#240 - Deck Writing and Frozen Kiwi

I had full intentions to go into the studio today.

I even woke up at seven AM feeling great. The cherry, Magnesium, and kiwi combination seemed to have worked. As well as the triumvirate, I also used a sleep mask to aid in uninterrupted sleep. The combinations seem to be working really well.

This evening I am going to add in another factor; no television an hour before bed. Instead, I will read for that time. Saying this is all well and good, but in order to make it happen I have to write about 3500 words. How long will that take me? I have no idea. But I am starting early to aid in my success.

After getting up at seven I went straight back to bed. Not because I needed but because I could. It was slated to be a hot day and the thought of walking around Toronto and sitting on a hot train had me asking why. I’ll have to go in tomorrow regardless as there are some higher-ups coming in and they need all hands-on deck. Two days a week is a reasonable number of days for me to be in the studio.

Three is too many.

And as it turned out, today was the pergfect day to work from home. I basically did approvals almost all day long. There was enough work coming all day that I was bouncing between three different episodes. This meant as soon as I’d gone through on e shows paintings, more had accumulated in the other two. It felt like I was working on a well-oiled machine for the first time since February.

It can be a bit difficult bouncing around like that, and I did make a few mistakes that had me back tracking. But that is the nature of the business sometimes. When you are getting a show off the ground there are always things that get delayed and you have to go back to work on them. It feels like moving backwards at the time, but getting an episode completed and out the door comes with a feeling of accomplishment.

It wasn’t long before the lunch hour crept up on me. And boy was I glad that i worked from home. We took a long walk through the provincial park and enjoyed ever minute of it. It was getting really hot by the time we reached the halfway point. Hot enough to get a little sweat going.

Only one cyclist passed us the entire time, which is unusual. Some days it feels like a bicycle highway in there. It must not be bicycling season yet. But to make up for the lack of his kind, the cyclist made sure to pass us twice. He was a nice guy. Some of the bikers are aggressive and think they own the path. This guy was respectful.

Even the dogs weren’t there in numbers. We passed a couple we see all the time with their dog and on the way back we were surrounded by a pack of six. The park is a dog walkers heaven. Some of them get together and you get mega packs of dogs running around leash free.

I’m more of a cat person.

The walk felt great and to be honest my body is feeling much better the last few days. My theory is that I am getting better sleep. And it is during sleep that your body does the majority of the repairs you need. Even as I sit here writing this after work on the back deck, (another plus for working from home), I am not feeling exhausted. A word I have been overusing on this blog for months now and the reason I started searching for some information to help with better sleep.

It was YouTube that came to the rescue with an episode from a streamer I have watched before. And since he was using all natural products, with exception to the magnesium glycinate, I felt comfortable trying it. Not mention that there are studies that have been done that back up what he was preaching. That’s where he got the information for himself.

Anyway, I felt great during and after the walk. Neither of us really wanted to return to do work and sit in front of a computer for the rest of the day, but we eventually did.

Back home, I dug back into the approvals process. There was still plenty of work to look through. All it was looking great as well. This is another aspect of a well-run show; the artists start to hand in work that requires little to no changes. This speeds up my job and allows me to do other things to make the painters work easier.

I started playing a new series on Netflix called “Unchosen” about a religious cult in England. It had a few stars I recognized and one that was bugging me. One of the actors looked familiar, but I had seen him act as a child. It took me a while to figure out it was the star of Ender’s Game, Asa Butterfield. The other big star was former Doctor Who star, Christopher Eccleston.

It seemed like the kind of show that needed my full attention, so I’ll save that one for later. I put on some YouTube videos. A couple of them were longer ones and I could let them run without any worry about missing something specific.

With my mind distracted by videos I could let the artistic side free to check the painter’s work. I did this happily until three PM, when I went done to take a short break.

I had made some marinade and chicken two days ago and I needed to cook it. I’d add it in later to the mikhani sauce and we’d have Ruby Chicken for dinner. All I had to do was preheat the stove and lay the chicken onto a sheet. Then I could go back to work for twelve minutes, whereupon an alarm on my phone would have me running back down to the oven to flip the chicken over and then let it cook for another twelve.

By the time it was done it smelled delicious. I pulled out my gas torch I used to use for sous-vide steak and gave the chicken and little more heat until I got some nice burnt spots that you would expect from a real tandoor oven.

I scooped the chicken into a sealable container, put it into the fridge and headed back upstairs to do more work.

Five thirty arrived in no time, so I packed it in for the day happy with the amount of work I was able to accomplish.

I immediately made my way back to the kitchen. Now that the chicken was cooked and the sauce just needed warming and some cream mixed in to it, I was jonesing for some Chicken Ruby. The one ingredient that seems to be unavailable anywhere close to where we live is the pomegranate seeds. They were surely missed this evening, as they add a certain something that is only noticed when it is not there.

We both enjoyed some Chicken Ruby with basmati rice and a hunk of naan bread. Life is good when you have Chicken Ruby.

And now, I’ll have some for lunch tomorrow.

After dinner, I took a tour of our gardens. The gladiolas are coming up nicely now and the hanging bags of begonias I made the other day look like they survived the process. It’s apure joy to see the garden getting fuller and more vibrant with colour everyday.

The trick our friend recommended of putting plastic forks in the planters seems to be keeping the squirrels at bay for the moment. There were no telltale piles of dirt on the outdoor furniture and no plants had recently been ripped out by the roots.\

Who knew the humble fork held so much power over the tree rats.

Its that time of year again where I can bring the laptop out to the back deck and spend the golden hour writing. It hardly feels like work with my feet up on the table, sitting in a comfortable chair with plenty of pillows surrounded by all the plants and the trees with their nearly full canopies.

Pure joy!

I took a short break from writing to put some butter toffee cookies in the oven. Why not have a tasty treat for a later tonight with a nice cup of decaffeinated earl grey. And the cookie dough is taking up too much room in our garage freezer.

I have to bake them in silicone muffin pan because they spread out so fast. This time I baked them until the edges were browned and then demoulded them from the muffin pan. I am now baking them for another ten minutes on a baking sheet to see how they’ll turn out.

The only show we have to watch at the moment is Dutton Ranch, which I am enjoying so far. It’s not exactly Masterpiece Theatre but it does the job.

I see now that Stephen Colbert is off the air he has opened up his own YouTube channel. Not sure what the premise is going to be, but in the most recent one he visits or takes over a local cable tv studio. I haven’t watched it yet, Robyn is more of a Colbert fan, and she only ever really liked the opening monologue.

My new Zento Signature pen has been writing really well. It was a good purchase, at least after I swapped out the .5mm ballpoint to the .7mm. Now it writes wetter and that means it writes smoother. I’ve been using for the past few days and enjoying the hand feel, the weight and the magnetic closure system.

And it writes well too!

I’ve been using for all my work notes as well as the time I was writing my spy thriller assignment. It’s just one of those pens that makes you want to write longhand just for the excuse to use it.

Robyn and the kiddo left for a walk. It’s the perfect night for it. The temperature is falling and it’s cooling off just enough to feel like body temperature. One of things I have to give up getting all my writing done is the evening walk. I end up being awake all-night writing trying to catch up on my quotas.

No matter how you slice it, you have to give up certain things to reach your goal. On of the few upsides to going into work is the writing time I get on the train, at least most of the time.

Another thing I am trying this week is to not consume any caffeine after six PM with the idea of aiding my sleep. No point taking the magnesium and the cherry juice if I amp myself up with stimulants first. I probably should reduce or eliminate sugar after six too. Not sure I have the will power for that right now, but it’s something to be mindful about.

This week will be the first week in awhile without a Survivor, Pizza, hot Tub night. It has certainly increased my pizza intake this year. No pizza this week would be nice, but I suspect the lunch our company is feeding us on Thursday might be more pizza.

Not that I am complaining. Sometimes they get us other things to eat that aren’t pizza and I think I like those meals better, like Greek or Thai food. But seeing as the person who used to organize our staff meals was recently let go, I’m imagining it will be a couple of slices. It’s not lost on anyone that the reason for the visit and the food is because of all the people who were let go recently after the big merger.

It’s getting to that point in the evening when the sun starts going down and gets darker. The question is whether it is too soon for the mosquitoes to come around looking for dinner. They ruin sitting outside for me. For some reason they love me. And for that reason, I bought a couple of those Thermo Cell mosquito repellant systems. Two of them works with a butane flame to get the repellant into the air and the newest one uses batteries to do the same thing. The new one is half the size as the olds ones. I bought it to take to Cuba just in case the bugs were bad. It’s less of a hassle to explain a battery-operated device than it is to explain the multiple bottles of butane in your suitcase. I’m not even sure you can bring those on a plane.

It’s coming up on nine PM, and I think I’ll take my sleep aids around ten o’clock tonight and see how that works. I woke at seven with no problem today, but I want to see what time is the best for me to take these. They say about a half hour before, and I hope to be asleep by 11 to get in my eight hours. I felt like half an hour was to far away, hence the 10 PM test tonight.

The only other thing that ruins sitting in the backyard is the hum of all the air conditioners. Most of the units in my area have AC units that are over twenty years old. They tend to rattle and vibrate more than the newer models.

Ours isn’t the worst offender. I tighten up the bolts now and then. But my neighbor’s sounds like a metallic rattle snake some days. He rents the house out as he moved to Michigan, so it’s not likely to be replaced any time soon, unless it breaks down this summer.

And even then, he is the type to buy the cheapest model that is just as likely purr like a death rattle.

I finished reading the CSIS book I started last week. It wasn’t exactly a page turner, but it did supply me with some details for my spy thriller in the form of lingo. I even had my character wear the same shirt with the writing, “I was never here,” on it.

I set the story in a fictional version of the Patrician Grill. I didn’t feel bad if it go shot up because the real one is being demolished soon. But it was a place I knew well, it had a simple layout that is easy to convey to a reader, and I just wanted to use it in a story.

I even used the owner and his cousin the cook as fictional characters in the story as well.

It was fun to use a place I had frequented so often as a backdrop to my story. Man, all the times I went there to eat, I could have used those receipts to write of the meals as research!

What a wasted opportunity.

It’s getting dark out here on the deck, so I reached over to flick on the string lights that wrap around the deck and heard a pop. I think the squirrels have been busy again. I blame them but it could just as easily be birds or insects sticking things into the sockets that sit up in the canopy rafters. There is always some critter up to no good around our house.

Across the street from our house has been under construction for the last few years. It looks like they are getting near to the end. The landscapers and fence builders have ben around planting trees and installing gates. When those crews show up it’s usually a good sign that things are about to wrap up. And thank goodness!

I’m tired of them sawing concrete so early in the morning. And some of those workers voices sure do carry all the way across four lanes of traffic and trees. I won’t miss that one bit. And not to mention all the dust and dirt that gets thrown up into the air. My car has been filthy for years.

My parents are still enjoying their trip to Tenerife. My father is no longer appearing in any of the photos. He’s either been killed by my mother or he’s off wandering while she is distracted with her sister visiting from Scotland. Those two are trouble when they get a glass of wine and their heads together.

But she is posting pictures of herself with her sister. Always eating at some seaside patio, glasses of wine hand or at least within reach. I may ask for proof of life from my father if he isn’t in the next set of photos.

I was browsing the news and there seems to be some movement, not sure of its size, to separate Alberta from Canada. We hear these things once in awhile, but this is the third day it has been in my feed. Quebec tried this at some point in the past as well. I believe Alberta feels it s getting robbed because of all the oil fields it has. The taxes produced are not kept in Alberta but can be used by the federal government anywhere they seem the need.

And I imagine there are those who oppose nay interference with things like oil pipelines and drilling licenses based on environmental impacts. There are sure to plenty of people who prefer some deregulation of the oil industry.

Robyn just got an email that forced her to check all her diabetic pumps. There was a recall notice for certain lots and since it is responsible for injecting her with insulin, any error could be life threatening. Luckily, none of the pumps she has are under the recall notice.

I let Robyn try the magnesium glycinate this evening. It will be interesting to see if she had as good of a night’s sleep as I did the first time I took it.

The other day when I was writing my spy thriller, I noticed on a break that Mick Herron had put out some of his short stories. Some were from the Slow Horses universe, and the others appeared to be from his detective series. I bought on my kindle and browsed some of them to see how he started shorter works. I’m looking to dive into it this week. I do love his writing and sense of humour.

I think we are going to the movies this weekend with our friends Paul and Laura. They invited us during all the rain we had last weekend, but I was on a story deadline, and Robyn had already left for the movies with the kiddo to see a scary movie. Not my cup of tea even if I was available. It did get me wondering what films were even out at this time. So I opened the theatre app so see what was playing and as soon as I did I knew exactly what movie they wanted to see.

It had to be ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu.’

I really liked the first two seasons, but it seemed to lose its sense of itself after that. I wasn’t planning to see this in the theatres. I know I am going to be disappointed by it. But if they ask to see it I’ll give it a chance. I love the chicken tenders at the theater enough to sit through two hours of just okay Star Wars. That’s what a real friend would do.

Shit I missed the right line. I meant to say.

“This is the way.”

I took my sleep aids at ten. It’s now 10:20. I can already feel myself wanting to drift off into a sweet, sweet slumber. Seven o’clock in the morning is never going to feel so good!

It’s working so well I am going to order some more tart cherry juice, so I don’t run out during the weekend. I got two more bottles and another bottle of magnesium glycinate. I have one more day’s worth of kiwi left too. If it works, it works.

I wonder if frozen kiwi would have the same effect?

One assumes the serotonin would survive the freezing process. If it does, it might be a more affordable way to get the serotonin. And it would last longer too.

Kiwi isn’t cheap in this part of the world.

Granted the ones I currently have are the red ones and there are likely a little more costly than your average green ones.

And a plus for the frozen ones is that they come pre-sliced into bit sized pieces.

The pull to go to bed has increased in the last fifteen minutes. I am truly ready to sleep. Doesn’t feel like I am going to have any trouble falling asleep this evening.

Really the only thing keeping me up right now is the desire to get in my word count for today. I can’t afford to miss any more days. I need hit 3500 words every day until the end of the month. A small improvement from last month’s end.

And since I was able to push through and do that, it is time to call it a night.

I can’t close my eyes soon enough.

Sweet dreams everyone.