#398 - Henrys!

Finally, a Thursday that I could sleep in and not get up at seven to catch a train to the city.

But guess who forgot to turn off their alarm and was jolted out of bed by his iPhone set o the highest volume. I think it gave Robyn a good fright too!

Needless to say, I rolled over and went back to sleep. I was determined to stay in bed much longer than I needed to today. It was around eleven AM that I got a text message from Robyn asking if we all wanted some breakfast. The smell of sizzling bacon hit my nose a moment later and I deemed that was worth getting out of bed for.

She made me two eggs over easy, toast and bacon. I added in a couple glasses of OJ and opened the jar of pepper jelly to have with any leftover toast. The bacon was the thick-cut kind it was cooked to perfection. I really enjoyed the pepper jelly on the left-over toast as well.

I ate with the kiddo and Alison at the kitchen table and ended up being the last one to leave. I washed the electric griddle and put away my dishes before heading back upstairs. I watched a couple of YouTube videos in bed, luxuriating in the nothingness that I had to do. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I still have a lot of word count to make up by the end of the month and a mentor short story that is still due. It centers around a fantasy world that involves a crime that could only take place in a fantasy setting.

But rest and YouTube first!

It was interesting to see the latest Colin Furze video about his underground parking bunker he is making at his house. In this episode, he finally got the lift mechanisms set in place to carry the car from the basement to the drive way and he was able to park various weighted vehicles over the new covering and test to see if there was any deflection.

Robyn, the kiddo and Alison decided to walk all the way to Tim Horton’s from the cottage. The day was incredibly grey, but it was at least much warmer. I opted to stay at the cottage and watched two episodes of Lupin in the great room with no one around to disturb me. The others returned as the second episode was coming to an end.

I stopped watching Lupin to save some episodes for the next few days and because I needed to get some writing done if I was going to hit my quota. The cottage was still cool inside, and I wanted to wear my hoodie, but it got really smoked out from the campfire last night and I didn’t want to wear that around. It’s amazing how strong that smoke smell can get and how it penetrates just about everything.

Alison doesn’t have Apple TV at home, so we got her to start the first season Ted Lasso while she is here for the day. It’s a great, upbeat show for just about anybody. I got to writing and Robyn worked on her school studies. We have plans to head to a local seafood restaurant called Henry’s tonight. I am not sure how busy it will be, but based on the last restaurant we went to, I am expecting it to be busy. I’ve wanted to eat at this restaurant since the first time we came up here. We did get a peak at the menu, and it looked like it would be delicious. Whenever we are up here with the rest of the in-laws, we never get a chance to go and try things out.

I didn’t get a chance to listen to my audiobook yesterday and I wish I had, but the day got away from me. Hopefully, I will get all my ducks in a row before the end of the evening and give it a listen tonight.

Henrys was a short drive from the cottage. Located on the pier, it offers some nice vistas overlooking the water. A large white tourist ferry was docked along the pier, and we had seen it offer tours of Georgian Bay in the summer. An ice cream shop is attached to the ferry ticket booth, but both were closed for the season.

The clientele at Henrys was skewed towards the senior demographic. I felt absolutely young eating there. I ordered the battered pickerel, and we started with some scallops and coconut shrimp. The scallops were better at The Trappers Choice, but still tasty enough. The coconut shrimp with a nice sweet and sour sauce was surprisingly good.

The pickerel was served with beans, fries, coleslaw and tartar sauce and the portions of the fish were more than acceptable. The kiddo ordered the seafood boil, something we made here at the cottage just the other day, and he seemed to enjoy it. They used a lesser quality sausage though, that tasted too much like hot dogs to me. Instead of corn on the cob, they served it with baby corn, which I think is a shame.

Robyn had a lovely looking salmon filet with a baked potato, while Alison went for the breaded white fish and fries. The servers were friendly as well as attentive and the food came out in a timely manner.

We returned to the cottage to full to walk straight.

Also, as we sat down, we learned of the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart at the age of eighty-six. It seemed we were all thinking the same thing. We did that that man in his eighties pass instead of the one running the United States? But Sir Patrick deserves to be considered without the orange monster. He lived an interesting life and embodied himself in so many beloved characters, on the stage, in movies and even on television.

We seem to be losing some of the greats, the ones who could remind us of the way things used to be. And we could use more of that right now. I imagine most people my age and younger knew Stewart for his roles as Captain Picard and Professor X. And for some of us as Gurney from the 80’s Dune movie. Others were lucky enough to see him on the stage playing Hamlet and other great roles.

Robyn’s friend Alison stayed for a little while and then left to make her way home. She left us behind some snacks and three Cosmic Crisp apples. Robyn and I cuddled up on the coach after saying goodbye and watched the remaining episodes of Carrie.

I thought they did a good job of revitalizing the IP and setting a standalone book as a series. Stephen King has always had the Shine as part of his books, so Carrie and The Shining technically take place in the same universe. I think they handled the story and the introduction of larger forces in this world well.

I’m sure there will be critics, because there are always critics these days who don’t t like the choice of actresses or the way men were portrayed throughout history…. yadda yadda yadda.

But I thought the show looked great and the casting was on point. The FXs were good and not done in a cheesy way, which I appreciated. Bad FXs can pull you out of a good story when it comes to TV and movies.

The main role of Carrie, played with great success by actress Summer H. Howell. I was surprised to learn she was a Canadian actress from St. Andrews, Manitoba. It’s not often you hear about actors coming out of Manitoba. Anna Paquin of True Blood being perhaps the only other one that comes to mind at the moment.

Everyone else went to bed and I am left to write and sip a small glass of blackberry wine in the great room. It’s become my pseudo-office for the past week. The big, overstuffed chair with its matching footstool makes for a very comfortable setup.

I feel like if I was here another week it would be transformational to my writing and my current state of mind. One week is just not enough time to correct the years of abuse my body and mind have taken as an employee and aspirant writer.

I’ve felt this way about all my vacations to be honest. The closest I came was when I was laid off for four months. By the end of the last month, I felt like I was just starting to find my stride, but then it was back to work and a new mentorship to take up all my time and become sources for possible stress. I really enjoyed the mentorship challenges and how it has pushed me forward and made me learn new things.

The work stress I could have done without. It brought me no joy and no personal growth. If anything I hindered joy and growth, although, I hope to have that all mostly in hand by the time the Christmas break starts at the studio.

I keep saying that 2027 is going to be my year and I mean to make that come true. It won’t come to me if I sit at home and watch YouTube all day long. I still need to earn the rewards.

But the short-term goals for the next two days are to get the word quota done for the challenge and then work up my fantasy crime story for my mentorship assignment. The last few days have been more restful than I am used to, so I am slowly gaining back the stamina required to write. Tomorrow is going to be a massive word count day and I will likely use a combination of dictation and typing to break my current personal best. That was on September 30^th of this year when I wrote a total of 14, 846 words in a single day. And that was a massive triumph for me.

I’ve got about 17,000 words due over the next two days and I think if I get as much of that quota written tomorrow, then I will be able to cross the finish line with a bit more ease at the end of the month. I’m going to try and get that down to 16, 000 before I go to bed tonight and that’s only another six hundred words or so.

I haven’t been looking at the news much while we were up at the cottage, but I was pleased to see that Mark Carney is still looking to become an affiliate member of the EU. This will increase the chances of us getting trade deals, access to resources and other alliances that may relate to defense pacts. As America becomes increasingly unstable, it makes sense to diversify our positions with new trading partners lest we become swallowed up by the current administration in the White House.

And for the people we are making new trade deals with, they now have access to all the different resources Canada has to offer on the open market. A lot of our goods that might have gone to the US are now being shipped across the seas to new markets.

I do miss a good Kentucky bourbon, but not enough to give into the demands of bullies. And I think most Canadians, and many Americans all feel the same way. It will be interesting to see who takes the White House in the next federal election. It looks like the Republicans are in for a whooping, but things can change in a heartbeat.

Trump has certainly been making some moves that have upset his own party, and he is not doing them any favors by endorsing other candidates in his own party.

I am personally hoping the democrats win in a large landslide. That will allow me to travel to Las Vegas and attend a seminar that was supposed to happen years ago but was cancelled when all the planes started colliding and Trump started hunting non-Americans. My teachers were terrified to hold the classes since so many of the students were coming from outside of the country.

They have as much as told me that the course will not take place until Trump is out of office.

Ah well, there is nothing to be done about that at the moment from my end.

Back to the peaceful and idyllic setting of Parry Sound.

Both Robyn and I commented that this was a place we could see ourselves living in. We haven’t seen what winter looks like here. I am sure it’s more severe than in Oakville. Of, course if we moved here, we would likely get a vehicle that could handle the snow and other things like a snowblower to make sure we could clear the driveway and walkways.

We might be wintering up here at Christmas, so we will get a better idea of what things are like up here. There is a whole town of people that live here year-round, so I am sure we could do it to. And the prices for property are a lot better up here as well. In theory, we could sell our home and buy something nice up here and have some money leftover in the bank account.

It might be a bit of a pipe dream, but the area up here feels like a good place to be a writer. Lots of nature and small-town vibe with all the things a person needs to have a happy life. I like some of the character the local restaurants and shops have, and the food has been good as well.

And you get a sense from the people you meet here that life has a bit of a slower pace and people enjoy talking to each other. People are friendlier here for sure, less on guard and more open. And that sounds wonderful to me at this point in my life.

It’s a little after 12:30 and I am going to call it a night and see if I can listen to a half hour of Children of Dune before bed.

Until tomorrow.