Captain’s log July 10th, star date 86976.6. I am sitting in a hammock watching my fire burn in the fire pit that I painstakingly started with my first progeny if F1. He cut wood for me but we did not make enough kindling so I had to make some myself. The fire is subpar as it was made in haste. Today we received delivery of the 18′ x 10′ retractable pergola that we purchased. Several hours later we received a second delivery from a second company for a 20′ x 10′ pergola. Neither Mel nor myself can find any reference of this second pergola so we are currently a bit perplexed on how we got this. We do not even know where it was shipped from, or who the vendor was. We will setup the smaller one and then keep the other one for a while. I think we should put it on the deck. Our backyard is quite nice and Mel is currently in the process of weeding out our sandbox. I told Mel we can torch the weeds in the sandbox. She wants to prepare the backyard for our pig roast. It is going to be either legendary or a debacle. Either or it is going to be fun. We will set up our dining gazebo on the slope for the kids and hopefully it does not rain that day. Since our basement is completely empty we can put quite a few tables down there if we get rained out.
I did not feel like cooking dinner tonight and wanted to go out to eat. Originally we were going to go get some chip stand food and then pick up some ice cream. Last time Mel and I had this idea we ended up at Verdicchio’s. It happened this time as well and we told the kids to change and we headed there for dinner. We bought a bunch of appetizers and the kids each and a main. Afterwards we went to DQ as the options for dessert were not things that interested the kids. We figured that today was a better night to celebrate my birthday dinner as when we planned for next Friday we might be busy with food prep. I am going to need to write out the schedule of events of what I will be cooking and at what stage. Tomorrow will be a test run for ribs and we have 3 racks of ribs to smoke tomorrow. Xavier can eat a whole rack in his own and I can eat 2 or 3 ribs. Some of the meat we will freeze and we can make rib sandwiches during the week which the kids actually enjoy eating. Today seemed like a normal day for the most part. I was able to eat fairly well and had some fatigue throughout the day but nothing that I could not handle. Neuropathy is subsiding, taste buds are a bit out of whack but it is not soon severe. Xavier and I are relaxing in the backyard while Mel is cleaning up the yard. She tried to get Olivier and his friends to help out yesterday and it was not very productive. Mel loves are yard and how the setting sun reflects off our forested yard.
When we went to grade 7 it was quite the difference. While I was at the elementary school I exceled at a lot of things. Entering this new school new hierarchies are formed. I got along well with all of the students and the different groups of kids and managed to navigate through them, but there were now people just as smart or athletic. In grade 9, my mother used to make me a mock chicken sandwich with miracle whip. Everyday I would trade with my friend for this bagel and cream cheese or graham cracker and cream cheese. We were separated into 5 different classes and I had a new set of friends that I made. This is also when I became more interested in music. My mother worked in the Supermall at the Canton fast food restaurant. A benefit of this was that within the mall you got to know everyone. I would often trade food with other restaurants and we would get discounts from the stores. I bought my first explicit album from the music store because no one would ask questions. I bought a Skid Row CD. This is also the year that my cousins from BC came to visit. We had gone to Manitoulin island where we jammed 8 people into a Reliant K car. Rules about seat belts were a bit more lax back then. I convinced my cousins that there were rock farms on the wall to the island. My cousin’s thought that Sebastian Bach looked like a girl in some of the posters that I had of him. They were not fond of his music but this was one of the first albums that I had purchased. We are sitting outside and the bugs are getting bad. Xavier and Olivier said that research has shown that the mosquitoes do not like the song Scary monsters and nice sprites so we are playing that while Xavier is burning birch bark. Every year I want to buy thermacells for the house and Mel says we have and do not need more. Tonight she changed her mind. We will be getting more next week.
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