#347 - A Night Out With The Crew

Up at the crack of seven this morning.

It was time to take the car in for a diagnostic test to see what had caused it to go into limp mode on the way back from the cottage. I drove to the dealership, and the traffic was heavy, which in this case was a good thing. My car maxes out at 2100 RPM in limp mode, so slow acceleration was helpful to what my car could handle.

The guy at the dealership knows me by sight now and greeted me with my full name. This car as been a bit of a money pit this year, but we don’t have the funds to get a new one right now. Maybe in the next couple of years. It’s a 2015 and I’ve had it since 2019. It’s been a reliable car up until this year for the most part. It’s got just under 130 000 km on the odometer and everything else seems to be in good shape.

The engine and transmission felt fine driving it to the dealership, so I am hoping it is a sensor issue and one that can be replaced without too much fuss.

I walked from the dealership to the GO station, and it took me about twenty-five minutes to get there. I could use the extra steps today as I am staying late at work to go out for some drinks with my crew. Robyn has her half day of school and stayed up late working an extra four hours to make up the time she’ll miss today. That made for a very long day for her and her blood sugars were all wacky last night and that meant neither of us had a great sleep. Her medical devices give off alarms when her blood sugars get too high or too low.

I managed to grab an all-stops train at eight thirty. The train that was supposed to come before it was delayed by twenty-eight minutes and I wasn’t willing to wait for it. An all-stops was perfectly fine for me today. I’ll arrive at the office a bit later than usual, but only by about twenty to thirty minutes later than usual. Around the same time the rest of my crew gets there. And seeing as we are going out for drinks later, I’ll probably stay later at work than normal.

Yesterday’s writing sessions were another conformation that I need to write in smaller chunks a few times a day. Three is ideal, two is good.

I was able to get a little more than my quota accomplished by writing on the way to work and on the way home. I took three hours off and watched some shows and made dinner. Then wrote very casually the last seven or eight hundred words. Getting to the ten o’clock point and only having to write 800 words instead of 2000 makes a huge difference. One is easy, the other is daunting.

I just noticed that I passed the half a million mark on the writing challenge the other day. I never thought I would be able to write that many words in a year’s time and here I have done it less than nine months! I am a little proud of myself for achieving that goal.

And there is still another three and a half months to go.

At this point in the month, I am about three days behind. That was a direct result of four days spent at the cottage and driving there and back. The cottage was a lot of fun and also had some hard labour involved as well moving eight cords of firewood from one place to another. But there was little down time where I was left alone. This meant there was no time for mch writing. I managed to get the odd half an hour here and there, but that weekend away cost me three days of quota. Even so, I still have plenty of time to make up the numbers before the end of the month.

It was odd that any time I spent alone was treated as if it was something I shouldn’t have been doing. Next time I am going to make a point of assigning a time when I get to write for a couple of hours a day. Maybe break it up throughout the day.

Having said all that. I still had a good time up there and we got to spend more quality time with everyone this time round.

As the city passes by in blur as I look out the GO train windows, it looks like we are going to have a great day for sitting on a patio, shooting the shit with our work friends. I’m looking forward to being around everyone in a more casual setting.

I skipped going to the café this morning. The draw of the new breakfast sandwich was not enough to pull me in. I walked the full length of the Esplanade and stopped at the Berkeley Street Café and ordered a breakfast sandwich made from sausage, egg and cheese in a croissant. It was delicious.

I got to work right away doing approvals and revisions, before the ten thirty meeting started. I put on my headphones and listened to the meeting. It wasn’t the kind of meeting that needed my input. I continued working on painting revisions as I listened.

Most of the painting assignments were finished and I was only waiting on a few to come in. I got a call from the dealership about the car, and they said that a component inside the engine had failed. It seemed like it might be under warranty if I could prove I owned the car, did a CarFax report on it and had the original bill of sale.

I paid for the CarFax report, which was about seventy-five dollars for the basic report. I needed to prove that the car had not been in any accidents that would have caused the damage. I sent that off to the dealership and now I guess I am waiting to see what comes next.

I took a late lunch break and just ate a bag of chips and a Dr. Pepper. I read my copy of The Sand Pebbles then worked on a little bit of writing. Any extra words I can get done before the evening is a boon.

I went back to work doing approvals and got some help with the revisions to speed everything up. The art director started looking at the paintings and made some more revisions. But it only affected one painting. She approved a bunch of paintings, and I was able to send those to the render farm so that the next department had something to do in the morning. They must have been getting close to needing more work by now. I finished the day happy to get some of the paintings finalized and sent out.

We waited around for everyone to finish their work and the headed out to a place I have passed often on my way to and from work. A bar and restaurant called Scotland Yard. It was equipped with a nice outdoor patio with umbrellas and a nice breeze. One of the painters who worked at home today joined us there and as luck would have it we all arrived at the same time.

I ordered blackberry cider which was sweet and delicious. Some of order food, and everyone’s meal looked great, from the Guiness Beef Stew, the fish and chips and the Bangers and Mash swimming in a thick gravy. I ordered the hot honey chicken sandwich with fries and enjoyed every bite.

We sat and talked about all kinds of things and thankfully not just about work. Who wants to talk about those things when you aren’t getting paid for them? For my second drink I wanted something less voluminous and ordered a copper bottom Teachers whiskey on the rocks. The mercury had dropped a little along with the humidity and it felt like the perfect body temperature. Neither hot nor cold.

I never heard back from the dealership today after that first call. I imagine they are looking into whether they can get out of fixing the engine on the car. It’s worth their time to look for a loophole that gets them off the hook. Wouldn’t it be nice if they offered me a new vehicle as a replacement instead?

I’d love, one of those new electric Hyundai’s if anyone out there is listening. A little Electric SUV is the universe feels like delivering that little gift on the off chance.

A guy can dream, can’t he?

We continued to banter back and forth, telling stories about show we worked on and people we hoped never to work with again. All in all, it was a fun time with some colleagues. A chance to spend time together in a way we don’t often get to do. I think it helps to make us all remember we are all just a bunch of imperfect human beings trying to get through the day.

Three of us walked towards the train station, two were getting on the subway, and I was headed for the Go Trains. I bound up the stairs to the platform, and the seven fifty-five all-stops train was just pulling in. I got lucky, because the trains run every hour after the rush hour service is finished. So, I was glad not to have to hang around the station waiting.

I messaged Robyn to let her know I was on my way home and she offered to pick me up at the station. Since my car is still at the dealership, that was okay with me.

The train ride home was the perfect time to catch up on my writing, and I hoped to get my quota done before the train came to my stop. At the very least I would only have a little bit more to write when I got home. There was a good chance that Robyn would be reading her school texts, and I’d have plenty of time to finish up my quota. I hoped to get home around nine and have two to three hours to relax before going to bed. And for part of that time, I would be nice to read another chapter of my book. I think it’s a great way to end the day with a book in your hands and characters living in your mind.

I got a message from kiddo #2 asking all about making focaccia bread. Apparently, he got the recipe from one of the chefs at work, but some of the terminology didn’t make sense to him. The recipe called for things like strong flour, which I translated into Bread Flour for him. The instructions from the chef didn’t include time and temperatures for baking the bread either.

The recipe was also for a commercial kitchen. I told the kiddo he should at least half the recipe if he was going to make it. The chef made enough bread for fifty people, and we don’t need that much fresh bread all at once in our house!

It’s odd to note that the train ride home has been a silent one. There are no regulations for being quiet at this time of night, people are free to carry on conversations, but you could hear a pin drop on this car. The fellow seating opposite me introduced himself when he sat down as, Taha. He even had a name tag on his sweater. I’m not sure if he was hoping for a conversation, but I had writing to get done and wasn’t up for more socializing after having spent the last few hours doing the same.

I’m sure glad to be working from home tomorrow. My supervisor has a vacation day, and I will be running the team. I’m not expecting things to be too crazy, since the team is starting a new episode and most of them were already assigned their work earlier today.

I have to get the rest of the episode I am working on finished by the end of the day however, and that is assuming we don’t get too many revisions from the art director and that she has time to go over our work, preferably in the morning hours of the day.

Really looking forward to the weekend and I almost forgot that tomorrow is a payday!

My favourite Fridays are paydays.

Robyn picked me up at the station so I wouldn’t have to take the bus. I’d had no word about the state of the car and the dealership closes at 8 pm.

We watched an episode of the Daily Show and then went to bed. It had been a long day for both of us and falling asleep wasn’t going to be a problem.

Until tomorrow.