Post 3619 - Is It The Weekend Yet? No? Okay Wake Me Up When It Is

Monday night. One day down. Two more days to go before we are off work for a few days.

I barbecued dinner again tonight. Hamburgers and chicken breasts. Patricia has been pointing out that meat, while an important food group, was never meant to replace things like vegetables, carbs and grains. And water. I think that is her subtle-ish way of telling me that we are using the bbq too much. She may be right. I cleaned it out last evening. After about a month of use, a lot of food crud got inside there. Stuff that dripped off whatever I was cooking at the time. And we bought a propane tank that has a meter on it indicating how much fuel is left. After 30 days it is down a good third. And other than some mushrooms, of the non-magic variety, and some onions and peppers from a chicken kebab,  there's been nothing but meat on that puppy!

I am working on another true crime piece for next week's issue of Frank. I have to get it done in the next 48 hours. It will be quite a bit shorter than the article two issues ago. That was nearly three full pages. This one may be only one page. Hard to find out facts about this guy.

I think I will work on that article for an hour or so before turning in, so if you will excuse me...

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3618 - The Weekend Is Over

Sorry I didn't write on Saturday. I was up doing stuff and then we stayed up quite late watching movies on Netflix.

We watched the first Mission:Impossible movie and then the most recent one, made 19 years later. I didn't really notice that Tom Cruise is not a young man until we watched the second Jack Reacher movie last year, but there has been this creeping-age thing going on with him for several years now. He looks much older in the most recent Mission:Impossible movie, which came out in 2015. We have not seen "The Mummy" yet, but I have read all about it. Apparently Tom Cruise insisted that his character be referred to as "young", even though he made it at age 54.

Anyway, today, Patricia went on a course to build a potting bench at Hands on Halifax, where people pay money to build things they can turn around and use. They also provide a place where people can go and rent tools and build stuff. Pretty cool thing to be able to do right in the heart of the city, although my father had a very nice work shop in the house, and before that, he would work long into the night in the garage. She got to use a mitre saw for the first time. The bench would not fit in our car, so one of the instructors delivered it to us, which was good of them. Ten dollars in delivering costs was money well spent.

We dragged it to the back yard after dinner this evening. After work tomorrow we will get some sand paper and some verathane and some stain for it. Patricia can lovingly sand it down and then stain the thing while I stain the front deck.

We only have to work three days this week. We are off Thursday and Friday. Looking forward to this mini vacation.

I think I will turn in. 5:30 comes really early.

Bevboy

Post 3617 - The Weekend IS Here

Finally. At long last, the weekend is here.

The tall ships are in town. We are avoiding that part of town this weekend. I volunteered for the tall ships festival in 2007. The experience was so negative that it turned me off even wanting to watch the damn things. I mean, if that is what floats your boat, go; but I won't be there with you.

We haven't quite decided what we will do this weekend, yet. Patricia wants to go to a farmer's market on Saturday, so we likely will. Maybe a day trip to Hubbards or Mahone Bay or something. We will have to see.

Patricia has a thing on Sunday, so I will be batching it that day, if only for a few hours. Have many things to do.

There is an episode of The Big Bang Theory in which Sheldon announces that rather than go out with the boys that night, he is going to stay home and refresh the operating system on his laptop. The laugh track comes on. Very funny. Ha ha. The only thing is, that is an actual thing.

Thursday night, when I should have been going to bed, I was instead installing Linux Mint on a solid state drive and then making that drive the primary drive for this computer. I tried to format the former primary drive, but I couldn't for some technical reason/bug in linux. I had to install gparted this evening and use that to partition the original drive, which got rid of the contents on the drive (sort of, if you catch my drift). That has worked well. I am now installing dropbox on the SSD and synchronizing that content. I also backed up a lot of the content from the original drive Thursday night, and will shortly start copying some of that stuff back to that newly-repartitioned drive.

I don't hear a laugh track. Maybe I should turn off the radio.

I did all this work because this is a really old computer that moans and groans when I ask it to do much of anything. I figure installing a SSD will speed it up. Next week, I will buy more ram for it as well to make it that much more useful, for I hope another couple of years.

Still not hearing that laugh track. If I had Sheldon Cooper's delivery, people would be rolling in the aisles.

I think I will turn in. I'm a little hurt.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3616 - Not Quite The Weekend

Is it Friday yet?

No. Too bad.

Patricia had Pilates after work tonight, so I had to cool my heels at work for an extra hour and 45 minutes. I ended up chatting with a co-worker who was also working late. I left about five minutes after he did.

She was hungry after her class so we ended up going to the Chinese place in Lakeside for a quick combo plate. It is the kind of place where the food is agreeable enough, but you shudder to think what the conditions are like in the kitchen. I no longer go to the washroom in that place because it disturbed me too much to see a big honking bowl of boiled rice cooling off in the hallway outside the men's room. I try to maintain the illusion, at least in my mind, that the food is cooked in a pristine environment. Ignorance is bliss.

We got home. The neighbour's cat greeted us. We fed him, and his face was whisker-deep in the bowl. Newbie was jealous. He saw us and started eating. His bowl of food was pretty much untouched all day. I think he thinks we are not coming home when we leave for work in the morning, so he tries to make his food last as much as possible. Then, when we come home, 10  hours or more later, he eats his food, quickly, and vomits in the hallway, on the carpet. I clean it up before Patricia sees it. If she does see it first, she tells me to clean it up, so I am no further ahead.

I am not sure what the weekend plans are yet. Patricia wants to do a day excursion on Saturday, as far away from the tall ships as possible. Maybe we will hang around the house. Maybe we will go to Otis&Clementine's in Tantallon. Sunday she has a course in the downtown, so I will likely hang around here and stain the front deck, something that is long overdue. I will try to wake up before noon to do that.

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

See you then.

Bevboy

Post 3615 - Yawn

So, it is much later than I would like it to be for writing a blog post. After work, I spent nearly two hours at the archives. I did not find what I was looking for, but did find some other interesting things. Which is always the way, huh?

I know that there was a certain criminal trial in 1991 for a certain person, who later went missing. But I am a darned if I can find the what and the exact when. And even though I go through the microfilms as quickly as I can, and I know that the local news was always in the first few pages of this particular paper, it is still a great deal of slogging.

I will find it. Soon.

Tomorrow is Thursday already.  Where does the time go, anyway?

Time to turn in. See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3614 - A Good Deed

Hello, you glorious hunk of man, you!

Sorry I didn't write last evening. By the time we got home, around 6:30, I was so tired I had to take a nap. It ended up lasting nearly 11 hours. I don't know what to say. I do feel better this evening.

So, after work, Patricia arrived at the Superstore parking lot where I was waiting for her. It is our usual ritual. I park across the street from my work and she takes the bus from the downtown. Tonight, she wanted to go into the store and get a few things, so we moved the car closer to the entrance. As we walked past a gentleman I heard him say how stupid he was. I figured he was gonna swear so I covered my ears.

Then I told him not to be so hard on himself, that whatever he did couldn't be that bad. He told me that he had locked his keys in his car and had no way to contact his wife to come pick him up.

I did not revise my opinion of him. I was going to tell him about the time when I was 15 and I was hitchhiking, which is stupid unto itself. But I got picked up for a ride and reached behind the female passenger to try to open the door behind her, with zero success. The driver then informed me that it was a four door car. I defy anybody to try to beat that level of stupidity.

But I digress.

We made it as far as the entrance when my heart strings began to tug for this poor man. I left Patricia to her devices and went back to talk to him to console him, to see if there was something I could do. He wanted to talk to his wife and didn't have a cell phone, so I called his wife for him and let him talk to her. After that was over, I asked him what his plan was. He said he was going to have to leave the car there until his wife could show up with the other set of keys, but in the meantime he would have to call a cab and be transported to his job in the city's North end. I learned that he was a former police officer. I offered to drive him to that job. He nearly jumped out of his skin.

After I told Patricia of my plan, I drove the man to his job. We chatted. I told him about my side job at Frank. After he finished asking me about Denyse Sibley and her travails, we spoke about some unsolved murders. I learned a thing or two about one of those cases I am investigating.

As I dropped him off, I made the man promise that he would contact me to see how the issue with his car worked out for him. I gave him one of my blog business cards. With any luck, he will see this post and be reminded. He can write me right here at this link.

I met a nice man this evening and did him a solid. I like to think that down the road, when I need help with something, someone will do me a solid.

I am not sure what the lesson is. Maybe it is that a small act or two I did for that gentleman this evening made a real difference to him. Maybe a small act or two that you can do for someone will make that person's day and help him/her out of a real pickle. Let's try to keep it in mind that it doesn't cost anything to be nice to people.

You have a good evening and take care of yourselves. There's too much crap out there.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3613 - Ugh

It is very late. How late? Well, I promised some time ago I would stop writing about how late it was when I wrote a blog post. Suffice it to say, it is late.

And I was up early. Something after 7. On the road shortly before 8. Went to the Valley to mow the lawn down at my Valley estate. It had not been mowed in two weeks. I won't be back there for a spell so I don't want it to be too shaggy by the time I get back. Also whipper snipped around the property, something that was over due.

After a quick lunch, I drove over to New Minas to drop off some electronics at the depot and then set out to buy a couple short sleeve shirts. The ones I have are getting ratty and don't owe me anything. I was gonna buy several, but I didn't feel like pay 12 dollars for a used shirt at  Value Village, and the Frenchy's in NM had nearly nothing. I will keep looking.

Went to Wolfville and bought some reduced items at the IGA before returning to the city by 3:30 or so. I was greeted with the usual enthusiasm from Patricia ("Who are you? What do you want?"). Then we resumed watching Ozark on Netflix. I cooked burgers for dinner and we watched some more episodes of that fine, fine series. We watched the final episode finishing just before 11pm.

Tomorrow is the start of a major bit of construction running for 11 weeks. We will have to leave that much earlier in the mornings, and take a different route, to boot. We do not look forward to this.

Need some sleep. Lots of under-my-breath cussing to do on the way to work in the morning.

Bye, y'all.

Bevboy

Post 3612 - Psst! Over Here! Let Me Show Ya Something!

Glenn Bourgeois was murdered on July 21, 2007. His murder remains unsolved.

To mark the tenth anniversary of his murder, my editor at Frank has taken my article about Glenn and his murder out from behind the paywall. This means you can read it for free for a few days.

Here is the link.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3611 - Sweltering

Crazy hot around the Bevboy house this evening. We have been trying to cool off, to no avail. Newbie has gone into hiding, in search of a place where he can feel less hot. Good luck, Newbie.

I bought some more Alpine beer after work tonight. I developed a taste for it a few years ago when I hired the guys to build my new decks. That was the main guy's fave beer, as he had worked with some guys from New Brunswick, where Alpine is popular, and developed a taste for it, too. The beer is not a popular seller in Nova Scotia. You can't buy a 2-4 of it anywhere, so you make do with a 12 pack.

But when the guy rang up the Alpine, it came up as another product, that cost slightly more. After a bit of confusion, they realized that their point of sale system was out of whack, and I got my beer for 21 cents less. I don't know how long that beer was showing up as the wrong product. Perhaps a while, but I was the first one to notice and bring it to their attention. Another thing that goes to show that this beer is not popular in NS. Don't know why. I think it's pretty good. Better than a lot of beers around here that people lap up.

Watched the first couple episodes of "Ozark" on Netflix this evening. A dark show starring Jason Bateman who ends up laundering money for the mafia in the Ozarks. There are many twists and turns to come up.

We have a busy day tomorrow. I have a task looming that will take a better part of the day. I will tell you about it tomorrow.

See you then.

Bevboy

Post 3610 - Today!

So, I woke up this morning and decided I had to do something about my hair.

I mean, nothing radical. It is still beautiful hair, the envy of most men. Even straight men like to run their fingers through it.

But it was getting long.

Here. Take a look.

Very hard to handle. Lots of product had to be used to keep it all in place. Driving me crazy.

So, during my lunch hour, I wandered down to Helen's Barber Shop on Kempt Road and was taken right in. 20 minutes or so later, this is what I looked like...

The good news is that if you don't like it, it will all grow back by next Wednesday.

After work, I drove Patricia home and had a quick shower to get the loose hair out of my head. Then, I drove to the Timberlea Dental Centre for my first appointment there.

They treated me very well. A thorough and professional cleaning. I will not say I enjoyed the experience, but I do not dread going back there next month for the X-Rays.

It was nice to hop in the car and be home in less than five minutes rather than be downtown or whatever and be faced by a 20-25 minute drive. The offices are clean and inviting. I could look out the window where I was with my hygienist and see a couple people kayaking on the lake behind the building. Next door is a farmer's market. Across the street are a drug store, a physiotherapist, a pub, an Ultramar station, and just up the street, a Tim Horton's. Between those two places there will be a brewery or a distillery. I forget which. It is a pretty decent part of the world, and I am glad to live in it and be able to contribute to a local business in this way. I look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Timberlea Dental.

I think I will turn in. The stress of getting my hair cut, plus the time in the dental chair, has left me exhausted.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3609 - Tomorrow!!

Sigh. On the way home tonight we stopped off at Timberlea Dental Center. I have a cleaning with them scheduled for Thursday night.

I am thinking that I will like it there. Seems like a pretty decent set up. The staff I have met so far seem very nice.

I am just nervous about going to the dentist. Even at my age, after all these years. Hate. Going.

But I am deeply unhappy with my present dental providers. The dentist left last year, likely ran out the door when he realized how messed up the place was. They didn't have an actual dentist on staff for a time. They recently hired one. The hygienist was not that kind to me in the last appointment. I got there, plopped myself in the chair, prepared for that session of torture. He told me what I just told you, about the new dentist. How they wanted to do x-rays, but feared my gag reflex would cause me and them grief. Suggested I go to a dentist that specializes in "sleep dentistry". Have a nice day. Would not even check my teeth.

I was so ticked off, that I resolved then and there to find another dentist. Assuming these new folks are at least half-way kind to me, I may have done so.

I will keep you up-to-date on this important, even critical, aspect of my life.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3608 - A Busy Night

I feel a sense of accomplishment tonight, ladies and gentlemen.

I spent a few hours tonight staining my back deck and side steps.

I did not perform that necessary task in 2016. I am trying to recall why. I think it comes down to laziness, but perhaps the weather did not co-operate the way I needed it to, along with my laziness.

There is now a coat of stain on those areas of the house. I have not done the portion of the back deck that faces out, that one can see from other houses, if you catch my drift. I will finish that task over the weekend if the weather lets me. More important, though, is concentrating on the front deck, which gets a lot of foot traffic, and which has also been unstained in two years.

After all this time, the wood was so thirsty that the stain seeped right in. By the time I had finished staining the side steps, and the "pole" that the clothesline is attached to, I had nearly used the entire can of stain. I used the rest on part of fence separating me from my neighbor. I will have to buy another can of stain this week so I can do the front deck.

If there is time, and money for that matter, I will do a second coat of stain on the decks and side steps later on this Summer.

Shame on me for not doing this in 2016.

Wednesday night I plan to hang around the archives for a couple of hours. I promise to think about you while I am there. Will help take my mind off the unsolved murders I want to research.

You guys have a good night.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3607 - Is It The Weekend Yet?

Well, hello there, handsome. Come here often?

Turns out that Patricia and I had a little stowaway from our Pictou County long weekend. A guy at work came back from coffee break this morning and asked me what we were planning to have for dinner tonight. "We haven't decided yet", I told him. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, maybe you can have a nice bird for supper!" He showed me a picture he had just taken on his phone of the Soul's grill. Wedged in it was a very dead small bird. We must have hit it at some point during out trip to or from the cottage. Maybe Patricia hit it on the way to or from New Glasgow Friday afternoon. Doesn't matter.

When we got home tonight, and after we had dinner, I got out my garden hose and unrolled it to the point where I could hose down the grill of the car. With a bit of coaxing, the very dead bird fell out on to the ground. I scooped up the poor dead bird and threw him in the green bin.

I did not get pictures. Might be upsetting to you. I know it didn't make my day to do that.

At least now I have a nice clean front grill again.

We watched this week's episode of "I'm Dying Up Here!", which is the funniest and saddest show at the same time. I am in awe of what they are doing. You have to see it. Just drop what you're doing, watching the first six episodes of "I'm Dying Up Here!", and report back to me when you're done. I will wait right here.

Are you back already? So, what did you think? Hmm? You want to collect your thoughts and let me know? No problem, man.

Not much else goin' on. Think I will turn on. Newbie is giving me that come hither look. I know better than to resist him.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3606 - Back From Break

Well, that was fun. Did you miss me? I missed you.

We are back in the city, after a couple days at the cottage. As long as we thought the lawn would be, it was even longer. In places, it was up to my hips. I spent hours and hours on Friday afternoon and into the evening, mowing the lawn, with the blade all the way up. I had to re-fill the gas tank twice, and had to stop the lawn tractor several times in order to clear grass away from the blade.

Thanks to the anti-histamine I had to take to prevent the hay fever from killing me, I turned in early Friday night and slept for the better part of twelve hours. I mowed some more on Saturday and took another anti-histamine, so I slept most of Saturday afternoon. When I was awake, Patricia and I watched episodes of season three of "Better Call Saul". We finished watching the season Sunday morning.

Patricia was quite grateful to see the rough cut of the lawn done, at long last.

There was time for some fun. We dipped into Pictou Friday morning and had lunch at Fat Tony's. We both had soup. I had turkey vegetable. Patricia had cream of zucchini. We shared a privateeer's bounty or whatever the hell they called it. Fries and onion rings and  mozza sticks and chicken wings and veggies. Not bad. Not sure it was worth $26, though. The food over all was pretty good, and the location is terrific. They clearly spent a ton of money on the place. Downtown Pictou has much more to offer than one would expect. I still miss the pub that was across the street, though. What was that place called? The Pressroom? Something like that.

But other than that one trip together, it was either work or sleep or watching "Better Call Saul". Friday afternoon, Patricia did dip into New Glasgow for provisions. She bought enough stuff to last us until we shut the place down again in November. Fridge freezer is full up.

We returned to the city this afternoon. We spent the evening taking it easy and getting ready to return to work in the morning.

Three day weekends go by too quickly. What is up with that?

I think I will turn in. Newbie is getting lonely.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3605 - Another Break

The blog is taking a couple of days off.

Friday morning, we will pile into the Soul and drive to the cottage. We still haven't been there in 2017. We shudder to think what the condition of the lawn will be. It will take two days to mow the thing. And we have no internet coverage down there, so unless we make it to the library in River John or Tatamagouche or something, then we will be sans internet, which means no blog.

I'm sure you understand.

As things stand, we will be back in the city Sunday afternoon, with a relatively mowed lawn at the cottage. Plus bug bites, dehydration and maybe even lyme disease from walking through the tall grass for a couple of days.

I think I will turn in. Long day tomorrow.

See you Sunday.

Bevboy

Post 3604 - The Nerve

I need to rant.

I won't mention names. But I was trying to track down information about a true crime that occurred some years ago. Managed to find the man's father's obituary. From that, I found names of grandchildren. Used that information to contact a grandchild, a daughter to the man who went missing. She got me in touch with her mother, whose name I had never seen before. All good so far.

We IM'd on Facebook earlier this evening. Seemed enthusiastic to talk to me. Then she springs on me the fact that she expects me to sign a contract agreeing to show her a draft of the article, which she will vet, so as not to embarrass her or the family.

This is not done. Just. Not. Done. No media person would ever sign a contract agreeing to show the draft of an article, or a rough cut of a video or audio piece.

She had just got through telling me that she was trying to get people to do an article about her ex-husband as she has lots to tell. But assuming that she would expect all media people to sign a contract first, then it is no wonder that people are not doing articles about her ex-husband.

Flabbergasted.  Shocked. Disappointed.

Almost as bad, maybe as bad, possibly even worse, than the time a few months ago when a woman expected me to pay her cash money before she would talk to me about her cousin who was shot to death a number of years ago.

I don't know what to say. Absolutely speechless.

Do they want us to get the word out about their missing or murdered loved ones, or not?

Why do I bother?

Bev

Post 3603 - A Pathological Fear

Why, hello there, you handsome sailor man, you!

Another day down. Patricia had a Pilates class after work, so it gave me some time to kill. I walked to Jesse's Pizza on North Street and got their slice and pop deal, for five dollars. The pizza was acceptable. I don't think I like pizza that much, any more. You can't get a decent slice for a decent amount of money, and the higher end pizzas are so expensive as to be out of reach for most people. And who would want to take his sweetheart to a gourmet pizza place, anyway? Nothing says romance like pizza. Not.

Across King Street, still on North, is Java Blend coffee. Had never been there. A very nice place, indeed, if along so busy a section of the city that I can't imagine ever relaxing there. They are yet another in a very long line of local coffee roasters in this province. I don't see how it is economical for so many roasters to source coffee beans, grown in Peru or wherever it is, bring them to Nova Scotia, acquire the equipment necessary to grind them in a way to make them useful, and sell them at a price that is tolerable to the average person. I could not begin to list all the coffee roasters in this province. I am discovering new ones, all the time. At least Java Blend is among the most established roasters. They do make a very good cuppa. Perhaps I will buy a bag of their stuff at some point.

I walked back to where I had parked the car. Was gonna read a book, but instead listened to a podcast on the car radio. The car stereo has many features. In addition to the AM/FM radio, there is also satellite radio. Plus, I can plug in a usb key that contains up to... I think the limit is 6000 songs, but I may be off by 1000 or so. Plus there is a small internal flash drive that I can copy songs/podcasts to if I want. Plus, there is an input that I can insert a standard audio cable into. Oh, let's not forget that there is bluetooth, so I can stream songs from my phone to the stereo if I wish. There is no shortage of ways to enjoy content on the car stereo

Patricia's class was done around 6:30. We drove home. Patricia grabbed something to eat. I showered and shaved. I applied some coconut butter to my face to moisturize it. I think I used too much. I will know for sure if someone at work in the morning tries to rub lime juice on my face. ("You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up"). A guy can dream.

Two more work days, and then off for three. Cottage, we will be there. We are scared about how high the lawn will be, but we will persevere.

You 4.7 have a good evening. Bark at ya later.

Bevboy

Post 3602 - Retirement Musings

Hello there, you scurrilous little pup. Ruff! Ruff!

So, I don't talk about this much, but I think about this a lot. I am eligible to retire late in 2018. The way it works for me in the civil service is that you become eligible to retire after your age plus years of service equals 80. Unless you joined the civil service after April 6, 2010, when the "rule of 85" kicked in. I joined before that.

The way I figure, a few tumblers have to line up.

1. The "rule of 80" thing, above.

2. Can you afford to retire?

3. Do you like your job?

4. How is your health?

#2, no way. I pay off a major debt in 2020. Maybe then.

A guy last week told me he was retiring at the end of the month. Told me some stuff. The difference between him leaving this month and staying another year, in terms of his pension amount, is about $120 a month. He says he could work one night a week at a department store for minimum wage and make more than that over the course of a month, minus the felgercarb associated with going into work every day.

I can see myself going on to another job for a few years after leaving where I am now. I haven't decided yet. The 2020 debt thing makes sense, but you never know. I don't want to be "that guy" who just hangs around and hangs around until five minutes before he dies, never having enjoyed a retirement.

So much to think about.

What are your thoughts? You know how to reach me.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3601 - A Quick Trip

Boy, are my arms tired.

A Sunday morning. We got up around 6:30. I showered and shaved. By shortly after 8, we were on the road to the Valley. I had to mow the lawn at the house. Patricia wanted to pick haskap berries.

I commenced mowing around 10am, after Patricia took off in the soul to the nearby fields where you pick those expensive berries. She was told to "caress" them, gently pull them off the branches that hold them. Very time intensive. Six boxes she picked herself cost her something like $22.

It took me until around 11:45 to mow the lawn. I took little breaks along the way to keep myself hydrated and catch my breath. By the time I was done, the lawn looked much, much better.

Around 2pm, we hopped in the car and drove out to Elm Grove cemetery in Steam Mill. It is where my parents and my brother and other relatives are buried. I had not seen the grave in a little while. One of Dad's sisters is buried along the same row between my parents and their parents, if you see what I mean. My parents. A couple more graves. Margaret Rose. A couple more graves. Then their parents. We wandered around the cemetery for a few minutes and marveled at how intricate some of the headstones are. Some of them have colour pictures on them, in some process I will not quite ever understand, either how it is done, or why people would go to that time, trouble, and expense.

I still miss my parents like crazy. My dad died in 2010, and Mom died suddenly in 2015. I still wish I could pick up the phone and say hello to them. That I cannot still upsets me.

From there, we drove to Berwick. We wanted to get some North Mountain Coffee from the roaster there.  But, they are closed on Sunday. WTF! When we got back to the car, a couple of women also wandered up to the entrance and were disappointed. 10 minutes later, when we drove past, four bicyclists were leaving the area next to the store, doubtless disappointed that they could not refuel before riding some more.  So, eight people, eight customers, disappointed they could not grab a coffee there, in ten minutes. How many others stopped by and learned they could not get in? How many of those people will perhaps decide to check out another place next time?

I don't get it. I understand needing a day off, a day of rest if you will. But why not make that day a Monday or a Tuesday or something, when things are naturally more quiet? It is the summer. People like us are driving around and wanna buy stuff, but can't because the stores that have those items are not open.

We grabbed an early dinner at the Union Street Cafe up the street. Decent meal. Great service. Not running back there, mostly because we have a metric tonne of food in a couple of freezers in Halifax, and every time we buy more food, and try to find room for it in those freezers, we get frustrated and angry with one another. We have the barbecue now, so that will become the go-to arena for preparing food for us going forward.

We returned to the house and got our things and hit the road. We needed some milk in  Wolfville, so we got some, and drove home.

Got home around... 6:45 I think it was. Shortly more than 12 hours after we got up.  We are tired, irritable. But I am at least no longer sweaty, after my second shower of the day.

Back to work tomorrow. Yippee.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3600 - Special Non-Special Post

Well, hello there, you glorious hunk of human, you.

Sorry I didn't write Friday night. My body pretty much shut down around 9:15. Slept for nearly 12 hours. Why does sleeping in on weekends feel so good, anyway?

Spent much of the day watching episodes of "Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away", a British reality show on Netflix about bailiffs who seize property from debtors, even evict them. A fascinating, compelling, even addictive show. It is up to season five in the U.K., but Netflix only provides the first two seasons, so I am not sure what we will do when we burn through the next few episodes.

We are at post 3600, not exactly the kind of plateau that merits a big mention, but I won't ignore it, either. As I have mentioned before, I have lost count of the post numbers of the years. I might think it was 3214, for example, and I'd just name the next one 3115, knocking 100 off the number for no reason other than my carelessness. The number of the post is not quite arbitrary. It is close to the actual number of posts. But it is not exact by any means.

I am curious about one thing, though: how many of you have been reading this blog since close to the beginning? It turns 10 years old this Fall, believe it or not. How many of you were "here" back in 2007, when I started this thing? If not the beginning, let me know you have been reading. Did you discover it recently, or have you been around for a while?

You can leave a comment on the post, write me privately on my Facebook, tweet me at @bevboy0223, comment me publicly on my Facebook, or email me here.

I am not sure how much longer the blog will last. I have no plans to stop it, but interest in anything can wane rather than wax. I have plenty of blog business cards here in my home office, and I would hate to see them go to waste, so I think I will be here for a while yet.

Special plans for Sunday. Will tell you about them tomorrow night.

See you then.

Bevboy

Post 3599 - Thursday Night Round Up

Random thoughts.

Stan Lee's wife, Joan, died today at age 93. They had been married for nearly 70 years. When I told Patricia, she remarked that Stan is likely the next to go, and fairly soon. Long-married couples often die within short times of each other. I recall a long-married couple in Beaver Harbour New Brunswick, the Greencorns. I think the order was that she died, and he died just a couple of days later. Their daughter, Dorothy, pre-deceased them both. Terribly sad.

Bob MacLaren, former owner/head of CKBW in Bridgewater, died today. Years ago, Bob was the guy smacked in the face by the man who killed the CJOH sportscaster. That man just died a week or so ago.

Thanks to a last minute influx of information, I can report that I will have a true crime article in the next issue of Frank. That makes two issues in a row, assuming my editor has enough room to accommodate the article, which is a bit longer than most of my other true crime pieces. This one is somewhat different than previous articles. This one posits a theory that would have been nearly unheard of in Nova Scotia in the period of time when this crime occurred. Find out what I mean on Monday, when the issue goes online. Wednesday if you want to get a print copy.

We're using the barbecue an awful lot. The tank has a gauge on it. We are still in the "green" section, indicating there is plenty of propane left. But the needle has moved a fair amount in just a week. Cooked sausage this evening. Burp!

I forgot to tell you last night, but on my way out of Toastmasters last evening, as I was heading for the elevator, emerging from said elevator was former premier John Buchanan. Dressed in a very nice suit. Does that man even own a pair of jeans? I told him who I was. He said that he thought he knew everybody who had my last name. I gave him one of my blog business cards and told him I write for Frank. His face lit up. "Why, Cliff Boutilier is one of my best friends!", he exclaimed. Told my editor about the incident this morning. He said that news would come as a surprise to Cliff.

Filled up the gas tank on the way to work this morning. Was on fumes. The little orange light had come on Wednesday night. That light means, "Get some gas for your car, you cheap so-and-so. Heck's wrong with you?" Gas is supposed to go up two cents a liter over night, so I thought it best to fill up before that happens.

The Soul had an oil change today. Won't need to worry about that chore again for another 6000 kilometers. I also ordered an external car wash, which would have set me back ten more dollars. When I went to pick up the car, I learned that they had comped it. Very nice of them! A nice job, too. The bird poop on the side is now gone. And to forestall all the hassles associated with this task, today I also booked an appointment to install the Winter tires on the car, on November 14th!

I used the ten dollars I saved on the car wash to pay for my lunch. Will pack, tomorrow. Barbecued animal flesh, anyone?

Let me know if you think I should I do any more of these Thursday Night Round Ups. This was fun.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3598 - Wednesday Night Musings

Hello there, you little scamp.

I did not write last night because by the time I got a chance to sit down to produce a post, it was late, and I was tired, and I had nothing to write about. But, of course, having nothing to write about is sort of par for the course, eh wot?

We had our final Toastmasters meeting until September, tonight. Five people showed up. A member did a very nice speech. We did a short table topics session in which people were given pairs of items (tea and coffee, AM or PM, etc) and had to decide which item they liked better, and why.

After that, while Patricia was getting her hair done, I went to the Archives to investigate a couple unsolved murders. I found some stuff about a 1985 double homicide, including their obituaries, which I can now use to try to find some family members. Obituaries are a very important tool to track down family members. A free tip.

When I registered at the Archives, the commissionaire acted as if he recognized me, and said as much. I had not seen the fine gentleman before. On the way out, he asked me what I did for a living. I told him. But then I added that I write about unsolved murders and missing persons cases for Frank Magazine. His face lit up. Mike and I chatted for a few minutes there. He said he liked my radio column, and my true crime work. I told him to be sure to write my editor to let him know that he enjoyed my work. I guess he recognized me from the picture that accompanies my column.

I was the first one from Frank, a magazine he has been reading for years, whom he has ever met. I feel honoured.

Picked Patricia up and drove home.

Tomorrow we have to get up early and take the car in for a semi annual oil change. Another 80 dollars gone, but in order to maintain the warranty, it must be done. That, plus, we have to keep this car for as long as we can.

I can hardly wait.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3597 - Uhhhhhh

Well, that was fun. Or maybe not.

We did not end up going to the cottage. Or anywhere else, for that matter. In fact, the car has not left the driveway since Friday night.

Let me explain.

We wanted to go to the cottage to mow the lawn. We haven't been down there yet in 2017. Grass is likely up to me arse by now. But the weather has not been cooperative at all. Heavy rain showers, followed by overcast conditions, followed by more rain. That was Saturday and a big chunk of Sunday.

We were booked off on vacation for Tuesday and Wednesday, returning to work on Thursday. But because of the weather, it would have taken 48 hours of dry conditions to allow the grass to reach the point where we could mow it.

The forecast would not allow for this.

So, we remained in the city, but did not do much. Like I said, the car remained in the driveway. We hung around the house. Watched Netflix. I finished watching this season's "Blacklist" this evening. And very little work. Just laying around, bbq'ing too much, sleeping too much, and preparing for work tomorrow.

We have canceled our two vacation days for this week. This means I have to figure out how to rescind vacation days from the scheduling software we have to use. I doubt if I am the the first one who has done this.

Anyway, a good rest, but nothing done at the cottage. We will get there, eventually.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy