#385 - Laptop and a Table Cloth

Oh, thank goodness it’s a Friday!

The week went well all things considered. It was short week and sometimes those can feel longer than working five full days. Some of my early morning meeting were cancelled because some of the primaries were off on vacation or had the day off. And less meeting is just fine by me.

In the end the only meeting I had on my books was the one I had put forth to ask one our techs if the program we used to track all the shots and assets in a show could be used in a certain way. Turns out it couldn’t but was interesting was that the meeting uncovered some other issues in the software that the techs were not aware of. Things that could have a serious impact on our productivity. So, it turned out to be a very valuable meeting in the end.

But the majority of my morning was spent doing approvals on the next episode, which was going well. I cans safely say that we are starting to see some of the benefits from all the changes we implemented.

Around eleven AM UPS showed up at the door with Robyn’s new-used laptop, and we took a moment to open the package and inspect the goods. Her laptop looked like it was in mint condition and had been hardly used. The keyboard was basically untouched.

I was surprised to see that her monitor was a touch screen as well, because the listing said it wasn’t. Having a touch screen wasn’t really important to Robyn, but there are times its such a time saver, particularly of you don’t have a mouse at the time. I used the touch screen quite a bit to advance the page when I am typing in Word because it doesn’t keep the text centered in typewriter view.

We skipped going for a walk because of how busy we both were with work, which was a shame because we both cleary needed the fresh air and exercise. We both either skipped or had light meals because our friends Paul and Laura were coming over after eight with some Thai food for a visit. I think I only ate some toast and a few granola bars the entire day with some Dr. Peppers and the odd cup off tea of course. I really have to reduce the number of Dr. Peppers I am consuming. Time to get back on the wagon and eat some healthy meals and snacks.

My go to beverage when trying to eat well is caffeine free green or white tea. It’s generally pretty good for you and aids with weight loss and makes you crave food less. I’ve had way too much sugar the past few weeks, probably because of stress and the cooling temperatures outside. My inner bear is getting ready for hibernation.

I stopped working a little after five and went straight to our room to watch a show Robyn isn’t into, called Dark Matters. A dimensional portal sci-fi drama that is interesting enough to keep watching it. I got about halfway through when Robyn came in after finishing her workday.

She had to get ready for her second job helping an elderly man who has Parkinson’s desease for about an hour. She said when she arrived the entire family was there with him and they had all kinds of food like they were having a party. They had completely forgotten that she was scheduled to be there as they were having such a good time. Robyn bought the man a heated shoulder wrap that plugs in to replace the old one he had. It was a bean filled sac that you put in the microwave and it weighed too much for his frail body. This new one is light and doesn’t lose its temperatures as it’s plugged into an outlet. He seemed to really like the upgrade saying something to the effect: “Yeah, I could get used to this.”

She returned just before our friends arrived with the food and we all sat down to eat. Laura, who is a whiz with a sowing machined made us up two new table covers for our kitchen table as well. We seated ourselves at the table and dug into the food. I realized as I was eating and portioning out the food on my plate that I don’t like Chinese style beef. I find it too chewing, like it’s been boiled or something. The others went on about how tender it was, but the real tell for me was that I didn’t put anymore on my plate.

And with beef prices as high as they are, I’ve been Jonesing for some meat. And yet I went for the chicken fried rice and General Tao chicken instead. I’m going to have to save up my money for a nice steak in the near future. Maybe for my upcoming birthday or something I’ll splurge a little or maybe for the week I get to spend at the cottage.

We moved over to the more comfortable couches directly after dinner and I had the TV playing a playlist from Robyn or one of the kid’s profiles. Turned out it was one of the kid’s accounts, and the music was labelled as Road Trip Mix. We all thought it sounded like the kind of music that might put you to sleep.

Paul shouted out, “Search for Jackson Browne!” I complied and we played randomly selected songs from Browne. And seeing as Paul had recently torn a ligament while doing his physio exercises and was in great pain, I felt more than happy to comply with his request.

I liked most of the songs that played and there were a few I knew but didn’t associate with him. He was never an artist I knew too much about. The songs were the perfect set for sitting amongst friends and relaxing. They’d fit right in around a campfire and some campfire beverages. I ended up buying a “Best of Jackson Browne,” collection on iTunes to listen to while I work.

We served some dessert bread, pecan pie bread and some glazed mini donuts with coffee and tea while we chatted. They caught us up on their unending odyssey to downsize their possessions and their hunt for a smaller place to live.

Robyn told them all about her schooling and her teachers. She gets a story out of every class she goes to. There are some characters in her class.

I cut and made some new holes in one of Paul’s belts. He’s lost a considerable amount of weight as part of his buildup to getting a double knee replacement. It’s the reason he hurt himself while at physio. The idea was for him to lose some weight and build up his leg muscles to make the surgery and recovery easier.

Around midnight, we sent them home with the Thai food leftovers and wished them a fond farewell.

We were stuffed from dinner and dessert and stumbled upstairs, eventually waddling into our bedroom. We put on two episodes of the new season of The Diplomat. I really like the writing in this show. It’s fast and witting. You have to pay attention, because they aren’t going to lead you by the nose like most other shows do.

Which isn’t surprising, because the head write and show creator worked for years with Aaron Sorken on the West Wing. It has the same feeling that the West Wing had and it’s another political drama, although, this time it’s set in Britain, for the most part.

I imagine the hardest part of writing a season is finding reasons for the principal cast to be in the UK all the time. This season is probably my least favourite of them all so far, but that doesn’t mean I am not enjoying it. A bad season of The Diplomat is better than most other offerings.

By the end of the second episode, Robyn was ready for bed. I could have managed another episode, but I decided to lie down and listened to the new Jackson Browne best of album I had purchased earlier in the night. It featured 32 tracks and I didn’t even get halfway through them before I turned it off and called it a night.

No point fighting the sleep I so desperately felt I needed.

Until tomorrow.