#191 - Eggs, Bacon and Sinatra

Maybe it was the wine talking, but I slept like a baby last night.

It also could have been the perfect date night with my wife, or the combination of the wine, the woman and the entertainment.

David Sedaris never fails to impress and send us into fits of laughter.

But i woke at seven feeling better than normal, so I decided to try and make it to the diner for my Easy, Bacon, Brown and a cup of Joe. I ran to the catch the train that arrived just as I parked my car. I jumped aboard just as the doors were closing and shimmied into a corner seat located in the first car.

It was too cramped for any writing, so I sat with my eyes closed and daydreamed. From the station I made my way up to King Street and a streetcar was just pulling through the lights towards my stop. Another little jog and I was able to make it aboard.

It seemed breakfast was going to be in my future.

There were no delays, only one homeless man sleeping on a streetcar bench and for once it didn’t smell lightly of urine, at least not yet.

With that cold wind that was blowing and the snow, I couldn’t really blame the fellow for finding a safe and warm spot to crash.

My order was called out to me by the owner Terry, merely for confirmation than as a question. The diner was unusually busy this morning and Terry said it had been like that yesterday. I think word is getting around town that they are closing in May. And like me, people are showing up to enjoy the place and the food while they can.

And who can blame them for that?

At least I didn’t have to listen to a Bay Street douche bag lecturing some poor schmuck that was stuck eating with them.

Today, Terry is going through his Frank Sinatra playlist, a slight deviation from the jazz he often plays. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the big brass sections, but Sinatra on the radio and the snow falling makes me feel like it’s the Christmas season again. And I am just glad I grabbed my toque and gloves this morning. It’s freezing cold out there today.

But my time at the diner is at an end for this morning. I’ll pay in cash, because that is all they accept, another of its quirks that inform its character.

I’ve sat here typing to Sinatra and the sizzle of bacon and drinking my second cup of coffee, happy as can be. I managed to write almost five hundred words and get my breakfast.

Not a bad start to the day.

I jumped onto a streetcar that just pulled up as I exited the diner. I am sensing a theme of just in time today. Sometimes my days are just like that, everything lines up for me just so and all I have to do is put in the tiniest of efforts. Like a quick jog to catch the train, another to catch the streetcar and once again after my breakfast.

Even taking the short time to write at the diner was another opportunity thrown my way that I gratefully snatched out of the ether.

At work, I got stuck into as soon as possible. We had a ten AM meeting to discuss trees and bushes. This was to do with locking down our library of reusable assets for our painters and layout artist to use.

The meeting went on for about an hour and was time well spent. After that I did some approvals and revisions for my artists and as quick as an eyeblink it was twelve-thirty. I started to feel incredibly tired suddenly and here I thought I’d slept like a baby. Apparently, I still needed more shut eye.

It was as good a time as any to take lunch.

I made my way directly to the staff sitting area that is filled with mismatched couches, careful to avoid any colleagues and not making any eye contact. I had a goal to get some writing done today and I wasn’t prepared to alter my course for anyone.

I haven’t got enough time in the day to get everything finished that I need to get done. So, squeezing out every drop of juice the day has to offer me is critical this week.

I’m hoping to get most if not all my word count challenge done for the day before I get home. That will give me time to decompress for an hour or two before I descend onto the writing cave to work on my assignment.

I munched on half a slice of potato and bacon pizza my brother-in-law Jeremy made for Easter and sipped on a Dr. Pepper Zero. Then the laptop came out and the writing business at hand was addressed.

I might need to go make a coffee in an effort to stop the constant yawning. I keep yawning every time I type the word yawning.

This evening is one of the nights that I don’t have anything planned. So, it’s super important that I get down to the writing cave and get started. The first five hundred or so words are always the hardest part for me. Getting that out of the way tonight will be a big time saver by the time Friday, my next free evening, comes around.

I’ve managed to get about 1000 words written in these two sessions and that’s almost have of my daily writing quota. Not too shabby.

The trick this evening will be to get a good seat on the train ride home. What train I get on is a fairly random thing as it all depends on timing and when I leave versus the lights I have to wait for or even if I take a streetcar. Too many variables.

But an all stops train might give me the seating and the travel time I need to get the rest of the quota written.

In the meantime, I will try to think about my assignment. It’s actually an assignment my mentor stole from Ursula Le Guin, but it’s a good one. I think I even have a copy of her book on writing that my instructor poached it from.

But sadly, my lunch time has come to an end and I must begrudgingly return back to my desk.

I was tasked with revising more of the painter’s work and did that for the rest of the day, happily listening to music. The current audiobook isn’t one I am really enjoying, and I needed something other than caffeine to keep me going. Sometimes, music is a more powerful drug than anything else. With the music playing I soon forgot how tired I was and stopped yawning.

By five fifteen, I was the only one from my paint crew still at the studio and instead of jumping on a street car to try and make better time, I decided to walk to the station and take my chances. The sun was shining and the air was crisp and cool. A nice day for a stroll in the city.

I managed to board an express train that was leaving in ten minutes time. The preferred seating was available, and I quickly pulled out my laptop and set it up before any others arrived to stake their claim.

Its and incredibly noisy seat so near to the doors and being the last car, the next one being the rumbling pusher motor. Luckily, the Soundcore X20 Sport earbud came in hadny and I was soon listening to the calm sounds of classical music, perfect for writing, because there aren’t any words and you don’t want to dance to it or tap your toes to the beat.

I’ve noticed my laptop battery depletes at a faster rate since the Windows 11 install and upgrade. It hasn’t made it unusable, but I am more aware the battery percentage declining in the bottom right-hand corner. Not giving it a proper charge last night didn’t help either, I’m sure.

I was talking to my supervisor about digging around in other peoples painted files when doing revisions. We likened it to spending time in another person’s mind. Some are organized and logical others make less sense and are a bit more sporadic in their decision making.

It can be a bit of odd sensation and often frustrating. You are constantly asking yourself, “Why did they do it like that?” and you will never receive a satisfactory answer. And that’s just something you have to learn to live with.

While I was revising paintings, I made myself a ginger tea drink, it comes out of a packet in the form of crystal chunks, similar to course sugar or salt. Its very gingery and I thought it might be good for some digestive assistance after all those big meals.

After breakfast at the diner, the only other thing I had to eat was a Dr. Pepper Zero and half a slice of Jeremy’s potato and bacon white pizza. I began to wonder if it was the potato that was giving me trouble. It was a bit crisp like a soft apple. Under cooked potatoes can be hard on the human digestive system. And Dr. Peppers probably aren’t much help either.

So hence, the ginger tea. I hadn’t had one in a while and forgot how much I enjoy them. They make me feel better for some reason, like I have eaten all my vegetables.

So even though, the pizza was delicious, I decided to throw out the last piece and cut my losses I don’t think I can eat large meals anymore, even when it’s the only one of the day. This morning’s breakfast has kept me full all day and even now at six PM,  I have no interesting in eating anything.

That being said, my LG oven app just informed my that the oven has come up to temperature, which likely means she is in the process of cooking us some dinner. I might eat it later at eight or nine.

My mentor has a kickstarter running right now for a series of her books. Her and her husband often sell courses related to the books on offer. How to Write a Detective story etc. They had an interesting one about floating times lines so you reader won’t get lost. I’m sure we have all seen a movie where we had trouble telling what time period we were in, it this taking place in the past or the present? Annoying to read and watch.

I have suspiciosn a lot of the sdvice will be about setting and tags of various sorts, to clothing, vocabulary and distinct setting cues. I’m sure they’ll go deeper than that, but for the $150 USD price tag, it is currently out of my fiscal reach.And even though I have alifetime subscription to their workshops and classes, the Kickstarter classes are not included in that, which is completely understandable. Their kickstarter campaigns are usually great deals. I’ve supported them on several occasions.

I was told I might get a pass the TAAFI as a reward for representing the studio this Saturday. I’m not sure I’ll have anytime to use it, but I asked if I could gift it to an animation student, since we happen to know one. Otherwise, I may use to watch a friend give a talk or seminar if they are presenting on Saturday.

I have nearly written enough today to meet my quota for the 2026 Word Challenge. It’s amazing how much I can get done within the time it takes to ride the train, eat a quick meal at the diner, and a short half hour sprint over the lunch break.

I need to make these micro sessions more of a habit with my fiction because working this way feels less taxing on my energy and I am getting good results.

This maybe all for today in this blog, its already gone on long, but you never know, I may have more to say be the end to the night.

Robyn had a nice dinner of sausages and roasted veg ready for me and waiting. Always a nice treat. Then I took a few hours to relax watching YouTube and reading. I was able to finish reading Mythago Woods. The story continues in several other books. I don’t think I will continue reading the rest of them. It was well done and I understand why certain authors are moved by the book’s ambience, but it’s not for me.

I took a bubble spa hot tub to relax a bit more and get rid of a bit of a chill that came over me.

Then I went hunting for another book to read from my TBR pile and settled on the “Writer’s of the Future 41.” I may switch it out for something on my Kindle because its more portable and easier to read at night.

I’ll end the night by working on my assignment. Getting it started tonight will help me move forward with it tomorrow during those quiet writing moments.

See you tomorrow, same Brian channel, same Brian time!