8: The Walls Around You, The Walls Within You

It's a little on the cool side as we crawl out of the winter of 2025, but I guess that's late March for you. They say it comes in like a lion and out like a lamb but for my money it's set to do both in a lion-esque fashion. Sure, the weather has been clear enough, I just wouldn't call it lamb-level. It's fixing to be between 0 and 5 all week, or between 5 and 10 if we're lucky.

It has been a busy few days and a head-spinning month. I have deliberately kept away from the blog because there are forces at work whose full effect is not yet known and I just don't want to lay them down prematurely. I mean, I know a bit about what the future holds but I'm not going to talk about it until it's reached the present.

But this weekend has been something. Mel and I are off this week for her birthday. The weekend kicked off with a visit to Unc and Sherlie's to see them and the babies, although Sherlie wasn't around much, napping and then putting in an appearance at an acquaintance's birthday (some person from their church was turning 18., I guess they're really into their church) so it was mostly me and Mel and Unc taking care of the babies. While Sherlie was there, we got a video of them commemorating Month 3. Then Unc and I headed out to pick up some dinner, Chinese from the hot bar at the Ethnic grocery store. Good stuff. We watched a bit of TV until Sherlie got back and it was time to go, a little later than Mel and I had hoped but not bad. Mel actually went right into bed but I stayed up kinda late after walking Hank, watching wrestling, an only-okay episode of AEW Collision, which is now airing on cable here in Canada so I can pop in whenever it seems like there's a good match or something to see.

Sunday, however, we had to get up early, as we were putting in an appearance at church with Nonna for the twice-annual callout for Papa. We actually made good time, getting everything ready and getting out the door by 10:20. This was our second Nonna weekend in a row, since we also went to Pasta with the Pastors the week before. We brought Hank, leaving him in his crate for the duration we were at service, then letting him roam free in the house. He was good, and didn't even growl or bark at Randy. We had some lunch -- soup and some Fortino's Pizza -- then played cards and watched old SNLs that Papa H had found on the antenna. Somehow they were showing two Steve Martin episodes from years apart.

It was a nice day and we were glad to be there and to have Hank with us since we've been leaving him alone quite a bit recently. Our planned dinner for the night was naked burritos that we picked up on the way home, although it upset Mel's tummy a bit and that made her sad, possibly because she was worried about not feeling good the next day. 

Yesterday was Mel's birthday. I was fretting a bit over what to do -- I have a tendency not to pin anything down, but luckily, the question was answered for me. Mama and Papa H had invited us to the casino but Monday was the only day that would work. "Is that what you want -- to spend the day at the casino with your parents?" I asked, nervously. "Do you mind?" she answered back. Mind? I never mind being off the hook for planning things -- I always want it to be a good day she ends up enjoying and remembering, but I was glad to have the pressure off.

The morning was hectic though, because we had been so busy all weekend I hardly had time to put together the things I wanted/needed to do. I walked Hank, took out the trash, went to the grocery store for a roast I had promised I would put in the slow cooker, put up banners... just about the only thing I couldn't make time for was wrapping her gift and writing her card. I did have a coffee though.

After a quick breakfast, we were on the road, just an hour behind Mel's parents -- they had offered to drive us and we initially accepted but after second thought we decided against, for the reasons of not wanting to have to conform to their schedule (I'm always against forcing Mel to hurry in the morning) and so that we wouldn't have to jam in the backseat for an hour's drive. The highway was pretty clear given it was a Monday midday so we made good time and met up with them.

After grabbing a coffee for me and a ginger ale for Mel, we hit the machines. Our first stop was Heidi, which we had had good luck with on our last trip, but she was cold. Then we had Mama H show us to the puppy machine we had always wanted to find, which we had a decent time with. After that we had some lunch at the sports bar. Pa H had a chicken wrap and Nonna had a burger, and Mel and her mom conspired to get some poutine with fried chicken for the three of us to split and I acquiesced. I tend to get a little pouty inside when I don't get to make the choice of what to eat -- you know, Mel's big on sharing, and this seemed like an ideal route for that -- but I always hide it. Ironically, I enjoyed the poutine most of all, as they found the chicken overcooked but I was fine with it -- it was crispy on the outside, yes, but I thought the meat was properly cooked and not dry. 

After that we hit the slots again, the Little Shop of Horrors machine which is always fun and Mama H had a good deal more luck than us. Nonna found a jungle machine to keep herself occupied. Mel's and my money was getting low, so we took our last $20 back to Heidi, hoping to at least "hear the song" once. We did, and managed to get up. We took the money out and put it back in at the three little pigs machine -- not the big flashy one (which we had tried earlier but had no luck with) but a chintzy little guy with a similar theme. We had hoped to see the bonus at least once before we ran out of cash -- the funds dried up quick, and Mel was going to go to the ATM, but I held her off, instead taking some of the USD I had had in my wallet since December 2019 and getting it changed to keep the play going. That was our last $20 (I actually got $27.50 for it but only put the $20 in) and we did get to see the bonus. Then we headed back out and said our goodbyes, stopping at Tim's for some timbits and a peach juice because the birthday girl was getting "hangry."

When we got home, dinner was just about ready, I only had to do the brussel sprouts and gravy -- I even had some frozen Yorkies left over from my last batch -- and we ate at the table, then I walked Hank and we settled in to watch the Mean Girls musical, which was... okay.

We had cake, which I had also picked up that morning, and which Hank was afraid of the candles (despite being relatively OK with the candles we had had during out blackout) and took a while to settle back in with us.

There's more -- believe me, there's a lot more, as I alluded, but it's not time to talk about it yet and unpack it. For now I'm trying to just live in the moment and enjoy my week off. There will be a lot to fill it with so we'll see how restful it is.

Keep on rockin'

-Scotto