#306 - I Did It!

I slept in until nine AM thanks to the new automated do not disturb settings I set on my iPhone.

I was not surprised to see one of the painters had messaged our team at seven AM, probably as a way of letting everyone know that they started working early. Instead of getting upset, I just shook my head and slept for another fifteen minutes.

Last night’s writing session was a bit more taxing than I’d thought it would be. I think the success with dictation had inflated my belief that I could accomplish more in less time. But last night’s dictation wasn’t as fast and, in the end, I resorted to typing the old-fashioned way.

I went straight to my desk and fired up the computer. I had a goal to make all the corrections and revisions for the paintings that were in my section. I got to work and arranged everything so I could look at it together. I came up with a game plan and then headed downstairs for some much-needed caffeine.

While my cortado brewed and my malt bread toasted, I took a quick tour of the garden saddened to see that the oriental lilies were losing their blooms. They aren’t here for long, but I do look forward to the return every year.

I head back inside to collect my coffee, toast and a pickled egg. I brought them to my desk upstairs to eat. I spent the morning getting four paintings to look the same and addressing the art director’s notes.

That took me until noon, when I got a text from Robyn downstairs asking if I had the t1me to take a walk. There was nothing that was going to stop me from getting my walk today. We headed to the park and enjoyed the shade. Plenty of cyclist were out, which felt odd because they haven’t been around as much this year. There were plenty of dogs about today as well and all of them had to come and say hello to Robyn. She has over time become the new dog whisperer.

She greets every dog like they are old friends.

It was still hot enough that we got a good sweat going. It felt great to move my body for an hour in a beautiful setting with my favourite human.

We headed home and we noticed our neighbours who lived two doors down, the husband suffering from Alzheimer’s, had sold their house already. It had only been on the market for a couple of days, and I don’t believe it was ever on the MLS system. I often check houses in the area on a app just to see what kind of prices people are asking and what the finishes in the home look like.

I decided to cut the grass so I wouldn’t have to do it before we left for the cottage in the morning. Halfway through, Robyn came out and gave me a look. I knew exactly what she wanted. We were supposed to drive straight to the pharmacy to get her insulin prescription, but we had completely forgotten.

I drove her over because the parking at the pharmacy is terrible. It’s a busy little street. At least with my in the driver’s seat, I could double park for the minute or two she needed to get her meds. That done, we returned home and I finished cutting the lawn.

I checked my work messages and there was nothing pending and no one was looking for me, so I went to the backyard and dragged the cargo carrier to the front of the house. Getting that mounted to the car would save me doing it tomorrow. It only took about fifteen minutes to install, but it felt great to have one more thing checked off my list.

I went back into the house and grabbed a Dr. Pepper then headed back upstairs to my office.

I had a few backgrounds to approve and there was a message that the art director would be checking scenes shortly.  I opened the files and went through the approvals process, getting the images to the art director in time.

There wasn’t too much to do for the rest of the day for me. My supervisor was taking it easy on me because I was going on vacation. I spent some time going between the desk and our room, packing and gathering things I would need and want for the trip.

I have an old Samsonite maroon briefcase that I filled with writing and tech things. I put two novels, reading lights, usb battery packs, reading glasses, pads of paper and pens into it. Then I added in all the cables and chargers for my devices. I like having some of my gear separated to make it easy to find at the cottage.

Into a navy New York Post bag, I put my thermacells, power bars, extension cords bug spray. The cottage only has so many outlets and they aren’t positioned in the most convenient spots. Most of the outlets are used by lamps, so extension cords are a must.

We bought a stand fan last year and left it there. Hopefully it’s still there and working. But there isn’t an outlet close enough to the bed to let us use it. Hence the need to extensions. And if the kids hook up their gaming devices even more outlets are needed. Hence the power bars.

I also started packing my duffel bag with clothes. I still need to do some laundry tonight, but things like socks, underwear and swimsuits could all be prepacked. I remembered to pack two towels this year. One for the shower and one for swimming.

I flitted about the house, grabbing things that I knew would be needed and put into the appropriate piles. The cottage has very dull knives and terrible frying pans. So, I’d need one of each of those. I measured out some All-Purpose flour into a Ziplock freezer bag in case we wanted to make crepes for breakfast on Sunday morning.

I am concerned about how we’ll fit all the things we are bringing in one car. With two coolers, the trunk is basically already full. I feel like have gone around the entire house over and over so many times.

Paul and Laura stopped by to see what plants needed to be watered while we were away and to take the kiddo’s hamster back to their house to take care of it for the week. Kiddo #2, who owns the hamster and was still at work when they arrived.

We chatted for a bit until the kids returned. It was determined, after a tense battle of stubbornness between the kiddo and Laura, that the massive hamster cage would remain at the house. It was entertaining to see two walls colliding.

Laura and Robyn had picked a bowlful of small cherry tomatoes from our garden and left them on the counter. I was impressed by the quantity.

Our friends announced that they were going to put their house on the market. Paul has some major surgery scheduled that will keep him bedridden for at least three months. Their plan was to find a place that was one level, for the sake of his bad knees, and one that is a reduced cost. They have a lovely home not to far from us and we have enjoyed many an evening there. But as we age, maintaining a property doesn’t always make sense. We all find ourselves in that position eventually.

We have discussed the idea of downsizing as well. Wondering if it would give us some financial freedom in the coming years, freeing up the equity that is locked in our home. It’s some years futher down the road for us at this point. At least until the youngest has completed his post secondary education.

But letting go of home ownership can be a bit of an emotional transition if it’s forced upon you through circumstances you can’t control.

We discussed the idea of avoiding getting into a condominium. With all the fees and extra charges, they can levy against you it’s not worth it to me. I’d rather rent an apartment, and I got the impression that Paul and Laura were feeling the same way.

They have many collectibles on display at their house and apparently even more in the basement. Now they have to start the task of downsizing their possessions and a getting the house ready for showings. I think they plan to purge a little every day until they are down to the things they plan to take with them.

I think they have been aware that this might happen, but it wasn’t until recently that they made the mental shift that it is going to happen. And I hope turning that mental corner brings them so peace of mind.

After they left, Robyn and headed over to Sobeys to grab some last-minute groceries. My goal was to get some Sweet and Creamy instant coffee made by Nescafe. I only ever drink them when I am at the cottage. It comes in a powder with the sugar and cream all in one. It’s how I’d take my coffee if it was brewed. Sweat and Creamy, just like the packaging says. This one also happens to be French Vanilla flavoured as well.

I usually get up earlier that the rest of the family because I am a light sleeper. The cottage walls are thin, and the morning light leaks through the gaps where we hang blankets over the windows.

I don’t mind waking early at the cabin. I can take a nap literally anytime I want to and often do. Some day I take multiple naps in different locations. Hammock, bed, on a floaty, it doesn’t matter to me. Naps are part of cottage life.

So, when I find myself the first one up, I creep out of bed and make my way to the kitchen. We bring an old Keurig machine that can boil a cup of water. Perfect for the powdered coffee packets. I take it out to the screened in porch and take a seat. I either read for a while or sit and stare across the lake. Most mornings I can watch all the little creatures go about their business. I’ve seen deer, grouse, chipmunks, turtles and all kinds of birds from that very spot. I never know what creatures are going to show up.

Other days, I go out to the dock and drink my coffee there. The lake is usually glassy and if I’m lucky a loon will float by. It’s a great way to start the day either way.

All this to say, my mornings at the cottage wouldn’t be nearly as good without my powdered beverage and now you can understand why I had to make the trip to Sobeys to secure a new batch.

And of course, we picked a few more items while we were there. The bill came to $120.00. The grocery store had a new meat and seafood section by Wild Fork. They are an all-Canadian producer of meats, fish, pork and poultry. All their products were flash frozen and looked very appetizing in the freezers. The selection was impressive and was possible greater than the grocery store offered.

We needed some sausages for Robyn’s famous seafood bake, so we picked up some mild Italian sausages to try them out. It’s pretty hard to mess up a sausage so I am expecting it to taste great.

Back home, I put the groceries away and then fried up some kind of whitefish that had defrosted overnight. I cooked it in a butter and olive oil mixture with garlic powder, salt, and Old Bay seasoning. It turned out to be delicious, and I served it with the roasted vegetables Robyn had cooked but not eaten when our guests arrived. I even added some of the fresh tomatoes from our garden onto my plate. They added a nice freshness to the meal.

After dinner I crashed on the couch for twenty minutes. I was out of energy. The long days and staying up late to finish my writing quotas had finally caught up to me. There was a lot of sighing and huffing and puffing coming from me.

After that we headed upstairs and I grabbed my laptop preparing to start my writing for the day. Robyn left to walk as her blood sugar had spiked. Just as I started working, I got a video call from my old friend Paul. It had been a while since we had spoken, so I didn’t feel like I could let the call go unanswered. I connected and he asked me for some advice on his fledgling business. He runs a site that shows you were the cheapest beer, and wing special can be found in your area and all across North America.

There was an interested party who wanted to come on board and Paul wanted to know what I thought about the whole thing. I won’t disclose any of the details except to say that I thought it was a good idea to partner with this person if he took the appropriate measures. After discussing what I thought those protective measures looked like, I could see he was visibly calmer and felt better about the deal he was considering.

With business out of the way, we got to talking strictly as friends. He regaled me with tales of his son, Brandon’s transformation after enlisting in the Canadian Army. How he was in Alberta training and was soon to be sent home for three weeks of mandatory vacation.

Both Paul and his wife beamed with pride as they spoke about the man their son was becoming. And they were excited to see him after so many months on the base in Alberta.

We ended the call and I resumed writing, taking a short break to make a tea. I grabbed a Pop Tart to have with it because I felt like having something sweet with my tea.

I got a late start on writing tonight because of guests, groceries and calls, but I plan to power through until the writing quota is complete. It’s the last day of July and that means I have to make my monthly quota goals. It will be a late-night writing session once again. I’ll likely move out into the car again to write by dictation, but for now I am typing while sitting up in bed.

Once Robyn retires for the night, I’ll move outdoors and switch to dictation.

But, since it is a Friday night, she may stay up late reading in bed. I might not have to move outdoors to finish this at all.

The kids came to pitch the idea that two cars were better than one. Duh, no kidding. And that if we were each willing to chip in twenty-five dollars on gas, they would agree to drive the other car and pay for the rest of the gas.

Little did they know that Robyn and I had already determined that we should take two cars to make it easier for us to bring everything and so that if the kids wanted to go to town at some point, they could go without either of us. Normally Robyn takes them, but I think she’d rather spend more time at the cottage instead of walking around the town of Haliburton.

Anyway, it was fun to watch them try and convince us, and I think they were a little disappointed and maybe surprised at how easily we agreed to their scheme. We were willing to pay for all the gas, but they couldn’t have known that at the time. And it’s unlikely they will ever read it here on these pages.

And I’ll never tell.

I think I should take a break and get some of my laundry started. If I hesitate too long one or both of the kids will commandeer the washer and dryer for hours.

I got lucky with the laundry. No one was lurking about and any competing laundry baskets were nowhere in sight. I’ll have plenty of clean knickers for the cottage at least.

When I was downloading shows to my ipad to watch at the cottage, I remembered someone saying that Widow’s Bay was really good. So, I downloaded the entire season. I’ve downloaded so many episodes and movies that I was surprised I hadn’t breached some innate limit on the device. I have shows from four different streaming services all downloaded onto that iPad. It really is amazing that we can do things like this. No more lugging a fifty pound VCR that chewed tapes just as often as it played them.

Being able to entertain yourself on a trip is so easy these days. I love having my iPad when travel on a plane. I killed myself laughing on a flight home from florida whole watch Martin Short and Steve Martin do their comedy show together.

Short pretending to be a bagpipe while being held up by a burly Scotsman was laugh out loud funny.

They did the same and takes when we went to see their live show in Toronto. The thing that impressed me the most was how they had us laughing before the show even started. They had public service style announcements flashing up on the screen. Silly things like, please turn off your pagers. I knew then that we were dealing with masters of comedy in a way that had never thought of them before. To me they were just always silly men on screen, not sophisticated but rather juvenile. But the truth is both men are consummate comedians. They have complete mastery of the crowd and if you’re not laughing with them you can’t possibly find anything funny.

It’s just coming up on 12:45 PM. Robyn went to bed and I’ve moved outside into the car. And from this point on I’m going to try to dictation once again. One thing that is different from last night’s the warm temperatures. Last evening the car was very warm the air outside was very cool. This evening both the car and the ambient temperature are the same. Hot.

At this point in the evening, I am approximately halfway through my quota. I just crossed 3000 words and have another 2800 to go. I cannot express to you how incredibly tired I am. The desire to quit and get some sleep is so strong. However, the power of strengths, the desire to succeed, the fear of failure is stronger than my desire to sleep.

2800 words usually takes me three hours to complete. That gets me to bed by 4 AM, which is four hours longer than I’d like.

I keep closing my eyes waiting for the words to come, there is a high risk of falling asleep as I do so. And the words are coming slower and slower. I’m at the end of my creative juices for the month, and I’ve used up any reserves. This does not bode well for what I need to do tomorrow and Sunday, which is to write my mentor short story set in the 1890s.

I’m looking forward to Monday when all my big responsibilities have finally left me.

The heat in the car is getting to be too much, so I propped open the door and returned to typing by hand. Opening the door set off the car alarm, something that has never happened to me before with this car. It’s funny how something you use everyday can still surprise you now and then. And then again, maybe I am so tired that I hit the lock button on the remote and didn’t register it.

At least no one in the family came to investigate the noise. The neighbours ignored it too, so if it had been a break-in, the thief would have got away with-it Scott free. Every silver lining has a cloud as they say.

If seen recently, that The Odessey has done remarkably well at the box office and has a lower box office declining rate than average. Most movies would be at a 50% decline at this point, but The Odessey is only at 27%. It has even out done The Hail Mary Project which did amazingly well at the box office. I think it’s fair to say people are going to see this movie, but how did they feel about it? And does that even matter if people are buying tickets.

If it was the kind of movie people didn’t like, I think word of mouth would have killed its box office numbers sometime ago. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

This could be the film that brings us back to the theatres. It sure seems to be doing it at the moment. The key now, is to have a few more successes in a row. Maybe not as big as The Odessey, maybe more on the Hail Mary Project size.

The new Spiderman movie gets released tonight. It has the potential to get movie goers butts into seats. As long as they don’t veer to far from what the fans want, they should do well with the movie. And from what I have seen far in the trailers it looks like they knew what they were doing with this one.

There is a movie coming out in the near future called Dog Stars that looks promising as well. It appears to be a post apocalyptic world. The imagery looked great in the trailers and there are some big stars. Can’t remember who exactly is in it, but it caught my attention as one of the movies in the “Bring them Back to the Theatres,” category.

Time will tell, I guess.

And speaking of time, it’s time for me to get a cold drink and then comeback and do another dictation session to kick this blog into high gear. I also managed to flip my laundry in the washer to the dryer. Somehow that gives me a sense of accomplishment.

While I was taking my break, I watched a trailer for a new movie starring Olivia Coleman and one of the Skaarsgard brothers. And had an interesting premise, where Olivia’s character lives in a quaint rustic village. She asks Peter Dinklage to make her a husband. He creates that person out of wicker. It’s billed as being funny raunchy and romantic. And it should come as no surprise that it’s called Wicker.

I also saw in my news feed that Zoe Saldana is returning for third season of Lioness, which is a Taylor Sheridan show. It was one of the few shows and came out in the 2020s, that had a mostly female cast and didn’t suck. They were able to show strong women on the screen without making the men look like idiots. Which seems to be the formula for everything coming out in that time.

And then a couple days we get a new season of Ted Lasso on Apple TV. I’m not sure if the movies are going to succeed this year but I think television is knocking it out of the park.

I’m really excited to read a book at the cottage that I first became aware of through another show by Apple TV. I believe it would be under the men’s adventure genre from back in the 1950s. The book is called The Sand Pebbles and is about a patrol boat in China. Or at least before China became the China we know now. I’ve been a huge fan of authors like Alastair McLean and John D McDonald. McDonald was famous for writing the Travis McGee series. Whereas Alastair McLean wrote action or movies.

There was something about those series in that time that I enjoy. I find that even today those books read well. I’ve read all the books I Alastair McLean but I have yet to finish the entire Travis McGee series. I think there’s approximately 20 novels in the series.

And I’m sure this series came to the attention of television executives back in the day. I’m sure my writing teacher told about the series created and how terrible it was because they could not express the setting the way John D, McDonald.

I’m hoping The Sand Pebbles has the same sort of action and camaraderie that the McDonald and MacLean books did so well. It’s interesting to note that most of the MacLean books were turned into movies that were very successful and some were redone more than once.

This is only the third night that I have sat outside in the car to dictate this blog. It still feels odd and I’m always looking around to see if my neighbours are looking out their windows at me. I know this is a silly thing to feel but I guess I am still self conscious about talking out loud to myself. Even though I know I am talking to you right now, you are not really here. Just like I’m not talking to you in your mind at this very moment.

That’s the tricky thing about writing. I am talking out loud to myself in a car in the middle of the night and you are seeing these words and hearing them in your mind sometime in my future. Maybe writing is a form of time travel. Maybe I’m tired and just talking gibberish.

It’s just a little after 2 AM, and I have 1500 words left to go. That puts me in my bed by 3:30 if everything goes well. What could possibly go wrong?

I switched back to dictation in order to speed the process up and get me to bed before I collapse from exhaustion.

I’m playing around with the laptop in different positions to see what works best for registering my voice with the software. The microphone built into the laptop seems to work well when no large trucks are driving by on the street behind me. Up until this point I’ve had the laptop across my lap in the normal way. Occasionally the system has trouble understanding what I said.

So I’m trying a new position or the keyboard is resting against my belly pointing upwards so I can see it. Imagine the screen is parallel with my lap and the keyboard is parallel with my stomach. The advantage of this is that the software seems to get a better accuracy with each word I speak.

Again, any of my neighbours looking out the window are going to wonder what the heck I’m doing with the computer pointed in an odd direction. Maybe in this day and age, they think I’m doing a video call was some secret lover. Which is hilarious, because who has the energy for mistresses?

I wonder what kind of traffic will run into tomorrow seeing as it’s a Canadian holiday. We prefer to book this cottage a week earlier than we did this year. But there is another family that rents this cottage every year for three weeks. Yet they always book after us and the booking agency calls to ask if we’ll move our week that one. Under normal circumstances I would decline the request. But the old couple, Bill and Anne, are lovely and could use the extra income to pay the land taxes on their large property.

It’s unfortunate for us, because there is an art show that week we prefer to go, and we all loved it the one time we got to go. And of course, the week we have booked there is absolutely nothing happening in town. Occasionally there is a farmers’ market, and we do enjoy walking through the stalls. Last year I found a guy selling all-natural Chaga mushroom tea. But it’s a good place to pick up fresh vegetables and fruits from local growers.

I had to move back inside to cool off. The car was getting way too hot, and my throat started to hurt. I’ll have to cross the finish line the old-fashioned way it seems. I may need to grab another cool drink in a moment ease the rawness in my throat. I’m not sure if this is a symptom of talking too much or from my neck being bent at a forward angle. Or perhaps it is a combination of both things.

I’ll need to make sure I have a throat lozenge before I go to bed. If I end up snoring all night it will only make the irritation worse. And I don’t want to start off my holidays with an annoying throat tickle.

On a positive note, I just past the one thousand words to go threshold and I did it by two thirty. With any luck I’ll be in bed in half an hour. I can’t see me finishing before three o’clock. That would take a miracle and the only miracle I had, dictation, is off the menu for the rest of the evening.

I took out my BYOK writing device the other day while I was sitting at my desk and realized that I haven’t even used it since I got other than a few times. It didn’t really blow my away. I guess when I sit down to write on my laptop I can focus and not get distracted. A minimal device like the BYOK is something I have to set up. It’s not as familiar as well. While my laptop is ready to type on a full word processor in seconds.  I’ve found the keyboard on the Lenovo X1 Carbon to excellent. I can use it for hours without too many issues.

The BYOK is also surprisingly heavy. It feels like it is heavier than my phone. It’s a little thicker too. I’d hoped this little device would solve one of my writing problems, but I don’t think the device I wantand need has been invented yet. I can imagine that a phone will one day have all the things we need it to do. In all fairness, modern cellphones are amazing.

I guess for me, distraction free writing was never the problem. What I need is portable writing. A device that has a keyboard and screen large enough to use but that folds down into something compact.

My King Jim Pomera was another writing machine I thought would do the trick, but I find it is too large, the screen too small and the keyboard is not the greatest. The closet thing I have seen so far that might meet my needs, but is still a little to big, are the Zero Writer and the Freewrite Traveller. One is an opensource build that you can also buy full units and the other is a purchase only model. The Zerowriter is more budget friendly that the Traveller by about three or four hundred dollars.

I just looked up the price of the Freewrite Traveller and it’s still sitting in the $800 USD range. My laptop cost less than that.

But I don’t think either of these things would get me to take them along anyway.

I’ve stated in the past that I love when I can write in those otherwise wasted moments. I want I device that fits in my pocket to use during those moments. Something you’d be carrying anyways. And we all have one of those, it’s our phones. Yet, I rarealy use my phone to write a story. I might take notes and I have even played around with the Dragon dictation app on my iPhone. It worked great, but I don’t like subscription-based apps very much.

The clock says it’s two forty-five and I have about five hundred words left to write before bedtime. I am doing alright, all things considered. Once that number gets under 1000 it gives me a second wind.

I used to run half marathons, and seeing the finish line had the same effect on me. All of a sudden, I am running a little faster because at that point I would have done anything to get it over with. What surprised me was that I still had anything left in the tank. Seconds before I felt a aman with nothing left to give, and then you hear the crowd, see people raising their cameras and you get this bolt of energy. It would be great to harness that energy during the race, or the writing session for that matter.

Another surprise, after finish one marathon, the organizers offer you food, and in this case, it was Tim Horton’s chili. I thought the idea iof eating chili was ridiculous when I heard about. I had visions of people throwing it up all over the finish line. But whenit came for my turn to cross the finish line and receive my bowl of chili, I downed it like a man that hasn’t been fed in weeks.

And it tasted the best it’s ever tasted.

My favourite marathon took place in Niagara. At the halfway point they offer you a glass of wine and or a beer. I think I would have puked for sure that time. The marathon ended with ac cruel up hill run. It took the wind out of everyone’s sails.

But at the end of the race, you crossed the finish line and they handed you a slice of pepperoni pizza and a yard of beer. I downed that beer and pizza like it was kid-sized.

And then me and my girlfriend at the time went out for lunch. I was jonesing for a big juicy burger which I washed down with another pint of beer.

Marathons of any kind are bit crazy and a little sadistic.

It’s five minutes past three and I still have one hundred and sixty-seven words left to write. I am so close to the finish line I can smell the chili.

I went past the self imposed three AM deadline but only be a little. I am getting pretty good at estimating how long something is going to take me to write.

At least I get to sleep in tomorrow, at least in theory. The kids can get a little ahead of themselves when they know we are going somewhere, particularly, kiddo #2.

It feels good to have finished this challenge when I was sure at the beginning of this week that it was likely that I was going to fail. Not giving up and showing up every day was what got me across the finish line. I’m glad that even though I thought I was going to fail, I still gave it the old college try and pulled it off in the end.

Thanks for coming with my on this crazy journey to become a professional writer.

Until tomorrow.