new to the team and we haven’t had occaision to interact as much yet. It was half five when we finished up. I went and started my dinner preparations. Again, nothing was on the board so I did what I wanted. And I wanted comfort food. I put a sack of breakfast potatoes in the air fryer and warmed them, almost for two rounds. I put half in a dish and half in the fridge. Next I fired in a box of perogies. Those I also split. I was picking at the potatoes with my hands while the perogies cooked and I had a clean bowl by the time the machine was done. This double dose of carbs soothed me slightly. I went to my bed and played HomeScapes for a bit. Then I just layed there stressing out and listening to my audiobook until I feel asleep just ahead of ten. Not a very enjoyable day overall. And the stress is back too. This season can’t end soon enough.

Just a Monday

My day started in the guest room. I always seem to get great sleeps with intense dreams over there. This time I was in public school playing with kids in the old rink and I got a call from one of my modern day customers. It was disturbing and I couldn’t get back to sleep right away. Eventually I woke at half six and got my day started. I didn’t even have to turn on the bathroom lights today, the sun was so powerfully bright through the shades. It was cold, below zero even, but it was a lovely view during my customary breakfast.

I debated going for a walk since I was done eating and cleaning up well before eight but with the cold temps I felt my time was better used changing the garbage finally (now that new bags arrived) and sweeping up fallen flowers. I was able to get that done and still be at work in my chair before eight. It wasn’t a typical Monday, there was the opening meeting that ended early and then one other late in the day. I used the time between to push on my shipments. I was tempted to be cautious with the new person assigned to look after my export paperwork but I also couldn’t be waiting or easing anyone it. We’re already late because of the other person so we have to go, and now. The truck picked up the load later in the day, that’s all I’ll touch on for this. At lunch I took a moment to check my Fantasy Hockey, habit. Usually on Mondays at lunch I’d set my lineup for a couple days and then revisit it on Wednesday. I noticed that the homescreen had been updated. I already mentioned that I won, so no need to make any updates to the lines. I found a couple of congratulatory notes for me too, I’ll have to figure out how to reply to those. I grabbed a screenshot for those who would doubt me on such claims.

Lunch consisted of a can of Campbell’s Chunky Pepper Steak and Potato soup and a Stouffer’s Bistro Crustini Ham and Turkey Club panini. Filling and effective. I didn’t have a major time constraint on the back half of it but I hustled as I wanted to get back to work to try and further settle some affairs. Things were not going smoothly. I don’t want to talk about it, it’s a recurring nightmare at this point. I languished through the afternoon and ended the day chatting with a colleague about a number of topics. My computer closed just after half five. I didn’t have the meal board updated yet so I just hit the easy button for supper and doled out a healthy dose of leftover soup from the family feast and then inserted a ball of shredded cheese and some hastily stripped cilantro. It was enough to make it delicious. I have a lot of cilantro left, I’ll have to find more ways to keep using it. Nothing much happened after dinner. I did some reading, watched a bit of Superstore in my bed and some YouTube. Nothing of consequence. Today was a pretty boring day overall.

Flashes of Productivity

The day started better than most Sundays. I was awake and aware before seven with a full sleep at my back. I decided to eschew a shower for the early going and opted rather to fire up my audiobook and start into something. Effort requires fuel so I warmed up part of the remaining leftovers from breakfast. This mound of delights sated my hunger and set me up for a good start to the day. I had four things to wash so it was an easy cleanup too.

With a fulI belly, I climbed the stairs to the computer with hopes of working through a list. Firstly, I completed the remainder of my MSC challenges and then worked through a pile of Musings that were in draft form. I reviewed the scores from the fantasy hockey only to discover that the season was over. It ended on the Saturday night for some reason and I was the victor. I went into the final day tied 5-5 and came away with a 7-4 victory. A lot of players on my team who have been good had great nights. I was able to bolt ahead at the finish in some key categories to get my first win in this league and my second title in hockey over all. I’ve been at it nearly constantly since 2008 to give you an idea of how big a thing this is. I generally win the regular season and get upset in the playoffs but not this year, I kept it going right through the post season. I believe I will be getting a cash prize for the victory. I might talk to the Booj and my commissioner cousin about using Booj’s ring guy to get a championship ring crafted. We’ll see, that would be a fun use of my prize money to get a lasting memento of my win during the strange, shortened COVID season. The other task I was looking to start on the computer was to use my long held coupon code for a drone safety course that Best Buy had gifted me upon the purchase of my drone last year. That went less well, apparently it is expired. But in the email supplying the code, there is no mention of an expiry, that is why I wasn’t in a rush to complete the complementary course previously. The value is over $39 so this may be something that I inquire about. If I’d know it was going to expire, I’d have done it sooner. Something to keep up on. As I was investigating that I got a ring at the door and discovered another such administrative issue. My new jeans arrived (Amazon purchase) but are way too small for me. Apparently when I was clicked back and forth the page had reset to default so that when I put it in my cart it ordered me 29Lx30W jeans. As you might can guess, those will not fit me. I might be hard pressed to fit one leg in them actually. So I had to learn about the Amazon return policy today for the first time and I’m happy to say it is relatively simple. A few clicks and I’m sent something to affix to a box. The hardest part is that I’m going to have to go to a post office and I’m not sure if any are fully functional or what hoops that will involve. I may have to take an afternoon off this week and cover that and maybe visit a garden centre. I’m seeing many friends and family that made their first trip this weekend to buy some plants. We’ll see how that goes. The last thing I did on the computer in the morning was share a deal for MeUndies with a few people. I think members could get 40% and non-members could get 25% with a promo-code. If there was ever a time to try their product it’s with a deep discount. Their boxer briefs are all I’ve worn for underwear over the last three or four years and I love them still. I put in an order for a couple of different prints and some socks. I’m excited for those drawers. So excited that I decided to clean the two upstairs toilets, the ones that get the most attention during the week, it smells pretty electric up here now. Next up was the lawn adventure.

The picture tells you that I got the lawn cut. I had to dash out to the gas station to fill my can up. I believe that is the first filling in over two years so even with fuel stabilizer and some sea foam treatment, it was time that I got on to some fresh fuel. I checked the oil and it looks pretty dark, I think I’ll attempt to change it soon. It takes 10W30 which I happen to have a bit of in the garage already so it should be a simple task, just need to use the last of my washer fluid to have something to put the used oil in. I might clean the carburetor but I think the sea foam will help push that off some for me. The cutting was fairly standard. I went over each pass twice but didn’t do it again in a perpendicular pattern this time. There are a lot of weeds developing and I’m going to have to deal with that soon. I might have to call in a favour somewhere. I came back in sweating quite a bit, it felt a lot warmer than 10C out there with a hoodie and jeans on. I’m pretty glad I made the effort to do it. Cutting the lawn continues to be one of the toughest tasks for me to work up the will to tackle. Once I caught my breath I warmed up some of the leftover soup. It was pretty fantastic a couple days on. Definitely thicker now, likely off some of the starch from the corn and beans. I didn’t have any more tortilla slices but used a gob of cheese and some cilantro to dress it up. Very hearty meal after my efforts.

The afternoon started with me at the computer again, well the part of the day after two. I wanted to try and get the registration of my boat trailer going, it has been too long since I bought it and I haven’t taken that step to make everything legit. I also needed to craft an inquiry email to Best Buy about this code expiry. Busy times. After some more research, YouTube and discovering I need to call about the trailer it was nearly four and I had no more plans for the day. As a consequence I fired up HomeScapes and got on a real heater. I was able to hammer through many levels and make huge progress. Before I knew what had transpired a couple hours had passed and it was time to think about dinner. Theodore Complete has teased me about his new BBQ for a couple weeks now. It wasn’t very warm today but having already been outside I thought it would be an opportune time to try things out. That, and I had some leftover uncooked chicken from Friday that wouldn’t likely get cooked during the week. I sparked it up, cleaned the grill extensively and cooked two breasts perfectly. I mean it was masterful. I ate them with the leftover peas and beans from the deuce log meals. Great dinner!

It was eight on the nose when I’d finished cleaning up the kitchen. I fired up the TV in my bedroom for the first time in a long time and started watching Superstore on Netflix. Around ten the neighbour started their movie with loud bass so I made my way to the guest room to go to bed. Between parking on my lawn and needing to feel their entertainment I’d say I preferred the old neighbours.

No Gumption

I was awake before seven but didn’t have the drive to get moving. I didn’t want to crush the day under my stress so I forced myself to rise and wander to the computer. I worked on my MSC challenges. I hadn’t looked at them since I conquered April a week ago. I got about half of them knocked out before I felt like my guts were needing attention. I wandered down to the kitchen and started working on breakfast. I cooked the four strips of bacon, then the two uncased chorizo before adding them together with four scrambled egg and eventually a pittance of cheese. With the filling created, I rolled out the vessels. I had a tube of Pilsbury Grands and original crescents. I also needed a couple wraps to contain everything. I baked the filled dough as instructed and pressed the wraps. In the end I ate one of each and drained a flagon of raspberry lemonade. The blueberry version is no longer available at my store. The rest went in the fridge for later enjoyment. By the time I was done cooking, eating, washing, and drinking it was closing in on ten.

I went downstairs to play FS19, planning to mature, harvest, then plant a crop. I got part way through the planting of the next crop when I lost interest and shut it off. My audiobook was heating up so I wanted to keep going on it. I took it upstairs and played some HomeScapes while listening before just listening to the final chapters. When it ended I immediately went and purchased extra credits on Audible.ca (three for $39) to get the next two installments of the story. I’m literally invested now. By this time it was getting well into the afternoon and I felt like I could/should eat again. I grabbed a couple mini rolls from breakfast (reheated in air fryer), a bag of Miss Vickies Spicy Dill Pickle chips, and a king can of Dr Pepper before returning to my computer. I did some reading and played some more MSC challenge before reverting to YouTube. I meant to go cut the lawn and clean some toilets but I found that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was a little alarmed to realize that I wasn’t able to bring myself to do it, it is a bad omen. I don’t often watch it on a larger screen but today I worked through several days of piled up videos from the channels I subscribe to. Lots of nonsense and some fishing videos. If I’d have plugged in my wireless mouse and moved to my comfy chair I might have spent the night there. As it happened, I didn’t so I went back to my room and whiled away the rest of the night watching the Leafs on the Mini and doing some research for my next D&D character. I want it to have a rich and defined lore about it. The story I used for my current one I had been thinking about for years, I’ll follow the same process for this one. The Chef called at one point with a question, we only chatted briefly. By then the Leafs had secured the win over the Habs and I’d answered the questions I had. It was time for sleep. I made a bookmark and set the timer on the audiobook (book 2 now) and faded into the abyss of my dreams. The day was essentially wasted but I was feeling better by bed time.

Roller Coaster to Feasting

The day started like any day in a global pandemic. Overslept slightly, scrambled to get cleaned up and fed before rushing off to work. Which in this case is just running upstairs to the spare bedroom where my office lives. The breakfast was the normal stuff. I fired off another email looking for information and an update from my silent colleague to start the day. My comprehension for the cone of silence around this person is limitless in its curiousity. I don’t understand how they can operate like that. My day started in earnest with a meeting. Mid morning I wrote an impassioned email to the boss of the silent one, and added their boss also, as well as my own. Then another meeting, then three more. Then lunch. Lunch on this day was not fancy. A Stouffer’s Bistro Crustini Ham & Turkey Club panini and a can of Campbell’s Chunky Jerk Chicken Soup was enough to fill my guts. I had two Great Value brand Maple Creme cookies to sweeten my mouth and my mood heading into the afternoon. I was told they were looking for a truck to move the load, encouraging news. News that would have been better received on Wednesday afteroon but at least there was some progress and I was made aware of it. I did feel like I shouldn’t have to be as vile and annoying to get that simple bit of action though. It seems ridiculous that things are this dramatic simply for someone to do their job. My afternoon meeting went long and was informative and a great use of my time. I had several customers reach out looking for updates again, most the second such that day. I also had another call looking for information I’d provided. Everyone is in a panic now, as they should be based on the timing, and I’m viewed as the gatekeeper to their deliveries. So when I was informed by the semi-silent one that no delivery was going to happen today, nay until Monday, I knew that my day was going to get unpleasant. I phoned each expectant party to let them know the news, because being honest, open, and direct is important in my role and to me as a person. Each one I called was disappointed, frustrated, and angry and I got to bear the brunt of the harsh words. Meanwhile, the one who actually failed to deliver is shielded. That frustrates me further. I took a few notes on the comments I received during a couple angry tirades to share with the broader team later. That was nearly the end of my day. There was a couple more emails that came across. One was from the silent one’s boss. They were making a change in their team to adjust for workload and we’d have a new contact for future interactions. Nobody was fired but at least they made an adjustment. It is about a month too late but hopefully it is helpful. I could provide more detail but I’m likely already oversharing as a form of venting about the situation. So shortly after five I powered down and I was in a state of confusion, frustration, disappointment, and shame. I wanted to keep myself busy so I started to prepare for the family feast. This time it was to be chicken tortilla soup, a selection from my STL sister. I gathered all my ingredients and arrayed them on the counter so I wouldn’t have to go searching once the fun began. I couldn’t help myself and peeled the garlic cloves in advance. The key to these events is not to work ahead, that annoys the others and throws off the timing of the group eating together.

STL sister

Sudbury sister

Parents version

Tugboat’s version

I ate nearly two bowls. It was a tasty treat. Mine lacked some of the essential elements. I didn’t have any chili peppers in adobo sauce. I supplemented that with some paprika, liquid smoke and cayenne pepper. I also couldn’t find corn tortillas, using flour instead. I skipped the onions on top too. I also negated measuring for most of the spices, some because I was approximating and others because I felt I knew what a teaspoon amount was. In the end the soup was pretty tasty and pretty easy to make. Despite some vigourous debate on the definition of “roughly chopped”, some timing incongruency, and my Sudbury sister having some issues getting a seal on her Instant Pot (later resolved), we had a nice evening. It did start shakey as my BIL allegedly forgot to buy an ingredient, I was having a bad day, Big T had a rough day, and the rough chop argument. But in the end I think we all enjoyed the evening. I know I was feeling much, much better after spending a couple of hours with family. My youngest sister’s phone died first and she dropped off and when mine got under 20% life and I was wanting to listen to my audiobook and get horizontal I also dropped off. I puttered around for an hour doing some light tidying while listening before cleaning my mouth and finding my bed. I played some HomeScapes for a bit before slipping seamlessly into a deep sleep.