Back to Life

Monday wasn’t as ugh as I expected it would be. I had a decent sleep and woke up at a decent hour. I got busy with work immediately, the Americans didn’t take any days off last week so the inbox kept getting pounded with stuff. I started working on clearing that up. I also made initial moves on getting my work credit card going again. I went online and started working through the process but there was an error and it managed to cancel my card but not to send me a new one. That’s not handy. I should have left it. I won’t need to use the phyiscal card until September the way things are looking. More on that later. The other priority for the morning was to get my second dose of vaccine booked. I should have done it Saturday or Sunday but you know….. I managed to get a slot for this week, on Thursday afternoon. Turns out I didn’t need my card and could have booked a spot last week in the North and got it done up there, oops. Maybe not, might be a different booking system up there, and you need the actual card to get it. Next, I had a couple meetings in the morning and in a flash the morning was gone. Lunch was soup and crackers, no sandwich component. I have one more can’s worth of crackers then I’ll be completely out. I’m living dangerously right now, tomorrow is flagged for groceries. As per my Monday tradition for the meal board. I went zero for zero last week since I was in the North and living off Mother’s plans. I’ve also cleared my to-do list somewhat. I still have to find a time to get my drone license and I’m going to have a different approach for my boat trailer. I’m going to have to claim that I made it, which is partially true, I did do a lot of work on it. We’ll see how that strategy works in a couple of weeks.

The afternoon went along much like the morning. I was busy. Hopping from one thing to the next and before I knew it we were around four. I called the customer service line for my corporate credit card and they said it wasn’t a problem and they’d get it in the mail right away, claiming it would be here in a couple of days [edit: hadn’t shown up during that week]. I guess we’ll see what happens there. Otherwise most of lost cards are starting to slowly trickle in. I managed to get in touch with CAA, the Grower Pesticide Safety Course people, and found an second Air Miles card. I won’t bother with Aeroplan anymore so can check that off. I also got my work benefits card. I had to print a paper copy and I’m working on getting a plastic version again, I find that handier. It was a productive day for work and for the cards. I stopped doing stuff at five, not wanting to overdo it on day one back, and hustled to the kitchen for dinner. Tonight’s fare is pad thai. It looked a bit different this time. They must be altering the recipe slightly.

After dinner I started getting organized and formulating a plan to get the house cleaned. With my shot slated for Thursday afternoon I am going to write off Friday as recovery time in case I have a reaction. That means I have to go harder sooner in the week. I pencilled it out and then worked on getting my Petro Points card. After over an hour on hold to the same line I gave up and took down some YouTube and cleaned one of the toilets. I squandered most of the eveing but I’m pretty okay with that. I wanted to try and get to sleep early but again I strugged to lock in some rest. It was a good, productive first day back to work in the home office.

Wasted Independence

I woke up in a funk. There was no drive to get out of bed at all. I didn’t have anything that I desperately needed to do today so I just watched YouTube and rolled around in my bed. I felt off. I was lacking motivation and feeling depressed but also somewhat physically ill. I attribute both to having an awful sleep. I didn’t get to sleep until after midnight and then was awake around six. That should be enough sleep for me but for some reason I just felt crappy.

Felt as empty as the fridge.

Before I left I intentionally let the foodstuffs dwindle. Then as a final power move I tossed out any perishable items that were borderline or headed there. That meant I had empty crispers for the first time in a year. Lots of sauces in the door though, trademark of a single man. By the time I had enough drive to feed myself it was after one. I ate some leftover wedges and some more muffins. That combo was not wise. I felt even worse after that. But I was able to sneak in a short nap. That just tied into more malaise and lazy behaviour. I decided around six to make some food and warmed up some of the chicken tournedo, scallop potatoes (maybe with onion), and vegetable supreme that Mother had sent with me. I’m not sure if it was the muffin overload or if I didn’t warm this stuff enough, or if the long drive at room temperatue was a factor but that meal didn’t sit right for a second. I went downstairs and started watching the movie Nobody when I trusted the wrong fart more than I should have. Nothing gross happened, I just had to hustle to the nearby toilet to relieve myself. And it did bring relief. I felt more myself for the first time all day. I enjoyed the film and felt more vibrant afterwards. I went so far as to rent a second picture, choosing Wrath of Man as the second component of my double feature. I enjoyed both movies but won’t say much at this point since they are both fairly freshly released and I don’t want to spoile anything for anyone. I couldn’t say which I liked better, much the same as you don’t pick a favourite child. The second one ended around ten and it was straight to bed for me. Thankfully I was able to keep my mind quiet from around ten thirty and beyond. It was a wholly useless and wasted day but I’m through to see the next one. And it will be back to work for real, ugh.

Road Mastery

There isn’t much to tell for this day, it was a pretty quiet one in terms of activity. I was up earlier than I should have been. That gave me time to double check my packing and make sure things were set for departure. I had made plans with She to meet on a patio for some food and to look at each other briefly. That was for half nine and it can take between ninety and one hundred and twenty minutes to arrive in her town. I had to get fuel for me and the truck before I left, I wasn’t going to wait that long to eat. My plan was to eat then again a couple hours later and hopefully have enough in me to be able to skip over lunch and keep on rocking. In the journey home I have to make one stop for some fuel so I also plan around that, I prefer it to be in the last third of the drive so I wasn’t going to fuel up in the Bay. I got away on time, my errands in town took way less time than expected. I got a McBreakfast and fuel right next door at the Esso. Without a Petro Points card anymore I’m able to just go to the closest. With my time savings and a very smooth and uneventful drive to the Bay I was early, but a half hour. I let her know and said to keep the planned time and I went for my first foray into a store for something outside of food since February. I wanted to check out the fishing tackle selection in Canadian Tire, knowing that this particular store has an impressive display. I found the pink fake worms I was after and then I snagged a couple other soft plastics that seemed reasonably priced. One was a fake minnow with a couple of pre-rigged jig heads and the other was small white curly tailed grubs for the next time I’m in murky or dark water. I rushed a bit as I didn’t want turn my earliness into tardiness. I had to dally in my truck a bit but we met up, had a lovely breakfast meal and then parted ways, her to work and me to the road.

Several hours later I was closing in on Barrie and listening to the actual radio, I’d cleared my podcast queue and was saving my audiobook for the rest of the weekend. The drive was smooth, no stops required. I made a decision on the fly to skip the Barrie fuel station and keep going, I was playing with the idea of taking it to the limit but I was nervous about traffic snarls in the Smoke so I stopped at the last service stop before the Smoke and got a meager amount. I didn’t fill it up because without a fuel card this was on my dime for the moment. I’ll try and expense it later. I wanted to limit my exposure in any regard so just topped it up to half and carried on. My fears were realized with two long slow downs. I couldn’t see any evidence of an accident so I assume people just suck at driving. One was near a big merge and showed me that people still haven’t mastered the zipper yet, everyone must still be too important to be considerate on the road. I myself did it properly and things were quite smooth around me, the guy behind saw what I was doing and adopted the practice too. Didn’t stop idiots from trying to go to the very last inch of an ending lane and then trying to get in from a dead stop, forcing everyone to stop to facilitate their buffonery. I’ll never understand that mindset, I work to sneak in hundreds of metres from the end, almost as soon as I know a lane is ending. The remainder of the drive featured faster than appropriate driving and busier than expected roads. I got home around half two and started unpacking and re-integrating my stuff into the house. I had a meal around four of the leftovers that Mother had sent along for the purpose. The fridge was quite empty when I returned, apparently I’d cleaned it out before I left. Ah well, I ate. Then I started watching some Netflix and the next thing I knew it was after nine and I was definitely feeling it after a long drive and found myself trying to sleep around ten. I say trying because it was nearly twelve when I actually fell asleep. I think it was the different temperature and the AC that was messing with me. Better luck next time?

End of Vacation

Today was the last real day of this extended Northern vacation for me. I’m not sure if it was that or the amount of activity I undertook but I seemed to have an abundance of photos so I’ll try to do a day in photos entry like that other time I tried it months ago. I’ll have the photo and a short blurb under it with some context. It won’t tell the complete tale of my day but it should give some insight into what I got up to.

Here is the day’s breakfast. It was fairly similar to what I’ve been knocking back most days that don’t involved a McBreakfast. You’ll note the english muffin, egg, cheese and perhaps the dab of sriracha ranch dipping sauce. I had some big slugs of water with it, I felt I needed to hydrate back up to account for yesterday’s lack.

Here is a shot of Mother’s garden. Our visitors yesterday were enamoured with it but my parents consider it boring, just a task to do. They’ve been doing it for over twenty years according to Mother, I’d guess longer. In my youth the Big T hauled up some black muck to give it an incredible amount of soil organic matter, it holds moisture like crazy. They’ve downsized to just two rows of potatoes, used to be four when the kids all lived at home. The window pane greenhouse is a new move from last year, allows them to grow better tomatoes and whatever else sneaks in there. There are way more onions that I’m comfortable with now too. I did take a picture from either end and let Mother choose which to include. What vegetables do you recognize?

This was a little task the Big T asked me to do. They’ve puchaseed and erected a couple of used bins in the last few years and they weren’t part of our numbering scheme. I’m guessing that since I painted the original 1-4 on the bin doors back in the mid-90’s that he thought it was fitting that I do these as well. He made the stencils from a cracker box. I’m showing you the final version, there was a version of each number with lines that dripped off the bottom but I was able to track down some varsol in the garage and clean them up to have crisp lines. There is something odd about that six isn’t there?

Not too much to tell here. My aunts planted my grandma’s garden again this year. Four and a bit rows of potatoes, onions and carrots. Big T is supposed to clean up around the outside, they’ve managed to keep up on the weeding and got the potatoes hoed too. I snapped this picture to send to the Mayor’s wife so she could decide if further weeding was required before the weekend. When I was young we’d have this garden, the one at home and then one up the field. That one was two or three long rows of potatoes, more than a hundred feet. We got tricked into working on it because we were allowed to drive the three wheeler up there to do the work. It was a good trade-off. My grandpa would walk those rows and the ones in this garden with an old spoon and margerine container with a splash of diesel fuel in it and knock the potato beetles into the fuel and to their death. There is a potato cellar under the porch that housed the late summer’s starchy bounty. We’d reserve a selection of the harvest to serve as the next year’s seed parts. Good memories.

When I’d arrived home I had some leftovers from the previous evenings feast and then found myself falling asleep. I had a short nap and then started the power washer for Mother. Unfortunately, I was too late and she’d already washed her car. Since it was out and I was there, I decided to spray the dirt off my truck. I didn’t use any soap, means I didn’t actually wash it, so my streak of not washing a work truck continues. I think the last time was in 2005. With the dirt sprayed off and Mother run back to town to help Nana host her sisters and the cousins I figured I’d do something nice for my parents.

I fired up the weed whacker and did some trimming. Not pictured was a pile of tree limbs I’d cut out in the morning ahead of going down to the farm to paint the bins. Actually I’d flown the drone again in between those two jobs. Either way, I trimmed a bunch of encroaching trees out of the way to make it easier for Mother to cut the grass, I used the whipper snipper to knock out the random clumps of grass that were surviving under the brush, it’s right now, just needs a cut to mulch up the stray fodder that was strewn across the lawn.

The fun didn’t end there. I also did a strip in front of the privacy fence that surrounds the front patio. I got some flack over that move since there were two sunflowers amongst the bunch, grown up out of the discarded birdseed that either the squirrels spilled or the spoiled birds in the winter didn’t eat. Same story, once the mower grinds up the knocked down pieces it will look sharp.

I’d gone this far, why not do some more. The end of the house where my bedroom window lives used to be a rock garden. A few years back we paid a professional to rehabilitate half of it for Mother’s Day but the rest has gone back to nature. The two small cedar shrubs live on but the rocks and the rest of the plants have been moved. I trimmed the long grass and tried to avoid the remaining plants. Apparently I decimated a dead cherry tree that had been there a couple of years. It was clearly already dead, I don’t even feel bad. Two other noteworthy things from this picture, as I was cutting all the grasshoppers moved to the cement, there were at least twenty of the buggers lined up on there, in a nearly straight row. The other thing is that this is where the squirrels sometimes hide. When the dog was let out he nearly got one who was surprised to find it’s long grass refuge no longer available. I saw the whole thing, the dog was sooooo close to catching it, then it realized it could climb and went up a tree. So close.

This may look like just another shot of the garden but it’s actually of the trimming I did. I have a dream of Mother making one pass down the side of the garden, that couple of feet of short green grass makes it look so much better, and cleaner. This was something I learned early on in my research career, plots look better with a bit of buffer around them. I had to stop and get a shovel to remove a half dozen big burdock plants that they gas trimmer wouldn’t have been able to handle. I thought about cutting out some of the trees but those are lilacs, and you don’t mess with someone’s lilacs. I trimmed it back so she could access some raspberry plants on the side and better see the tiger lilies that she’d planted in there years ago. Hopefully they trim out some lilac to make a lane to keep that cut the rest of the year. Doubtful.

The last spot I trimmed was in front of the “new barn” or actually the only barn. Since the other one has collapsed. There is an old bent wagon wheel and two old tractor wheels that I had to roll out of the way. Without a before pictures it’s hard to appreciate the improvement in this area but rest assured this looks much better. And from the road it’s a stark difference. That’s the last of the trimming photos. I put so many cause I took both parents on the walking tour to show them what could be done in a short few hours in the heat of the day. It does make their property look tighter. When the Big T came home early from work we loaded up all the sticks I’d trimmed in the morning and brought them to the outdoor waste pile and then stopped at the farm on the way home so he could inspect my painted numbers.

Here is a photo of the newest bin. I’ve shared a couple pictures of the base in the last two weeks. The guys who put it up just used a zoom boom machine to bring it across the field. It was at uncle Lawerence’s, which is next door. They just lifted it up and drove it across the field and bolted it to the new base. I didn’t get to see that, I think they did it in the evening at one point in the last couple days. That would have been a sight to see.

Today also happened to be the day of the Family Feast. There was some debate about whether to have it today or not. Mother claimed I was driving back so we thought about moving it but no other dates made sense or worked for everyone. In the end, I stayed an extra day and helped my parents make something, for the second time. The Big T and I got everything ready to go incase Mother was strapped for time. We found most of the ingredients ourselves, which was an accomplishment in of itself. The meal was Spicy Peanut Chicken and Vegetables and featured what you see. We followed the recipe closely with just a minor misstep on the last step. It didn’t affect the meal, just resulted in some good natured ribbing. Here are all the versions that were prepared. I got sick of my families propensity for portrait lay-out photos and turned a couple of them to the more correct landscape view.

Version from STL sister.

Version from Sudbury sister.

The Tugboat’s bowl.

Big T’s bowl photo.

As it happened, that iced cream cake was left behind, not by accident but as a thank you for the tremendous meal the night before. Since this meal was also pretty good we decided to take down the rest of that cake. It was just as good the second day. From there we watched Sahara, an older movie that none of us recalled the ending to. It ended around ten but I had to go cut one more chunk of tree down that wasn’t sitting right with me. Packing followed and then bed. Must have been the feeling of urgency to fall asleep that kept me up. It was around eleven that I finally was able to find sleep. Big day of driving planned for tomorrow.

Canada Day

My morning started a little after five. The incessantly rattling of the sump pump roused me from my slumber and my bladder ensured there was no blissful return to the abyss. I tried to hold out but eventually had to rise to empty it, so insistent. The Big T was weirdly awake and watching CSI:NY. Sleep returned for a spell then some podcasts got consumed as I readied for my adventure. I was ready rock ahead of seven. First stop was for McBreakfast, then I met the Complete brothers at the launch. We took the boat out to the sandbar. There were a lot of deadheads coming down the river with the big rains. The wind coming out of the North was pretty angry and whipping up the waves. We tried to apply the anchor but we were drifting immediately away from where the fish were, if they existed at all in that lake. Cold wind, rough-ish water and then it started to rain. After a half hour we headed for calmer waters. To enjoy the river and try our luck there.

We fished the river for a couple hours. It rained on and off again but we had hoods and a bimini cover to combat the elements, the cover was made feasible by the calmer winds. We all managed to get lures caught in trees, I did it twice, once ending in spectacular fashion as a jig head rocketed back at me like a bullet.

Eventually we called it and I grabbed some Wendy’s on the way home, including some fries for my parents. After slamming a Baconator I had a hot shower and put on warm clothes to prepare for the gathering that was planned. It had to be outside to follow provincial regulations. There was some trepidation leading up to the appointed arrival time and we weren’t sure that we’d be able to pull everything together. The ideal plan had us using the little used front patio and the backup idea was to haul everything to the garage. I’m not sure Mother had it all meticulously schemed out. The last half hour was a bit of scramble but we were ready to rock well in advance. Nana arrived with my aunt and uncle first. There was a surprise to be revealed for them. We sat in the front and saw a dark SUV slow up and pull in. That was expected, my cousin and his partner from BC were slated to visit. The original guests were confused and surprised when a second dark SUV slowed and pulled in the driveway right behind. That was the big surprise I’d been told to keep quiet about, not the only one either. The second vehicle had my other cousin, her husband and their three week old twin girls. Surprise! Nana was truly surprised and very excited. It was a well played surprise. Mother snagged one of the babies instantly and got to feed her. We sat around outside enjoying the quickly improving weather, eating appetizers and having some drinks. Eventually I was called upon to cook some meat for dinner. I had some smoked porkchops and chicken touredos to cook.

Not long after the above picture was taken things got out of hand. There was a massive grease fire that blackened everything. I was able to save it but it was not my finest moment at the grill. I had to take the chicken back for some extra time to ensure it was adequately grilled. I was definitely off my game, maybe it was only having one beer, I should have had more probably. I was also distracted while talking to the guests, usually I’m ignored and neglected while I ply my craft alone on the deck. I guess we’ll never know.

The meal also included a spinach salad, some scalloped potatoes and some other tasty sides. It was a truly magificent feast and everyone said so. We capped it off with a pair of cakes. One that Mother had made previous and a hand crafted iced cream cake. Nana had asked my aunt to pick it up, pay for it, and transport it. She requested it say Happy Canada Day to further the ruse. The other surprise was that this cake was my aunt’s birthday cake. That she ordered, picked up, paid for, and transported. Nana thought that was the funniest thing ever. It was pretty hilarious. We sang Happy Birthday led by my cousin, who is a professional singer/songwriter. It was better than average, and so was the cake. There was a little bit left, it got quickly stowed in the downstairs freezer, just in case it could be forgotten and left behind.

I took the drone out after supper when the wind had calmed down and showed it to my aunt and uncle, they are thinking about a drone purchase themselves apparently. There are some spots they want to photograph that would be dangerous to get to. My uncle is a painter and will paint photos sometimes. He does good work, I have one of his paintings hanging in my own home. They were moderately impressed by the flying machine. I was glad I got the chance to get a few flights in. We buzzed through one of the three batteries before moving on to other things.

This picture was taken the next morning but you get the idea.

After supper some went for a walk to explore the expansive grounds while others sought some shade from the now hot sun. A few chairs were set up in the garage for that purpose and while Mother wasn’t near at hand we talked the Big T into going down and grabbing the Corvette. Nana has been wanting to take a ride in it since he got it. She used to race cars in her younger years and truly appreciates fast cars. He was only gone a short while before returning. Nana got the first ride, there are photos and video from others but I didn’t have any find their way to me. He slowly backed out of the driveway to the road and then goosed it pretty good, taking the passengers down to the corner and back. All of the kids and Nana took a turn. It’s only a two seater so he can only take one passenger at a time. I happened to notice that everyone came back with a huge smile on their face. Below is my cousin returning, you can see the smile.

After everyone who wanted a turn in the car got a chance he parked it in the shed just before the skies opened up to douse us with an unexpected shower. We took a group photo in the garage thanks to my aunt’s selfie stick. They left shortly after and the rest of us gathered in the garage to tell stories and have some laughs.

Mother even got to feed the other twin before they left. They are on a strict three hour feeding regiment that they follow quite promptly. The babies pretty much slept the entire time, only some light fussing. They are quite tiny as you mayhaps can tell. They recently got their names, after several weeks of consideration. They still call them by their nicknames of Big and Little though, it’s funny.

The guests all left later in the evening, well after nine bells. There wasn’t much to do after that but finish tidying up the mess and head to bed. It had been a long day for me and I was able to get to sleep in relatively good time, not long after ten.

Full Work Day

It rained in the afternoon yesterday, and in the evening and assumedly overnight. That accumulation of rain was significant enough to impact my sleep as it turns out. The ground was saturated enough to create run-off and that run-off gets collected in a tile and dumped into our system. There is a sump pump in the office next to my quarters. With so much water coming in, the pump turns on every 5-10 minutes in the night and runs for about fifteen seconds, when it kicks off the water in the hose drains back down and essentially fills it half full again. It’s a vicious cycle that resulted in me being woken up and kept awake for a spell at four bells today. I tried closing some doors and firing up the dehumidifier to drown it out but it didn’t work. Sheer will allowed me to get back to sleep in the end. I eventually awoke for keeps around seven and drowsily made the Northern Usual. They turned out prettier today for whatever reason and were all kinds of tasty. These beauties lit my brain on fire and got me fired up for the day.

I was in the office with the dreaded sump pump working away by eight. The pump was continuing to fire up frequently. I started working on something that would end up taking the larger portion of my day while listening to my lengthy podcast queue. I got a call mid morning and they told me that they couldn’t hear the pump at all, I found that hard to believe. I ended my morning with a meeting that vastly moved a project ahead and too my break just after noon. I went outside to see how much rain had fallen in the recent event. Seemed to be around another three inches of rain, plus or minus a dead bee. That about matches the previous event over the weekend. I’d say the drought that was budding is well busted now. The fireban was lifted too.

Lunch today looked a heck of a lot like last night’s dinner. I cleverly separated out the items that would be better heated from the ones that wouldn’t. That allowed for a simple preparation. Nuke one container and dump the other on top then add the dairy elements. The one error that happened and I refure to take the blame was around the avocado. I generally keep the pit to put in with any leftovers. That somehow maintains the flesh. With out the pit and the natural ethylene release from the tomato in the container, the avocado was brown, sticky and disgusting. I was impressed with the decay overnight, way more than it should have been. It got put in the compost violently. Mother made some experimental cake that involved craisins and looked remarkably like the one she makes at Christmas. We each sampled some but it wasn’t set correctly yet. It needed some time in the fridge. My break was pretty short, under thirty minutes and I felt I should get back after it.

The afternoon passed relatively uneventfully. I kept myself busy for the duration. I had one call that wasn’t as pleasant as I’d like it to have been. Most of the time flew by. I ended the day at half four because I ran out of pressing items to do and most others had signed off. I had my calendar blocked for that meeting I didn’t actually get to join so it afforded me time to be productive. I went upstairs and chatted with Mother for a bit. She was in the process of preparing dinner. The Big T was home shortly after five I think and we ate not long after that. Dinner was partially leftovers and partially fresh preparations. The salad was from a previous engagement, the chicken was leftover from Sunday dinner, as was the gravy. The vegetable supreme was fresh, and much better without onion. I mixed the few scoops of stuffing with gravy and chicken in a frying pan and then doled it onto a slice of bread. The rest is pretty straight forward. It was a tasty meal. We had another sample of that cake. It was well set by this time and tasted like the Christmas version but with weird bites of craisin from time to time. It was decent.

After dinner I tried listening to my audiobook instead of watching the news. Eventually I just went downstairs and worked on Musings, I was a couple days behind schedule, my bad. I got a text around seven from Mother asking if I wanted to watch a film, there would be chips. They chose Equalizer 2, which after the first five minutes we realized we’d all seen before. We watched it through since none of us could recall how it ended. I recalled the ended part way through, it was a decent rewatch. It was about bedtime after that so I indulged in that practice, with some YouTube to lull myself to sleep around ten. This one was an actual, full work day, so less exciting than vacation days.

Mobile Office Tuesday

After some light peer pressuring and the blessing of a co-worker I’d developed the plan of going fishing with Theodore Complete in the morning while also working. He was doing the same thing. We figured if we felt bad we could turn it into a half day or something. I was up around six and wheels were turning by twenty to seven. I had just enough time to stop for a McBreakfast, get a coffee for the captain and arrive at the boat launch on time. He was figuring on me meeting him at his house so I had just enough time to scarf down the food before he rolled up. I did not fall in the river when we put the boat in. I made sure to let the boys know that I was doing this and one of them clipped this picture from the SnapMap that we thought was funny.

We didn’t have any bait but had agreed to try some soft plastics instead. We got out to his favourite spot and started fishing around half seven. Around half nine I had a call with a colleague for a half hour or so. We sent and received emails regularly too. The day was beautiful and we enjoyed a couple of cigars each while trying several different setups. Nothing worked, not one bite was to be had. We had some good conversation and both got some sunburn. It was a fantastic morning spent out on the water even if we didn’t catch anything. I’d do it again. I was worried I’d feel guilty for doing this when I should be working but I was likely as productive as I would have been at home and as such didn’t feel bad at all. The other call that was scheduled for the morning got bumped a week so that freed me up even more. Look at that serene view would ya!

We headed for shore ahead of noon and I was in the truck shortly after twelve. I had a mild nicotine buzz and had to pee. I started for home but stopped at Wendy’s in town to get a rare treat of a fast food lunch. I’d learned that my debit card worked fine earlier in the day with the McBreakfast and was eager to try it again. I got a baconator combo with iced tea, no ice, and a JBC on the side. It was gone before I got to highway 65. In the old days we’d get a couple JBC’s after hockey practice and have them eaten before Golf Course Road. Those were good times. I rushed back to the office to get ready for a meeting long call. My US team was meeting in person in Central IL and I was going to meet them on the phone. I got my email cleaned up from the stragglers in the morning and then called in. Fifteen minutes passed and no one else called in. I figured they’d taken a long lunch. After forty minutes I knew something was up. I sent an email to the team lead and he said the hotel was too tough to have a Teams call at so I should focus on Canada for the week. That really opened up my schedule. I worked away on things and watched a townhall replay and was starting to run out of things to fill the afternoon. I guess that’s when I started looking around the office and came across this magazine ad I’d made in high school for a computer class. I love it.

I manged to keep myself busy until five and then powered down. Big T rolled in a few minutes later and Mother had these fantastic burrito bowls on the table for us. Rice base, with ground meat, tomato, black beans, corn, avocado, sour cream and cheese. Spectacular. I ate this heaping bowl and then we retired to the living room. We had some chocolate covered, vanilla and caramel drumsticks for dessert. That was a damned treat. We started watching Above Suspicion on Netflix at seven and by nine I was in my room to watch some YouTube before going to sleep.

Transition Monday

I was up earlier than expected to prepare for work. It was going to be a bit of an experiement this week, trying out remote working for the first time in the pandemic. The idea was to try out working from the North to see if I can swing it some extra time up here in August. We’ll see how the week progresses. Breakfast was a success at least, it was my Northern usual. Fried egg and cheese in an English muffin with some sriracha ranch dipping sauce. Consitent, persistent and delicious. It’s a great way to start the day.

After some food, a shower, and tidying up my room I was still early for work, well ahead of eight. That was fine as I had some work catching up to do. As I usually do on holiday I quietly managed my emails so that I wasn’t coming back to a mountain that caused me to throw my hands up and let things get out of hand. I also had to read the notes from last week’s weekly meeting and prepare to chair this week’s meeting. I started the workday at Big T’s desk in the basement, in the dank, dingy, disgusting, depressing, dark, derelict, dungeon of an office. I had to make sure that I had a solid background for the call, I’d be on camera the entire time and nobody wants to see what’s going on in there. I also needed to check the audio. I managed to chair the meeting successfully, including taking robust notes for anyone who happened to be unavailable as I was last week. After the call, I let the dogs out, answering the lingering question of who did that. It was ME!!!!!! While upstairs I took it upon myself to try another spot that was less basement. The sun was out and the day was nice but it was a touch warm to work at a computer and overall the situation was mildly uncomfortable. I worked from the kitchen table until Mother returned from her morning adventures and then scurried back down to the depths.

With the return of Mother it meant that it was pretty much lunch time. She prepared a wrap from the previous night’s leftovers. There was some leftover salad, some chicken, stuffing, etc. Some sriracha ranch dipping sauce was splashed over the top and it was rolled up into a wrap. She used to work part time at the high school cafeteria so she knows how to roll up a wrap proper. This lunch suited me just fine, so much that I ate two of these leftover wraps. I’d need the fuel for a long afternoon of work. I’d grown unaccustomed to the efforts and wanted to sit and watch nonsense for the afternoon. Not this time.

After lunch I moved a meeting and listened in to another. There was also a COVID info session that I consumed. I spent a good swatch of the afternoon on the phone. I was able to catch up with the Key Account Managers and then help out my teammate Brack. He had an interesting quandry going around some Excel data that I was uniquely qualified to assist with, based on my institutional knowledge of corn product names. That issue took two quick calls to resolve but it was worth it, saved him hours of toil. It was half five when I finished up and when the Big T returned. We met in the kitchen to discover that Mother had been busy. She made delicious salmon fingers, which are just cleverly breaded salmon chunks. Some of the tasty potatoes from the night before were warmed and added. There was a gross for me coleslaw too but I passed so hard on that. Instead I had a double helping of salmon and dipping sauce, cause it was great.

After the dishes were done up and the news ended it was time for a little job to help the Big T out. In a classic game of farm equipment chess we had to make a few moves to have everything in the right place to quickly complete some tasks tomorrow. My part of it was to ride with him to fill the water wagon and then drive the tractor home from the shop it was at. Some work had been done to tighten up the front end steering which would in turn improve the auto-steer. I hadn’t driven a tractor in two years now and not a real sized tractor in a lot longer than that. It wasn’t an issue except I’d also have to do so for the first time in many moons along the trans-Canada highway. Only for a quarter mile though. After a way too basic refresher from the T I was off. I got passed by three vehicles before I shot down the sideroads. I met a dumptruck on the hill and a wide track machine and sprayer on my journey. I think we got back close to eight. Mother was watching Celebrity Dating Game when I returned so I sat and looked at it. Ridiculous. It’s so bad that it’s entertaining. The T rolled in towards the end of it and then American Ninja Warrior came on. Mother couldn’t stay awake past nine and around quarter past I realized I didn’t care about that show at all and retreated to my chambers. Some YouTube kept my attention before I passed out at half ten. I was aiming for sooner because I knew my plans for tomorrow would have me waking up quite early.

Sunday of Errantry

There was a bit of a sleep in and then I listened to a podcast episode to make a later rising. When I did get up, breakfast was mostly ready for me. The Big T had made his usual style of perogies and I just had to fry an egg to complete the meal. Well, that and en-sandwich said egg in a half piece of bread. It was tasty and filling. After listening to my parents talk over each other to my STL sister on FaceTime I went to my room to watch YouTube and try to get another hour of sleep. Didn’t take.

I was mostly left to my own devices for the morning and I enjoyed some YouTube, some podcasts and worked a bit on my Musings. I can only imagine how far behind I’m getting in my MSC challenges, it will be a scramble when I get back home to get those licked up. I was shaken out of my revelry around eleven and the afternoon plan was revealed to me. There would be lunch and then there would some errands to run with the Big T. It was decided that I really liked Habitant Pea soup and needed to have can of it. I’m not convinced of the validity of that statement but agreed to partake. There was one chunk of chicken left from the previous week’s cooking so I ate that along with my soup which is pictured below.

With phase one of the afternoon plan complete we moved into phase two, the errands. The little rototiller wouldn’t start. In typical fashion, the Big T couldn’t decide whether to blame the Mayor or Jacko for this condition but assumed it was one of them. The Mayor had not used the device in over a year but helped the situation by bringing a fresh spark plug, in case that was the issue. Apparently Jacko had borrowed it and ran it for a long spell, during which the hot engine melted a split into the fuel line. We had a length of line to replace it with and that was the main aspect of the task. It only took a few minutes with the right tools and then we started yanking on the starting cable. It wouldn’t go. The next trick we tried was dumping some gas in with the plug. That got it running but only until that gas was burned off. After trouble shooting things we realized the hose coming off the air filter was loose. That helped but wasn’t the issue. It wasn’t drawing gas, likely due to something blocking the carburetor. The decision was made to take it to a small engine mechanic. At this point we should have cleaned up the tools and moved on, but not with the T.

Instead he wondered what was wrong with the three wheeler. An aging Yamaha 200E unit. As it turned out, the throttle mechanism was bunged up. We opened the assembly and found that it was bent to hell so used and axe and a ballpene hammer to flatten it out. It didn’t bolt down correctly. It was determined that the root cause of the issue was that the cable wasn’t moving freely. That diagnosis means that he should try to order a new cabled and the metal part and replace it. What will actually happen is nothing. Which is fine because they don’t need that dangerous weapon running again. It’s just a risk they’d be taking with limited reward outside of fun. That got put away and the adventure continued.

When we returned the tools to the main garage from the chicken shed we stumbled upon the Corvette. He wanted to find the small cable for the newly installed trickle charger. Turns out it wasn’t hanging down below but was under the hood the whole time. It was raining and muddy so he wasn’t willing to drive it anywhere but figured we should start it. He had to put the serious charger on it to get a boost and then we reveled in the explosive power of the engine. Eventually he asked if I could help him understand the radio. I revealed that it had a hidden CD player and showed him how to operate the radio. That was a win. Nothing actually got fixed on our two hour adventure but a lot of learning happened.

We learned what wasn’t the problem with the rototiller, we learned what was the issue with the three wheeler and we learned that the Corvette is more awesome than we thought. There was a short list of actions for Big T to follow-up on to get things running, a perpetual struggle around these parts. We went back home to regale Mother with what we’d learned and to kick back. Well, I kicked back. The parents were madly cleaning and tidying and cooking in preparation for the first Sunday dinner at the house in a long spell. The plan had been to cook another rotisserie chicken but the rain was changing that, the oven became the alternative. Some family gathered and brought some fantastic food to go with the chicken. There was two kinds of stuffing, chicken and gravy, roasted potatoes, fancy cucumbers and several kinds of salads. It was a filling and decadent meal that was topped off with some concoction of rhubarb brownie and iced cream. There were ingredients to make it a sundae and most did. Fantastic.

I’d had a couple of glasses of rye before dinner so was chattier than before and took that out on the Mayor. We had a solid chinwag before they moved on. During the meal we’d had the 70’s music channel on and listened to that some more after eating. Then I showed my parents that YouTube has music and we watched some great performances before I showed them a game on their where someone plays guitar riffs from the top 25 ballads or rock songs of all time. We were evenly matched for those but when we got to movie themes I destroyed them. We had fun with that until it was time to shut it down and get to sleep. It was around ten when my light blinked out.

Sweaty Saturday

Woke up around half six and started mowing into my long podcast queue, it was ten after seven when I emerged. The Big T had gone to fetch water so I made up some breakfast for myself. The theme was the same as previous days but because the pan was already out I fried up a couple slices of bacon before draining the lake of grease and cooking some messy eggs. No bread and no muffins so I’ve moved on to wraps. I spread some shredded Tex Mex cheese underneath with a dollop of sriracha ranch dipping sauce. As it turns out, it was a large dollop. Nice start to the day.

No sooner had I finished eating than I had to run off and go pick the Big T somewhere where he dropped his tractor off to be repaired while it has been raining. They are tightening up the steering to make their auto steer work better. We drove back and started to get things loaded up for the dump. We were told to throw out two lawn chairs but we couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them other than them being filthy. Rumouredly they’d tried to clean them to no avail previously. I suggested that the pressure washer would help. As it turns out, I was right. I meticulously cleaned the two chairs while the Big T helped the Mayor (who popped in to grab his boat) and then went to the dump himself.

While I was washing things, I moved on to rinsing the stack of old chemical jugs that had accumulated. T returned for the second half of that task. We cleaned up the mess and headed in for an early lunch. Big T had his at twenty after eleven like a lunatic. At noon I took the leftovers of the cheeseburger crunch wrap and added some fried tortilla twists to add more crunch. It was effective and delicious.

I took an hour break after lunch and got some laundry going. My parents didn’t stop, they worked on trimming a choke cherry tree that was blocking the view of the road and also making it bothersome to cut the grass around it. They almost filled the truck with what was trimmed out of there. This was photo was taken towards the end. It was crazy humid out and made the task all the more taxing. I took over and trimmed some more face slapper branches that making the lawn mowing troublesome. That filled the truck right up. They went to dump it and I looked after my laundry.

Preparation for dinner started after that. Since I wasn’t going to dinner tonight, I was left out of the effort. Showers were had and people got fancied up to go have some fancy pizza with the fancy Mayor. I had plans already from six to ten so I was out. That didn’t stop Mother from making me a portion and leaving it behind for me. It was very delicious. One of the best appetizers I’ve had, really good.

After some consideration, I decided that’s all I needed for supper. With dinner eaten, I started preparing for the evenings entertainment. It was the makeup session for D&D that was scheduled for six to ten. We started at six and I checked the dogs twice before my parents returned. Some crazy stuff happened that lead to big changes of plans for my character. Crazy rolls. It was a lot of fun. I was a bit sleepy by the end but it was worth it. I wasn’t able to actually fall asleep right after, despite feeling a bit sleepy before. It was closer to eleven when I tucked in to a deep sleep.

Lazy Friday

There wasn’t much of a sleep in today, early today bed, early to rise. Was up around half six but didn’t come up until after seven. The Big T was already gone to work and Mother was gone to meet her chums for a walk. This gave me time to work on replacing my work cards and have a leisurely breakfast. I had the same as the day before but used the last English muffin up. I got myself caught up on some YouTube while I cooked and ate.

It was shockingly easy to replace my fuel card and my work credit card. I think it took me nine or ten clicks to do. Of course I had to know my passwords, something my parents are consistently unable to do I’ve discovered. Mother returned around ten and I finished up my stuff before we sat down to watch a film. Seemed like she was looking for a vegetative day also. We started off with an older movie, The Cold Light of Day. A frustratingly predictable action thriller with some decent cast and performance. It was so forgettable that later in the day it took us a couple hours to recall the title or even what happened in it. There was a point where she had taken to vacuuming and I was nearly asleep that I recalled an intense car chase that sparked my memory in the end. Lunch happened next. I had two sandwiches composed of leftover chicken and sliced cheese with mustard. Simple and to the point. As lunch wrapped up, I put on a movie called Good on Paper. During this film Mother prepared another foot bath for me. She adds water and then some secret mix of potions and ointments. The film was enjoyable. It was based off a short story a comedienne shared a few years back. I guess her way of moving past it was to make a film out of it. We enjoyed it.

We decided to watch one more to fill out the afternoon. We selected a film called Crash Pad on Netflix on a whim. It was a strong decision. It was very enjoyable, I’d never heard of it previously but thought it was just this side of too crude while still being quite funny. Not long after it ended the T tornado rolled in. We were in a relaxed mood and enjoying a quiet afternoon and he came ripping in as a ball of manic energy. There was some friction. Cardboard pizza was dressed up with some hot peppers and extra Tex Mex cheese. They made two, one of Hawaiian origin and a meat lovers. These were Delissio brand. They decided they needed some fritters for dessert so contrived other reasons to go to town, one of which was to drop off my garment to have the new zipper installed. The button era is over. While they were gone I tried some of this Mike’s Hot Honey sauce on a wad of iced cream. It was a suggested serving. It was very spicy and unpleasant with the sweetness of the dessert. Supposed to be good on pizza, maybe next time.

When they got back they were still ornery so the Big T went to watch the Jays in his room. Mother and I watched Unknown on Netflix. It ended at half nine and so did my day. I organized the podcast queue and watched one YouTube clip before nodding off. Another vacation day in the books.

The Hike

Before coming up for vacation I’d told Mother I’d try two things she wanted me to do. She wanted me to go for a walk with her and to play pickleball. She is an enthusiast of both these activities and would do both daily if the weather permitted. For the walk I agreed to go on a hike of Triangle Hill. I had very little recollection of it but figured a walk in the forest would be interesting. Today seemed to be the day we’d take it on. I was up ahead of seven and made sure I had a nice breakfast. Today it ended up being a couple fried eggs thrust between some English muffins with sliced cheese and a dollop of sriracha ranch dipping sauce. Still good.

I was told the adventure would begin at nine. One of Mother’s walking buddies was coming along so we had to account for her travel time. She walks and bikes over fifty kilometres everyday, so she could set the pace for us. I heard the story about the parking drama. There is an older lady that lives on the township road into the start of the trail. She has no fewer than five signs asking people to park on the south side of the road and she has a desire for people to park next to the highway for no reason other than her desire. She is way over-reaching on this and has been for years. She comes out and yells every single time and will hear no reason. Even from the authorities. She’s smarter than everyone else, one of those, you know the type. I’m glad I was warned. Before we left I chatted with the Chef until I was told that nine actually meant 8:45. Soon we were off. The woman freaked out as predicted, we waved and carried on, mainly ignoring her. I snapped a number of pictures for you, I tried to caption them rather than explain them all in detail. More below.

The initial ascent. It doesn’t look as steep as it was. Got the blood pumping early.

The first pond we came to, rocky shore to walk along.

The trail to the top. Another steep stretch followed by regular incline.

Photo credit: Jo D

Good view from the top. Can see for miles, lovely in the summer.

The trail back seemed to be more treacherous. We took the more difficult one.

This is Little Spring Lake actually. I had to sit down for a rest at this point. It was the only real stop.

This is the opposite end of the lake from the sign. Would be great to fish with a canoe, assuming there is anything in there.

Second pond. Home to seven turtles, at least. We saw seven for sure and two more suspected. Too far away to confirm.

Birch stand was pretty to walk through.

I was pretty gassed from the steep up and down sections. It was like doing stairs. You can see from my FitBit output that there was a lot of up and down sections. I think we climbed all three sides of the triangle as we made a circle around the hill. It was a nice forest walk but really showed me I was out of shape. I’m glad that I only needed to do one stop to catch my breath. The climb was underplayed from the start, as was the distance but it was fun. I won’t do it again tomorrow though. It will be interesting to see how my legs recover. We had lunch when we got back, leftover chicken in sandwiches and Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. After that we just rested, we being the dogs and I. Mother went about her business. I did help her fix some settings on her FitBit and checked her Mini, it was too old to work anymore. We watched a bit of TV and a couple movies. I think I tried to nap at one point but it didn’t take. My parents took off to a greenhouse mid afternoon so I watched the end of Mine. There was some collaboration for dinner that went off the rails but in the end we had some tasty asparagus risotto and some cheeseburger crunch wraps. These lacked a crunch element in my opinion, mainly cheese burgers that used wraps rather than buns. My wheels are turning on how to improve that.

The one film we watched after dinner was the Rhthym Section on Prime. It was excellent. Big T bailed to go watch the Jays in his room with the little dog. When the movie ended, so did the day, I was again going to sleep around ten bells.

Turning It Around

Dread filled my heart and mind around 4:23am. I compensated by emptying my bladder and going back to sleep. I woke again about two hours later and got up. The Big T had mentioned making breakfast at half six so I wanted to be there for that. He was attempting the breakfast samidges on the machine I’d got him years before. He somehow bungled things and made a big mess. I proceeded to rattle off three consecutive gems for us to consume. We were done shortly after seven and I made a lunch of two leftover rotisserie chicken sandwiches, a granola bar, bottle of water, and some kangaroo pepperettes. I got my damp life jacket and fishing stuff and was at Theodore Complete’s place by eight, well around eight. I moved my stuff to his truck and we were off to go fishing for the morning. We went to Mowat’s Landing and launched the boat successfully, including a running motor, and started going up the Montreal River. I had to hold the boat while he parked and I saw a family of ducks swimming past. Hopefully today is more of that and less of falling in the water and losing vital components of my existence.

I had my phone (camera), keys, FitBit etc. safely stowed in my tacklebox today after learning my lesson the hard way. The day was magnificent and we soaked in the sun and enjoyed exploring a couple small bays. We went further up the river and I caught a chunky smallmouth bass. We didn’t get a picture of it, and regretted it. After an hour of mostly cleaning weeds out of the river he caught a pike, it was small but aggressive. It swallowed his curly tailed grub completely. I got to dig it out, which I did cleanly. I surprised myself. I had my gloves in the boat to avoid any scratches and cuts from the fish.

After a shorter while and some very promising bites I finally hooked another fish. This one was a pickerel. It was around eating size so it went into the live well. Where it was somewhat forgotten for awhile. We fished on but didn’t get much else so we had the lunches that we’d packed for ourselves, mine was more extravagant. The wind started to pick up so we decided to trawl back towards the launch. I was happy for the opportunity, it allowed me to try out a couple of new setups that I’d never tried before. My paddle tail soft plastics seemed to work okay and I’ll have them as a tool in the future. I’ve also included below a couple of photos showing just how beautiful the morning turned out to be. Bright, sunny with a slight breeze, it would be hard to beat such a nice time. We smoked a few small cigars too to further relax. It was a very different day to yesterday.

We got back to the launch around two in the afternoon. There was a dude there taking his sweet time and tying up the launch. He didn’t follow any of the posted rules and wasn’t in a hurry, must have been on island time. After some delay we were able to load the boat quickly and efficiently and hit the road. When we got back to civilization our phone exploded with messages and such. After helping him back in and dispatch the one keeper we had I hit the road to the bank. I was able to get a debit card and get my credit cards looked after in a short visit. I’m moving closer to becoming a person again. I have three work cards to worry about now and a pesticide card and the rest were points and reward cards. And my university ID card that hasn’t been used in over a decade, I just liked having it. I made my way home from the bank. Mother was cooking up a storm when I got home and after I had a short rest I was called upon to BBQ some Smokie’s sausages, cheddar flavour. That was going to make up part of the meal. We stuffed some hot pepper rings in the bottom of the bun for good measure. The sausages were so juicy that when the T bit into his, it burst juices clear across the table and on to the wall. He was not excited to clean it up but was loving the perfectly cooked sausage. The other component of the meal is a Mediterranean Shrimp and Pearl Couscous salad. It had some elements that normally I’d be hesitant to eat but I found myself seeking out seconds of this one. It was very good. A more expensive salad than I’m used to but very nice.

There was also a dessert course with this meal. Mother had picked some rhubarb from our garden and made a strawberry-rhubarb crisp with some neopolitan iced cream. Sweet, sour and crunchy. This was a lovely capstone to a great meal. Even though I was goaded into doing the dishes. There were a lot for such a massive meal.

After dinner was about getting ready for D&D for me. I wanted to read over my notes again, test my systems and be one early enough to tell my story from yesterday to the group. All those things happened but we started to realized towards the normal start time that we were down a member. The system also stopped working and we couldn’t hear each other. The missing member had got his second dose of vaccine and was feeling very rough. We decided to postpone the game until the weekend. I was pretty bummed but also glad he got the shot. I learned of four more people who had rough days after the second dose. I’m anticipating the same coming for me when I get the chance. I decided to work on Musings and the site in general for a bit since I already had the computer plugged in and running. It was after nine when I finished up with that. Bedtime was again at ten.

Misadventure Adventure

The day started today when my bladder demanded that it start, which was a quarter past six. Not having an ensuite is less fun. I also had to pee off the deck at 3:42am in a light rain. I didn’t want to use the bathroom and risk waking the dogs. They’re so dumb they’d just stay awake. I didn’t get out of bed right away, instead I listened to a podcast and then watched some YouTube content. Eventually I rose and showered. Breakfast was a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, something I haven’t had in years. It was as remembered.

The next portion of the day was filled with promise for fun and enjoyment. The plan was for me to help the Mayor put his boat (pictured below) in the lake. I helped him do this last year. We put it in, took a rip around to run the engine and test everything out. This year the plan was to do some fishing while we were testing everything out. He likes to have help to tie it to the dock while he pulls the trailer out of the water. He gets a little anxious about backing the trailer down the ramp with every fool in the area watching him. I don’t blame him, it’s like teeing off on the first tee with everyone around watching you, higher pressure.

The backing aspect went flawlessly. He poured the trailer down the ramp in short order, perfectly straight. That was the last thing that went well for a spell. We got on the boat and started getting pushed by the wind as he attempted to start the motor. He has had issues repeatedly with this motor, it’s a special edition that seems to be a nightmare. He has put a lot of time and money into it and it still struggles. Today was no different. It started a few times but spurtered out shortly after. We were nearly out into the lake proper and I was trying to keep us off the rocks. Things weren’t looking great. He decided to try and get the little kicker motor going to guide us back into the marina. It was having issues starting also. We suspected that it wasn’t drawing fuel like it should, we may have been correct. We opened the breather valve after he’d about played himself out reefing the cord and it tried to run but it was struggling. We had to turn to the paddles at that point. We were out in the lake proper, about 120’ from the nearest dock by then. The paddling was fairly unpleasant. It was a good way for him to take out his simmering rage and for me to get a free workout in.

We got the boat tied up at an auxillary dock within the bounds of the marina and the Mayor went to work on the kicker motor. With the breather valve open we were able to get things running somewhat consistly but he still babied it, it wasn’t running great. He also tried to get the big beast going but it was doing about the same thing as before. The decision was made to use the kicker to drive it around back to the launching dock at the ramp and load it up to take it home again. The Mayor was pretty cheesed off at this point, mainly exasperated with the main motor. This has been an on-going issue for some time now. Lots of people slowed to gawk as they passed, including his daughter, KJMH who was running with her baby. She wasn’t shocked it didn’t work and felt bad but had to carry on with the run to get the baby home. The day wasn’t going great anymore.

The little kicker chugged us slowly around to the original dock and he tied the back of the boat to the dock. I wrapped the rope around the front once and held it while he went to get the truck and trailer to load it on. As he was perfectly descending the ramp for a second time, it started to rain a bit. I looked into the boat and saw my crocs and figured I should get them now so I have them to walk back up the hill to the parking lot. I had the rope in my hand when I stepped on the boat with my left foot. The boat jerked away from the dock, I pulled the rope but it did nothing. The boat kept slowly sliding outward away from the dock where my right foot still resided. I started doing the splits. This was quickly becoming problematic and I rotated to do the splits JCVD style. I desperately groped for the reaching stick on the front seat that we’d been using to keep us off the rocks. I hooked it on the cleat and pulled madly to try and bring the boat back. I wasn’t able to do it, and that extra pulling got me off balance and I tumbled into the lake. Luckily it was a clean entry outside of my foot banging the dock as I fell. I had my life jacket on so was able to get to the surface easily. I started swimming to shore but soon realized I could use the dock to pull myself along. I got to the shallow area and stood. I quickly pulled out my phone, FitBit and keys. I reached for my wallet only to find it missing from the pocket it was in. The other devices worked but my heart was sinking quickly. I pulled off the life jacket and hoody I had on and the Mayor looked at me, soaking wet, in surprise. I told him why I was soaking wet and he laughed until I mentioned my wallet and sunglasses were missing (I’d noticed that also). He took the boat back to his place and grabbed his pool skimmer. While he was gone I started carefully walking the concrete pad of the launch, feeling with my feet. In a few minutes I’d found my sunglasses, unscratched! That gave me some confidence that I’d find my wallet. I had pretty much search the entire pad about six feet from the dock to the end of the pad. After that it was over my head and I couldn’t reach bottom. We used the skimmer until it broke but only pulled up stones. Mother happened to be walking by with a friend and then came to chat with us. A couple of hours passed and things were feeling bleak. There was no telling where it could have floated or even where it fell out. It could be anywhere along the dock or under it, or further out on the pad. The wind was blowing in at the time but changed later in the day to go out, it’s hard to say where it might be. I am offering a $150 reward for it’s return.

I spent a couple hours in the cold water before we gave up and I was feeling it. My core temp was definitely down. We went back to the Mayor’s place as a pair of dejected dudes. We got the boat cleaned back out and closed up. My aunt insisted that I put a blanket around my shoulders to keep me warm. It had some fringe on it, I tied it around my neck to keep it in place while we emptied the boat. As it happened, the high school was having their graduation ceremony or ceremonies more specifically. Each graduate got their name and future plans announced while the parents filmed from their car. Then they moved down the street before loading and leaving. On the other side of the street was a soaking wet, grown man in a makeshift cape, snapping the cover on a boat. That had to be a great memory for the three or four who walked by. We brought the boat back to the farm and I started working on figuring out what I needed to do to get my life back together. First step was a temporary driver’s licence. This would give me some ID for the other aspects and let me drive around to do them myself. Mother came home from her pickleball matches and brought me to the DMV equivalent. Ten minutes before they closed my number was called and it was a very painless process. I told the guy I fell in the lake and lost my wallet and within five minutes I was walking out. We went down to the boat ramp and Mother had threatened to snorkel and look. But she’d never snorkeled before, just brought the Big T’s snorkel. The Mayor brought a leaf rake and another device he uses to clean snow off the roof. We tried for a short time with those tools to find it but couldn’t do much. The water was much colder at this point, further impeding things. We called it after only thirty minutes or searching and basically gave up completely. I can only recount the various decisions that led to me being in that position, so many opportunities to not be there, only one way for it to happen. We drove home, I was feeling dejected. But luckily, as if she knew, Mother had made one of my absolute favourite meals, tuna casserole. It took about a half hour to heat up but it was very welcome.

I was a very tough day but in the end I’m glad no one was hurt. I’m going to be very incovenienced to try and get everything back. I have a pretty good idea every card that was in the wallet and there was no cash, so no loss there. It’s just upsetting. And the motor for the Mayor is a disappointment. So much so that he bought a used motor of the same size, but with a normal configuration that afternoon and he’s driving seven hours to go get it tomorrow. He was definitely sick of dealing with that other one. He asked if I wanted to go on the road trip with him but I’ve got a full schedule for tomorrow and I need to get my life back in order. That would have been a fun voyage too though. I hope he gets a working motor and gets to enjoy the boat. The evening was spent watching crappy TV, mostly Chopped, with my parents. Bed was around ten.

Muddy Monday

Monday started early, it was six when I woke and hustled to the bathroom. I returned to bed but listened to podcasts rather than going back to sleep, which is fine since I’d had a decent one. I got up just ahead of seven but not before the Big T had gone to work. Mother left for her adventures shortly after so I warmed up the last of the egg bites and slathered them in cheese slices and white bread to achieve two sandwiches. It was a light and tasty way to start the day. I got the dogs out before the rain started in earnest, once it started it was for real. It rained and was generally miserable most of the day. There were some hours in the morning spent watching nonsense on TV, I got to see Parking Wars again, a show I used to watch too much of back when I had cable. It was on right before I went to work and I’d watch it while having a coffee and eating breakfast. When that was done I started my day for real and I had a lot of Musings to tackle and then some testing to do for D&D, I also did some light research on that subject. As per Monday tradition, here is a photo of the board I took as I was leaving so you could see how I did on the meal board last week. I was four for five, I didn’t write Family Feast for Friday but that was the plan all along, obviously. Those stuffed peppers would have been with rice and chorizo, a treat for anyone.

It was around one that Mother returned and we had a bowl of leftover soup from the weekend. I supplemented mine with two little pork tenderloin snackers. I split a slice of sliced cheese between the two dinner roll. A solid lunch for sure. After that we tried to watch a movie on the Amazon called Copper Bill. It had an interesting premise but was too terrible to watch all the way. One of the protagonists was a former wrestler and it showed in his performance. I expected him to walk down to the ring at any moment after taunting his opponent. I’m sure it was well written but was pretty poorly executed. We moved on from it anyways.

We started another film called Jumanji: the Next Level. It was enjoyable but apparently non-memorable. We both tried to recall what it was just now unsuccessfully. During that film, Mother insisted that I try a foot bath. She was offended by my dry skin on the feet. She put some scalding water in the device and added some strange spices and herbs of some sort. After several unsuccessful attempts and after the movie I ended, I finally got my flippers in there. All the spa treatments had heat as a component. I went with vibrate and heat, bubbles promised to get too messy. I started the movie Long Shot while melting the dry skin off my heels. I will say that it worked pretty well. More to be done but a start anyways. Maybe if I can get the wad off my left heel my cowboy boots will fit better.

The Big T came home early form work but spent most of the time on the phone anyways. They made a tasty dinner of hot chicken sandwiches, some quick stuffing and frozen vegetables. T wanted this because when he was in high school it used to be one of the hot meal options on the menu at the cafeteria that he couldn’t afford growing up. It was thirty cents and another twenty five for fries. He would sometimes get the fries but couldn’t afford the whole thing so having this was his way of getting back at the world I guess. All it took was the leftover chicken, some canned turkey gravy, bread and margarine. Pretty simple creation but quite tasty. We all had a second helping in some format or another.

After dinner we started watching a movie called Mine. I got to a critical part around eight and had to bail to join a group call with the 2001 senior boys 4x100m relay team. My buddies Villnerd, Sexy Bitch, and Admiral Bonesaw all chatted together for the first time in several years, since Villnerd’s wedding I think. It was nice to catch up. We share a few memories, insights, and barbs. Most of us just drank water and it was all wrapped up at quarter to ten. It wasn’t a crazy busy day but it was enjoyable. A relaxed pace, delicious food and enjoyable entertainment made it a good vacation day. I was asleep before half ten, another day off in the books.

Father’s Day

My eyes sprang open at six bells and the morning was full of plans. I needed to get showered and make the Big T breakfast. I planned to cook him perogies in the air fryer, otherwise he wouldn’t ever try that method. They were hot but lacked some crisp for the first batch. I cooked the bacon in the pan to a nice crispiness, like I know they like. The breakfast was nice. We supplemented the meal with some of the leftover egg cups in a muffin. They were just as good for a second round. Nobody was making a move so I did all the dishes too and then left.

Photo credit: The Big T

I had plans to meet Theodore Complete and his wife at the boat launch at eight. They were taking me out on their new boat to go fishing for an undisclosed period of time. I awkwardly got in the waiting boat and we took off quickly to get to the popular spot called the sandbar on the lake and got the anchor down and locked in to fish. They had minnows on the go but I wanted to try jigging something else to start. They were pulling up fish and I was struggling with my bites so I switched to a light coloured jig head and a minnow to follow their lead. Still I sucked, I could set any hooks. They gave me a tutorial on a better way to hook the bait. I wasn’t getting good hook sets but wasn’t losing bait as often. Next I adjusted my drag to be much looser and low and behold, I caught two fish! They were up to a dozen between them at that point with six or so keepers, nice pickerel.

We couldn’t have asked for better conditions. Sunny, calm and delightful. It was very nice to just sit out in the sun and chat quietly while we fished. Another boat pulled up with a buddy and his family, we were in their traditional spot. More boat started to show up until there were a dozen or so. Lots of father and assumedly son combos. Everyone was having a good time.

Theodore was catching all sizes, this one went back in to grow more.

Photo credit: Theodore Complete

With a good haul and our fill of the sun we headed back in to the launch around noon. They didn’t need much help getting the boat in the trailer so I grabbed my stuff and went home. A lunch of leftover chicken on the bun awaited me there and then I watched the first inning of the Jays with the T. I went to have a time of quiet reflection after that. I had a short nap, did my French lessons and watched some YouTube. I watched the last inning of the Jays with the T, they hung on for the win so I trimmed my beard up and got ready to go to dinner at GRP and KJMH’s place. As we were preparing to depart some relatives on my mother’s side popped in. They are double dosed and six foot distance was maintained. They had a long visit which made us later than expected for dinner. It was a feast. Nice apps and then a decadent spread with a capstone dessert. A formidable meal and one of the nicest I’ve had in awhile. They typically go all out and this was no exception. There was some laughing it up after dinner then we went on a tour to see some old landmarks Mother wanted to point out. We got home at half eight and they argued about hilling potatoes. I went to my room to work on Musings and they figured out their differences and watched track and field. It was a fun day, I ended it early to get a solid sleep.

Satisfying Saturday

Up at 4:45am, left the house at 5:30 when the Big T finished watching his Jays in an Hour. We went straight to the marina to spend some time enjoying a peaceful morning. Fished for an hour before the T lost interest and started gathering driftwood, piling it into a makeshift fire pit someone was using. We both lost one setup, especially painful for me since I had a beautiful six foot fluorocarbon leader that is gone. We got a bite or two but mostly enjoyed the lovely morning.

We returned home to breakfast ready on the table. It featured some of Mother’s muffin tin egg cups. She also had a selection of meats, the logic being that there wasn’t enough bacon so she added some pork tenderloin. The fruit was mostly for aesthetics but I ate some. The same way I eat parsley garnish most times. We used English muffins to sandwich them up with some sliced cheese. Nice meal.

There was an unofficially agreed upon rest after breakfast. I’m not sure if I was able to nap at all. When I came back to life it was to a flurry of activity and knocking back a number of little jobs. I hoed out the end of the garden so it looked cleaner. We moved the tomato greenhouse to enable the T to weed under it, before replacing it. The Mayor showed up to put the carpets in his boat, I helped him with the cover and chatted amicably while he worked. While this was happening the Big T fired up the rototiller and ran it over the spot I’d hoed clean and then around all the potato rows. The hilling is upcoming. We then triple rinsed some chemical jugs that had been on his list and in his way for awhile.

Lunch was next up on the itinerary. Today it was one of the soup mixes that was in the fancy gift basket that we gave Mother on Mother’s Day. This was a tasty styling of chicken soup. The Big T fried up some ham and we used little bread rolls to house them with some bold and spicy mustard. A delightful lunch if I do say so myself, and I do!

The little jobs continued after lunch, I actually lead the charge down to the farm. The first item was to water the new cement pad. After hunting down the chainsaw and its various juices I begged the T to don some PPE before he cut up an old tree that was in the way for moving snow in the winter. My job was to collect the pieces and put them in the truck, much like I did when I was a child. He tried to do another tree around front while he had help but the saw wouldn’t start again so he decided to go get water for the sprayer. He had forgot some keys he needed so had to go back to get them. I started sweeping out the garage while he did that. He returned later without the wood and with the chemical jugs. I helped him hook on the wagon and he went to get water for the sprayer and I finished the garage and then swept out the chicken shed.

Came home after cleaning up and Big T shut it down. We watched some pickleball on the big screen and then the end of Fast and Furious. As soon as that ended it was time to deal with assembling the rotisserie assembly and starting to cook a seven pound chicken. First time any of us had attempted this. We decided to baste it with a butter, salt, pepper and paprika mixture. Then the long wait began. We had some cocktails. I got a Pink Whitney in me and was feeling it after just one drink. Eventually we came back inside and let the chicken churn. Big T was working on potatoes to go with the chicken, that was a prolonged and somewhat painful process. The meal really came together though with the tasty taters, some quick stuffing, leftover jalapeño slaw, and the main event, rotisserie chicken.

Photo credit: Mother

The evening hours were spent much the same way as the previous night. We put on a movie, this time it was I’m Your Woman. Another hidden gem type movie. It was fairly intense and somewhat stressful to watch but overall I’d say it’s worth the watch. The movie ended around ten and so did my day. I was asleep in pretty good time desite the foreign bed. I’ve almost figured out how to sleep in it. I’ve mentioned it before but I do hate footboards as a taller person. Stupid and pointless device. I think it was nearly half ten when I left my consciousness.

Road Master

Woke at the normal time and scrambled to load the truck before it started to rain for real. There was a clearing out of the fridge and making of a lunch. It wasn’t a nice lunch by any means, I wrapped two chicken breasts in saran wrap and put 8-10 marshmallows in a ziploc bag. I managed to get on the road around eight, just as the rain started to pick up. I had a quick chat with the Chef that I cut off to get fuel. I filled the truck’s tank after I got a McBreakfast. I was supposed to call him right back, but I didn’t. I got on a call from 8:30am until 10am instead and then followed that up with a couple calls to colleagues to check-in and ask a few questions to round out my knowledge of what things were doing in their area. By the time that was done I wasn through the Big Smoke and Barrie and into the nicer part of the drive. Big T called quickly to check in but otherwise it was clear sailing. Around one I pulled into North Bay and stopped at the Buj’s place drop off a gift for him. We ate at the same time near each other, it was nice to do.

Once I got back on the road the Chef called me back wondering if I’d fallen off the face of the Earth. To be fair, it had been several hours. We chatted for a bit. I finished the drive and unloaded the truck. It was a short span of visiting until we started into the family feast. It was odd being in someone else’s kitchen for it. I tried to help out and we got it done, fancy chicken burgers and a jalapeño slaw.

STL Sister’s buger and slaw.

Sudbury Sister’s burger and slaw.

Big T wanted to show open version.

Big T wanted to show closed version.

The Tugboat’s version isn’t really different than the parents version but felt it should have a photo too.

After dinner we watched a movie called Child 44. It had a decent cast and would fall into the hidden gem class. Bed came after that and it didn’t take long to fall asleep. It was a long day of voyaging but the start to an exciting opportunity.

Preparation Thursday

Another early morning and great start to the day. Breakfast was tasty and I was up and raring to go ahead of eight. I started on time but wish I’d taken a few more minutes for myself. I was able to keep myself busy though the morning hours with drafting some emails that I would send en mass later in the day. I prepared a file that would allow me to quickly do an extra set this year to make life easier for the customers after that. It didn’t take me long but was a nice addition to the drafted emails I had set up. After a morning of puttering around with those types of jobs and staying on top of requests as they came in, it was lunch time. That was a quick a morning. Lunch wasn’t different than the previous day by much. There was a bowl of Campbell’s Chunky Potato and Bacon soup with a Stouffer’s Bistro Crustini BBQ Chicken panini. The day was just as gorgeous as the one before so I took the show outside again. The wireless headphones allowed me to blare my content in my ears without disturbing anyone else. Something I wish the neghbour to the south of me would figure out. It was another delightful and relaxing lunch.

After such a nice, relaxing lunch, I posted that long term project I started back in February, finally done with it. Unless there are questions and concerns. I celebrated by getting some laundry going, I wanted full pick of my clothes to pack with. I started work on the next project, some files I’d be using with customers in August. They were started early in the year but I went through them, tab by tab to get things in a more final state that I could show customers. There were a few other items that popped up to keep me occupied. I also posted a lot of material for customers and then around four I sent out the notifications I’d drafted up to alert them to this fact. That finished off the project. I got a few thank you notes not long after. Glad that project is done. I pulled the plug around five (in hindsight, that maybe have been early, people were looking for me later than that) and I went to imagine my dinner. I didn’t want to BBQ the chicken I was supposed to cook and make a sizeable mess with sauce so I cheated and did them in the oven with some pepper and too much salt. This way I could had the chicken during my voyage. I extracted a couple of wraps from the fridge and laid a cheese foundation and then layered in some spinach. The roughly chopped chicken was next with a thinner layer of more monterey jack cheese on top with some sauce. These were hearty wraps. I washed them down with a can of Sprite to change things up. That can had been in the fridge for a couple of months and I thought he deserved a nice exit.

After dinner hours were reseved tonight for preparing for my upcoming voyage. I got the laundry folded and packed a bag of clothes. I packed a bag of audio/visual stuff in case I feel creative while up there. I packed up my personal laptop that doesn’t get much use after testing that it still worked and that it could run Roll20. It worked on my lush internet at home, the test will be how it runs on the rural internet where I’m going. I packed up some fishing gear and other outdoor odds and sods. Around nine I felt I’d got most of what i wanted to bring assembled. I knew there was some food things to deal with in the morning but that could only be done then. I thought about trying to get to sleep extra early to enable an earlier start but it didn’t amount to much gain. I was out just after ten, which is impressive considering how excited I was to be going on my first real vacation of the year, really since Christmas. Outside of some sporadic days off I’ve been trucking all along.

Heroic Hump Day

Again I was up ahead of seven, starting to get back in the groove finally. It was a normal morning with a great breakfast, back into the groove for that too. Work started just head of eight and it was a quiet morning. No emails for the first couple hours of the day which allowed me time to catchup on and close out some items. Around half nine I ventured out to clean the inside windows of the truck. It felt like it was too nice of a day to stay inside. I think that desire to work outside had been building for awhile and the combo of a quiet morning and the right task aligned to get me out. While I was near the truck, I decided to rip up to the local equivalent of the DMV. I needed to ask a few questions to see what would be required to get a new plate for my boat trailer. That turned into an absolute debacle. It was a very unpleasant experience, the woman working ther seemed to intentionally be terrible and want to ruin my time. I softened the blow by going shopping for the Big T’s Father’s Day gift. I returned home, having been gone for only forty five minutes. There were a couple of emails to deal with and some training to do before it was lunch time. I made a mundane lunch out of a can of Campbell’s Chunky Pepper Steak and Potato soup and a Stouffer’s Bistro Crustini Turkey Bacon Club panini. Since patios are open I decided to eat on mine, again, beautiful day.

Afternoon flew by working on work. I may have found something that will lead to a tense discussion later. Ugh, why can’t people do things right? Powered down around half five. Then got a call from a colleague. Got cardboard pizza with added shredded cheese and hot sauce going again. It was well cooled by the time I ate it. Tried a little HomeScapes without paying anything until D&D time. Laid out my rant about the DMV for the fellas before the session began. It was a tense session, very unexpected direction. I got a big kill at the end but may have made a grievous, rookie mistake, we’ll see what happens between sessions. Bed was next.