Post 3356 - Wednesday

10:15.

Just sent off another true crime piece to my editor at Frank, for his approval. The next issue of Frank doesn't come out for another 3 weeks, though. Don't hold your breath.

I have a binder full of cases to consider. While I can only do serious work on only one case at any given time, I do pick away at multiple cases at once. Just this evening I started working on a disappearance from 2004 that somehow escaped my attention at the time it happened. I don't have an excuse for it; I clearly had other things on my mind at the time, or this mysterious disappearance would have registered with me. I am hoping that my pleas for more information about the case will not go unheeded. We will see.

Oh, I know that last night was the 17th anniversary of the murder of Jason MacCullough. People wrote me about it, but I already knew. This is one of those cases I may not write about, because I feel my mandate is to focus on cases that have not had as much attention as Jason's. For the same reason, I don't see the point of writing about Kimberly McAndrew, who disappeared from a parking lot in 1989. She has had tremendous coverage in the years since. To this day, any new lead in her disappearance is followed avidly by the media. I doubt if I could add anything whatsoever to the discussion, so I'd just as soon stay out of it.

Now, there was a woman who was kidnapped a few days after Kimberly went missing. She was found badly beaten some time afterward and died six months later. Her name was Leslie Anne Levy. Here is but one article about that case. I might write about that case, if information about it presented itself to me, by which I mean that if I could find some new facts about it, I'd write about it.

There are so many other cases. A man murdered in his store in 1968. Another man goes out to his barn one morning and is murdered by a man laying in wait for him. Who remembers either one of those cases? I likely have years and years of work ahead of me. 

But people have to help me out. It is fine to suggest to a case to me, but if you something about a case, or think you know something about an unsolved murder or missing persons case in Nova Scotia, then please let me know. Your best bet is to email me here and tell me all about it. 

Don't assume I know something. There is a really good chance I don't.

You have a good evening. Start writing me.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3355 - Ha!

Past 10:30. Bed beckons like a drunken floozy from across the dance hall.

I mentioned those two NAS devices last evening. Earlier today I took them apart. I had to watch parts of a Youtube video to figure out how to disassemble one of them. Apparently it is possible to re-assemble these enclosures, but I thought that was hysterical.

The good news is that both drives are healthy. The bad news is that one was unreadable unless I formatted the thing. So, I did. Whatever was there before, is likely gone, unless I mess around with some utility that lets me reclaim what is on a formatted drive. Likely not worth the time and/or effort, although just now I did download a utility called TESTDISK. I can see if that works, but not tonight. Too late. And I don't care. I just care that I have those drives working and accessible again.

I wanna buy a drive enclosure that will accommodate both of those drives, but I am not sure what one to go with. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

It's been a long day. Tomorrow promises to be even longer. Think I will turn in. Keep smiling, and don't forget to tell me what you're wearing.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3354 - Monday

About 9:45.

Had a long-ish day at work. Came home. We had a nice dinner. I had a shower. Came down here to do a last minute edit on the latest true crime article for Frank. Then I got busy with technology.

Let me explain.

You know that I have a media server here in my home office. Doubles as a print server, as well. It has enough oomph to let me use it as a browser. I am using it to type this blog post.

But I digress.

When I got all the hard drives attached to this media server six months ago, I also kept two NAS devices. NAS is short for "network attached storage". Hard drives that don't connect to a computer; they are available on your network via either wireless or cat5 cable.

I got two of those things a few years ago. Hooked them up just fine. Created logins and passwords for them. Jotted down the credentials.

And lost the piece of paper containing the information.

One of them now is blinking a green light at me. Don't know if that means it is on its way out or not. I have been unable to access the contents of those drives for a few years now. I may just unplug them, try to remove the enclosures and free the hard drives to see if they still work. I can't imagine it would make things any worse. If they work I will get new enclosures for them.

Frigging technology, man.

Anyway, between that and sweeping the floor in the laundry room, I have lost a couple of hours now.

Think I will turn in.

See you tomorrow, my lovelies.

Bevboy

Post 3353 - Sunday

Past 10pm.

The highlight of the day for us was driving out to Seaforth to the Hope for Wildlife sanctuary open house. Took about an hour to get there either way. We figured it would be a busy place today, but we were wrong. It was cuh ray zee busy. Cars lined up for kilometres and kilometres. They arranged a series of shuttles to pick people up and take them to and from the main entrance.

We managed to park within a walking distance to the sanctuary. Got there around 1:45. Over the course of the next 90 minutes we saw most of what there was to see, but there were a few places that were so busy that we didn't even try to get in. I did use my new-to-me camcorder to shoot plenty of video of those places, though.

There was an emu walking around. There were a couple of people who had falcons on their arms. Or maybe they were hawks. We saw a baby seal that can never go back to the wild. Patricia went into the reptile tent and stroked a snake. I waited outside. We went into the building that will, once they have finished construction, serve as the place where the vets will save the animals that come under their care.

Ran into retired politician Peter Stoffer. Introduced myself. That man is busier out of office than he was, in.

Around 3:15, I left Patricia by the main entrance and retrieved the car and picked her up. On the way back, she bought me an ice cream cone. A scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough resting comfortabl on a scoop of blackberry cheese cake. Upon returning home, I cooked dinner, and we spent some time this evening finishing season one of The Riches on Netflix, and then Match Game. At 9, I came downstairs and applied my most recent edits to my next true crime piece for Frank. I wanna read it over one last time, make sure I didn't misspell someone's name or something, and then send it off to my editor along with associated pictures, for his consideration for a future issue of Frank.

I had meant to begin work on my next missing persons article this weekend, but the time got away from me. What with driving around on Saturday and the long drive today, there wasn't much time to do that stuff. Tomorrow, though.

While I was editing away in the last hour, I tuned into CBC radio and listened to Michael Enright's "Rewind" program. The subject tonight was the 1930 crash of the R101 airship, which had a larger loss of life than the Hindenburg a few years later. But I had never heard of this before in my life. Of particular interest was Enright's comment at the end that the music they used during the show was taken from the most recent Iron Maiden album, an 18 minute saga called "Empire of the Clouds", which is about that disaster. People will write a song about any damn thing, won't they? If I wait long enough someone will  probably write a song about the pimple I had on my arse when I was 11.

Or maybe I'll break down and write one myself. I could use the royalty payments.

I think I will start coming up with catchy song titles before I turn in.  Send your suggestions along, won't you?

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3352 - Saturday

Past midnight.

We went to the breakfast buffet at that Greek restaurant on Quinpool today. Afterward, we found a yardsale on Norwood Street. Turns out that the woman living there, Sally is her name, is moving back to Texas. When I saw she was selling a Martin Gardner book of math puzzles and the like, and she saw how excited I was that there would be such a thing, she told me I could just have it. So, that's why I didn't balk at paying 2 bucks for a coffee travel mug.

We returned to the car and made our way to Tantallon, to check out the coolio bookstore there, Otis and Clementine's. It is everything you'd expect a bookstore to be: wonderfully eclectic, comfy chairs to curl up in, a kids' section, a tiny cafe that will sell you a coffee or soda, and books on nearly every subject. We don't get there often enough. The staff lady, Diana, recognized me from being there last month and said she liked the book news I was putting into my Frank column from time to time. I spent too much money there.

The bathroom wall said that at the local Shambhala Centre, there would be a stained glass demonstration. We checked it out. Patricia remarked that the used of lead in the stained glass was very good, and was also a very challenging thing to try, both technically and from a health standpoint. I guess the guy suffered for his art.

Checked out the new buildings by the Irving station as well. Lovely part of the world. Tantallon has expanded so much in just the last few years, with no end in sight. In Timberlea, where I live, there is comparatively nothing. Very little shopping. No decent restaurant. Pizza places. We're lucky to have a farmer's market that's open every day. But if we want do some actual shopping, we have to flip a coin and go either to Bayer's Lake, or to Tantallon. I wish we had more stuff here, is all.

We got back here mid afternoon. Read "Dirty White Boys" on my front deck for a while before going back inside and napping the balance of the afternoon away.

Tonight, we watched a bunch of episodes of "Whose Line is it, Anyway?" on Plex. And, now I think I will turn in.

What a wonderful Saturday. I hope yours was, too.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3351 - Friday

Past 10pm.

The weekend is here. The weekend is here. Woohoo.

I am not certain just what I will be doing this weekend. I may be able to book an interview. Patricia wants to drive out to wherever "Hope for Wildlife" is situated because they're having an open house. Frig knows there are things to do around the house. I need to apply the edits to my next true crime piece for Frank.

Or... maybe I will sleep all weekend.

Yeah. Let's go with that.

In fact, let's get started with that.

See you tomorrow. Assuming I wake up.

Bevboy

Post 3350 - Thursday

Past 10.

After work, Patricia had an appointment. I used that time well. I marked up the latest draft of my true crime column for Frank Magazine. I won't have time tonight to type in those changes but should Friday evening.

I am already looking past this column to my next one, which I plan to be a missing persons case. It is my hope to have two, maybe even three, true crime articles in to my editor by the time Frank comes back from its summer vacation, in the middle of September. A little stockpile of these articles.

Tomorrow is Friday already. Where has the week gone? I was just remarking, to myself, because nobody else cares, that we have been back from vacation longer than we were on vacation. Where does the time go, anyway?

It is pushing 10:30. I think I will call it a day.

No. I am not going to do that silly joke again.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3349 - Wednesday

Past 9:20.

The new Frank Magazine hit newsstands today, and already I have had feedback from two sources. The mother of the man featured in my missing persons article took the time to write me today and thank me for doing "a great article". That feels good.

And the Program Director I wrote about in the radio column took the time to tell me he loved the article. That feels good, too.

Hey, I have an idea. Why don't all of you reading this go out and buy Frank #749 right now? Like, get out of bed, get off the toilet, stop walking the cat, and go out and purchase that issue of Frank? It is a special 48 page issue, containing 6 pages of Bevboy goodness. Six whole pages. My goodness, how much would you pay for that? $50? $60? $100? Well, you don't have to pay that much. With taxes and gratuities, Frank Magazine #749 can be had for... well, the usual price is about five dollars. I don't know how much this larger issue costs. But it is still cheaper than a pack of smokes. And which one is better for you? Hmm? Just email Andrew here and tell him you want to order that particular issue of Frank.

Patricia had Pilates after work tonight. I hung around my work and laboured over my nextest true crime column. I try to switch between a missing persons case and an unsolved murder, so this one is an unsolved murder. I produced a second draft tonight and will tear it to pieces during my lunch hour on Thursday before trying to finish it Thursday night and sending it off to my editor for his consideration.

Next week, I will examine another missing persons case. Haven't decided yet, which one, but there is no shortage.

More than a few of you have suggested one particular missing persons case. My editor did, in fact, just two days ago. The reason I haven't written about Allan Kenley Matheson's 1992 disappearance is because I know there is a guy doing a documentary film about the case. He has a reach and a budget that I do not have. But my editor pointed out, correctly, that a documentary film and a magazine article are two different beasts, and they can complement each other. So I wrote the director of the film and pointed out to him what was pointed out to me. He wrote me back, and agreed. So, in the coming months you may see a Frank Magazine article from me about this confounding and enduring mystery. All I know about the case is what has been reported over and over by lazy reporters who don't have the gumption to go out and research and write and find new material about the case.

To that end, if you know anything about the disappearance of Allan Kenley Matheson, your best bet is to contact me here. You can and will remain anonymous, if that is your wish. You have my word.

Been a long day. Think I will turn in.

Have a good evening. See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3348 - Media News

Sorry I didn't write the last couple of days. Wasn't feeling well.

The new Frank went online yesterday and features a full 6 pages of content from yours truly. Over 3000 words. Start the party. Two pages consist of radio and other media news. An item or two were snipped from it, for length. As well, some news came in yesterday. Since this issue of Frank will be on sale for a full 4 weeks, and the news items are time sensitive, I have been given permission to report the following items. As other news items come in over Frank's hiatus, I will report them here as well.

Last week, Alison Clements resigned from Bridgewater's CKBW. She told her colleagues that she would be working at a Halifax radio station, but would not reveal which one. She had experience at MBS, so I looked into my sources there. No dice. By the end of the week, just past my Frank deadline, I heard she was going to News 95.7. I figured she she would be going to mornings, succeeding Brynn Langille and Shelli Summers.

Wrongo.

Alison IS going to News 95.7, but will be joining Tyler McLean on the Afternoon Drive news wheel.

I am glad that News 95.7 has extended its local content day until 7pm again. I am delighted they dropped that 1pm hockey/baseball/whatever sports talk show. But I am not sure that it was a good idea to have a news wheel drive home show again. They had one when they first went on the air, years ago. When Rick Howe's show was on in the afternoons until 7pm, that was wonderful. But the very nature of a news wheel, where you get the weather and traffic on the 1's, and sports at :15 and :45, et. al, doesn't reward continued listening, the way that a Rick Howe or Sheldon MacLeod talk show does. Just sayin'.

Over the last 5 years, in Tatamagouche, we had the only East Coast horror-based convention, called Summer Fear. It was held in a building next to where they have the Farmers' Market every Saturday. It is owned by the man who ran the convention, Richard Duggan. He's a real horror fan. Every year he would hear and read about these horror conventions in the United States and wondered why there couldn't be one in Canada.

He started Summer Fear in 2011. The main guest that year was Gunnar Hansen, who played the original Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974. Gunnar announced that year that he would be appearing in the 3D remake of Chainsaw in 2013, so he broke that bit of news in little old Tatamagouche. The news went viral and was picked up by horror websites like Dread Central and Rue Morgue.

Summer Fear will not take place in 2016. They're hoping to revive it in 2017, but it is anybody's guess. The Canadian dollar being what it is, the cost of bringing American guests up here, housing them, driving them around, paying their appearance fee, and so on, was just too much given the revenue stream Richard Duggan was able to generate.

Let's hope that Summer Fear can come back in 2017.

And, while we're at it, let's hope that we get more smaller conventions in the province. Time was, we had Wolf Con in the Annapolis Valley. There was another con in the Valley for a couple of years there. I remember that Frederik Pohl was a guest at one of those cons.

Send your news items to me here.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3347 - Saturday

Pushing midnight.

No, I am not watching the Final Tragically Hip concert. We're in the Valley this weekend. I had them disconnect the cable on Friday. They were so efficient in doing so, and today the cable is gone. I put up a set of rabbit ears and managed to pull in CTV and Global, after a fashion. CBC? Nope. Didn't come in at all.

We spent the evening watching stuff on Netflix. The first few episodes of "The Riches", the late 00's show featuring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver playing "Travellers" who chance upon living in a large mansion, and the trouble that ensues.

A character at one point throws up his hands and screams, "Why don't we just go back to painting driveways?". Patricia didn't get the reference. These travellers or gypsies, or whatever I should be calling them, are grifters, con men, who among other scams will knock on peoples' doors and offer to pave their driveways. Certain funds exchange hands. All they do is paint the driveways to make them look re-paved. I have heard about how sometimes they will just thoroughly soak them to make them look freshly paved.

Anyway, it is an entertaining show. I am sorry they canceled it after only about 20 episodes.

We drove up Friday night. We tried like frig to get Newbie in his carrier, but the little so-and-so ran off, hiding somewhere in the house. We put extra food and water out for him and drove up.

For dinner, we had pizza from a place in Wolfville. Less sodium on a salt lick.

This morning, we went back to Wolfville, to check out the Farmers' Market. We met a Scottish man named Keith and his wife Vickie. His accent reminded me so much of Sean Connery's. No word of a lie: he said that his employee number at one of his jobs was "96-007". I ran into a former professor of mine, and his wife.

We ran into an old professor of mine, and his wife. I told them about my true crime column in Frank Magazine. As is normal when I do so, they conspiratorially hinted about what they had heard about  a particular missing persons case.

Everybody has heard a story, or two, or a rumor, or two, about a missing persons case or unsolved murder in their part of wherever they live. I have never seen an exception to this observation of mine. Not even one. It goes beyond demographic, gender, or anything else. People are interested, often to the point of its being unhealthy, with this subject. And the media do not cover these cold cases nearly enough. Despite the fascination people have with these cases, they don't cover them much at all. I wonder why?

Anyway, after that, we had coffee with a friend for about an hour. After that, we wandered around Wolfville for the next several hours. We checked out the new apple cider place. For five dollars, you get 3, 3oz apple cider beverages, plus a thing of corn nuts. We shared. We made our way to the Cuts meat market. Much better store than the one in Dartmouth. Continued to the toy store in town, then to Willow Park, and then to the Tourist Bureau, where I worked (my god!) a full 30 years ago. Then we went to Wolfville's municipal museum, Randall House. We got the full tour of the place, and had a grand old time. We capped it off with tea, served on bone china.

We returned downtown. Went to Rainbows' End books on Main Street. They sell a bit of everything. I got a couple Canadian history books, including what I think is my 3rd copy of Barry Broadfoot's book about the Canadian Depression. Came out in the early 1970's. If you have read anything by Studs Turkel, Broadfoot does the same kind of approach: taking snippets of conversations with many dozens of Canadians as they share their experiences about living through the 1930's. This book is long out of print.

I also got Stephen Maher's out-of-print book of restaurant reviews. I don't think he talks about that phase of his career any more. He wrote about politics for the Herald out of Ottawa for several years, then went to another news provider and did the same there for a while. He recently released a novel set in Nova Scotia, a murder mystery of some kind.

I am not sure why people think that, if they can write non-fiction reasonably well, how that would qualify them to write fiction. Totally different set of muscles. You have to think about plot and character and realistic dialogue that moves the story forward, and be able to describe things in a way that doesn't bore people to death. I cant do it. You likely can't do it. No shame in admitting you can't. But people keep trying, thinking it is easy.

We made our way to the Wolfville Animal Hospital to check out the cats. There were plenty of black cats there today. We wanted to take them all. We tore ourselves away and went to Rosie's for an early dinner before paying the man who mowed the lawn here the other day and returning to the house.

I napped earlier. So, here it is, pushing 1 ayem, and I will likely be up for a while yet. Patricia turned in some time ago.

I think I will surf the web for a spell and try to get some sleep.

See you on Sunday.

Bevboy

Post 3346 - Thursday

Past 10:15.

Long day. The Frank Magazine media column has been edited and is ready for publication on Monday. Then, late this afternoon, some radio news happens. Or, maybe it is just a rumour. We don't know yet.

The true crime piece in the new Frank is something like 2300 words. With pictures and the like, I am not sure how many pages the story will run. It is probably the longest article about this story ever told, with the possible exception of the tv show re-enactment from quite a few years ago.

Funny story. A Facebook friend blitzed most of his friends  yesterday, sending us all private messages plugging his new book. Rather than just delete the message and go on with my day, I wrote him back and made him a deal: I would buy the book for my kindle if he would order a copy of that issue of Frank Magazine. He agreed! The editor confirmed that he got the man's order. Maybe he will think twice before he blitzes me with his book news.

If you do not live in Canada and can't justify getting, say, a digital subscription to Frank, but would like to read this story that I am writing about, then go ahead and write the editor, Andrew, and tell him you would like a copy. It is something like 9 or 10 dollars Canadian, which includes shipping costs. Here is his email address. It is issue #749. Tell him I said hi. Oh, they take Visa or Mastercard.

I think I will turn in. A busy day tomorrow.

See you then.

Bevboy

Post 3345 - Wednesday

Around 10:40.

Just sent off my latest media column to my editor at Frank. It contains information unavailable anywhere else, so go out and buy Frank already.

Also in the new Frank, out next week, will be a long-ish article by me about a long-time Nova Scotia missing persons case, one with many twists and turns. Even though this case has had quite a bit of ink over the years, there is information in this article that has never been reported before. I have been working on the article for 3 months. I hope you check it out.

Some of you know this, and some of you don't, but if you want to report an Nova Scotia unsolved murder or missing persons case, you can write me directly at Frank and tell me about it. I try to keep up on these older cases, but there are some that slipped under my radar, or which were so long ago that I didn't know about them at all, and I make an effort to keep up on that stuff. I likely have enough cases to keep me busy for several years, or until my editor decides he doesn't want to run any more of these articles.

Sorry that my posts have been shorter lately. The paying writing work has to take precedence.

Pushing 11. I need to turn in. But, just think: my deadlines are behind me for a spell.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3344 - Tuesday

Past 11pm.

I have spent the last nearly 3 hours working on a draft of my next Frank column. Once again, there is information there you will find nowhere else.

In addition to my media column, there will be another one of my missing persons articles. It is one I have been working on since May. It will be nice to see it in print. This story has to many twists and turns that I daresay it could be a book. To know what I am talking about, just pick up that issue when it hits newstands next week.

I cooked dinner tonight. Well, the chicken part. Patricia prepared the rice and lentils. There is enough left over for our lunches tomorrow, so if you want to come over and smell my food at noon time, those of you who work with me who read this column, then please do so. I so enjoy the company.

This was a long day. Another one beckons.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3343 - Happy Birthday To Newbie

Picture this: I am Marilyn Monroe. Newbie is JFK. It's his birthday.

Cake is optional.

We consider Newbie to be 10 years old, today. We picked him up at the Tatamagouche Farmer's Market during the Thanksgiving weekend in 2006. A woman was literally giving away a basket of kittens, each of which had a little ribbon around its neck. Patricia wandered over to see what the commotion was about. She picked up the kitten that had a little heart-shaped button nose.

We got him back to the cottage. That evening, we were wondering what to call him. "After all", I said, "everything is new to him. He's like a... Newbie!" And the name stuck.

He was so damned small when we got him that when I first got him back to Halifax, I stored him in the upstairs bathroom when I went to work. The litterbox would be at one end, while his small carrier and his food and water bowls were at the other. I'd leave the shower radio on for him. He was probably the youngest cat to listen to the Rick Howe Show/The Hotline, evah.

At night, I'd let him out of the bathroom. He'd prowl around the house. When I went to bed, he'd eventually join me. Too young and weak to jump on to the bed, he would have to grab a blanket, and haul himself up it to the bed. Kind of sweet, actually.

Over the years, he grew from that little scrap of fur to this mountain lion of a cat. He curls up on my lap when I am in the recroom watching the tube. He often times joins me here in my home office when I am writing my Frank columns, or these blog posts, resting at my feet.

He is a pain in the ass. He is confounding. He is a cat. And he provides great companionship to us both, especially since Cindy died in 2014. He gets on our nerves by times, but we love him.

Newbie, where you, boy? Time for your birthday spanking!!

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3343 - Sunday

About 10:40.

I just send a small addition to one of my missing persons case files to my editor at Frank. The article will be published next week. I am proud of this piece. I hope that you all go out and buy multiple copies.

Another work week beckons like dead relatives after a chili cook off. I think I will turn in. I have a feeling it will be another very long day.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3342 - Saturday

Hi. Nearly 10:30pm.

We were gonna go to a movie today, "Jason Bourne", but we stayed in, instead. Late afternoon, we started doing housecleaning, which lasted a couple of hours. We looked around the living room. We will resume that work tomorrow.

Also, tomorrow, for dinner, we will have a Sunday fish fry. The usual haddock with lemon slices and all the fixings. I will cook it myself. Patricia knows that I do a good job cooking fish and always lets me do it.

There is like nothing else going on in my life. I think I will just call it a night, get some sleep, and try to get up a little earlier tomorrow than I did today.

See you tomorrow, folks.

Bevboy

Post 3341 - Friday

Hi.

Sorry I didn't write on Thursday. I got home from work. Ate. Excused myself to crash on my recliner for a spell. And that was my night. Slept pretty much for 12 hours.

The humidity around here is killing me. Even my hair, my glorious, full-bodied hair, is protesting. After I sleep, I drag myself around the house and find I must rest again.

This afternoon, we went to see a movie. It is "Sausage Party", the animated hard r-rated film featuring voice work by Seth Rogan, Edward Norton, and many others. When it wasn't trying to convey a message or satire, when it was full-bore gross, it was extremely funny. But I kept looking at my watch until I realized that my watch doesn't light up, but at least it kept me busy.

Today was a day off work. Two more days before I go back. If there is strength in our bodies tomorrow, we will do some housecleaning.

If.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3340 - Wednesday

10:30.

I have spent a couple of hours this evening working on my next unsolved murders column for Frank Magazine. When it is published, I will let you know so you can rush to your local retailer and buy it, or subscribe to it online. You understand.

Patricia wasn't feeling well today. She went to bed right after dinner. I checked in on her about an hour ago. She is resting comfortably. I will tell her you said hello.

My goodness, it has been a long day. I think I will turn in. Another long day tomorrow.

See you then.

Bevboy

Post 3339 - Tuesday

Past 9.

Watched the season ender to season 2 of "Bosch" this evening. It was a strangely-paced episode. Characters flit from scene to scene so quickly you'd think that you had fallen asleep for a few minutes and missed something. There are huge gobs of exposition here and there; to find the bad guy, the show's momentum slows to a crawl to explain just where they think the bad guy is, and why. Of course, he is there, and Bosch and his partner don't ask for back up, even though the bad guy had helped kill a bunch of people two episodes previously. And the way the bad guy is dispatched makes very little sense. I find it very difficult to believe that this particular bad guy would be so sloppy as to let this happen, not after he had been so clever up to that point.

Toward the very end, Bosch talks to his chief, asking for information. The chief says he will, "soon". "How soon?", Bosch asks. "Soon". Then, the scene changes abruptly, and you see Bosch tracking down someone. It takes a few moments to deduce that he's following up on the information that the chief had promised "soon". Three minutes later, the show is over, and we are treated to some musical interlude as Bosch walks away, as a segue to the end credits.

After the show had been so good, for so long, this episode was a real let down. Did they edit the footage with a meat cleaver or something? I sure hope that things pick up in season 3.

But you don't care about that.

You only care that my work week is half over. In two more days, I get 3 days off. I will promise to think about you, but only in a nice way. We talked about that before.

I promised I would not stay up until midnight again, like I did last night. Today was brutal for me. It took some real doing to get out of bed and to get up and around and to work. I promise to turn in much earlier.

Like... how about now?

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3338 - Monday

11:30.

We have been up too late this evening. We watched 4 more episodes of season 2 of "Bosch", which streams on Crave TV. There is one more episode in season 2. It has already been renewed for season 3.

First day back to work after two weeks off. I found it especially hard to get up this morning. I staggered around. Put on Patricia's clothes by mistake. Ended up going to her job in error. It was so embarrassing. You'll never guess what Patricia did.

I have to get up in less than 6 hours. I think I will turn in. Another long day tomorrow.

See you then.

Bevboy

Post 3337 - Sunday

In hours I have to get up and return to work.

Sigh.

Another vacation over.

Once again, I wonder where the time off disappears to. It seems to be some variant of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, where time away from one's work place goes by faster than that which occurs at work. I wish someone would do a study on that.

This was a quiet day. I put clothes away that had been piling up in the recroom. Watched some episodes of season 2 of "Bosch". Ate stuff that was in the freezer. Showered and shaved again.

Part of my day was spent wondering if those troglodytes are still trespassing at the cottage. I can't help but think about these people and who brought them up and whether they even care of notice that they are causing stress to those whose land they trek on. Doubt it.

I think I will turn in. After all, I should be calming down before getting some sleep.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3336 - Saturday

Hi. Past 10:30pm.

We are back in the city.

I spent nearly 3 hours this afternoon mowing the lawn at the cottage today. The grass was tinder dry. They need a pile of rain down there, and I hope it happens, soon.

I should have mowed the lawn this morning, but instead we both went to the Farmers' Market in Tatamagouche. I am glad I went because I managed to get some information for my next media column in Frank. You will see that in a couple of weeks.

We left the cottage around 7pm, just in time to observe trespassers walk around the neighbour's property and on to Patricia's. She has a shed in which the lawn tractor lives. Those hillbillies walked up to and touched it and behaved as though they felt they owned it.

Here is a picture I took of those pudding-headed oafs. You may need to zoom in to see them, though. I took it from the car. I know that if I had confronted them, it would have gone South in a hurry. They're entitled, you know.

Calm, blue ocean.

Calm, blue ocean.

We drove back at a good clip. We dropped off in Stewiacke to grab a burger at the Dairy Queen there before resuming the trip home. We got here around 10pm. I threw our undies in the washing machine whilst Patricia has had her shower. I am about to have mine.

Another vacation is nearly over. I say nearly because we still have Sunday off before a full return to reality. As is my custom, I did not shave during my time off. I haven't seen a razor blade in 12 days. This is how I look now:






 I am just wondering, though, should I keep this mess. I look like someone's very ageing father, and I don't like it. I will probably shave it all off this evening. Just wondering if maybe I should keep the beard for next time.

I think I will have my shower, try to stop thinking about those so-and-so's traipsing all over Patricia's property, and call it a day.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3335 - Friday

Once more, at the River John Library. Remind me to borrow a book from here, sometime.

I shouldn't tease. This is a really nice library. A good size, well appointed. Current newspapers and magazines. When my mother visited here in 2010, months after Dad died, Patricia brought her here one evening when she had to attend a book club meeting, which was held in one of the meeting rooms here. Mom had a gay old time. The librarian kept bringing her magazines to read. I wish I could have been here to see it.

The River John library has the distinction of being the first building in this and surrounding communities to have fibre op internet. Only installed in the last week or so. It is very fast, now that it is up and running. I daresay that people living here will now clamour to have fibre op installed throughout the community. It is apparently an expensive and time consuming thing to do, though. It took Buddy a full 6 hours to install the connections here at the library. It was not that complex a task, but it just took a while. The man who installed it in my home last year took about 3 hours to do his work, and he was not idle at any time, nor was he sweating his spheres off either. It just takes a few hours to do a typical install, is all.

After we leave here, we will drive to nearby Brule. The Mennonite community has a really good bakery, and we will partake its wares. After the fiasco which was last night's lobster supper, it can only be an improvement. We went to the usual place, the Salt Water Cafe in the town of Pictou. There was no lobster tank from which to choose the lobster you wanted to devour. They said they didn't have any in "at that moment", so we left and went across the street to the place that claims to specialize in lobster. A 1lb lobster, called a canner, was $30. We reluctantly ordered one each.

The name of the place? The Lobster Bar Restaurant in the town of Pictou.

The food arrived on the kind of tray you get food on if you are in prison. I'm not kidding. Metal tray with areas cut out to hold the various parts of your meal. The lobster had previously been frozen. You can just tell these things. If there was any garlic in the garlic mashed potatoes, it moved out in disgust and I have it on good authority that it is about to sue the people who put it there for defamation of character. There was a dinner roll. Some previously frozen carrots. Slaw? Well, it was there. The best I can hope  for when eating cole slaw is that it is edible. This wasn't. End of story.

With taxes and tip, I paid nearly $100 for that meal. A horrible waste of money. We look forward to having an actual lobster supper soon, probably in Halifax.

We will have seafood for dinner tonight, too. We have a slab of Atlantic salmon in the fridge and I will barbecue it. Without bragging, I know it will be better than the crap we had for dinner on Thursday.

Sometime on Saturday we will load up the car and head back to the city. We want one day off to charge our batteries and wash our underwear before we return to the place that pays our salaries, on Monday.

I'm not sure if I miss the city or not. We have nearly all the things we need at the cottage. An internet connection would be nice there, but the local providers do not nicely accommodate cottagers, expecting  you to sign up for many months when you will only be there for a few.

You guys have a good day. I will bark at ya tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3334 - Thursday

Once again, at the River John Library. Been here since about 10:15.

I just sent off my latest and greatest media column to my editor at Frank. Checked my Frank email account and there were a few messages from folks. One wants to give me information about an unsolved murder in the province going back about 20 years. It has been on my list of ones to cover anyway, so it's nice to have the tips come to me for a change. I think the true crime column is starting to catch on with readers.

We will return to the city on Saturday, a scant two days hence. Where has the time gone?

We are planning to go to a lobster supper. The only question is, do we go this evening, or tomorrow night? I would kinda like to go this evening. Friday, we could barbecue the slab of salmon that is in the fridge, calling out to us.

I think I will go back to the cottage. Lots to do there over the next couple of days.

See you... either Friday or Saturday!

Bevboy

Post 3333 - Tuesday

Hi.

It is just past 2pm. I write these humble, sub-par, pathetic, ill-gotten words at the River John Library, about a 12 minute drive from the cottage.

We didn't really do much the last few days. We participated in the River John yard sale. I didn't get very much. A chip clip. Some tongs for the barbecue. A couple paperback books at 50 cents apiece. One of them was the source material for the first season of "Bosch", which we were then watching at the cottage. I like when things just come together. 

We finished watching season one of Bosch. We started watching the final season of "Banshee", a severely under-rated show on Cinemax, I think it was, but which was available on another channel in Canada. Easily one of the most violent programs ever made, but so compelling, and we will miss it. They only made 38 episodes, folks. Not that big a time commitment. You should check it out.

I had a crazy case of acid reflux this morning around 4. I couldn't get back to sleep for a good 90 minutes. Even now, 10 hours later, my throat is sore. 

On Monday afternoon, we went to the local beach. We sloshed around in the water for a couple of hours, talked to some people, and returned to the cottage. On the way, we noted some trespassers had decided to park their vehicles on someone else's dirt. I got pictures. I will never understand why people feel entitled to trespass, why they feel they have the right to walk or park wherever they bloody want, whenever they bloody want. 

I am not one of those people who say that the government should do something about, well, everything; but private property laws in Canada are so airy fairy, so vague, so inconsistently applied, that they may as well not exist. I had one cop tell me several years ago that someone wandering around on your property is really not trespassing. Trespassing kicks in when someone breaks and enters  your house or shed or something. I totally disagree with that. There should be a way, a mechanism, to ensure that you have the quiet enjoyment of your property, which would include being able to escort someone off that property that you don't want on it, for whatever reason you want to give, or for no reason at all.  But politicians, if they say anything at all, will just mumble something about how people "should respect private property" before going off to their next appointment. Sorry. Doesn't cut it for me.

On that special note, I think I will draw this post to a close. I should be back here on Thursday and will write then. Until then, keep smiling, y'all.

Bevboy