#297 - Final Space Lives Again For A Moment

Another good sleep.

I went straight to my home office and fired up my PC and connected to the studio network. My schedule was clear until 11AM, when I had a meeting to discuss the method we were going to use to turn day scenes into night.

In previous shows we have used a filter to give everything a blue look. Sometimes, this method just doesn’t work or doesn’t work well in the pipeline a particular studio uses.

I had some time before that meeting started so I got to doing approvals. Some of the painters had added some work for me to look at. These paintings were well done, but there were some file management issues with them that took me awhile to get through.

There was painting work of my own to get to, but I deemed the approvals to be more important.

My supervisor messaged me and asked if I would sit in for her during a meeting that was just about to start. It was the supervisor meeting, and I needed to quickly get some numbers together to create the snapshot of where our team was at.

I managed to get it done and join the meeting just in time.

As the meeting ended forty minutes later, I ran downstairs to make myself a tea before the next meeting started. I microwaved a breakfast bowl and ran back upstairs with the food.

As my derriere touched chair, a message arrived to tell me the next meeting had been cancelled as someone important to the decision was absent today. I didn’t mind one bit. I continued approving and revising my teams work until noon.

We avoided taking a walk in the park today. The recent torrential storms would have left the ground and trails muddy and unenjoyable. Robyn needed to get something from the pharmacy around the corner from us, so we walked there first, then returned home to drop off the goods and did our neighbourhood walk that would get us back by one PM.

The rest of my afternoon was looking to be free of meetings, so I put on some ear buds and played Peaky Blinders while I resumed work on my own painting. I did this until about three o’clock, when Robyn told me that our friend’s cat, Wizard, had needed to be put down.

He was an old white cat with grey patches. Very affectionate and very motivated by food. He always made the rounds whenever we visited and would sit and get scratches for hours, purring the whole time. Wizard will be missed by all those who received a royal visit from him.

Later, more paintings were ready to be looked at, so I switched gears and did more approving. Of course, there was the usual questions from painters and messages from the rest of the team to deal with, as there are most days.

I finished the day by getting back to my painting with the Peaky Blinders to keep my company.

By five thirty I was ready to be done for the day. I head to our room and flopped on the bed for a little while to unwind.

Robyn left to have dinner with some of her girlfriends. I wasn’t feeling hungry, so I just watched some television and YouTube videos while I relaxed.

I spent a few minutes mounting a thin shelve on my wall using Command Strips. The strips were rated for 5 pounds each, so it should be plenty strong enough. I used two of them, one on each side. I managed to get about six thin paperback books lined up face forward. Any thing I can do to tidy up that area is a win.

Already, I am feeling better about being in that space.

Amazing what a little organization can do for your spirits.

Tomorrow, after work, I might try to put some of my paper products away in a cabinet. I have fancy papers, lamination sheets, printer paper, envelopes, tracing paper, vellum and other assorted goods that should be put somewhere they can’t be damaged.

One thing I’ve changed for my bedside table is to bring my laptop stand into the room. It’s one of the stands made by Humancentric that allows your laptop to sit upright and take less space. The fake walnut material fits in with the wooden bedside table, and it takes up very little space. Much better than opening a drawer and balancing it on there and hoping I don’t knock it to the ground in the middle of the night.

And as I was writing this, the shelf I was so proud to hang earlier, just came crashing down. I knocked my iPad of it’s stand in the process. It didn’t appear to take any damage thankfully.

The Command Strips remained stuck to the wall and the shelf, but the Velcro couldn’t handle the weight. I hung it back up and added three drywall screws in holes that we already predrilled and placed the books in their place. In hindsight, I should have added the screw in the first place.

I ate leftover salmon from last night and added some basmati rice that was also leftover and turned that into a meal. It was simple fair, but I don’t have to cook it, and it was tasty.

Robyn returned from her night out. We decided to skip television this evening. I needed to write and she wanted to read her book. I say we decided this, but there was no discussion, it happened organically.

I married the right girl.

There are a few things I’s like to get done this weekend in preparation for our cottage holiday. The idea of having to cook this time around haunts me. I’m just too tired to want to cook on my vacation. My thought was to precook some meals that I like so we can just reheat them. But what to make?

Chicken Ruby seems like a no brainer. We all love it and it feels like it’s a treat. That’s one done. I used to make a healthy meatloaf that was well received by the family, and it freezes well.

Spaghetti and meatballs seem like another easy win.

Robyn often makes a creole spiced seafood bake that is a bit of a treat as well.

That involves some preparation and cooking of course.

Pulled pork on a bun might be an easy one, but I’m not pulled pork is the kind of meal I want at the cottage.

The kiddos love it when we do Taco Tuesdays and it’s easy to prepare. The kids even offer to help most times.

I don’t think I can afford to make steaks this year; Beef is just too expensive.

Hamburgers and dogs are aa good cottage meal, but I requires me to stand over the BBQ, and I am trying to avoid that this year.

Maybe a baked salmon in tinfoil. It’s easy to prepare and once it’s in the oven there is nothing else to do. Throw in a few foil-wrapped baked potatoes and you have a decent meal.

I’ve made a list of these options on my iPhone. I think it’s enough to get started.

I want to make sure I go for a kayak at least once a day as well. Last year I did pretty good at getting out on the water. I spent more time floating out in the lake on my floatie that any previous year as well.

And I need to take more naps. There is nothing better than a cottage nap. In a hammock, on the bed, it doesn’t matter. Sometimes I feel like I shouldn’t be wasting my time napping. This year napping is part of the reason for being there.

And writing.

I’d like this cottage experience to include an hour writing everyday. Whether that be dockside in the morning, or under that shade of the screened-in porch or staying up late. I used to stay up late reading when the kids were younger, but these days they bring their video games up and play all night in the common area.

For me, that kills the vibe of a cottage experience.

But it makes them happy.

We often subject the kids to the movies we watched growing up. So far, they have loved most of them, and when we get back, we often find them sharing the movies with their friends. Everything from Back to the Future, Ghost Busters, Adventures in Babysitting, The Outsiders, Red Dawn, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and the Breakfast Club to name just a few.

It’s a pure joy for us when they “get it.”

Although, kiddo #2, our “film student,” called Casablanca boring. That was unforgiveable.

But their attention spans are less tolerant.

The same kid just burst into our room to rant about how loud people are at his work while in the breakroom and he is trying to nap. I pointed out that our room was the same place of peace and quiet for us. He didn’t get the point just got more animated and louder.

The kids love to come in a talk to their mother around 10:30-11 pm.

Oh, the irony. Is it irony? Situational irony I think is the correct term.

We need to post our business hours on the door.

It was nice and cool outside today. The smoke seemed to have cleared completely. It made the walk very comfortable. And the air conditioner could probably use a rest. It’s been working hard for weeks now.

I haven’t been getting much reading done in July. And that something that must change. I’ll be reading as much as I can while at the cottage, but my regular daily reading has all but dropped off. The only reading I have done is from my phone while on the train and I only travel by train once or twice a week these days.

I finally remembered what one of the trailers was about when I went to see The Odyssey last weekend. It was a movie called Digger starring Tom Cruise wearing a lot of prothetelic makeup. He plays an oil tycoon who is tasked with saving the world. It’s a very odd character choice but not one he hasn’t made before like when he played Les Grossman in topic Thunder.

I think it’s great when actors choose roles that aren’t designed to flatter their egos. With all that makeup, Tom’s character is less than attractive. Many leading male stars would not go in for that kind of thing in the past.

The movie looked both fun and ridiculous. Maybe it’s the kind of silly film we need in this day and age.

My employer is putting on a lunctime event next week and showing us a couple of episode so a show we worked on. The show was eventually put in a vault by Warner Bros., presumably for tax purposes. This meant that I can’t be show ever again without them incurring a tax loss. So, all our hard work was shelved and put into storage like the Arc of the Covenant at the end of Indiana Jones.

Well, they are showing us two episodes as part of the celebration of the release of the comic book version that the creator made. The show was called Final Space, and I put my heart and soul into two seasons of it. It was the reason I came to work at this studio in the first place.

It will be nice to see some of the episodes again over a pizza lunch.

Apparently, there will be some prizes too, like a copy of the comic and some swag from the show. I wonder if it will still hold up these many years later. It’ll be a nice break from the usual anyway.

We are up early tomorrow to make the commute. I have set my automatic blinds to open at seven to see if it will help me get my ass out of bed.

Until tomorrow.