Post 2738 - Saturday

I am guessing that by the time you read this, or shortly thereafter, I will have returned to the city.

I write these words on August 8th. My first 2 weeks of vacation are over, pretty much. They have been restful, and as you can see in the selfies I have been publishing on my Facebook, you can tell I have let myself go.

You can tell I have also been reading a book called The Invention of Murder. I returned it to the River John Library  2 days ago, not having finished it. There will be no time to finish it ere I return to work on the 18th. My best bet will be to find a copy in the city and read that one.

Vacations go by so quickly. Too quickly. Every time a thought of work came to me, I pushed it out of my head like a wife pushes her husband out of bed when he's running late for work and doesn't want to get up.

I have another week to go in my vacation. On Monday I will finish paying off the work to my house, within the 14 day limit imposed on me by the invoice the contractor imposed on me (and then cajoled me into paying early!). Sometime that afternoon I will drive to the Valley, there to spend five or six days doing stuff around my mother's. I have 11 Alpine beer in the fridge down there and look forward to having a few of them.

What else is going on in this semi live blog post? The power went off at the cottage shortly after lunch on Friday. We had a lobster dinner in the town of Pictou. And, yes, the stench from the nearby Northern Pulp mill really is that bad, at least depending on where the wind is blowing and where you are when it is. Businesses are abandoning that shiretown. Locals who have tolerated the smell for decades because the plant provided much-needed jobs are fed up. They had been told for many years that it was "the smell of success". Now, it is "the stench of failure".  There are times even at the cottage when we can smell it. We have the luxury of leaving tomorrow, but so many others do not. They are stuck in their homes or venture out and feel physically ill because of the assault on their nostrils. Whatever gets done, can't get done soon enough.

What else? We are looking forward to a return to steady internet access and to things like Netflix. We have many movies and TV shows on thumbdrives, played on a media player, but streaming is where it is at these days, and we miss doing that.

It is time to go pick up Patricia. She has been shopping at the local Frenchy's here in New Glasgow while I have been at the public library. Good times.

You guys have a good day. I will write you a "live" post on Sunday.

Bevboy