#291 - Smokey and the Burger

I awoke early, my alarm jolting me from a sound sleep.

I contemplated calling in sick or delaying my departure by half an hour. Would anyone notice if I took a later train? Probably not.

Outside the sky still had that odd tint to it from the wildfire smoke although there was little evidence of it in the house. After ten minutes of lollygagging, I hoisted my ass out of bed and started the morning rituals.

Before heading downstairs, I remembered that I had some good masks tucked away in my underwear drawer. They were the good 3M kind that blocked all kinds of particulate. I’d got them during the pandemic and never used them. They were still safely tucked away in their plastic clamshell packaging. I grabbed one and some surgical masks as well. Better to have options.

Grabbing my lunch from the fridge, I exited the house and was his with a smoky punch to the nose. I stepped back inside; the intensity of the smell was the same as if I was standing over a campfire. I wondered briefly if our tomato and bell pepper plants were going t produce smoky flavoured fruit this year.

 I donned my mask and stepped out again.

This time the campfire scent was barely noticeable, and I was glad to have taken a moment to take the mask with me.

The drive to the station was a surreal eerie colour. Traffic was less than I was expecting, but then again, many companies likely allowed their employees to work from home. Unfortunately, I don’t work for a company that compassionate.

The platform at the station was less busy than usual. I was catching a slightly later train than normal, but I think it was the smoke that was making things less trafficked. And most if not all the World Cup games are done, at least here in Toronto.

But having said that, there are usually people who end up standing in the aisles on most trains and today everyone seemed to get a seat at least in the car I rode in.

Everyone is mercifully silent this morning, which again, is unusual given that I am sitting in the mid-section of the car.

Arriving at Union station, I disembarked the train and found it easy enough to exit the station. Some days are easy and others are tedious. The smoke seemed to be less dense here in the city, but the smell was still as intense without a mask. I chose to keep mine on.

I stopped once again to pick up a grilled vegetable sandwich at Au Pain Dore. I don’t thin I could ever get tired of eating that sandwich for breakfast. I had a light lunch of tandoori chicken and roasted vegetables for lunch, so I thought a little bit to eat in the morning would be good. And once again, no regrets.

I arrived at the studio and was surprised to see two of my painters there. Hardly anyone else showed up this morning. If I hadn’t agreed to give a little talk to a group of visiting animation students from the Philippines, I probably would have stayed home as well.

I got to work assigning paintings and do approvals as much as I could before the day could go off the rails. With my supervisor returning to work on Monday, I wanted to put myself into a winning position by the end of the day, so that Friday was just cleaning up and finalizing little details.

At noon, myself, Lisa, an animation supervisor that sits beside me and one of my painters headed to the kitchen to talk to the students. We introduced ourselves and talked a bit about what we do and then opened the floor up to questions. They had quite a few questions for both of us and it was nice to sit and talk with them.

One girl coughed up coffee all down her nice white lace dress during my talk and I warned everyone not to drink the studio coffee. It got a laugh and the covered a bit of time while the girl cleaned herself off and coughed up the rest of the coffee from her lungs.

Lisa did a great job as well, but Aurlene, my painter, who graduated from the same scholl as these kids and is also Filipino, went and chatted to someone she knew.

 I had my revenge afterwards when the kids were invited back to our desks to see really work and ask more questions.  At that point they swarmed Aurlene’s desk and I heard her chatting away in what I assumed was Tagalog. The students gathered around her and were rapt with attention.

Another group gathered around Lisa and I was left alone in the middle not having to say a word. Overall it went well, and the work colleague who organized it all sent some kind words after to say thank you.

I snuck out for some lunch in the kitchen when the students went into our screening room to watch some video footage.

The tandoori chicken tasted amazing and the vegetables were a perfect compliment to it. I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch and a little peace and quiet, even if it was just for a minute or two.

Back at my desk I got ready for the next big meeting at three. After feeling well informed about the show we would be discussing I got back to approvals and organizing all the elements that were in play.

This was my first meeting where I was in charge of this team, and I thought it went really well. The meeting was comprised of directors, leads and supervisors as well as all the production staff. I needed to ask for some extra resources for the next show and was pleased when everyone agreed that it needed to be done. I counted the meeting as a success.

Afterwards I continued to make sure all the loose ends would come together by end of day tomorrow. I ended the workday feeling like things were in hand and my supervisor wouldn’t be coming home to a big mess. Or a little mess for that matter.

I headed out and immediately put on my mask. Although the air looked better than yesterday, but off in the distance I could see how much particulates were floating in the air. Some people gave me odd looks, but I’d wager a good twenty percent of the people were wearing some kind of mask.

The walk to the station was a bit frustrating. Mostly it was just people walking like drunkards. Going up the stairs to the train platform, two ladies walked side by side verly slowly.

They almost made a bunch of us miss the train. Not sure why people need to chat while walking up a set of stairs or tae out a new mortgage using their phone. But everyday it’s the same thing. Everyone is in their own little world and only some of us are in the present.

But I managed to get aboard and find a seat that was perfect for writing on my laptop.

I’ve really become much better at writing in public spaces. I think the privacy screen and the portable lapdesk have really been game changers for me. That and all the practice I have been getting. It was a nice quiet train ride. I think one of the side effects of the smoke has been less chatting. Everything can have a silver lining with the right attitude.

I watched a quick video by the Critical Drinker, who has another channel where he visits cities where famous movies have been shot. Today he was in Slovenia, and I was blown away by the diverse beauty if offered, from lakes to mountains to scenic vistas. It was nice to see him enjoying something for once and having positive things to say about it.

The YouTuber I watch, who built his own solar yacht did an episode that highlighted all the things he did wrong when building his boat and what incorrect notions he had when building it. Of all the things I got out of that video, it was that even with all the mistakes, he was still living on a boat in sunny Spain. He was free to do as he wanted and was enjoying the adventure.

If he’d been paralyzed by the potential of imperfection, he wouldn’t have ever set sail.

Off the train, I donned my mask again, as soon as the scent of wood smoke hit my nostrils. With the mask back in place the smell evaporated, and I wore it all the way home in the car. Once it was on, I didn’t really notice it.

Back home Robyn was relaxing on the bed and reading. She hinted that she might be interested in having a hamburger, which is her way of saying she was craving McDonald’s. I ordered some food for us and kiddo #2 on Uber Eats, because I wasn’t going anywhere for the rest of the evening. I enjoyed a bacon quarter pounder and fries and then regretted the decision almost immediately. The food left me feeling bloated and uncomfortable. I should have made something healthier with less salt. But what is done is done.

We put on a new show playing Apple TV called Lucky. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy, but what caught me was that Timothy Olyphant was also playing a role. Overall, I liked the first couple of episodes. The character is a bit of grifter and lies to get whatever she wants, so it’s going to be a hard sell to make her likeable. Not an impossible task. I think about a character like Tony Soprano, who was very likeable, but was also a violent criminal.

As my writing teacher would say, your audience must feel like the main character would be welcome to sit down on their living room couch.

And so far, Anya’s character has very few redeeming qualities.

After we’d watched all the episodes that had been released so far, we put on an episode of the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. I found this episode to be a bit slow for my tastes. Maybe the feeling was brought on by a McDonald’s food coma and the ensuing buyer’s regret.

It’s a charming and quirky show that has moments where I stop believing in the narrative. But I’ll keep watching it because it has a lot of other good qualities. But any night there is something better on, this show gets a pass.

My writing teacher has been talking a lot about the traditional publishing deals and horror stories over on his blog the past week as part of ramping up for a new class on indie publishing. It’s amazing the number of people who rally against the idea of self-publishing and yet have no idea how it all really works.

Maybe it’s because he’s destroying the fantasy they have about getting published and the validation they expect to receive from it. Both he and his wife have so many bad stories about publishers and agents. So, many of their writing friends have bad stories to tell as well.

And yet the contracts for books have become worse over the past decade. On his blog he strips down the royalty payments and shows how little a four-hundred-thousand-dollar contract gets you after all the chips are on the table. And over how many years the money will be ladled out over four or five years. Then you have to minus the agent’s fees, if you’re dumb enough to have one.

There really isn’t a good reason to publish your book with a publishing house in this day and age. The contracts are terrible, you’ll lose your copyrights and you’ll make far less money.

And many writers will still chase that dream so that they don’t have to learn how to make a cover, right sales copy and learn how to get the writing out to the public.

It’s been over a week since the racoon guys came to seal up all the access panels where they were getting in. They also added some metal strips where the squirrels and birds were entering as well. And so far the motion-activated camera in the attic hasn’t been set off once and we haven’t heard any noises or seen any creatures hanging out on the roof. I am declaring this a win for humans. Hopefully, it was last for a long time.

My stocks have also been doing well this month. I keep wondering how long this windfall can last and every day it increases I am surprised, because I can’t see what is driving it this time. But the time is coming when taking profit is the best thing to do.

The other day I was looking at getting a standing board to use on the lake. I figured that there really wasn’t much to them, but boy was I surprised at the prices. Three hundred dollars was the cheapest on Amazon and some of them went as high as one thousand dollars.

To me they are just adult swim floaties.

So, I went on Facebook marketplace to see what a used one would go for and these people are selling them for a higher price than the Amazon listings for a new one!

And it wasn’t like the used ones were of a higher quality either. Same products!

The day of the bargain is over.

eBay used to be a place to get something at a good price. Now it’s basically just another marketplace too.

All good things must come to an end.

And speaking of coming to an end….

Until tomorrow.