Making It Up As I Go Along #262

MONDAY…

--- Quiet morning. I’m feeling alright but still sleeping hard at night. That is to say, I’m getting in around 8 hours a night over the last two or three nights. I usually only sleep that long when sick… but, during the day now, I feel fine.

--- Order some Greek for supper with Megan and Melissa… work in TC AFIS with Devin tonight… but with loud banging in some construction work downstairs, it’s a distracting night.

--- Birthday gift comes early from Sister and the family. The new Bond movie on DVD… a good CD… and an interesting book. Good stuff to come home to.

TUESDAY…

--- Slow night in TC AFIS. My stats suffer even though I sit and work with few distractions. Just one of those nights.

WEDNESDAY…

--- The office is half empty tonight. With the way work is right now, the evening shift is smaller than normal… and a couple of people were off sick tonight too. So, in the end, it’s Anne-Marie, Dave, Karen and me in AFIS. And Karen and Anne-Marie left early.

--- Freezing rain makes the drive home slow but still not too bad.

--- Some nice e-mails today makes things seem on their way to finally being good with me and a friend. It’s good getting pleasantly surprising e-mails for a change.

THURSDAY…

--- Work is better stat wise… and I get some laughs out of Laura and her reaction to her computer reeking havoc.

--- My recycling container is taken by someone else… cause people are idiots!

FRIDAY…

--- Nice quiet evening at work. Dave, Glen, Laura and I are the only ones in AFIS. And to make it more like summer, a bunch of us go to the Chip Wagon to pick up supper (Laura showing me how much pick up her car has off the light)… then, in keeping up with the stuff that hasn’t happened in a while, I eat supper with Laura. And the final thing that hasn’t happened in a while… I clean the kitchen before we leave for the night.

SATURDAY…

--- Quiet day around the house… then over to Michelle’s for the evening. Linda and Jaymie also go and we sit around, watch some TV, and talk. Nice enough night.

Chicken Run

How far would you go for a meal of Mary Brown’s? For those who don’t know what Mary Brown’s is… it’s a chicken serving fast food place along the same lines as Kentucky Fried Chicken. Back home, there are all sorts of Mary Brown’s outlets. They’re as popular as KFC. But here, in Ontario, they’re virtually non-existent.

So, on this day, Melissa and I agree to make a run. It’s about 160 km from Ottawa to Kingston. And Mary Brown’s awaits us.

We meet at work and I hop in with Melissa. The run begins. And in the early stages, Melissa yells in Spring with the first sighting of a groundhog. She spots another on our drive home, several hours later, and I’m shocked at her keen eye for such a little creature.

By the time we reach the Corel Centre… now called Scotiabank Place… Melissa tells me how people have begun to call the hockey stadium “the Bank”. Pro hockey has, for the most part, tossed out all tradition and atmosphere for bucks. I glance over at the building which stands in the middle of nowhere and sputter under my breath at the half dozen commercial logos slapped onto the side of the façade. You’d think, with so much advertising, they wouldn’t feel the need to charge you $10 to park and another $10 for one beer… but the call of the buck knows no bounds.

We pass on by and both take notice of a snow covered hill off to our right. Neither of us had noticed this hill there before. Not a good thing… two people working with fingerprints… where minute details are taken into account to decide if a person is a criminal or not… and we’re both surprised by a hill! For me, it’s time to get a new job. And for Melissa… who just twenty minutes previous was spotting rodents from a hundred yards away… it’s time to put her away.

Further along, we spot something a bit rarer. As we pass through a small roadside town, we see turkeys. Live turkeys… just standing there along the side of the road. I think they’re possible ornamental… but Melissa looks back through the mirror to see them flap across the road after us.

The road trip continues. We’re just chatting quietly and watching the old farm houses drift by as we continue on towards lunch. Small town Ontario is possibly the best part of this province. Homes are older and show more character with their worn brick fronts.

But it’s still old farmsteads that grab me the most. It was like that for me back home too… when driving through the countryside. But the Ontario farms are better. Old stone houses which look like they were put together by hand… stone by stone… several generations ago. And usually there’s an old barn nearby… part stone and part wood… often leaning to one side with age and weathering. Planks of wood separating to leave little gaps of darkness where, if we stopped, we could peak to see what lays within.

And then we reach Kingston. A nice, old style town with interesting architecture. Right along the shores of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario… even though it isn’t the ocean, it is nice to be near a larger body of water again.

I look for signs welcoming us to the hometown of Don Cherry, Doug Gilmour, or Kirk Muller… but all three hockey legends (well, I guess it’s a bit of a stretch calling Muller a legend… but I have his jersey and it’s my story anyway) are mentioned nowhere.

We hit Princess Street and start the drive towards Mary Brown’s goodness. A roadway of royalty bringing us to the treasured reward… quite fitting. But Princess Street goes on forever. And we keep scanning the horizon for the great sign that brings memories of home.

In the end, it’s not so dramatic. We sit at an intersection and Melissa looks over to see the restaurant just sitting there on the end of a strip mall. But dramatic or not, it’s around 2:30 and lunchtime.

The meal is a return to home to be sure. Melissa has chicken strips… I have a chicken sandwich (a Big Mary) and tatters are eaten by us both. Those batter coated potato goodies that are so rare in these parts… they go down with a smile of childhood.

After lunch, we head back downtown and go for a walk along the waterfront. But the wind is cold here and our walk goes no longer than fifteen minutes… we rush back to the car to begin the return trip back to Ottawa.

It’s a unique and enjoyable way to celebrate a birthday. Even though my actual birthday is Monday, Melissa makes this event my birthday celebration… Who would have thought fast food chicken could make for such an adventure.