#204 - On the Floor and Dinklage

I was able to get a good night’s sleep last night and was only awakened by staff members posting good morning greetings outside of work hours.

I didn’t hear Robyn get up and leave with the kiddo to drop him off at the Go Bus. He was off to the airport to catch a flight to Halifax. He is staying for a week with his sister for his birthday.

I was having some great dreams when my phone started going berserk. I got out of bed grudgingly and made myself a tea, ate a boiled egg and a banana and headed to my home office. I had two meeting scheduled today and some trees to paint. Ended up having three meetings, but at least I was able to finish the trees.

There was half an hour between two meetings that should have been my lunch hours, so Robyn and I walked around our street a few times until our time ran out. Not the long lunchtime walk I was hoping for, but it was better than nothing.

After the nexr meeting it was back to revising backgrounds and implementing the new “rules” for the show. This only created more questions and by then the day was over and I was ready to do just about anything else.

I ordered in our favourtite meal from “Paramount Fine Foods,” and was dissapponted when it arrived. They have really decreased the amount of food they send. Usually, every meal comes with a slice of flatbread, but they cut that out too. For the price it cost we could have gone out somewhere nicer. So, I think I will no longer order from their establishment again.

Maybe it’s all the turmoil in the world that has caused them to decrease the value of their meals, but it’s not worth the money anymore for me.

Robyn suggested that we go for a walk and I was up for it. We headed towards a Tim Hortons so she could get a tea. I tweaked my back again on the walk and decided to go to the drugstore and finally get something with a muscle relaxer in it. The Life Brand was much cheaper than the branded box, but after checking the ingredients list and noticing they were identical, I bought the cheaper one.

Once we got home, I went upstairs and got down on the floor to stretch my back and crack the old spine. It helped a bit, and the pills were doing something as well, but I am still getting the odd twinge of pain if I turn or sit or get up or lie down the wrong way.

Sleeping on the floor might be in the cards for tonight.

I am going to take a hot spa bubble bath later as well to help loosen up the muscles.

In other news, I have played one game of chess per day for ninety-five days in a row. All part of using streaks to keep me motivated and on track. I can’t say it has helped my game any, but the accomplishment of showing up every day is enough for me.

Today, is day one of us being temporary empty nesters.

No one is yelling through the house asking for this or that or slamming cupboard doors. And I am certain when we wake up tomorrow morning that there will be the exact same amount of milk in the fridge as when we went to bed. And there will definitely be some left for tea, coffee or cereal if we want it.

So that’s a plus.

It will be interesting to see what it is like without the kiddo and his friends in the house. The last time we had an empty house was when the kids went to a sleepover summer camp up in Temagami.

I’ll sleep like a baby, but Robyn will likely be worried about her babies. This was a good learning experience for the kiddo, getting to the airport and onto the flight under his own power for the first time. It’s these moments that help build up their confidence in themselves; things they can take with them into their future lives. It makes you feel good to see them having these little successes and not falling apart at the first hurdle.

A hurdle I need to jump over is my hair trimmer. It died unexpectantly the other day. Seems like the battery isn’t holding charge anymore. The indicator says its at a hundred percent, and then I run it and it depletes the battery in seconds.

Guess I’ll have to order another one, but I want to take a few minutes to do some research, because I didn’t buy the last one all that long ago. I’d like to get one that will last for a long time, if they even make them that good anymore.

Yet, I just went and ordered one. Can’t be going into work looking like a hippie. Actually, I can. I work at an animation studio, and no one would ever notice.

Hot soaking completed and hoping that combined with the muscle relaxants has some effect. Even knocking me out and giving me a goodnight’s sleep would be a bonus.

When we went out for a walk this evening I took a moment to inspect my tulips in the front yard. They seemed a little wilted then they were before. I’m not sure if that is from the massive amount of rain we had lately, or from the quick drop in temperature we have experienced, falling below zero at night.

Or maybe it’s a little bit of both things.

I think tulips are hardy enough to withstand it all. This is their time of year to flourish after all. I did notice that the stems now had buds forming at the ends, a sure sign that some blooms are on the way. And the chicken wire wall is still doing its job protecting the plants from skunks and rabbits.

At least for now.

We are both waking early to catch the train tomorrow and as such have packed a delicious lunch of Ruby Chicken and basmati rice. While I was at the drugstore, I purchases some mini naan breads to pair with our lunch. At least I’ll have one thing to look forward to tomorrow at work. People are going to be a bit jealous when the complex aroma starts to wander around the room titillating their senses.

But I won’t share a single bite with anyone.

And we have some still left over in the fridge to make a third meal out of it, we both had a small amount for lunch. I scooped some into a soft tortilla and it was delicious.

Next time I make it I might try to double the recipe so we can freeze some of it for later. I’d really like to try some of the other recipes in the Dishoom cookbook as well, maybe one of the lamb dishes and one of the shrimp ones. There was also an interesting crab recipe that looked like something I should try.

After our dinner this evening, I went out to the garage fridge to get a slice of the Tres Leche cake I made for the kiddo’s birthday and was shocked to see that there was only two pieces left. I was expecting ten to twelve pieces.

Turns out Robyn put some aside and into the freezer so the kiddo could enjoy it when he got back from his trip to Halifax. I thought the cheeky bugger had eaten ten slices for breakfast.

Someone of Facebook posted about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s achievements in the last year, mostly to stop people from complaining about the party they didn’t like. The list of achievements was very impressive to me. I feel like we go the right guy at the right time to be our country’s leader. I’m not a party voter, never have been. I’ll vote for the other guy if he makes more sense to me or seems like the better choice.

But I am glad things worked out they way they did so that we had this guy in place when we needed him. I hope Carney continues to live up to the high bar he keeps setting.

We filled the car up with gas today. The prices fell about twenty cents from just a few days ago. I imagine this has more to do with the gas tax being frozen for the next few months as a relief to the Canadian taxpayers. It’s nice to see the government responding quickly to the needs of the people. It’s nice that they are even aware of our needs for once.

It will help keep all our prices down including groceries and keep the country competitive on the world stage.

I read the Aliens TV show is getting Peter Dinklage added to the second season cast. I liked the show, thought it moved a bit slow for a modern audience of phone swipers. I don’t mind a slow build if the scenes are still interesting. The first season caught the vibe of the early movies and then slowly drifted away from it. Slow enough that most people probably didn’t even notice the change.

I liked all the actors involved in the show and the look of it. I remember feeling the Peter Pan thing they were doing wasn’t really working. Almost like the person who wrote it had never read Peter Pan. But that’s a small gripe to make considering how well they did some of the other things.

And we need more good sci-fi shows to be made.

It always surprises me that studios don’t develop more shows based on all the amazing novels that exist in the world. It must be so much easier to develop a known story than to make one up and hope for the best.

But with Timothy Olyphant and Syndey Chandler returning to the cast of Alien: Earth, I think Dinklage will be great addition. He is very good at stealing a scene, someone who can’t take your eyes off.

I’m in one of those moods where I am bored of all the music I have on my phone. I spent a few minutes looking for some good soundtracks that I might have missed in the past two years. I love a good Hans Zimmer playlist and find it is perfect for doing paintings at work. Sometimes I’ll go back through music history and buy an album by one of the greats. The last few purchases were Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin.

I guess nothing is really grabbing me right now in the new and hot releases. I like the older songs because of the timing and key changes but also because each song was a little story in and of itself. You don’t get that much anymore.

That’s one of the things I like about Lou Reed’s songs. Sometimes the music sounds a bit off, but he was always telling a story.

Well…my back is still tweaking, so I took two more pills as per the directions. I am hoping to wake up feeling great and refreshed. It this continues another day then I am grabbing blanket and sleeping on the floor. It has worked for me in the past and I have talked about that before. To recap, sleepingon the floor is like getting a massage all night long. This seems counterintuitive, but the hard floor pushes into your muscles and you tend to move into different positions throughout the night to get comfortable. Massaging everywhere.

I know.

It sounds ludicrous and it should.

But I am telling you it works.  

I think our bodies are better adapted to constant movement than they are to extended sedentary moments. I definitely spend way too much time in a sitting position between the job, writing and leisure time watching TV or reading.

I need to use my standing desk at home more often in the standing mode. It’s been sometime since I raised it up that high.

My life is full of so many great intentions!

My intention for the moment is to go to bed. If I am lucky I will get about seven hours of sleep.

Night all.