Day 145: Late morning, had breakfast and headed into the basement to work on going through the tools, cleaning up a bit and tossing out anything that was on the floor that got wet. Lawson came down and helped sort out the wrenches, they all got oiled and sorted out and put back in their original containers... a few of the tool boxes got cleaned out, the saw dust and crap in them was just enough to start losing tools in... well at least the small other tools. We surfaced for dinner, Heather had made some mince and rice... we subbed out the real rice for cauliflower rice for ours. After dinner we gave up on cleaning and worked on getting the computer stuff back online... apparently something fell on the electrical panel in the basement while we were down there and knocked the breaker off... ez fix... took a little while to get the network and internet up and running again because our service provider is complete shit too. Lawson and I played some Minecraft off line and had a little competition to set who could complete different tasks first. Digging strait down he won most of them... sure he died a lot but that was never stipulated in the rules of the competition sooo.... next time I will have to add that into the preamble. Heather talked to her mom on the phone for a while while we played games... apparently it turns out her mother is still an idiot. Who knew? I mean everybody but her, shhh... Night came... people crashed... Well not everyone... Lefty was up... he started the day with a family of 3... ended the day with a family of 4... squeezing that last one in just before the clock struck 12. But that's another story and 'Miles' away from here.

Day 144: So we are in the kitchen eating breakfast and I look at Heather and make a stupid statement... Well looks like I'm going to be cleaning out the sewer in the basement today. She looked at me oddly, Um... what's wrong with the sewer? Well I figure it's a holiday weekend and none of the appliances have crapped out on us yet (it's chronic, something goes wrong every holiday weekend since before we were ever together)... So I just assumed that would be what goes wrong today. There must actually be something to psychic powers and I have them... 5 minutes later the sump pump kicked in and pumped the water into sewer, which promptly spewed out the drain and across the floor in the basement. So I went down, turned off the breaker to the sump pump and proceeded to clean out the line. I told everyone not to use the toilet. Frankly it would be more predictable and less messy if they just came down and shit in my hand while I was working. So I'm working and hear 'flush' - Oops Sorry! Then Lawson head into the bathroom 4 minutes later and is told specifically not to flush the toilet... but 'flush' - FUCKING WONDERFUL... so I walk up and put some stuff in the garbage... Heather asks, 'What's that?' - It's a log of shit, BTW Thanks, I appreciated that... So it was a shitty day.

Day 143: Up and alert by 9:30 ish perfect way to start the morning... I head into the kitchen and Heather is already working on getting things ready for dinner... you would think breakfast would be the first order of the day but apparently not. I finally got took over control of the stove and made us some food. Afterwards there was some more puttering about in the kitchen... I made pizza crust and dough... baked our pizza crust with plans to make dinner come together easier while we were out tonight... and put the boys pizza dough in a snap lock container and put it in the fridge so it would raise slowly. When it was time to pack up, I put some things in the cooler, Heather put some things in the cooler and the boy scurried around the house trying to gather up the things he needed to take. In the rush out the door and loading the bike, Lawson forgot to pack his bag with his helmet and life jacket and swim suit and change of clothes... well he packed it but didn't put it in the car. And we should have done a second look in the fridge... we also forgot the dough raising in the container and the blue-cheese dip. We got on the road and headed over to Lawson's friends from hockey. Make it there on time but missing stuff. Passed their mom on the way back into town, she was going shopping, lol... guess we didn't need to be in so much of a rush. Cell phones... we send he a message to pick up blue cheese dressing, not home made but it will do in a pinch (we hadn't figured out we forgot the dough yet). We unpack in the kitchen when she gets back and then notice the dough issue, flat breads? Na... got flour? maybe yeast perhaps (there is a bread marker down in the far corner, odds were good)... Check and check... ok we will make some more. I toss the stuff in a bowl and make another batch of dough and we are good to go, I was going to have the kids make their own pizza but time was no longer on our side with the dough issue. Heather manned the hot oil and took care of the wings, toss the casserole in the oven and I made 4 pizzas, 1 for the adults and another 3 personal pizzas for the kids from the dough that was just made. Everything finished at about the same time... we ate on the patio, it was actually nice outside for a change. Manga manga... Everything except for the kids pizzas were Keto friendly so at the point we couldn't eat anymore, we calculated the damage... ya, you can have another dozen wings and another slice of pizza if you want before the cake comes... there were no takers, I guess we aren't going hungry on Keto. Heather frosted the cake and brought it out. We sang Happy Birthday to the kids Mom and finished off the better part of the cake, the children loved it and were concerned where the left overs were going. LOL In the fridge. The kids went swimming for a bit more before building a fire and roasting some marshmallows, pre, during, and post mosquito hour. Now the mosquitoes drained enough blood from the kids they finally passed out or it was just that late... we packed it in and got home by midnightish. Guess what we did next. Yes they went to sleep... I scavenged the dough that had exploded out of the container in the fridge and made it into a cheesy bun for Lawson to enjoy the next day... then I wen to sleep.

Lawson and the Twins... A Vertical Challenge

Rod Turnbull
LOL... now he knows how the other kids at hockey feel when they are shooting pucks on goal when he's in the net.

Day 141: Good god why am I up again at 5 am... my internal clock is completely fucked this week. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I fed the boy... sat down on the bed and then he asked if he could go for a bike ride with his friends... Hm? What? Ah ya I guess... some how it was 1pm... I lost about 4 hours some how. So he is going to meet his friends at the landing... they didn't show up, he came home and wanted to know how to get to the store so he could go look for them... I showed him on google maps, street view. Normally the town is so small directions are not something anyone would need... but they are repaving the highway through town today and the phrase "You Can't Get There From Here" pretty much applies everywhere in town today. He looked at the store, no luck... he came home again. I gave him other options where to looked and asked him if he wanted to see on the map again but he had just kinda given up. An hours or so later his friends showed up at the door... he went with them but now has to wear a mask... so... he got a bandana that he got from Ringette a few years ago and we rigging him up like he was from the wild wild west and sent him on his way... I hope he didn't rob anyone while he was out. Sidekick stopped by... no cooling fan in the car, well it was there but wouldn't go on, just over heated. I rewired it... it's now on when the key is turned on and off when the key is off... we will worry about cold weather issues when and if the car lives until fall. The wife came home and questions me about the boys location... he's riding his bike in town... well that pretty much narrows it down to a 4 block radius. not large blocks either... some only have 3 or 4 houses in the block. He came home almost on time... he was walking his bike and had to deal with getting back across the road they were paving so we didn't bust his hump about the time... looks like the chain came off... going to have to teach him to fix that. The boy was fed, Heather and I poked around for something we could eat... the farmers wife gave me some cauliflower to try, it was small and stressed out but free so I'll try to eat it... it didn't cook like proper cauliflower, took too long and never did tender up a lot... ran it through the blender with some cheese and butter to make something akin to mashed potatoes... a little chunky but tasted the same... Heather didn't finish hers... she found her time would be better sleeping than eating and at the prospects of having to look for something else to eat, she gave up and went to sleep... Lawson once again followed suit shortly there after and I was left alone to poke at stuff on the internet... I found an engine hoist for sale.... Hmmmm...

Day 140: Hump Day... The wife got up... I was already awake for some reason... I made her breakfast... Honest if I'm up I don't mind making her a little something before she heads off to work. Threw some omelettes together for us. My alarm went off, seemed kind of pointless since I had already been up for hours... hell wait that's the alarm for 2nd Breakfast! I woke up boy and made breakfast again. I might have had some more food, perhaps some left overs from the fridge, the boy got a breakfast sandwich. We loaded crap in the car, stopped and got some gas then headed over to pick up sidekick for our weekly pilgrimage to the big city for Dr.'s appointments and a little shopping. It was a quick in and out at the doctors, the boy and I waited in the car... then to the Grocery store... I didn't feel like shopping today, the boy and I once again waited in the car. Not feeling it, headed back towards Iroquois Falls with a stop for coffee along the way. Sidekick wasn't busy today so he came along to the golf course. Lawson headed out with a few of his friends to play a few holes... the weather was sketch and didn't hold out. They came running back but not before getting totally soaked at which point there was no point hiding from the rain so the played some more golf... SideKick and I just sat around, drank our coffees and chatted for the afternoon. Headed back towards home... dropped off sidekick, pick up 6 dozen eggs from the farm and beat the wife home by 5 minutes. Seems no one has energy on Wednesdays, we foraged for left overs. Heather blacked out first... followed by the boy and shortly there after myself.

Day 139: I hear there is suppose to be Hockey in the NHL today... exhibition game or something, testing the waters to see how many players drop dead or something. 5:30am OK why am I up? The wife talked at me... I likely answered... do I have any idea what we talked about. Nope. I grabbed a shower, packed up the garbage (yes it's another garbage day), fed the boy, sat down to figure out what's happening with hockey camps this season. It seems they are either all the same week at the same arena or cancelled and nothing in Rouyan. Some place in there I lost consciousnesses... Messenger Dinged! SideKick was in town and looking for a coffee fix... Actually he was looking for a wheel for the horse trailer, he looked at the wreckers, no dice... or proper size tires... he looked at the auto parts store... well they can order something and have it in for a week from next neversday... or we can look in the vast pit-o-crap in my garage. Broke people hoard crap that might be useful some days, I've been broke, it's a hard habit to break. I have half a dozen in the size he's looking for... we find a good one and match up the rims too so he doesn't need to get it remounted... toss it in the back of his car and head in for coffee. OK I took the opportunity to clean up the garage some and put away all the tires lying about... some went on the tire racks, some went in the trailer to be disposed. Had to give him the bum's rush out the door so he could make it home for another appointment... if we both know each others schedule one of us are more likely to remember what the hell is going on at least half of the time. The Kitchen got some cleaning, boy put away the dishes and I started to make the room usable to make dinner in... Heather made it home a little late due to a stop at the store for veggies. Stir-fry... with Shrimp. After it was over the boy crawled back into the basement and Heather went back to work on the blanket... I'm still looking for more Hockey for the Boy... all is not well yet regardless of what Hockey Canada and the NHL are doing. We will let you know when Lawson is back to 15 hours of ice time a week.

Day 138: Monday, fuck Mondays To damn hot and a Monday to boot... Boy spent th day in the basement coming up only to eat. Since tomorrow is garbage day that means today is clean out the fridge day... all the meals consisted of left overs... "Leftovers make you feel good twice. First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: 'I'm saving food!' Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent: 'I'm saving my life!'" George C. And wine, the wine wasn't left over... cracked open a new bottle of peanut greasy hole. Then we retired back to the room with air conditioning. Reading my email I find a note from one of the hockey organizations... zoom meetings, agm... and what's this? A letter we are urged to send to our PMs about the insurance and liabilities of the organizations facilitating minor hockey... who's going to get sued when little johnny get COVID at hockey practice... Scroll up, I told you this was coming. I tell you the first case that actually successfully makes it through court and damages are awarded to the plaintive... kids sports are FUCKED! No one is going to be able to afford the insurance and everyone is just going to lock their doors... COVID is only a drop in the bucket compared to what may come. Ringette sent crap too, looks like they might be thinking about starting to register kids now... the coach is looking for shirts and other things that have been loaned out so there is some promising news there. Inquired about a training camp in Quebec, the boy can do french, no point in not using what is available semi locally just because of a difference in language. Going to look through some more hockey crap on facebook and go to sleep at some point I guess. TTFN

Day 137: I've just decided that on day 200 I'm dropping the word Day at the beginning of each post. On day 300 I will replace the numbers with my own numeric system and you will be left on your own to figure it out. 7am... I'm woken up after 3 hours of sleep to preform surgery on Heather's foot... apparently their is a sliver in there some place and it's not coming out. She was scheduled to play baseball with the boy at 8am before it got too hot and muggy out. The alarm went off at 8am... yes, he set an alarm to go out and play ball. They took the new bases over to the school, found the wear marks from the old baseball diamond they removed because kids might be having too much fun in Matheson and they put the bags in the depressions made in the field. Filling in holes, pot holes or other wise eludes people up north. I got out the bacon and eggs and started on breakfast... the day was off to a much earlier start than the day before. When they got home we ate... then Heather went to the store for berries (they aren't quite ripe here yet, still need to buy them) and she came home and made Blueberry Ice Cream... What started out as, why are you bringing more crap into the house turned into thank you for buying me and Ice Cream Maker... because frankly... this shit is the bomb! The temperature rose and the humidity was so high raindrops were hanging in the sky. We sat in the room with the air conditioner on... we ate ice cream for lunch. It wasn't a do a lot day... every time you started to do something you knew you would be better off hiding in the room with the conditioner in it... yes this was one of the three days of the year you need an air conditioner up here. Dinner involved another trip to the store for mushrooms. I cooked up some chicken which Heather braved the heat to go to the store again... did I mention it rains inside our store here... has for years... but that's another story. Turned on the oven to add to the heat, why because Cheese... the oven does wonderful things to cheese, all kinds of cheese... so everything we had cut up and melted went into a dish and put in the oven. Did I mention cheese? After dinner we escaped back to the air conditioner. Heather did some work on her blanket (because with this heat we know winter is right around the corner)... the Bodkin I made works fine... no more chances of loosing the yarn in the middle of the blanket when the hook slips. Boy in the tub and hosed off the ick after dinner, then retired to the basement for a few games and some sleep. Heather with work in the morning also cashed it in... which leaves me here awake... damn why am I not tired... did I fall to sleep for a bit in the after noon in the air conditioned room? There is a good possibility of that. Oh look, Heather sent photos of the blanket to her friends and family, it's odd that she can do that from my account but not hers. Nothing is private anymore... LOL

Turnbull Family Blanket

Day 136: Pizza and Wing Night... ok I skipped a head a bit let's go back to the start... got up, made pancakes for everyone, late... which fits into me schedule not the wife's... oh and coffee too. Almost like I had my shit together... ok maybe together but a few hours late. We cleaned up a bit around the house and started working on dinner early. We were having SideKick over for dinner, needed to be able to access the 4th chair at the table. I made pizza dough (I was going to delicate the whole day's entry to a rant about how much of a piece of shit our KitchenAid stand mixer is but I decided to spare you of that one again, BUT I tell you, it sure in hell isn't a Hobart... lord only knows what shit hole factory in Taiwan they are pumping this pieces of shit out of... ok never mind) Heather made a Keto Crust for us, Lawson and Guest got the real stuff. And Buffalo wings... side note: the restaurant last night in the menu is said, 'If buffaloes have wings why can't Moose..." and then listed all the flavors and styles of Moose wings... Why, Please lord tell me why people up here don't get it... I messaged SideKick... bring Celery... I get the reply: Is this for me? Like I was giving him my grocery list like he was my wife or something... it's like yes, you are coming over for dinner remember... he didn't, LOL - But he managed to make it over after being reminded. Did some gourmet Pizza's, sidekick got Boca cheese, sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil from our garden, Chicken from the neighbours farm... a few other odds and ends. Boy did boy, nothing out of this world and The Wife and I split a pizza. After the feast Heather brought out some home made ice cream on waffle cones and washed them down with another pot of coffee. After chatting a while company left and I fell down a worm hole on the internet... the Beastie Boys are funny. Heather went back to work on the blanket... she claimed a Bodkin would make her live easier, I'm like what the fuck is a Bodkin... so I google it... apparently it's a stick that holds string or ribbon... I'm like, wait here, hold my beer. Fuck I got a crap load of sticks in the basement, how hard can it be to make one. I snapped a piece of dowel off a little more than a foot long, sand a blunt point on one end, drill a few little holes in the other to put a wire in... scavenged an old heater for some springs to make the wire out of, bent it to shape, stuck it in the holes and BOB's Your Uncle! Getting late... I guess she will have to try it tomorrow.