It is August long weekend. Or, Civic Holiday weekend. Or that-day-they-picked-in-August-to-be-another-campers-holiday long weekend.
I don't care what you call it. It's just past 3pm and I'm officially off for the long weekend. No work on Monday. I have a stack of new (to me) cozy mysteries to read.
I hope the rest of you enjoy your weekends, too, be they short or long!
P.S. Update on the paycheque: I did get the replacement couriered out to me today.
Although I do love living out in the middle of nowhere, there are sometimes drawbacks. One of these is the craptacular mail delivery. For my non-rural, non-Canadian readers, you might not know that most rural towns have no "real" Canada Post Post Office. We have post depots which are staffed by regular folks (usually the store owner that houses the post office boxes) who get a modicum of training by "real" Canada Post people.
We also get all our mail brought out on a truck with all the mail for all the tiny towns on the whole big long route out from The City. Our route has had many a trouble keeping a driver. These drivers are not Canada Post employees. They are merely contracted by Canada Post to drive the route and dump/pick up the big bundles of mail.
Nearly every time we have a driver change, we have trouble with the mail going astray. Parcels and envelopes end up going to the wrong town, and then have to be sent back to The City, to be sent back out again on the same truck.
So... all this is to say that I'm missing my paycheque. Yes, I know it would be nice if I could be on direct deposit, but my department doesn't do that anymore for some nebulous reason. I have informed them of the missing cheque, and they'll stop the old (it's 2 weeks overdue) and issue a new one.... and then... mail it out to me.
*sigh* Oh well... here's hoping this time's the charm.
I do have a goodie to share in all that follows here, so bear with me. In case you haven't noticed, I hate my BlackBerry. I hated the old one (a 7100) and I hate the new one (a Storm).
It isn't so much that I hate the thing itself. I hate that it chains me. Whenever I hear it ding at me, I groan. It's become reflexive. Over time, I've been able to draw some clear boundaries with my BB. For one, it does not come on until 10 am. I pretty much set my own hours, and my hours do not begin before 10 am. Also, it goes off at 5 pm. That's it.
I've been asked, on rare occasion, to leave it on available during my pre-set down times. I usually comply because... well... I do love that job. I find having defined the boundaries, though, has reduced those requests.
All that said, it's neater than a regular cell phone, and I can play games on it. Lately, I've found cool little apps for it, that make it easier to get close to something like "liking" it. The Weather Channel app is nice, since I can plug into weather half way across the province, which is handy when I have to drive there. I hate weather surprises, so that's one small step for BerryKind.
Today, I was watching my fave channel and saw a commerical for a mobile version of their website, which I frequent. So... if you're interested and you're enslaved to a ding-master, go to m.foodtv.ca to get the FoodTV Canada mobile app. You get the recipe of the day and lots more. On. Your. BlackBerry.
I may be slightly overstating it, but for someone like me, that just might be one giant leap for BerryKind.
P.S. If you have a fave BB app (especially if it's free) which might help me not hate that fucking thing so much, I'd love to hear about it.
Strawberry picking is on and I have no time for anything bloggy. Raspberries coming up soon. Why do we have a U-Pick when one of us works a LOT off farm, and one of us has absolutely no desire, nor skill for customer service?
This week, all I have heard is people wanting to carve more meetings into my work schedule, and L moaning about how he hates dealing with the public. The U-Pick was his idea, by the way. Hmm... how 'bout that? I understand that he's a bit on the shy side and doesn't handle mingling with strangers well, but.... tough titties darling.
I cannot be everything to everyone and everywhere at once. So, suck it up and do it with a smile anyway. I have to do just that all the time.
I very seriously "suggested" to him that if this first week was any indication of how things were going to go this year, then we need to get out of the U-Pick business, and in that regard, get out of doing the Farmer's Market, too. He has got to do the customer service stuff when I'm off working. Either that, or he needs to forget about the market gardening aspect of the farming business. The alternative is to deliver to commercial customers only, but even then, he'd have to deal with that. It would probably be much easier on him, as he's quite good at one-to-one communication. It's the crowds of people that stun him.
To be honest, I'm at the point right now where I wish he'd just stick to alfalfa, grain and oilseeds. It's straight-forward and he can do it without too much help. The berries and the market garden are incredibly labour intensive, and I'm getting goddamn fed up with being the pack mule on call.
Sleepover is over. The boys had a blast. Literally. Sunday afternoon, L marched them out into the middle of the east field where they launched some rockets (which is something L and T enjoy together). Even though one rocket got hopelessly lost, they had a great time.
The rest of the weekend went something like this: pick up other 2 boys; much running around outside; lunch in a quasi-trough style; public pool for the afternoon; supper -- homemade pizza crusts and they topped their own; rented some movies which they watched while playing with Bionicles and assorted things until the wee hours; shuffled them off to bed; was roused too early (considering how late they'd stayed up); breakfast of more eggs than I've ever cooked in my life; much more running about outside and playing with Pokemon cards in T's tree fort; lunch of many, many, many hotdogs bbq'ed by L; afternoon of rocket launching.
I supposed it's a testament to how good their weekend was that when each boy's parents came to pick them up, there was a lot of whinging and begging to stay another night. T was so incredibly thrilled with the whole thing. Beaming would be an apt description.
T and 2 pals are sleeping over at our house tomorrow night. Can I handle 3 boys (nearly 10, 11, and 12 years old) at the same time? I think there's a reason I only had the one kid. The thought of 3 for an overnight has me nervous.
Really, it's 2 days and a night. We'll be picking up the others boys Sat. morning. They're coming back to our house for lunch, then I'm taking them to the pool in a town about 20 minutes away for the afternoon. Then, it's back here for pizza, rented movies and games and such. Then the overnight. Sunday, they'll be here for breakfast and through lunch and their respective parents are picking them up around mid-afternoon.
I don't know what to do with Sunday. T says he's taking them to his tree-fort in the woodlot, where he has stashed a plastic box full of Pokemon cards for them to play. I hope that entertains them for a while. Maybe I will bring them their lunch to eat in the tree-fort.
T is very excited. L and I are decluttering like mad (which we only seem to do when company's coming). I hope they all have a great time, and I don't get the lamest mom award when it's over.
Swimming lessons start tomorrow. T's best summer buddy arrived last week at his g-ma's (a sort-of neighbour, if you can call 6 miles away a neighbour). T's pal lives in the Big City, but usually spends a month of summer at his g-ma's. Those two boys made a fast friendship 2 summers ago -- still going strong.
They are both enrolled in the swimming lessons. And, I have been informed that there will be at least 2 sleep-overs. 1 at our place. 1 at g-ma's place. I'm quite happy for T. He and this boy connect on similar interests (Sci-fi, game design, digital film-making, Pokemon, Legos, rockets). T can't seem to find local boys with similar interests very easily. Or, if he does, they are older boys who often aren't interested in a little kid as a pal. This confuses T, who has no age restrictions on friendship. Fortunately, T's summer pal (also homeschooled, btw) has no age restrictions either -- he's a year and a half older than T.
T has always been what I would call a happy child. Few complaints and a sunny, trusting outlook on the world. To see him so extra-pleased to be running through the barely up flax crop chasing down a rocket with his summer pal... well, that brings both a smile and a tear.
Farmer's Market began in my nearby little town yesterday. It's been a very late, late spring and that affected everyone pretty harshly. Luckily enough for us, our greenhouse venture (our first ever was this spring) paid off, and we actually had lots of nice cherry tomatoes to offer, plus the lettuce and spring onions. We were also opening the first pick of strawberries this weekend, so had some pamphlets on that available.
People can be so bitchy.
We sold out of produce in the first half hour and were down to just my potions (some handmade soaps and lotions and oil blends). So many people were bitching at all of the vendors for not having more produce. Sorry folks, but Nature didn't play us any favours this year. As a group, we did well. Those with produce sold out completely. Those with only baking or specialty items didn't fare as well, but still did okay.
It's likely that we won't participate in every market this year. Our little market doesn't require a big membership or commitment. Basically, you're welcome when you want to come and you come when you can. L does not want to do the market alone, but with my good job, I can't always be available Fridays. I pointed out to L that T will help, but L is just NOT a salesperson, not a crowd person and definitely not a put-up-with-asshats person.
I guess we'll have to play it week by week and see how it goes.
that would be so unCanadian of me. I've been officially a Canadian citizen for 5 years now, having taken my oath on Canada Day of 2004. I formally renounced my previous citizenship tout de suite thereafter.
Happy birthday, Canada, and thanks for welcoming me in like family.
