Forgettable Friday

This will be a short one, not much of consequence went down. I didn’t even get a picture, that is the first time in a very long time, as you’ll know if you’re a regular reader. Which you probably aren’t because the most frequent looky-loo’s to my published diary are probably twice a week people. But anyways, let me regale you with the minutia of my boring Friday. I woke up late but still had to get all pretty. I wasn’t tight for time since there was no call scheduled first thing, it was moved to yesterday remember. Well I didn’t explicitly tell you that then but I am now. Even without a rush I still had a blueberry pancake thing from the stockpile that Mother sent. I think I can use that power-up one more time. Can you tell I’ve been playing too much Marvel Strike Team? Today was marked as a ”slow-down day” in our calendars. I’m not entirely sure what that was meant to mean but I figured for the ambitious it was a day to avoid scheduling meetings and working on cleaning up your email or moving files around or some such maintenance task that nobody ever really does. For most people it meant a four day weekend apparently. I had two customers move their lifecycle meetings that we have with them to today. One changed this week which was annoying. Always the good soldier, I accomodated them, they were seemingly thankful for that. The first meeting ran over time into the half hour buffer I’d built between the meetings. The second one was aiming at running way over time but I was able to muscle us along and get everything covered off. Then I returned Garzy’s call and noticed it was nearly two. I didn’t have much for lunch, certainly nothing I wanted to eat so I ordered the dreaded Pizza Pizza. I got myself a grilled chicken caesar salad, ten chicken bites with sriracha garlic dipping sauce, and their new chicken sandwich. I missed telling you earlier in the week maybe but I’d tried that sandwich already. It was incredibly overcooked but definitely had the potential to be good. The bun wasn’t fantastic, which could be expected of a pizza company to not know burger buns. The sauce was essentially non-existent which didn’t help the dry burned aspect. This time though, it was slightly less overcooked and there was a hint of sauce. It was an improvement but still not worth the $7.29 they charge for it, what a ludicrous price. I guess when its the only sandwich on the menu costs will be higher. Also, the Chef tells me that the price of chicken from processors is getting insane. Price to producers hasn’t gone up much but it has long been the food processors that enjoy the profits. Restaurants take some margin but it’s generally pretty slim on the food (they make their nut on the drinks). I’ve ranted about that several times over the years so I won’t elaborate further. The food came around three and I had my late lunch/early dinner. I passed the time with some YouTube and some Marvel Strike Team. After enjoying the meal down at the kitchen table I moved back to my office. I had a lot of MSC challenges still that hadn’t gotten the attention they deserved through the week. I knocked off quite a few and the next I looked at the clock it was around eight. I guess the lawn will have to wait. I was disappointed that I didn’t cut it and decided that Saturday was going to be a productive day. Then I marched off to bed and fooled around on the mini for an hour before getting to sleep around ten. I’m sure I’m forgetting something but it was a pretty forgettable day outside of those two action packed meetings with their vibrant discussions. Ah well, I’ll tell you if it’s relevant.

Three Acts

Finally a day that started at a decent hour, half six. All the morning routine was done quickly and there was lots of time to get back to a more routine breakfast. The breakfast bullets were as I remembered them. It was like taking a walk down a familiar hallway and sitting in a familiar room looking upon it’s familiar walls. I had to haul them upstairs with me though as I forgot I had a call first thing. I munched them down while listening to my American team talk about their tours and when they’re going to have their big meetings in the fall. Thus began act one of my day.

The meeting ended on time and then I had a call from a colleague to ask some questions and that dovetailed into another call then I had some emails that needed answering right away. I only had an hour or so to do the task I wanted to get done, planning my tour through Quebec. During the meetings I had also started a load of laundry and needed to make sure that it got finished in the dryer before it was time for me to start the second act. The energy was somewhat frantic in act one. I did get pretty far into my planning for that tour by making a list of every site they’ve got and what trials are in them. I then planned a route by day. I think I need to check the priority level of the sites with the researchers running them before locking things down, that will have to be next week. I have a bit of time next week before everything kicks off and I’ll be on the road running plot days and taking endless notes on corn and soybean candidates. Hopefully I can get it all done in time. Lunch was a can of Campbell’s Chunky Chicken and Sausage Gumbo with some crackers. I hurriedly gathered my things and rushed out the door to start the second act of the day.

I started to pull away from the Harbour when I realized that my fuel level was about half. The truck was telling me that I had enough juice to travel 350+km and the GPS was telling me one way was 110km. Worst case I’d have to get fuel on the way home somewhere. That line of reasoning took me until halfway to the closest gas station to realize and as such I lost five minutes of my precisely planned trip. I had departed such that I only had five minutes to spare. Luckily for me I soon realized that both I didn’t really care if I was a few minutes late and also that I’d likely make up some time on the way and be on time. The latter came true, I made up the five minutes and was there two minutes before the scheduled start. Furthermore, I was the third one there and got a decent parking spot. What were we doing you ask? Well, we were meeting with some academics at their tarspot research location down in the southwest. They had some trials looking at different control methods as well as some genetic screening. I learned that not all fungicides are created equal in controlling or suppressing this pest and that multiple applications might have to be considered. I learned that 40% infection of an individual leaf is the tipping point and then the whole leaf essentially dies. And I learned that genetics is a major piece to getting this new to us disease under wraps. It seemed to us that the later germplasm was better at holding it off, this is a significant nugget. There were a few early ones that worked well against and it really stood out as a row of green in a sea of brown. There was a wild barn kitten running amok the whole time we were there. It was great to learn about this disease and the measures being tested to control it from the master. Also it was good to see some colleagues, even if they were from the branded side. I realized I don’t see many people in person anymore. When it ended I didn’t stick around for a cold beverage, I said goodbye and raced to my truck, eager to get act three started.

Act three is my personal time in the evening. I listened to my Drizz’t book on the way home and I made the meal I generally make before D&D, cardboard pizza. Because I haven’t done any shopping since returning from my holiday and I didn’t leave the fridge stocked, I didn’t have any fun additions to make to the disc this time. I wolfed down the Pollo Pizza by Dr Oetker. Then I did some light reading online before preparing for the session. I got the water filled, I went to the bathroom, I grabbed a couple of relevant texts and my notebook, tested my headset and started going over the ideas we had collected to beat our foe. We were at our temporary base and immediately heading into a big encounter. I guess they are all big from here on out. We had a fun time and will have our hands full, I feel less terrified compared to last time when we faced the purple worms but we’ll see how it goes. Things were quiet and a bit tense in the pre-game time and everyone had to get a move on after but we may try having a session before our next regular one. It was awesome to get back to it.

I stayed on the computer for a bit after the session and did some more Amazon perusing. I decided to get a battery charger and extra battery for my new GoPro9. Then I took my Marvel Strike Team on some missions before heading to bed at about quarter to eleven. It was a satisifying close to act three and to my day in general. Nice mix of activities to keep things fun for everyone, well just for me at least.

Training Day

My nervous made sure I was up pretty early today. My plan was to leave the house ahead of seven. I got myself cleaned up and reviewed my slides twice. I wouldn’t be using them directly but wanted to make sure I had all the contact correct and the narrative in order. Since I was leaving so early and had to get fuel and some drinks, I figured I’d just get a McBreakfast to save time. All said and done, I was on the road around ten after seven and heading deeper into the southwest. I arrived unreasonably early at the Chatham location. My plan was to be early to scout out where to have the stations and help take down or put up signs. As it turned out, the girl who runs the site had already done that perfectly. She’s pretty awesome at her job. She dropped in some corn and soybean signs for me. At my old research farm I used to keep a larger inventory of signs so could have put up more but I’m sure the new team has tossed them by now. The moral is that I was senselessly early and it was a beautiful day. We worked away quietly in the office briefly before the guests started to arrive.

I winged the intro and had everyone do a meet and greet before we got into the content. For the first section, soybean traits, I figured we’d have a good forty five minutes based on Monday’s performance but it wasn’t me delivering that section so it went much quicker than anticipated. That meant a lot of time for questions and discussion. We had a nice one and got some good intel from their team. I was second on the roster while the person who went first went to go pick up the lunch I’d arranged and paid for already. I talked their ear off about corn and both sections ended up consuming the two hours before lunch. Lunch was pizza from a place called Mike’s Place nearby. BDP claimed all the leftovers before we started eating, I’m not sure if he felt like I had to compensate him for coming or something. After eating he said we could have it, mentioning that was the worst food he’s had from that place, which he once frequented. I guess absence didn’t make his heart grow fonder.

I had him present after lunch and he did a good job outlining what crop protection products our company sells and will be selling soon. I finished things off by talking briefly about seed treatment and then about our digital platform. We had a pretty candid discussion on that as well, they shared their experience which for the most part had been negative. That didn’t spoil the day though, everyone had a good time and apparently they all learned a couple of things. I just about asked them to share two things they’d take away from the meeting but I chickened out. I helped put away the drinks and tidy up before going to check on the plots. I’m going to have a plot tour at this site later in the fall and I wanted to check on things while I was there. Everything looks really good at the site which is especially impressive because her helper has been on the shelf with a freak knee injury suffered outside of work. After checking the plots I got on the road again. I was meeting Tosser for dinner again and had to get back home. Tonight we made a point of going to Swiss Chalet. His colleague from the night before chides him endlessly for his passionate defence of the chicken place. It was really funny to get him going about it and listen to his speech. We had a nice dinner and got to catch up some. I had the clubhouse wrap and fries. He had a chicken dinner. We both ordered perogies to start and they were amazing.

He had a lot of business questions, some I couldn’t answer but most I gave him something, nothing I shouldn’t have of course. Most of what I do in my role is highly confidential so I’ve become accustomed to not openly answering questions and I think about reprecussions of my answers before I give them. I didn’t notice myself getting that way but it’s starting to be more automatic. I dropped him off at his hotel around eight and I went home and binged some Marvel Strike Force again. I watched a bit of YouTube and got on the computer for a bit. There was no D&D tonight in case you were wondering, one of the party had company so we had to push it a night. We should break our long hiatus tomorrow night. I found my bed around half nine and was asleep around ten. I’d call it a good day out of the office.

Tired Tuesday

Tuesday morning felt like I was living in slow motion. The late start to sleep and waking at seven put me in an unfamiliar state for the morning hours. Everything seemed a bit surreal. I had to really focus on what I was doing. I had a couple more of the delicious blueberry delights for breakfast with some syrup and I filled my thermos with ice water. The food brought me around somewhat and the water was definitely helping. I had to get fully cleaned up and ready because I had a pair of customer meetings, one in the morning and one in the evening. This week was going to be the brands that worked with the Western account manager. I had to put them off until now to accomodate several vacation schedules. The first one I thought would be pretty quick by they had a lot of questions for us and we had some fantastic discussions. I think that energized me. There wasn’t much of an interval from the end of that meeting and lunch but I was snapping it around like nobody’s business. It might have been adrenaline kicking in, I’ll never know. When I went down for lunch I had a package waiting for me, an expensive one. When I was at home I’d experimented with the Chef’s GoPro3 some more and decided I would just get my own. I told you about how I pulled the trigger, well it showed up sooner than expected. I got it charging straight away so I could try it out.

It presents me with a mild dilemma though, until now I’ve been putting everything on to my phone and using editing software I got from work. Now that I have three sources of video that aren’t my phone, I should probably get proper editing software for my computer, but what kind, it seems like I would get bogged down trying to choose. That said, for those three cameras I have, I can port it all to my phone, but it’s troublesome getting it off the phone, much more so than off the devices to my computer. I might have to graduate to the real thing, then it would just be hard to move the videos I take with the phone over. I’m a bit torn on the issue. Anyways, the afternoon meeting was just me and the customer this time and it went pretty smooth. Some light gossip back and forth and the meeting content. I updated the database with some changes and worked on some of my projects. I think I’m more prepared for the fall rush this year but there still seems to be things to do and I’m sure I’ll end up in a scramble again this year. I’m starting to get a bit apprehenisive for the plane flight and rental car portion of my journey but I’ll talk to some people who have done it this year before I go, help me get some expectations. Speaking of talking to people, I unexpectedly got invited to dinner with a couple of customers including a friend from school, Tosser. I met them at six after work at the local Montana’s. We had some beer and food and laughed it up. I think it was a good conversation.

I got home from around half eight and let my fatigue take hold. I crawled into my bed, played a bit of Marvel Strike Force and drifted into oblivion around half nine I think. I needed to.

Grindstone

Despite the decent bedtime the night before I found myself struggling to get out of bed. It was well after seven when I finally emerged from my comforts. I got cleaned up and ready for the day rather slowly too so I was tight for time on breakfast. I was hoping for something quick as I had to prepare for a training I was giving. I naturally didn’t study up over the weekend, why would I? I guess this time I did have an excuse as in I was driving home on one of the days. Luckily for me, on that drive, I was transporting some frozen delights that Mother sent along. Among them was some blueberry pancake loaf. I’m not sure what to call it exactly but I watched her use two sheet pans to do it so let’s go with that. I wiped them butter after nuking them for fifty five seconds per side and then drizzled them with maple syrup, the real thing, not that table sirop trash that I’ve seen in restaurants. They were tasty, filling and quick. Really came in handy in the pinch.

I got that cleaned up and moved to my office. I fired up the system and got into it. First was the weekly corn and soybean meeting that went by pretty fast then I checked in with some colleagues before doing that training. I went way over my time, I had an hour and it took me seventy five minutes and that was rushing. There were some familiar faces on the call and it seemed to go well. That brought me into lunch so I found my way to the kitchen. I was didn’t have much time to eat so I knocked back a can of Campbell’s Chunky soup with some crackers quickly. As I was doing the dishes I had a package arrive. When I was still up North I’d put in an order for some items I wanted from Amazon. One of them was a pair of rain gloves for golfing. I don’t really golf much anymore but these were on sale and the pair cost about as much as a regular glove, which I also ordered after the one I had blew out the palm. In my experience, only the Wilson Staff XL gloves fit me any kind of normally. I hope that is still true. Anyways, I tried this on quickly for fit and then took them off and put them in the bag, you should only use these when they’re wet or you could destroy them, or so I was told by Cheese.

I got back to work and had a one on one meeting with my boss for a half hour before conducting a customer meeting to round out the day. I finished the small things I was working on and wrapped up the work day at five. I figured I could finish a bit early considering that it was my first day back. I returned to the kitchen and knocked back the leftover tots that were in the fridge. That wasn’t going to be enough to tide me over until morning though. I also gobbled down three granola bars and some cookies. The evening was pretty quiet, I continued to stow my stuff, water plants, clean surfaces, etc. while enjoying crushing my podcast queue. Around eight I bedded down for the night with the idea to watch some YouTube until sleep took me. But I got a notification on the Mini that this game I’d installed at the behest of my friends had some new supplies for me. I’ve tried it for weeks and my mini can’t run it for whatever reason. But this time it did for a bit. I got a few steps in before it crashed. So I decided to test it on my phone and see if it was the device or the internet connection. It was the device, the app worked great on my phone. I had installed it with my personal ID but I always switch back to my work one when the installation is complete and I’ve never had an issue, it thinks it’s under my personal one. But not this time, this time it’s tying itself to the work ID. Not an issue, but it means I basically have two accounts now for this game. So I was starting from scratch, which was the case anyways. I played it. Mistake! It was eleven when I realized what was happening and I put it down. Unfortunately for me, my stupid idiot brain was awake and it took until nearly three in the morning for me to shut it off. I think I was also a bit stressed for the big training I had in person later in the week and that may have been a factor in my inability to slumber. Either way, that sucks.

Reset Sunday

Sunday was a quiet day of contemplation and reset. I have a couple of big training events planned for this week and needed to review the material and that was on my mind. Too much so. I didn’t really make a breakfast, opting to have some muffins Mother sent along with me and some juice. I fired up my computer and had a go at the big mountain of MSC challenges that had accumulated while I was away for two weeks. I managed to chip away at it. I did some other interneting also and came across a deal for a GoPro Hero 9. I’d already decided that I needed one and with a 15% savings I had to pull the trigger. I ordered it. I spent some time researching my next big purchase too before lunch. Lunch was just more muffins and water. Maximum laziness. I went out and watered my flowers again. Some are coming back to form. My fifty cent roses are starting to flower. I didn’t expect that!

I spent some time unpacking and came across part of the gift I got from Admiral Bonesaw and Dutchie. There are four fancy mustards, some jerk marinade and candy. Pretty good. I also got a fancy blanket and some sassy glasses from them, that may have been my Christmas gift. I just set them up on the table for now, not sure where one keeps such items.

The afternoon was spent doing two things, writing a backup character back story and napping. After typing away on my laptop in my bed I eventually just keeled over. I worked hard on that story with links to source material and pictures and everywhere through it. I’ll probably read it again a couple of times before considering posting it. It has been a long time since I put this kind of creativity into something, feeling a bit nervous and wondering if it’s any good. You know that feeling, like you try on something but you don’t know if it’s any good? Anyways, I did that for the majority of the afternoon and into the evening. I did make a batch of McCain Cheesy Tater Tots around six and I ate half and stowed half in my surprisingly empty fridge. The evening was wasted watching some YouTube videos and re-reading my story. I did start into some more MSC challenges at one point but nothing too major. I was in the bed before nine and asleep around ten.

Journey Home

There isn’t going to be a lot of detail to share in this post because the vast majority of the day was spent doing one thing, returning home. I slept exceeding well the night before as I told you yesterday and Big T wanted to make me a nice breakfast before I left. It turned into some eggs on a bagel that looked strikingly like the one I crushed yesterday except with some bacon. I hauled all my many bags upstairs before seven and was ready to load the truck after eating, except it was pouring rain as I feared it would be. I had packed the larger items in the truck bed yesterday so I just had all my bags and boxes. I was able to get them all safely stowed in just three trips. I hugged my parents goodbye and set off. My first stop was for fuel and I took my time setting things up before I left from there. I got my GPS programmed, I warned some friends of my passage and route and then struck off. I arrived in North Bay not two hours later and eventually met up with She for second breakfast. She was late, but that wasn’t a shock or a hinderance to me. While I was waiting for her I got a series of nice texts from Mother thanking me for all the help I did around the property to clean things up. Those are tasks that Big T seemingly refuses to do despite their ease. We met at Syl’s Neighbourhood Kitchen and got seated immediately inside. We chatted about some inconsequential things during the meal, which was great. I got the eggs benedict, something I wouldn’t bother making at home.

After some confusion in finding the bathroom I got everything paid for as part of her birthday present and we headed outside to properly exchange gifts. I’d got her something more substantial the last couple of times so I didn’t want to overdo it this time and gave her a box of the excess Q-tips I talked about in another post as a bit of a gag, some fun bag clips for chips and such, and a bag of Franks brand red berries to keep that tradition alive. She thought the ear swabs were funny, was a bit miffed on the unicorn clips until I explained I was looking for rabbit ones but this was the only choice. I didn’t give her a card, it’s not really my style. She got me a neat plant, somewhat deformed like my other cacti. She also got me some soap made of beer and it actually smells amazing, nothing like beer. I was worried I was going to have another bacon soap dilemma to deal with. She wrote me a heartfelt card, thus making me feel bad for not getting her one. It was a nice gift for sure. I hope to use the soap up quickly and keep the cacti alive for a long time. We said our goodbyes I was on the move again. Booj was out of town so I took the gift I got him back with me, it made a long road trip for no reason as it turns out.

The rest of the trip was mainly uneventful and went by fairly fast. I had my iPod plugged in to rock my time capsule type tunes. I was forced to fuel up around Barrie and that was a zoo and a half. I went pee first and parking in that lot was dumb and then I had to weasel into a pump ahead of a guy with a trailer, he honked at me but him taking up two pumps for no reason was a stupid and selfish plan that I helped him out of. My card didn’t work at the pump so I was forced to go inside and thus bought some Nibs and Ketchup Doritos to act as a snack until I got home. Traffic was unexpectedly thick for the rest of the way. For a Saturday afternoon that isn’t a part of a long weekend the traffic flowing from cottage country was insane. Why were so many people go into the city? The driving skill seems to continue to erode over time too, so many idiots out there. When I made the merge onto the other major route it was messy. I wish they’d teach the zipper merge in school, not driving school but actual school. It’s such a basic concept but all these self important morons believe they are more valuable than everyone else and should be able to get to the end of a merge lane and cause everyone behind them to stop so they can get in, rather than merging into a moving line. Leaving space is a foreign concept too. When things slow down and traffic gets thick I drop back a few car lengths. Not only does that let people on and off who need to use the exits, it also keeps me from riding my brakes and tailgating. Being right up the butthole of the car in front gains you nothing, not one thing. You will arrive at the same time if you are riding their bumper and continually flashing your brakes or if you are a few lengths back and coasting into easy thirty percent braking. It’s simple stuff that would make the roads more palatable. Usually I scream at idiots until my throat is sore but I was in a shake my head and watch mood today. The traffic was thick from Gravenhurst all the way past Milton, it was pretty stupid. There was some construction in a few zones but it was generally just congestion. Eventually I got myself home and for dinner I had Nibs and some cake. I had cake for dessert too. I drank some lovely juice with that, having been hard on the water during the drive. I was able to get everything inside fairly quickly, which was good because it was grossly hot out. I found my packages that I had asked my old assistant Gerbs to hide in the garage for me. My new knives came early, as did my bells for the fishing rod. Those were a bit of an impulse purchase.

After eating that junk the rest of my evening was mostly spent unpacking and integrating all my new stuff into my home. I’ve managed to fill the house up with crap now. If I ever move I’m going to need a full truck this time. I fooled in the last couple hours of the day and was able to find slumber somewhere between half ten and eleven. It’s nice to be home for a day to recover and reset before getting back to work.

Quiet Friday

Woke with a start at half six to the sound of someone playing basketball in the kitchen. As it turns out it was just the clothes in the dryer. The term clothes should be taken loosely in this context, apparently there was a pair of shoes in there. Who washes shoes?! I came upstairs and after conversing with Mother I warmed myself up some leftover hasbrowns and fried a pair of eggs. The eggs were the star of a sandwich which featured the culinary stylings of a cheese bagel, a thicc slice of cheese and some sriracha ranch dipping sauce. It was a yum-yum for m’ tum-tum.

I spent some time in the morning on my work computer. I was booking my travel arrangements for my trip to the West. It was like a new experience because it had been so long since I’d done so. I got everything done except for the car, apparently the company has changed the policy so now you can only reserve a mini, compact or economy. Nope, not gonna work. I contacted my admin and she says I have to call the travel agency we use and they’ll do it for me. I cleaned up email and sent a few other things out, hopefully resolving issues. I set up a call for the afternoon to touch base with a colleague who is away next week to make sure there are no major issues going to fall into my lap on Monday, there was one we needed to talk about apparently. I went upstairs and sat with Mother. She was attempting to be a vet and had smothered the dog’s parasite in vaseline to try and starve it for air. She left it for fifteen minutes and then tried to use her tweezers to pull it out. It is critical you don’t squash or break the thing as it could lead to dog death. Her plan actually worked but the little parasite was much too small to grab. She saw it poke it’s gross head out several times. Picture playing peekaboo with a tiny maggot. The little dog was only sort of scared during the operation.

After exiting the surgical theatre, Mother made lunch. She made a prepared soup from Amber’s, it was sort of Indian in flavour profile, might have had some curry too. I supplemented the meal with the last pogos that STL sister had purchased and some of the large vat of juice I needed to drink. It was an odd pairing but delicious nonetheless.

The afternoon was spent with the Big T. He came home early from work having booked it off. The combine was still busted so he couldn’t get any field work going. He spent over an hour after lunch working on the dog much the same as Mother had in the morning. He applied vaseline to the wound on its back and then waited and then tried to nab the little worm. I tried to have my call but apparently my colleague left late and his partner was on the phone so we’d try later. Eventually Big T gave up on the surgery and we went down to the Farm to free up a wagon. We had to haul the auger down from upstairs in the barn and tie it to the roof, the board wasn’t sturdy enough so I made him do it properly. We pulled the wagon up, put the auger under and then found a skid and some totes and started filling them up. He predicted there would be five totes. I managed to listen to a podcast with my headphones during the process. It was very dusty work and Big T wore a proper respirator but I didn’t have mine so went without, which I would later regret. We got pretty good at filling them after the first one and it turned out to be five. I forced him to clean up the area we were in but the barn is a diaster. There were at least four chipmunks running around and evidence that some raccoons were living in there. Everyone seems to be content with living in their filth. I might have to go there in the spring or something and try to fix that, maybe Thanksgiving, it’s embarrassing. With that job completed we returned home just in time for the Family Feast. The meal this round was Crispy Chicken Schnitzel Dinner. There was some beating of the meat and then roasting of the vegetables before cooking the breaded meat. I was with my parents for this one obviously and we had the benefit of enjoying freshly dug potatoes that I washed and green beans that were picked hours before. You can’t get fresher food than that. It was a nice meal.

The version prepared by STL sister.

The version that Sudbury Sister created. She was fastest this time and well prepared.

The plate that The Tugboat ate.

Parents version. Big T made a smiley face on the chicken?

The only downside to the meal was that Big T did a couple of shots of tequila and smoked four beers in an hour and was a bit much to handle. For my part I was starting to feel pretty dozy after eating. I had planned to take some of my stuff out to the truck tonight in fears that it would be raining in the morning but immediately after dinner I went to lay down for a few minutes. I passed out completely and slept the entire night. That is pretty unusual before a big trip, generally I’m anxious to drive back and go to bed later than I should and then wake up ultra early. Hopefully this robust sleep will make the return trip that much more enjoyable. I woke up around midnight to pee and discovered a text from my parents asking me to come watch Rocketman with them and there was a bowl of jalapeno, crunchy cheesies on the bedside table. That’s a weird thing to wake up to when you’re not expecting it.

Tale of Two Thursdays

I was up early today and both my parents were on their way out of the house, actually the Big T was already out and gone to work and Mother was going to meet her chums for an activity and then a walk. Breakfast was going to be a me issue and I had to manage the dogs for the morning, which means letting them out once before I leave to enact my own plans. Before I could do that I had to eat. I decided to help clean up some items they didn’t want in their freezer anymore. One such item was frozen hashbrowns which were discovered buried in the bottom. I must have been feeling whimisical because I brought to life the vision I’d had when I learned of the hashbrowns. This visually fun meal was two of each of the ingredients and was a joy to eat. I did have to reheat the egg based on timing of everything else and it spoiled the perfect aesthetic but otherwise I was happy with the effort.

Just as I was starting to dig into this marvel the phone rang and Big T wanted me to help him with a favour. In classic fashion it was a reasonable request. He was looking for me to drive him down to the Farm to pick up the farm truck and move it to our place so Jacko had a means to get down there at a certain part in what they had schemed up together. Often they both create independent plans for the day and then clash where their ideas do. I was starting to get the impression that Big T assumed I was on staff and worked for him again. I agreed to the caper. I had to let the dogs out before I left and the old girl Coco went out and came back as bidden but the smaller dog, Titi did not return but was barking his damn fool head off at the south end of the house. I was in something of a rush so I donned my Crocs and went to investigate. He had cornered a chipmunk in a chunk of dislodged drainpipe by chasing it in there and then biting one end closed. Apparently he’s done this before. He was barking frustratedly at the rodent who was just out of his reach. I picked up the tube and decided to shake it out into the cedar hedge on the right of the below photo (which is a still from a video). He was snapping at the open end until I got it out of his reach. Eventually the chipmunk escaped and I could swear it was the very same one that I had granted a reprieve to from the trap. Incredibly luckily I was around. I got the ferocious beast of a dog into the house and brought the Big T. Naturally we had to make a pit stop along the way, one he easily could have done afterwards.

There was no additions to that simple caper and I was finally able to escape into town. There is something that I did around Christmas that I very much enjoyed and haven’t been able to do since. I went to Canadian Tire and just walked around the store. I didn’t have anything in particular that I needed, I’d highlighted some sale items I could use but was just there to shop. I walked nearly every aisle in the entire store. I filled my cart. Most of the items were for others, either Mother, the Farm or friends. I did get some stuff for myself too. I didn’t use my $75 worth of gift cards, mostly because I forgot but also because I didn’t buy the battery for the boat on this trip. I’d spent too much time wandering to go ask for help with that. I fielded a couple calls from the Big T. I also tried to convince him to buy a leaf blower but they flatly refuse, not using their imagination to see how many applications it would have for their operation and how much easier it would make their life.

I got home before lunch and spent some time showing Mother my prizes. I also gave her the things I’d purchased for her, some for outside and some for inside. Jacko was out at the combine working on cleaning the wheat out of it before they started into the oat field. I put some things in the cab and showed him what I’d picked up to help make their lives easier. I was starting to help and get dirty but was still wearing my town clothes so went in to change. Mother had lunch ready, it was the last of the cheddar broccoli soup and an aggressive amount of watermelon. In reality it was just a half of a watermelon left over from my birthday but it sure stacked up high in that bowl. She challenged me to finish it before I left in a couple of days. It capped off a decently relaxing morning.

After lunch I decided I’d better take a truck and clean up the building pile of brush that I’d been stacking in front of the bin so life would be easier for them. I had the two big piles I’d generated and one that was there since I got there in the wheel barrow. I loaded it all into the truck and didn’t bother tying it down, something I’d regret a mile in. I had to go about one third of normal speed the rest of the journey. I unloaded it and tried to put it on the top of the pile. There was one little straggler branch at my feet once the bulk was out and when I reached down to get it while looking at the big pile and generally not paying attention I got nipped. I’m not exactly sure if it was giant hogweed but it sure looked like it. I brushed the stem not the drying flower and it scratched me in a couple places. I didn’t feel any pain but there was a blister within minutes. I got home and rinsed it with cold water and then washed it gently with soap and water and then flushed it again before repeating the process. I did this on the other wrist too where there were two smaller blisters. I didn’t like the uncertainty. There was no pain and it didn’t spread in the sunlight, but did expand outwards, which was gross. I repeated the washing routine and then donned a pair of bandages and went out to help.

The plan was to start into the field North of the house and it was part of the oat program so the local crop consultant was involved. He came to take samples again, as he had with the other field. Big T must have been excited for that because he tried to put the auger out while it was still in the shed and as a result he smashed the auger up pretty good. It still turned okay and would work but it didn’t move on it’s own. They wired something in the bin to keep it permanently out, which looked stupid but allowed the operation to proceed. I was low man again, had to run get stuff on whims, generally not well considered ones. I swept out the shed again, nobody noticed. I also put the repaired tire back on the sprayer for them and generally helped out. After a couple of hours the wire broken and we had to resort to a much more bush league solution. I used a ladder to push the auger out and Big T stood in the filled wagon to hold it, then asked me to go get the spool of wire. Why we didn’t get the tools before I’ll never know. And why he decided to hold it in place for no reason that whole time I was fetching the wire I’ll never know either. Logistics aren’t his strength. He was angry when I returned with the wire and Jacko and was trying to order us around. Eventually, through some high tensions, we got it wired in place using a crazy amount of wire. This allowed them to continue. When it was done I went back in the house, a little miffed by the wiring procedure.

Mother was eating some cardboard pizza she’d prepared. I polished off what she didn’t and dinner was done by half five. I was satisfied to allow the two brothers to continue to run their busted machine but they kept asking for help. Eventually I went out and helped Jacko set up the auger and dump wagons. It didn’t feel right to sit in the house while he was working. He had to leave around eight to go see his grandkids or something so I took over running wagons. I was out of practice but was able to dump the last one. Big T tried to help me hook up another wagon in the field and I nearly crushed his hand, rookie mistake of using the brakes. We brought everything back when the oats got tough and put everything away for the night in case the ten percent chance of rain was a lie. It looked like the competitor’s fungicide he used didn’t do much for rust. The combine was turning orange.

Big T crushed a massive dinner that Mother had laid out and then started to work on his little dog. Titi has another parasite in this back. They had the notion that they could suffocate it by submerging the little guy in the tub for long enough that it would pop it’s head out and try to breathe. He couldn’t keep the dog under long enough, it seemed the little codger liked being in the water but he was just too small, if it had been on his side again maybe they’d have had success.

I’d had enough after getting blamed for Big T spilling his water bottle and went to bed around ten.

Quiet Hump

I was up pretty early again. Big T was up at an ungodly hour causing a ruckus and woke the rest of the house up at five. He was worrying on about something and apparently didn’t sleep all night. He’s been running long hours lately, he shouldn’t keep up this frantic pace. I didn’t make any breakfast because today was my day to go fish with the Mayor. It was a later start than I’m used to for fishing since I met him at eight after scarfing down a McBreakfast. We ripped out towards Haileybury first to get some minnows and then he fired up the new motor on his boat. It started straight away and ran consistently. What a difference from our last adventure in June. We fooled in a lot of time hunting for the shoal that Theordore Complete and I trolled yesterday. I had to download an app to find it. His small motor wouldn’t start so we listed for a bit and enjoyed amazing conditions.

We didn’t get any action so tried a couple other spots. It was a beautiful day on the lake. I tried getting some underwater footage with the Chef’s GoPro3, we’ll see what it looked like later. Close to eleven the wind was shoving us parallel to the bank and so we just floated along trying some different tactics. Nary a bite though, probably too nice of weather. When he’d had his fill we fired the motor up and ripped back toward the marina. We closed up the boat and I stopped briefly at their place to see KMJH and her offspring. She was there cause their dog had a gross poop in their basement and it was airing out. I went home and Mother had some lunch ready for me. She’d made a pot of soup, cheesy broccoli. I fired up a couple of the pogos that STL Sister left behind to clear space in the freezer. Add in a slice of that zucchini cheese loaf and that made a nice meal.

After lunch I didn’t have anything pressing so I took some me time. I went down to my room and started looking over the deals at Canadian Tire. Shortly after I started that I fell asleep. I passed out for over an hour, probably closer to two hours. When I woke up I set about posting the half dozen Musings you probably just enjoyed. If you didn’t then what are you doing, get into it! It was around five that I emerged from my stupor and stumbled up to the kitchen. Mother was making hamburgers at Big T’s request. She also had some kind of cabbage and kale salad mixed up. She sent me back into the depths to get the leftover macaroni salad and with that we had a meal. I had a second burger and added some macaroni salad to it to freak my parents out.

After dinner the Big T requested that I drive him to pickup eggs and then get his pickup from the other farm. Somehow those two manage to spread vehicles all over the place with no thought on how to get them. He had to fix some teeth on the combine header after that so Titi and I went to keep him company. I put on the latest episode of the Word for him and he eventually wrapped that job up. We then hauled several mounds of straw from his previous unplugging out into the field to clean up the yard. There was a lovely sunset to be seen as we were wrapping up that task.

As we were cleaning things up and getting stuff put away, Mother came running out to the barn yelling about a tornado warning. I guess one was issued for North of us. There was an angry cloud bank rolling in with thunderheads piling up high into the heavens. To the North heat lightning rippled through the underbelly of the clouds with the odd blast escaping out to attack the Earth below. I took some short videos and managed to capture on such strike. We couldn’t hear much for thunder which was unusual. It seemed a storm had set in. It went around us, no rain for the cover crop Big T spread on Monday.

We went back in the house after some storm watching and there wasn’t much left of the day, the sun had gone down and this so did I. I finished up some computing and ordered some Amazon stuff and found sleep.
Edit: a F4 tornado did touch down North of us and destroyed a sheep barn, lots of acres of crop and some small sheds in its 50m path. The rain came so hard that some traffic accidents and washouts also changed lives. We didn’t have a drop here.

Catching Tuesday

The day started at six bells this morning. I got a quick shower in before watching part of an episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation. It was glorious! Wheels were turning ahead of seven but had to stop at the train tracks. The strange thing is I heard the train whistle as I was leaving home so it must have been a heck of a long train to be still going by the time I drove to the tracks. I only had to wait a few minutes and it was quite lovely. I was able to snap a quick picture since the truck was in park at this point. With the sun peeking over, it made it an interesting photo.

I was out of the house so early today because I was meeting Theodore Complete at his place to go fishing. I was early and wanted to eat so I parked a few blocks away and slammed my McBreakfast. I’d stopped to grab that and a coffee for him after waiting out the train. He caught me doing this last time so I made sure to park further away for round two. He texted me asking where I was at seven twenty five, I was there in thirty seconds. We loaded up the boat and struck off for the big lake today, Temiskaming. It was very calm but there was a strange smokey streak across the sky. Apparently there is a forest fire raging not far away. How quickly things can move from wet to dry. I took a photo and you can see the difference in the sky, the purple area of smoke and the bright blue in the corner that it all should be. You can also get a feel for how dark and dangerous the water can be.

It was a mobile office or personal time for Theodore Complete today. He was technically away from work but decided to keep answering the phone and messages to make sure things got done. All was quiet until around nine then both the phone and the fish came to life. I’ve elected to describe each photo as a caption for the next few, not my usual method but it should work to get the point across.

Theodore Complete nailed the first fish again. I was concerned that I was going to miss out again for the fourth or fifth time in a row. It had been a long time since I’d managed to get something in the boat. But then his phone started to ring.

It seemed like every time he got a call, I got a fish. This big pike is the largest one I’ve ever caught of this species. This picture hardly does it justice, it was big, and beauftiful. Zoom in and have a look at its colouring. Wonderful fish. I caught it and got the hook out while he was on the phone and it rang again so we just gently lowered this beast back into the wild.

This is a decent pickerel I caught during another phone call. Theodore wanted to bring it home with us. He offered it to me but I was happy to let him deal with cleaning it. It was a decent one. He actually ate it for dinner on this day, made a full meal for them, I was happy to get their supper for them.

This is a chunky bass that I caught. Theodore was reeling in a mid-sized pickerel and I was retrieving my lure to be able to help him net his catch when I got this fella on the line. We had ourselves a double header. I got mine to the boat quicker and he netted it for me. His popped off in the thirty seconds it took. He claims it was huge but mine was the bigger fish in this case.

I had a team meeting that I decided to call into. I had brought my headphones for that reason and when quarter after eleven rolled in I called in. I turned my camera on for a second to show them where I was. It was funny. This was how I took the call. I was pretty relaxed and the cigar definitely enhanced that. I think I was having more fun than the rest of the team.

The fun dwindled quickly for Theodore Complete and we had to get moving to head back for noon. He had a surprise meeting with his two up suddenly on the books. I hope it went okay, he was starting to get stressed by all the accumulating little issues that quickly piled up. I too had discovered some work that I needed to do in the afternoon and didn’t protest when it was time to go in. We got the boat out of the water and I loaded up for home, arriving around half past noon. Mother already had lunch on for me. A tasty samdige with some Campbell’s Vegetable soup. That was a tasty meal. I again had several pints of water after bringing none on the boat again.

After lunch I returned to my bed with the intention of writing some Musings but instead found myself falling asleep and having a short nap. I got up and walked around upstairs for a bit until returning to the basement to do my work stuff. It was five when I finished that up. I’d put in too many work hours on vacation. Not a smart move and definitely not a pattern I want to repeat as the week goes on. I climbed out of the basement to find that Mother had dinner nearly fit for the table. She had cooked some chicken tournedos in the air fryer and prepared an asparagus risotto. She’s also baked another zucchini and cheese loaf in the afternoon. It must have been a lot of effort but it was delicious. The tangy citrus hit off the risotto and the juicy meat melded together to create great soppin’s for the bread. A great meal and early had too.

After eating and passing her the dishes I had to perform a number of tasks for her. I had to put away some stuff, make a trip to the basement, and release her prisoner. She’d captured a chipmunk in the squirrel trap. I wasn’t going to do it right, which would have involved a drive before releasing it. It was getting dehydrated and she didn’t want it to die in captivity so we stayed it’s relocation this one time and I simply freed the little fella. He was somewhat confused but took off, not before affording me a backward glance of gratitude. Today was its lucky day.

My next labour was to bring some water out to the Big T was combining beside the house. I’d noticed all his water jugs were in the house and figured he’d need a drink. He was guiding the big, dusty machine through some amber waves of grain, wheat specifically. I didn’t time my arrival well and had to wait for him to return to the close end of the field before I hopped in with him for two rounds. The crop was running well and he hoped to finish the field before it got tough. I wasn’t sure he’d make it.

In the end I was proven right. They may have had a shot but a chain broke, was replaced and broke again. I surmise that it was getting too tough by that hour but I’m no doctor. Either way, I returned to the house ahead of eight and had my dessert, some moose tracks iced cream. I chatted briefly with Mother before burrowing into my nest in the basement to try and do some writing and catching up on these here Musings. I digressed into watching some YouTube before caving entirely to sleep ahead of ten. It was a fitful night, not sure why but I was up and awake a handful of times. Probably stressing about something work related.

Real Vacation

Woke up around seven and started my day. I hadn’t got the early start I did yesterday so I was determined to get a move on today with things. I had the last leftover blueberry pancake and some cake for breakfast. Apparently being on vacation means you can do what you want. I got myself dressed and collected my gear. My plan was to do some weedwhacking while it is cool out in the morning and then move on to some other tasks when the day warms up. I got quite a bit done with the gas powered trimmer. I was able to do the ditch, a couple of spots by the trees out back and everything I did back in June. Most of it is barely noticeable but it beats the bush back and keeps things cleaner a bit longer. It will take a few years to get the property sparkling but this is a start. I was outfitted with the Husqvarna starter pack. When I used that canister of fuel up I figured that was enough for the day.

Like I said, this is just the start. Below is a picture of one of the trees at the back of the property. I’ve trimmed back the grass and the weeds now but there is some serious tree trimming left to go to make it look cleaner. That will have to be on the to-do list for later.

As I was washing the grass off my shins the Big T rolled in to have an early lunch before going to work on the farm. He was followed by the Mayor and my aunt who happened to be in the neighbourhood checking their auxillary garden. They wanted to visit a bit and Big T was game for that while he chortled down three hot dogs. It wasn’t much later that Mother returned from her morning adventures. Every left minutes after she arrived. She made some lunch for us around noon. Today featured some Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup and some mini croissants. I chose to have some low calorie Sun Rype blueberry juice. It was good, maybe a bit watery. It was a nice little meal and I topped it with a piece of cake. I also had at least three pints of water to try and rehydrate after all of the sweat that poured out of me.

Big T had requested that I do him a little favour today. He wanted me to pull the tire off the little sprayer for him so he could get it properly repaired and had that implement available for some spot spraying this fall. He even went as far as to tell me where the tools to do it were. For this task I needed a bottle jack, the cordless impact and sockets. That cordless impact is the most valuable tool on the farm. I was able to quickly jack that axle up and within minutes got that tire off. I lined up the bolts on top of the sprayer and that was that, couldn’t have been easier. Loading the tire in my truck was another matter. I didn’t know what he wanted done with it and didn’t replay to my text with that question. I ended up using the board I custom cut for my truck to keep items from sliding to the front as a ramp and rolled it up after realizing it was too awkward to just lift up. I used that board as a bridge between my truck and the Big T’s and put it in there for him to deal with before returning all the tools and driving home.

Mother and I watched more Ted Lasso until it was time to make supper. She did all the work in preparing a pasta salad. After I took my share she added onions and pickles to her bowl, gross! I shucked some corn and she cooked in the air fryer, it was spectacular. I also added a couple of slices of the leftover pork tenderlion that was left because I felt like we didn’t have enough meat in the meal. A

fter dinner and cleaning up we quickly discovered that Ted Lasso is releasing by the week and the latest one isn’t available yet. We pivoted to watch the Upside on Netflix. It was better than I expected. As the movie drew to a close the Big T rolled in like a loud hurricane. I went to my room shortly after and ended up falling asleep around half nine. I was anticipating a big morning the next day so wanted to get to bed extra early.

Sunday Funday

Slept in until 8am and still felt tired. Found a bowl with perogies, some potatoes and bacon. It was pretty burned up this time. Big T was in a rush apparently. He and Jacko had plans to work ahead on stuff this morning and prepare for a long afternoon of harvesting oats again. I didn’t. Mother was gone to play pickleball and walk with her friends so I tried to go back to sleep. After flailing around unsuccessfully I went and let the dogs out and went to the bathroom (after, lesson learned) and then went back to bed. This time the nap caught and I slept from half ten to half eleven and it was deep enough that it took me some time to get out of it. Mother was home by then and we visited a bit before lunch. She made a can of tomato soup we split and had a couple mini cheese croissants. After I ate I brought lunch to Big T. I ended up riding for a round in the combine.

He revealed he plugged it last night, he tried to go the same speed after things started to get tough when the dew came on. It took them all morning to get unplugged so they were still in scramble mode when I arrived. The crop was still running well and things are hanging on equipment wise for now. Jacko had an issue with their only tractor left standing but powered thru. I chatted with them both and got home at half two then had a call with The Chef for an hour. At half three Mother and I started watching Ted Lasso with their one year free Apple TV+ that the Big T had won. It was talked up a lot so expectations were high. I still don’t like Jason Sudekis for whatever reason but the show is quite good. We binged a fair jag of it before our chicken stir fry dinner. I got to enjoy a slice of some kind of zucchini and cheese loaf on the side with some of that low calorie blueberry juice to drink.

We started right back into it after eating and continued even when Big T got home, at a reasonable hour tonight. Despite his disruptive noise, we watched until half ten. We’re well into season two. They went to bed and I went outside to stare at the sky. I walked out to get a better look at the full moon. It was really cool to see, the stars were on display too. Bedtime followed and sleep was close behind.

Hot Saturday

I managed to get myself pulled out of bed around seven to see my STL Sister and BIL off on their journey. Apparently Big T had had a snit with her about something and they were keeping their distance from each other while she made the final preparations. He must have been in a trouble making mood because he got on my nerves next. He started trying to commit me to going to work on the farm with Jacko for the morning while he did some errands with Mother. I don’t mind if he asks me to help and I’m available but to sign me up without asking is not cool with me. He did it over text and I told him not to and explained that I don’t like that. Then he followed up minutes later with a call to Jacko promising my help after I explicitly told him no. Instead it was decided that I would handle some of the errands and he could go work. The task on the farm was something he didn’t like doing so I think he was trying to weasel out of it. I saw them off then made a samidge with two eggs, a slice of cheese and a bagel to break the fast. I was starting to watch the Bone Collector while eating it. Parents had gone to get a desk so I had the house to myself. I was planning a relaxing double S after breakfast. Since I stopped shaving regularly the triple S has been reduced accordingly. Dogs ruined the poop and parents ruined the shower. I let the dogs out figuring I had ten minutes before they’d want in, no sooner had I sat down then they started barking their idiot heads off. My parents came home as I was showering and started yelling for me to come out and help them with the desk. The T went to work on the farm and Mother and I took the trash to the dump.

When I got back I washed the garbage cans. They desperately needed cleaning, one can was riddled with baby maggots. Next I helped Mother in her garden to pull out the harvestable food. I started cleaning up the property a bit but it was just too hot for that today. I’d have to try and do more on one of the mornings. Around half eleven we’d had enough and stopped to make lunch and cool down. Unstoppable was on and I got to watch the end of it. Apparently it was a Denzel morning. Mother prepared a couple more wraps with leftover chicken and vegetables.

I watched the end of that and then went with Big T for the afternoon. He asked me to help run their weigh wagon. That job only lasted an hour but so couldn’t just leave. I helped run wagons while they started into the big oat field. It was so hot. They just needed a few weights to calibrate the combine, I don’t think they really needed my help based on of the waiting around that went on.

I was the third man on the totem pole for this operation so I mainly helped Jacko dump wagons and got them water. At one point when I was shuffling vehicles around I got a chance to jump into the AC with Big T and did a round of the field in the combine. What a difference being out of the sun made. I was able to keep on going for a few more hours after that. When she returned from town, Mother brought us some cold water jugs to slake our building thirst.

We got everything setup and managed to catch up so all the wagons were empty by half six. I got invited to see friends after dinner and was told to go. Because we’d caught up with wagons I was able to do this. Jacko was able to stay on the one wagon and dump before Big T got back with a full bin. My job had been to pull the lower auger over when he drove by and then open the door and set up the boards to keep the grain flowing while he started the auger up. I left and was able to caught a refreshing shower, after sweating a crazy amount and then had a nice dinner with mother.

Mother had made some white rice and boiled up some fresh green beans from the garden. There was a pork tenderlion that she cooked in the air fryer as well. A simple but tasty meal. The rest would have to wait until Big T came home after eight, he doesn’t like to eat in the combine for some reason. Jacko just lives off granola bars when he is up here. I don’t think that is healthy for him. He is staying at one of my aunt’s house this round. It keeps her company, since her husband, my French uncle, passed away this spring. And she makes awesome meals for him. Not sure how they stack up to this effort though.

I got to my chum’s place around half seven and eventually left close to midnight after dropping SV Chum off at his childhood home. Long evening but fun. We sat around the fire and caught up some, also chatted about global issues and told old stories. It was seconds after my head hit the pillow that I was asleep.

Start of Vacation

Up early and prepared for work. Had a couple of poached egg samidges for breakfast before getting going on work at half seven. The morning was pretty hectic. I had a call from half eight until ten and then another from ten until noon. As it happened I had a few things to bury and a quick chat with a colleague until half past. I did get some texts from Mother asking what I wanted to order from Didas for lunch. Without the ability to see a menu at the time I told them to surprise me, always a dangerous endeavour. I was presenting to customers when that question came up so couldn’t do much. If I’d been at the Harbour I could have covertly brought it up on the second screen but not today. Anyways, the morning zipped by at a dangerous pace. I’d also been getting texts from Theodore Complete about going fishing with our Silicon Valley chum, or SV Chum. The plan was to meet at Pike Lake around one, hopefully we’d stick to that. When I finally emerged from my frantic morning and attempt to tie up loose ends there was a package from Sudbury Sister that New WB had delivered. It was my gift, two ten foot apple device cords and some power blocks to run them. It was exactly what I needed since two cords at the Harbour have given up after five or so years, cowards. It was an excellent gift.

A little bonus for me was to get this excellent lunch that STL Sister and my BIL got. The burger was a tasty cheese burger. I ate it without the top bun which was polluted with ketchup and relish. I also had to pull off some pickles but at least there wasn’t any devil onions. I don’t understand the obsession with putting preserved cucumber products on burgers, it’s just destroying the burger! I chortled that down in reckless fashion before savouring the poutine. It isn’t the absolute best I’ve had but it was pretty fantastic. I didn’t have much time to let the food digest before I had to hustle out to make that meeting time at the Lake.

As it turned out the SV Chum was later than usual. We generally build in about a half hour of lateness when we make plans with him but apparently he’s stretched it out to an hour, so they showed up at half one. It was fiendishly hot so I mostly waited in the truck. I did take the opportunity that the wait afforded me to put the drone up and try to capture some video of the lake. Unfortunately, I don’t think it recorded properly or at least the video isn’t on the SD card. I’m not sure what happened there. It did run out of battery about halfway across the lake and I had to let it return to base on it’s own because I couldn’t see it right away. It was piping hot when it got back and so was the phone I was using to fly it. I was down to my last drone battery and no charging cord so I decided that was enough for today. The fellas arrived and we put in easily. I had warned them it was a shallow and very weedy lake. I was no wrong. Most of the time the water was only three or four feet deep. We trolled around for a bit and did some mild exploring of the lake and some casting. Mostly we just had a visit in the searing heat on a boat in water hotter than a bathtub. The low depth means it was heated quite a bit. I’m guessing that’s why we didn’t find any fish. I put my phone away for the adventure so didn’t get any pictures of the afternoon, meaning to pull from the drone footage that I don’t have. I also had planned to attempt so underwater filming with the Chef’s GoPro3 but I’d forgotten the SD card in the drone. So that sucked. There could have been some cool footage between weeds and other junk, not this time I guess. We disembarked and I soaked my calves in the warm water before setting off for home, arrivng just ahead of supper time. We had leftovers from the big birthday party. I went with hot dogs and Mother’s Chicken Taco Salad.

The most of the rest of the evening was pretty quiet. STL Sister and my BIL were starting to pack to be ready to depart in the morning on the first leg of their long drive home into America. Big T took her for a ride in the Corvette before she left, their previous squabble apparently forgotten. I hope that I get a chance to go for a ride in it before I have to head back, I’ve seen a lot of people get rides this summer but have yet to have one of my own. It wasn’t a particularly late night as most folks had to be up early to send off the travellers.

Birthday 2021

My day started with some actual fanfare. I was greeted by a chorus of birthday greetings from four others. It’s a far cry from some of my lonely birthdays, where I worked and no one knew. There were some gifts and even though she hates them, Mother cooked me some eggs. I started my day with a couple of makeshift breakfast samidges and some OJ.

That was after I’d opened my first gift. I got some transom straps for the boat, a Christmas tree ornament of a boat and some parchment paper for the air fryer to reduce cleanup efforts. That was from my parents. I’d previously received my gifts from STL Sister and my BIL and my gift from Sudbury Sister was in the mail. The Chef’s father, New WB would be delivering it tomorrow. He was by the house several times previously to drop these gifts off. That’s the perils of providing an Amazon based list to people.

After breakfast my family went to go play pickleball and left me to head to work. I went to prepare and the Titi dog followed me to pee on my rug again. I guess that was his gift for me, or he was jealous of the attention I got or was scared of me or just spiteful. Either way, he felt suitably guilty and this time hid under the desk in the office. He hid so well he eventually fell asleep. Tough life.

I joined the last day of the three day meeting and before break Garzy reminded the team it was my birthday. A handful had known and reached out beforehand but her reminder started the deluge of texts and messages. I wanted to thank everyone because when you have a few in a row with no warm wishes it does make you thankful. While the meeting droned on about topics not relevant to my work I dabbled in some problem solving on the side. I was getting my inbox whittled down before going off for a week and loading it back up. I was doing the meeting through my iPad so I was able to range a bit too. That allowed me to do laundry and some other chores around the house while participating. I’m still not used to that freedom. Lunch showed up before I knew it and I was done for the day. Mother rolled up a tasty wrap of leftover chicken, Chick Fil-A sauce and assorted veggies for me and poured a treat of some chocolate milk. Good fuel for the afternoon.

That fuel was used up in short order. We had plans that would have us out and about during the heat of the day and it was a heated one. It said that it was 33C and feeling like 39C. We made sure we all had water with us when we headed out. The plan was to golf the front nine of the fabled New Liskeard Golf Club. My home course when I was a lad is still very familiar to me. I’m not sure they have changed a thing on the front, maybe to make it easier. It was in phenomenal shape with the weather up North. We got checked in and were there very early to try and stretch and shake the rust off. My BIL had golfed already in 2021 but I hadn’t swung a club since 2017 and the Big T was allegedly in that range as well. It showed for us on the first couple of holes. I lost four balls in three holes, including two on the second hole, a short par three. I put up a couple of sevens and a six before I stopped the bleeding. As it turned out, I really had forgotten how to swing but remembered the couple of key ingredients for myself and I started to come back to form a bit. It was incredibly hot so the course was relatively quiet. There was a dude in jeans playing alone behind us, we told him he could play through and his game suddenly went to hell. He couldn’t hit it fifty yards and he started running between shots and then started sweating really hard. Poor guy, I don’t think he knew much about etiquette or the game in general. We had a nice couple of hours.

We finished strong and nobody lost anything. My BIL lead the pack and I was in the middle and Big T was a few strokes off the pace. He had a couple of implosion holes where he lifted his head too many times. I think even he had a good time. My BIL said he had to go pick some stuff up in town so he took off and we headed back out to the house. We got there and finished setting things up for the company that was coming. There would be a decent crowd for my birthday. I think it was the first time I had that much family around to celebrate my birth since I left home twenty years ago. Admiral Bonesaw and Dutchie even came up for it. Amongst other things but it was nice to see them and formally meet their daughters. We figured out that sitting out front of the house was the coolest spot and soon the crowd gathered. We had an amazing meal. This is pretty typical of our family gatherings, incredible amounts of food. This was no exception and the crowning touch had to be the cake. My BIL had picked it up after golf and it was huge. He got the full slab (which isn’t cheap) and I think we would have had lots with the half slab. He didn’t know and I wouldn’t have either, plus now I have a mountain of excellent cake to deal with, the best problem to have! There was also iced cream, I had both.

After eating some hot dogs for supper and amazing salads, including Mother’s famous Chicken Taco Salad, we retreated to the rapidly cooling backyard to encircle the firepit. We spread out the chairs and started a fire. It wasn’t going to be a long fire but we got some coals going and the kids roasted (ignited) some marshmallows. I even got to have a couple this time around.

The little girls eventually had to be corraled and run back into town so that signalled the end of the evening for us. It was a pretty good birthday and I’m glad we got to get together. Might not get such a chance again either. I tried to take a panoramic photo with everyone who stayed for the fire and it turned out mediocre, it’s below. The guests went home and my BIL and I extinguished the fire with the hose and we all were in bed around ten and I was asleep before eleven. That was a good one, even if I had to work half of it.

Anxious Hump

Day started at seven. I climbed from the depths of the basement to greet my family. Big T was at the stove and was kind enough to make me two fried eggs with some bacon. I rammed that in an english muffin and called that breakfast. With a convenience like that I was able to get to the helm before eight. I had a meeting that started at quarter to ten but before that I was busy with lots of little odd jobs. I decided to share some useful bonus information with some customers to use, I scheduled some meetings for September. The morning really zipped by, aided by the day long meeting that I mentioned. Lunch consisted of some leftover pasta that I shared with Mother and a pogo that STL Sister provided. Sudbury Sister was busy packing up, she had to go home today, via my parents. STL sister and BIL left around noon to go see a friend for the afternoon. Parents and Sudbury Sister left before three so last sessions of day long meeting were taken from the front patio.

After work ended I shot a rack to make a new video. Then I showered, changed and got ready to leave to go and stopped. I don’t know what happened but I think I started to get anxious thinking about seeing so many people at once. I rationalized that I could skip the dinner and show up after. I wasn’t invited but was told to crash it. As time went on I started feeling more and more in the grip of it. I came to the realization around six that I wouldn’t be able to go. I fed the dogs and essentially went to bed at seven. My parents got back at eight and I refused to talk about it or get up. They weren’t impressed with me. I watched YouTube until eleven and fell asleep. I did also text the Italian girl for the first time in a year, it is her birthday after all..

Fully Tuesday

A delightful sleep that only had one pit stop at four in the morning is what I woke up to today. The climb up the stairs in the middle of the night to pee was balanced out by the amazing sky. So many stars when you get away from urban light pollution. I took a few moments and regarded it through bleary eyes before returning to the comfortable confines of the bed. I returned to the realm of the realized at ten to seven and found the house abandoned. Vehicles were all here, breakfast had been consumed but no evidence of people. Apparently they’d ducked out to the front patio to watch the sunrise. While I had the kitchen to myself, I whipped up a tasty little breakfast before preparing for work.

After that delightful meal I ripped down to the smelly office to start my workday. I had an hour to check stuff off my to do list before a day long meeting started. I was actually very productive and was able to check off some key items off my list. The meeting content today is most relevant to me, mostly higher level things including two sessions from my team and one from my old team. Lots of business updates and stuff. My travel request got bumped up to the top of the line and just ahead of lunch I got approval to fly to Manitoba in a month. That’s exciting and a bit scary. As someone said, “good place to catch the Delta variant.” I guess I can book flights, hotels, etc. When lunch came I poked my head in the kitchen and was given some options on what to have. Mother offered some marinated steak, some new potatoes left from that nice dinner and some cucumber from the garden. I fried up the potatoes and steak together and they all turned a dark colour influenced by the marinade. I put a touch of vinegar on the cukes with a sniff of salt. Very tasty meal.

The afternoon was much the same as the morning. More meeting and sitting. I actually didn’t get out of my chair for three hours which doesn’t sound like a feat unless you know how uncomfortable this chair is. I had a chat with a colleague after the meeting to catch up and then did a quick task to round out the day. While I was working my aunt and uncle that moved back from Calgary came to visit and there was an impressive charcuterie board consumed. I saw a picture on Snapchat but that was as close as I got. After work I went upstairs and watched Y&R with Mother whilst STL Sister and my BIL prepared an elaborate dinner. It took them quick a long time but it was a nice feed. I won’t do it justice but it featured a waffle coated chicken topped with spicy maple sauce, a zucchini loaf, and a red cabbage salad. It all came from the SkinnyTaste website apparently. Very good meal.

Mother started the dishes and the rest of us chatted about plans. After dinner I sought to have a short rest. My STL sister and BIL were going to Thornloe Cheese to get some iced cream and my parents and Sudbury Sister went to town to collect kayaks. I was left behind with the dogs.

He obviously knew that he had done something wrong because he immediately scooted under the bed. He wouldn’t come out. When I pointed to his puddle he whined a bit. I had to clean it up before he emerged. And even then, it was in stages. Not sure why he does stuff like that, hopefully he can’t control it. Later when telling my family they essentially blamed me. Not sure how that falls on me but I’m no expert.

When the family returned around the same time from their adventures I had just finished up the dishes. They asked me to help tie down the kayaks. Once they got me outside Big T tricked me into going down to help tarp the combine bin. He had a tarp he felt would cover it and we went on the hunt for bungee cords. He commented he kept buying them and others would lose or take them. We found a bunch that he’d hidden, apparently from himself. My role in helping him was mostly to watch. He climbed up dangerously and stretched it out. I helped him tie it down with my height. He wanted it covered in case the 10% chance of rain happened to be his farm. If that doesn’t make sense to you then you don’t know how POP works.

The excursion wasn’t all bad, we got a nice view of the sunset. We also got the chance to idly chat with a neighbour who flagged us down. He is going to bale some straw for us and wanted to get an idea on timing. The adventure was a bit of a disruption but it was good to get out and about.

When I got back to the house I pulled out my golf clubs and tried swinging my pitching wedge to see if I remembered how they work. Big T caught on to what I was doing and joined me in that. We are both bad, should make things interesting when we try to golf later this week. When we came in we discovered the rest of the gang was embroiled in a heated euchre match. We quietly retired to the living room and I tested the fire stick for Mother. It worked fine so I put the film Losers from Netflix on for us. Big T only made it halfway before him and the dog tapped out. The game dispersed around then and my BIL and I were the only two that stayed on until the end of that film. It was pretty cheesy. Sleep came shortly after. I had another deck visit at half one to see the sky.

Workday Monday

The day started at six unexpectedly. I got a lot of sun the previous day and it seemed to zonk me right out. I got to bed at a decent hour and woke after a number of strong hours of sleep. I hustled to have a shower before the rest of the house got moving. I also hustled in the shower to minimize the time I tied up the one bathroom. I wonder if this is why I have four toilets in my house? Anyways, Mother had pre-made some blueberry breakfast cakes for us and we tied into that. It was delicious, so much so that I didn’t stop to take a photo. I went and started work after that, not wanting to linger. It was half seven and I was already in the thick of it. My family left to go to town and the little man, TiTi came to the basement office and curled up at my feet under the desk. He was itching to get outside but I put him on the desk instead. He was very interested. Eventually I had to settle him in his chair upstairs. Then I had my usual meeting and then did up a dozen intricate documents before lunch. They aren’t exciting but I was able to peel through a jag of podcasts. I wandered upstairs to find the family had returned from their pickleball outing. Mother used her honed skills to roll me up some wraps. She used chicken, lettuce, carrot and who knows what else with some Chik-Fil-a sauce that made it here from America. The wraps were great. I had a couple handfuls of chips to seal the meal. My siblings left again and I trudged back to work. They are in vacation mode, I’m not there yet.

I had a meeting after lunch then was supposed to have a customer meeting but they asked for it to be moved seven minutes beforehand, apparently stuck in a meeting. After some back and forth I moved it to Wednesday. That keeps me from golfing then, if I could have. I’m realizing that there are a lot of plans happening for this week and I’m going to have to keep a closer eye on them. I worked away at updating the database until I got a call around five and spent a half hour chatting. When I went upstairs at half five it was dinner time. Mother had slow cooking a thick pasta sauce and made some interesting pasta. Sudbury Sister made an excellent salad and combined it made a great meal. I had a couple scoops more than I could have of the pasta but otherwise it was top notch!

After dinner I set about programming the satellite remote so it could run the TV also. Big T was away combining with Jacko, Mother and the others went swimming so I was home alone with the dogs. Coco was having a bad day so she didn’t eat her food. I spent some time trying to coax her into having it but she wasn’t feeling it. When they returned from swimming we tried to make some plans for later in the week. It was chaotic. They wrote a guest list for one night then threw it out, that’s the crew I was working with. I don’t know how anything gets done. That morphed into a euchre match that pitted Mother and I against the other three. Big T continued to combine. We completed our inevitable victory as he returned. Some playful banter and then bickering ensued before people went their separate ways. It was half ten when I cashed in for the night.

Sunny Sunday

The day started later than usual due to the late night previous. I woke up briefly at five to check the sunrise on the deck and could feel the faint hint of a headache so I guzzled some water and went back to sleep when I woke up at eight I could hear a din of voices in the kitchen. I rolled up as everyone was dishing up some perogies. I got to bat cleanup and empty the pan. After some short preparations I jumped in the truck with the Big T. I had my boots, glasses and gloves, it was time to work. The rest of family went to punch their Triangle Hill cards. We went to the Farm and he started off the morning by showing me how he had burned the old loader tractor. Some dust and debris was mixed with leaking and oil and after several hours of running the auger it ignited. He says it’s cause he turned it off hot rather than letting it cook first. He has stress and regrets about it.

We did a few small jobs that took much longer than expected as we had to waste time hunting for the correct tools. We opened up the auger and gave it a very good clean, not something we did as I was growing up. I got to show the Big T how to run their rental tractor they are using until the fire tractor gets repaired. We vacuumed and swept it clean and fixed a few things. Then we tidied up some messes in the barn that have apparently been going for awhile. After much searching for tools we replaced the rear view mirror on the Corvette to make it a bit safe. Slowly but surely it’s becoming more frequently used. There was another toy that the Big at was keen to show off.

When I was a teen he had a dream that I would ride his motorcycle he got when he was sixteen and laying cement tile. He rode it to work rain or shine. We found some parts but could never make it work, we brought it to a specialty shop in the Bay, a 90 minute drive away and spent $400 and $700 each on it. The guy did nothing for nearly a year then was going out of business so we went and took it back. Very bad deal. We brought it to a local guy and he got it running with a few hundred of our money, I got to ride it to the end of the field and back. And it never started after that. It went to my Dad’s cousin, the Big Bobber and eventually some stole the fuel tank. Had to get another one. Then a proper fuel cap. This happened over the course of fifteen years or so. In the past two years the Big T solved a few more small issues then got the engine tuned up and it it runs again! The 1974 Honda 175XL is operational. He rode it home from the Farm with his terrible helmet looking like Toad from Mario Kart. He’s pretty happy about it.

For some reason we had to do some family photos and we strangely decided to include the bike. I think it’s hilarious. I threw on a different shirt that wasn’t covered in dust. I guess there was a red theme that some got the memo for. We got the whole family and then just the immediate family. Then some individual shots. I was in my sock feet the whole time, we had some laughs. During this break in the action we had some hot dogs and KD, but not actually, it was Annie’s white cheddar. A nice quick meal topped with some of the ever-present chips.

After lunch we set about cleaning down the combine and sweeping out the shed. The T was fooling around for awhile whilst I swept my little heart out. The heat and the exertion got me sweating. I was listening to a podcast to keep me going. Later the Big T took the combine down to the Farm and he drove himself back. I’d finished my hard fought sweeping by then and was taking five in the shade when he rolled up. I got a video and snagged this still from there. So now the bike and the Corvette are at the house.

He drove the header to the Farm and I took the farm truck with the tools down. The plan was to park the combine to use down there and clean up the trucks before removing the fuel tank so another could use it for moving her kayak. Expect when we got down there something else played out.

I got there first and rolled up some air hoses and extension cords. I went to see what the T was up to and saw he was in the neighbours field putting the header on as if he was going to try something. Next I knew he was pulling into the acre and a half plot field. He told me to bring the header cart and then go get a wagon. Uh, what? We had promised to be home at three to start the rotisserie for the chicken. I followed orders but found that Jacko didn’t park the other tractor and wagons properly. I had to move them out of the way to get my wagon. Then I tried to roll the header cart uphill into a better spot and that nearly killed me. It’s heavier than it looks and I’m much weaker than I was. He got the plot done in under an hour and we put the wagon in the garage awkwardly before taking the cart and combine back home. That seemed foolish. And we never did the job for Mother we’d set out to do. Then add the fact that we were over an hour late. She was livid. We got the chicken on then Big T and BIL went for a ride in the Corvette after a brief disagreement with STL Sister. My BIL even got to drive it. I stayed back and got the BBQ tuned to 400°F exactly. We cooked it for 15-20 minutes longer than we should have but it was magnificent chicken.

The chicken was just part of the meal though. There were potatoes they dug out of the garden that day and some green beans they picked for dinner. The stuffing was from a box but it was a pretty amazing feast. It was also the first meal we had sitting at the table together. It was funny how we all sat in our traditional spots we had growing up. Nobody mentioned it, just happened and wasn’t remarked upon at the time. Some things don’t change I guess.

I retired to my room not long after dinner, also just like the old days. I think there was another car ride after dinner but I was busy Musing. Later Big T, STL Sister and my BIL came down to play pool and listen to the new AC/DC album. My Sudbury sister and Mother went to bed early. The Irish Gal drove home after lunch and had made it safely. She hasn’t been driving for a long time so it was a big success for her. Glad she made it back safe. I didn’t really get up and do anything after that, I was sawing logs shortly after ten.