Day 115:  Saturday, recovered enough to do some stuff around the house today.  After breakfast we tackled the recked-room... All hands were on deck to pack up hockey equipment, cart things to the workshop or garage or where every they belonged.  The ceiling tiles finally got replaced after trying to trace that electrical problem we were having the the boy's computer room... a railing got reinstalled from last time we moved something big up the steps... what was that again, think think think... hmm... was it the last time my mother in law was here?  Was she trying to squeeze her fat ass up our stairs?  I don't recall...  LOL  Not clean yet but better... going to have to take the music stuff down there and hook it up to the stereo.  Had to do some baking... after lunch I got into the kitchen and made some buns for the Keto people... and then made some buns for the non Keto people (you really can't subject everyone to your wacky food)... it was in prep for the fishing trip tomorrow... we were charged with the duty of bringing hot dogs and buns... we had just opened a package of very large hot dogs which required custom home made buns, so... funny thing happen while baking... I was part way through batch one of the normal people food and was holding a Pyrex measuring cup with some butter in it over the bowl and was just about to scoop it into the dough and the damn thing Exploded... about half went right into the bowl (an ingredient that wasn't on the list) and the rest of it blew up all over the kitchen.  I was left holding a spatula and what was left of the handle in my hand in many pieces.  I was cooking in bare feet, Heather came to rescue me with a broom and shoes.  I made another batch without the explosive power of the first batch... all was fine.  We sacrificed a few of the baking products to the dinner time rush on the kitchen.  Lawson got a pizza made from a quarter of the dough that didn't get made into buns... he truly appreciated the non Keto crust and almost thanked us.  LOL  Still wiped from the drive down south we dropped like flies early... after all needed to get up early in the morning to head out fishing.

Bread and Buns

Day 114: Got up at the crack of noon and made some pancakes... ya not going to be a good day... went back to bed... watched the ceiling most of the afternoon... fixed the neighbours computer issues... messed with some photos from the other days hockey session. Heather made Pizza for dinner then I looked at the ceiling in the bedroom some more. Yes, tomorrow I promise I will do something. Hurting a lot today.

The Hockey Club, Home of Lawson Goaltending

Day 113: Up an at’m fallout boy… Heather got up and fed the boy, I packed the car and got Lawson his black base-layer for hockey, they want them to show up at least partly dressed if possible. The monster in law got home from work as we were heading out the door. Best case in Social distancing is how I like to keep things there.   We didn’t get much in the way of traffic but I fought with the GPS all the way through Toronto, frankly I knew a better way and where to go and what lane to be in… not sure who programs those things but they should be subjected to punishment in the means of a road trip using nothing but the GPS for direction that goes through every major city in North America. Anyway, we had lots of extra time so we went to the conservation area right by the training centre to get in a little warmup hike and play some ball (Lawson likes the Bat). We went back to the rink after Lawson did his stretching exercises. Got out the camera gear. Got out the Hockey Gear… and head to the dressing room. The boy geared up for battle. I had him stretch one more time. We wait at the door to the ice. Got the cameras set up. The door opened… release the hounds! Normally this was intended to be a warmup for a tournament but since the tournament was canceled there was no urgent need for direction, I figured we would just dump him out there and see what they did with him. A crappy coach would just start with the basic for his age level and wouldn’t get a lot accomplished. To my surprise they moved along at a good clip and Lawson did everything they asked him to do. By the end of the session the coach was working with him at an appropriate level. The shots may have been a bit week, definitely not what I would be expecting for a warmup but I didn’t tell them I wanted a warmup, so maybe we will try that next time. So after the session Heather bought him a t-shirt and hat… she really had to, it was Lawson Goaltending… lol, yes run by Tom Lawson. Back on the road and heading north. 12 hours in Niagara is more than enough lol… Honestly sorry to all the friends we missed this trip… COVID-19 you know, don’t want to take all your nastyass germs back to the north with us, no offence intended. We hit Timmies, the bank machine was down so they just gave us free coffee. Gotta appreciate that. NorthBay had to stop for the weak bladdered members of the family to pee out NorthBay drinks… off to New Liskeard to pee and get more coffee, it’s a viscous circle. They pray on the weak bladdered road warriors. Off to Matheson, nice weather. How come every time I get back in town it’s raining or snowing or just some shitty stuff in between. Heather drove from North Bay home. I was pretty much burnt out, bed a Heather’s mom’s is like sleeping on a concrete patio, pillows are akin to sand bags. Nibbles for dinner, meat cheese, veggies, some pickled things. Good to sleep in our own bed. Other people take Vacations to Niagara Falls... lol. Hockey photos to follow.

Concentration at practice... 200% - 

Good to see him on the ice again... he really enjoyed the session.

Lawson Goaltending

Day 112: Well that didn’t go as planned, I set the alarm on Heather’s cell phone because she hijacked my charging cable. She wakes up at stupid o’clock, unplugs her phone and puts it in her purse a puts that on the other side of the house… only one that had a chance of hearing that go off was the dogs next door, the ones with the bionic hearing. I made due with the time I had available when I got up. Shower, breakfast, pack the cameras, scavenge the batteries from the chargers… double check the food/snacks everything was in order. We got on the road and headed south. Uneventful trip. Arrived in Niagara around 5pm stopped to see my dad, wish him a happy Canada Day and pick up a few odds and ends I had delivered there… after about 20 minutes of chatting in the yard we continued on to Heather’s mother’s house to see if’s she was in, we made arrangements to stay there, I was still pulling for a hotel north of Toronto. The hotel didn’t pan out, Heather cheapped out and took the free room at her mom’s. We went by the hospital to see my grandmother, she has been cooped up in a single room this whole time. She hasn’t been able to get out and do her daily walks, I believe she was doing about a km every day, she can’t see her friends, family isn’t allowed in, we waved at her through the window. A lot of those friends are no longer with us. Her drinking partner which was also her neighbour from sometime back in the middle of the last century fell and passed away just as this lock down started… the whole thing really sucks ass. She didn’t seem to be doing as well as normally when we go down to visit… has to be worse than no hockey… although that’s another thing I’m sure she is missing, that the Blue Jays, Curling… I never could get her talked into using a computer so not even YouTube to watch GoaliePow… and I started trying to get her using a computer almost 30 years ago so…. We returned to the mother-in-law’s (oh joy). I messaged Heather cousin… looks like limited contact with 3 people was fairly safe, took our own food so we didn’t need to shop or go out for meals (we can’t eat food from our relatives’ homes… very scary stuff in the fridges there)… Heather and Lawson went for a swim (not the usual Canada Day Canoe Trip but time in the water none the less. Joyce came over for a while and we chatted while the boy got some much needed sleep. As it was going to be an early morning (needed to get back to the north side of Toronto by 10am)… had to deal with some mild commuter traffic so we had to factor in an extra hour or so just in case the shit hit the fan… we packed it in before midnight.

Lawson going for a swim on Canada Day

Day 111: Garbage day, wish I remembered that this morning. We got into some minecraft early this morning, too early to do anything else while I waited for the call from the rink. It came, they were apologetic about the mix up, a COVID/computer/internet registration issue. Frankly they should have canceled the new booking not mine. We rescheduled it for earlier in the day so everything is going to work out for him, it just means we have to get up at stupid o’clock to make it to the rink. Breakfast broke into baking, not for breakfast just things that needed made… banana bread because Lawson purposely won’t eat the last 3 bananas because he wants us to make banana bread… and a double batch of our Keto buns. That blew away about 3 hours. Lawson went out with 2 of his friends for the first time since the COVID crisis began… they went for a bike ride and ended up at Tannys for lunch, burgers… that’s Tannys food 2 days a in a row. Lol and for dinner… his leftovers from last night, more Tannys food. Heather stayed at work late to hand out food to the homeless and needed for Canada Day… lol, ok it was just for her fellow employees. Last time swag was being handed out she got a real nice backpack, Really Nice… not sure how we transitioned to oranges and Gatorade. Lawson and I used the extra time to dig out the hockey gear and put away some of his clean clothes, man I really need to go through his clothes, he is still wearing some size 3 shorts, to give some perspective on that, he’s in the process of growing out of size 10 pants. Heather got home at 8pm and interrupted the process by falling to sleep on our pile of clothes.

Day 110: Monday again. What can you say about Mondays... tired, too sore to sleep properly. I got an email about Lawson Goalie training this morning. Apparently all is not well like they had confirmed last week. I was told because his session was bought and paid for before the COVID thing all lessons were canceled except for his because it was booked 3 months in advance and they only cleared their schedule to the month end 3 months out, it being on the 2nd it was in the 4th month they didn't bother looking at... and now he was bumped by someone who made an appointment just the other day... Now would you notify the person who was local and just booked that there had been a error and make them reschedule not the person who was scheduled for 3 months, paid and had to make arrangements to take time off work to attend... ya... not a good start. Trying to reschedule for the same day... can't afford more than a day for this. They are getting back to me tomorrow when the lady who is in charge of booking is in. Helped the boy make some Lunch... Mac n Cheese from a box... he does it in the microwave, I do it on the stove... Microwave won out today hence why I was helping him, not the other way around. Followed that up with a Dad Smoothie... sugar, chocolate, malt, cream, a banana (need some kind of fruit in there to call it a smoothie), ice, a little nut juice. Ya, it was likely closer to a banana split milkshake but hey you can't have healthy food all the time. Sidekick stopped by for a coffee but didn't make it out of the house before Heather got home so she parked on the road. Heather got home on gas fumes, apparently her bank card is still not working... she asked me to go fill up the car with gas. I got in and pushed the button to start it... it turned over coughed once or twice but that was it... ya we live on a hill. Fuel pickup is in the front of the tank, that I can now tell you. Now it wouldn't left me shift out of park without it being running so I pushed the start button again and jammed it into neutral... coasted to the bottom of the hill where it was flat and got the car running. Luckily it made it back up the hill once it was running. 2 blocks to the gas station. Thankfully there was no lineup. I put the card into the machine and nothing... yup it's Monday. Fortunately they have another machine on the other side of the tank unit for the diesel, if you use it and put in the pump number on the other side it will let you pay there as well and then come back around and pump your gas. Mission accomplished. Stopped by and got the mail on the way home... looked at Tanny's across the street and thought yes... that is the level of energy I have to put into dinner. I bought the boy some chicken and potato wedges. I bought Heather and I a bag of PigSnacks... that and cake was dinner. I did mention it was Monday right? After dinner I had signed up for a Webinar with Hockey Canada... It was about goalie coaching, issues we have to deal with, how the training can fit in with what the rest of the team is doing at practices, that kinda stuff. I had no questions at the end of it which I found odd because I'm normally the one holding up the meetings keeping people later than they in tended on staying. Maybe I was just tired... Bed didn't come soon enough. Yes Mondays.

Day 109: 6:24, Fuck this shit... yes I see her playing scrabble on the phone out of the corner of my eye... shit that eye shouldn't be open that far on a Sunday. I clamped it shut. ZZzzzz.... 8:20 Ah... OK that's better. Heather was now in the kitchen, making breakfast maybe... I will let her go with that for a little while longer before I spoil the surprise. 8:50 OK the Eggs are burnt or there is something else going on in there and it's not breakfast... breakfast doesn't take that long. I saunter into the kitchen... Chocolate Cake... ok, I'm good with that. She's debating on what type of icing is going on it and whether it needs another 5 minutes in the oven or not. OK, I will make breakfast, that's not going to be done until at least lunch. French Toast for Lawson and we finished off the Omelette stuff from yesterday oh and the bacon too... cut that up in small enough pieces you couldn't tell it was utility bacon anymore and just threw it in the omelettes. Heather fought with frosting and then set about doing the Turnbull tartan blanket for the back of the couch. We have cake for Lunch and Heather got shanghaied into some more ball out side. Lawson couldn't find the smaller bat... he looked every where. I spent a better part of the day in the basement sorting out tools and cleaning up mess... you say hey Rod, you've been doing that a lot lately, when is it going to be done. To you I say Piss off, I'm getting there... which loosely translates to it's not likely to ever be finished but I'm trying. Boy looked for his bat some more... I cut up some chicken wings and went out the the garage. A few years ago we cut down some branches from a tree on the property. I set them aside for when I got the lathe running. At one point the old neighbours thought it was fire wood and started taking it and burning it when they ran out of their own wood. Some survived, I had it hid in the garage... it was nice and dry now, the bark almost fell off. I found a relatively straight piece cut it to length and cued it up on the lathe. STICK MARK II OK what did we learn with the last one... um, scrap wood is scrap wood for a reason and knots are not our friends. I'm sure a branch off the tree out back isn't much better but it's not like it's costing me anything so... (Have you seen the price of a bat lately OMG) I got it as centered as I could... the little bit of a bend in it proved to be about max it could handle while leaving enough meat in the middle of the stick to actually make another bat from...getting it round was the first challenge. The tools got sharpened... see I put that grinder in for a reason yesterday. It make working the wood far easier. Almost round and dinner was ready. Apparently I think she loves me more because she made me blue-cheese dressing for the wings and celery... and how many cabs for this bowl full of blue-cheese dressing? Zero? Well we aren't going to worry about a place in the fridge to store the left overs of that now are we... then she asked me if it was good enough to make my blog... is this what this report has turned into? Dear Lord. Yes it's good enough but I thought you made it for me because you loved me... you just made it to try and be included in the COVID Report? Oh Man. Didn't matter why she made it, she made it... she doesn't like blue-cheese but she made it anyway and that's the important part I guess. I made her a deal to leave enough wings for her lunch tomorrow if she got me chocolate cake to fill the void. She brought a large piece of cake and I backed off the chicken. Out to the garage to finish the bat... just a bat, not rocket science. even trimmed off the ends this time so they didn't have the marks from where the lathe held it on the ends. gave it a little sanding, wrapped the handle again and gave the boy another bat. Pretty sure this one will last a little longer... I left a little extra meat on it where the last one broke as this on also has a few knots in it but should be a lot stronger since it's the core of the branch and the knot didn't go all the way through. He was happy to have the replacement. Darkness came, everyone fell to sleep except me... so I took a photo of the bat and will leave it here as proof that the lathe does actually work.

The Yeater 2020 Baseball Bat

Day 108: Heather got up and made Lawson a smoothie for breakfast, that's one of the things in her wheel house... sure I can make a smoothie but nothing good goes into mine. Sure they taste good but more of a base drink to add booze to not I just got home from jogging and need something cold and healthy before I start in on my palates, kind of drink. Then she cooked up bacon, it was discount bacon... tastes ok but not sure where the butcher learned to cut meat or what the hard part is running along the one side... meh, not in an overly picky mood today. I put on some coffee and made some rather filling omelettes, peppers, mushrooms, ham, onions, cheese, the kitchen sink... we ate, so did the bird... so did the chipmunk. He's not actually living in the house, he spends most of it's time outside where it belongs... but then it sits on the window ledge outside and looks in at the bird food which sits on the ledge just the other side of the glass... I really can't blame him. I got out the cell phone and added bird/chipmunk food to the shopping list for next week. Heather an I sorted out the issues we were having with the music and tuned the keyboard transposed it down a key and then tuned the sax to that, now we are playing the same music, it's not coming out how it is written but it sounds proper. which also allows Heather to play all the sheet music I have laying around for the keyboard. Now we need to start working on figuring out who is going to play which parts of which songs. After her lips wore out she was no good to me, boy took her out to play ball with... I started to look for things to do a few jobs around the house... still need to fix the hole in the canoe and fix the headlight covers on the cars. With 300,000 KM on them both they could use a good polish to brighten them up some. Let see, there is the polisher... can't find the compound... and there is the fiberglass... can't find the die grinder... oh crap, it's going to be Monday #3 this week, I can tell now. Hey look the grinder... it needs hooked up to (yes I just got sidetracked). So much for the other 2 projects for the day... if I find the stuff while I am cleaning up my tools I will do it but now I am hooking up the grinder. Let's see, take it out of the box... bolt on a few rests and guards... and Bob's your Uncle. Even found two carriage bolts to bolt it down to the work bench... hmmm, holes in the bench, check, lined up, check, nice and square... hmm, nuts... I asked Heather to get them, they were in the dining room. She told me I already had 2 nuts and that's where the install stalled. They continued to play ball. Lawson brings his new bat into the shop... apparently Mommy was hitting the ball and got a little over zealous. Ya, with the knots in the handle I didn't expect it to last long with the boy using it, adult usage was never in the cards for it. He asked what we can do with it, seems he was liking it more than I had thought. I cued the big part back up on the lathe. Ya I will fix it hang on a minute. The bat got shorter, the handle got smaller, sanded it back down again and gave it back to him... there a practice bat... now you have to hit one handed, go play. They went for Ice cream at the corner store. I cleaned up the wood chips and went to be horizontal for a while. Heather put some buns in the oven and boiled some eggs... apparently she was in the need for egg salad sandwichs. No one took the chicken wings out of the freezer and we had pizza the other night so pizza and wing night was a bust this weekend. Maybe next weekend. At some point in the evening everyone was lying in bed with daddy playing some form of video game on what ever we had handy. No one lasted very long after dinner. It got dark out.

Day 107: So why are we locked up again? What? we are allow to roam the streets in small numbers now... ok... but what if that wasn't our thing in the first place? I told you this didn't change my day to day routine much other than the boys sports. So it has literally been months since anyone up here has had COVID and we continue to protect ourselves against one another. Confirmed Lawson's Hockey training session next week... it happens on the same day that Golf officially starts for the JRs in Iroquois Falls, so I have to renew his membership at the golf club. The Camp with Nick seems to still be a go for the end of the summer... and apparently they are working on rescheduling the tournaments Lawson was supposed to play in in Kingston and Toronto... and yes golf is a go. Not sure what happen with soccer... Maybe they figured if the made it more boring the suicide rate would jump up some... who knows. We worked on the Minecraft server some today... ok we didn't do any work on it, we actually just played on it a bit... then his friends called and he disappeared into the dungeon. I think he was playing Minecraft with then because the nether update for the Xbox just came out. Heather got home and we did some brain storming for dinner. Leftover where the food that needed to be used... A steak and mushroom pizza with mozzarella and blue cheese won the debate with some raspberries and whipped cream for dessert. Heather talked to her mom for a bit on the phone, topic of discussion is going to give me nightmares tonight, maybe this weekend, I will spare you the details. Heather blacked out mid sentence, must have been tired.... if Lawson wakes up before her in the morning he will be able to yell at her for a change about sleeping in her clothes... no, I'm not waking her up. LOL

Day 106: 4:30 am... apparently now every driveway that crosses the railroad track requires the operator of that huge iron hunk of shit to lean on the air horn to make sure everyone in town is awake... fuck nob. How did we get 2 Mondays this week? Didn't really get back to sleep... didn't really drag my ass out of bed either. It was rather a non constructive morning, I puttered around the kitchen some, cleaning, cooking... video games in the basement... so he has a mic now for his Xbox why does he still need the phone to talk to his friends he is playing the game with... Doh! The only reason I bought it for him was to get our phone back. I give up. After lunch Sidekick stopped by for a coffee. He comes too a stop in the dining room... 'Um, you know there is a squirrel in here?' I'm like ya, I know, but it's a chipmunk... it's Lawson's new pet. Lawson's like, 'I have a new pet? Where is he? Can I pet him?' All I can think is that really depends on how fast you are I guess. The problem was it found the birds food and was making trips into the house to steal the bird food... maybe I should just get it some peanuts or something. Now SideKick has a tendency to bail on me just as the wife gets home... I want to think he is trying to get out of her spot in the driveway but it might be because he's scared of her, there is always that possibility. We put together the new fan for Lawson's room and then Heather an Lawson took some snasuages outside to throw on the BBQ... Baseball equipment was required... the grill has to heat up you know. The new bat got some use... I could hear it crack the ball from inside... hasn't broken yet but he did bring it in to show me the marks on the bat where the colouring from the ball had left marks on it. I think Heather is happy with it... it doesn't have a lot of weight behind it and doesn't carry through like a proper bat so the ball doesn't go very far, kinda what I figured was going to happen if it didn't just hit the ball and break. I grilled up some stuff inside to go with the sausages. We ate... all was good. After dinner we played with instruments... Heather got out her Sax, I tried to figure out the why her music is written one key out... the chords don't match the sax music, apparently the chords have already been changed to play on something else as the sax is one key lower... we tried to get the sax and keyboard working together but it was getting late and brains were not working well, what were before just brief rests in the music when playing solo needed to be stretched out to cover the whole value of the actual rests written in the song so the other parts could be played... meh, we will get back to it later. Lawson stayed up for another Event on his Video game with his friends. Didn't get to sleep until after 10pm... hope he sleeps in.