Quiet Weekend, Long Weekend

I have a couple commitments this weekend, so I'm stuck in the city, and my partner drove out yesterday to visit her family. It's been real funny weather recently: days of 30+ degree weather, but this morning it's barely above freezing, with lots of rain yesterday, and a little more today, plus sleet. We planted our annuals last weekend. Yesterday morning before work I brought everything into the garage to protect it from potential frost. It's supposed to be cold through Monday. I'll water things again tomorrow if they need it.

This morning, my old dog woke me up at 6:30. A bit of a kindness, I guess: he's been getting up closer to 6, and has started crying before 6 some days. I wanted to get going quickly, so I had a handful of peanuts and a glass of water and took the dogs for a good walk, three or four miles. By the end of it their bellies were soaked from running through the wet grass, and after I dried them off, they collapsed on the couch. I put the fireplace on for us, which felt strange in mid-May. Made fried eggs and toast for breakfast. Coffee in the French press. I finished "Seed Beetle" by Mahaila Smith, a poetry collection on ecological collapse, dystopia, friendship, and familial bonds.

I've got my commitment in the afternoon (borrowing a friend's car for it, since my partner has ours), and then I'll watch either the replay of the Jays game, or the Jets - Stars game. I used to watch a lot of hockey, but fell out of it after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup finals in 2011. It kind of broke my heart in a way that was hard to come back from. But the playoffs this year have dragged me back in, even if the Canucks didn't make it in. The two wild game 7s in the first round that saw the Stars and Jets advance (Rantanen's hat trick in the third period for the Stars; Perfetti's perfect goal against the Blues with 1.6s left to send the game to OT). The 2025 Oilers playing like the 80s Oilers. The Leafs forcing game 7 (winner TBD) against the Panthers. It's reminded me of why I used to love hockey so much, how I grew up cheering for the Flames as a little kid, and the Canucks thereafter. Big hits, great goaltending, shaky goaltending; the variance has been wild.

I've been very slowly re-reading my favourite childhood books. This started a number of years ago when I got the Shannara trilogy in hardcover. It was just as I remembered it: Sword was weak, Elfstones excellent, and Wishsong my favourite. I followed that up with the Earthsea books ("A Wizard of Earthsea" being my favourite book if you put a gun to my head), and last year I finished Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. Prydain was a lot weaker than I remember, though "Taran Wanderer" is exceptional. Last week, at the same time I got "Seed Beetle", I also picked up the Narnia books in a single volume. We'll see how these hold up. I must have read them all when I was a kid, but I don't remember anything about "A Boy and His Horse", "Prince Caspian", "The Silver Chair". I faintly remember Dawn Treader. I remember loving The Magician's Nephew, the whole thing kind of weird and unsettling, and I'm looking forward to starting that. Maybe tonight: we'll see if the game is any good, and if it gets out of hand, one way or the other, I'll read instead.

Whenever my partner leaves for a few days, I usually make myself a lot of food in advance, so I don't have to worry about cooking, or meal planning. This time I decided on chili. Filled our smaller slow cooker with beans, corn, onion, tomatoes, beef. Simmered for nine hours on low yesterday, and I made a big pot of rice after work. Kind of a throwback to my younger self, when I was living apart from her for almost a year, desperately broke. Anyway, that was supper last night, and lunch and supper for the next couple days. It's nice to not have to think about it, and I don't get tired of eating the same thing over and over, like my partner does (like normal people do). I normally do all our cooking. So that's a break.

Today's spoken for. I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow, and Monday's distant. Apart from taking the dogs for another very long walk, we'll see. Guitar work and other practice. Practice, practice, practice. I've fallen behind recently. It's time to get back at it.