By Lucy

Hi, yes, this post is very, very late, and as usual Paul is always advocating for my readers and beating me about the head until I write something.

Part of the delay was the break-neck speed of my emergency trip to Winnipeg that ended with me bawling on the grave of my great-grandmother, which you’ll have to wait for the story of (except Paul, who was hearing about it as it happened).

What happened Sunday? More Minecraft. It’s spreading like a virus through the server.

That’s not true. I also watched Pig, with Nicholas Cage.

Pig is one of those critically acclaimed movies I always meant to watch and never got around to. It had an awkward ad campaign, because it was clearly banking on “John Wick but with a pig”, and everyone knows Nicholas Cage hams it up (heh), but the trailers had an absence of the kind of ultra-stylized violence one would expect.

For what it’s worth, I thought it was an underappreciated gem that sucked me in right away. The first ten minutes of Nick cage et swine are so cinematically shot, the sound design on point and the atmosphere so moody, I could honestly have watched 2 hours of “Nicholas Cage lives in a small shack in the forest”. It is not a movie that gives up answers easily; if you aren’t paying attention to the implications of the dialogue, you’ll miss a lot of the story, and some things never get answered. You quickly figure out that the pig is an emotional stand-in for a wife who died, but who she was – what she did for work, how they met, how she died – goes unanswered. The movie is Alien levels of only the dialogue that seems natural gets included, no exposition.

The crown jewel is a breaking speech he gives to the head chef of a bougie restaurant, about the hypocrisy of the crowd and how no one will care how successful the restaurant is when he’s dead so he should live for himself, as the chef’s broad grin gets deeper and deeper until it looks painful and fixed. At which point he breaks, drinks a bottle of wine and bursts into tears.

The movie has a lot of things to say; about grief, about what we hold on to and why.

You know, I really appreciate Nicholas Cage as an actor. Probably a small part of that is that the first movie I saw him in was the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, where he doesn’t do the usual large ham. But the other part of that is that I see his dedication to his work, occasionally buried under his need to pay his bills, but you can never say he’s phoning in a performance. He’s a good actor and a mysterious man… although like me, probably a lot less mysterious in real life than the popular perception of him.

Sunday night we started working on the last few aisles, work getting thin on the ground but Zach getting no less annoying about us getting caught standing around. They hired a couple new temps who were extremely annoying because they pretend not to speak English when they don’t want to talk to you, they have a bad habit of standing around on their phones when the others are working, and they take their shoes off and put their feet on the table in the lunchroom.

We’re doing the cement aisles, which is dirty, dusty, heavy and dirty.

Zach made a lukewarm offer of dust masks to the temps, which prompted me to yell at him; “Tell them why!” Explain to them the life-altering and irreversible effects of silicosis before you give them the option of wearing a dust mask, you %#$#&%&$!

At one point I was monkeying up and down the racks, usually Terry’s job but he was off doing something else, I slipped and started to fall. Like usual for scaffolders, I caught myself by wrapping my knee around the upright, which left a deep purple bruise across the inside of my thigh for 3 weeks.

The good news is that my blown knee is feeling much better and I no longer wear the brace.

Around lunch break, there was a bunch of fireworks set off by the CLE.

I almost ran into Jeremy on Minecraft when I got home because he stayed up ’til 5 playing!

Monday I did a whole lotta nothing. Dreaming about the end of the week.

“We’re gonna have to go out for coffee so I can get my Lucy fix after this job is over.” Terry says.

If you say so. I’m not sure Terry actually would keep in contact with me after a job.

“They’re talking about work next week, you game?” Terry asked.

“Nope. My contract is ’til the 15th, I’m done on the 15th.” As it is, I’m already debating ways to get out of work early. I shouldn’t but I want to.

Plus I had my trip to Winnipeg. I was developing a plan to stay at Jeremy’s parents place Sunday night and drive to my appointment in Winnipeg in the morning. I hadn’t planned much beyond that because Duff is hard to pin down, and it’s entirely possible I’d end up spending a few days passed out drunk at his place.

I watched Ernie drift the forklift around corners. That seems like the thing you see in a preamble for a Darwin Award. Don’t do it!

Another long night of heavy lifting, my hands burning, monkeying up and down racks, airborne concrete dust…

One thing has started percolating in the back of my mind. See, I’m proud of how long I’ve held on to things. I’ve had the same cell phone number – the first cell phone number I ever got. I’ve never lost a card. I’ve had the same Facebook account since I was 11 (back when you had to be 12 to get it, shush).

I was happy that I could always track down any conversation and any odd, dorky post, but I’m starting not to like it. I’m proud of how far I’ve come, but I’m starting to feel like holding on to it is just holding me back. Like I’m so far from that person that I don’t recognize them. So I’m strongly leading towards deleting my old account and making a new one.

Thinking of Winnipeg inevitably started me thinking about my family. And Facebook. I tracked down a woman I was pretty sure was my great-Aunt Tina on Facebook, but it occurred to me before I clicked the send button that these people would wonder about why my name is different.

Send.

I never heard back from maybe-Aunt Tina. It wouldn’t surprise me if my mother got to her first.

Little orphan Lucy, all alone…

Well, I’m too broke to do much running around anyway. I need new tires – I’m flirting with the wear bar – new brakes, an oil change… Arguably I shouldn’t even be doing the almost 2’000 kilometer round trip, but I was confident the car would be fine… as long as I stuck to that.

On a whim, I also called the Mennonite church in the small town where my great grandmother was born. Maybe they knew something. I just got voicemail.

May your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground

Tuesday was just me and Lara for jogging. She was feeling under the weather, so we didn’t do much. We ran into Kevin giving a friend a tour of the marina/ going for a walk.

Tuesday and Wednesday night passed as a blur. I do remember that we were beset upon by mosquitoes. No amount of bug spray could get rid of them and we almost couldn’t work because of it!

Wednesday I ordered a couple of cases from Pela cuz they had a 2 for 1 deal.

I watched the new documentary “Fit For TV”, about the Biggest Loser. I never understood fatphobia/ dieting/ tabloids mocking celebrities weight. I don’t understand enjoying watching people getting yelled at. My mother watched all those shows. She mocked me for being a healthy weight. She picked up tabloids at the checkout aisle, complained about how they were exploiting and violating people’s privacy, then bought them anyway.

The Ozempic debate does make me curious. Ozempic/ Wegovy/ insert brand name here’s don’t work perfectly. They have side effects, you have to take them for the rest of your life, and for some people they just don’t work. But it’s an interesting dilemma… if you could just press a button and be skinny forever, would you? And why? Especially the celebrities like Megan Trainor who made body positivity their brand.

I always just get told I’m too skinny to have an opinion.

I mean, Biggest Loser was just wrong on the face of it cuz even when the show had just come out, the medical advice from doctors was no more than 2-3 pounds of weight loss a week. Maybe more in certain extreme cases, but outside of a doctor’s supervision you shouldn’t be trying to lose 10 pounds a week.

Besides, the number one cause of death in children (children!) in the US is bullet holes, so they just have skewed priorities.

Thursday me and Kevin went for nachos at El Tres before it closes down permanently. The nachos were excellent; the homemade chips were especially good. He pointed out the Amethyst regatta was this weekend. I was on the fence – I’d be super sleep deprived – but I suppose nothing prevents naps like being stuck on a boat in a howling gale.

It was hard to decide because there was also the Westfort fair, the Murillo fair, the summer Matsuri and a pow wow at Fort William Historical Park. Although to be honest, the only thing I was really interested in was the Matsuri, because Faith is performing and I want to support my friend!

Last night for night shift! Thank Christ.

“Where are you going after this?” I asked Terry.

“I dunno. They told me I can’t go to the prison farm because of my criminal history.”

“Oh yeah? What did you do?”

“Well, I did break out of prison – “

“Hang on, why were you in prison in the first place?”

“Grand theft auto.”

“Why’d you steal a car?”

“I wanted to go see my girlfriend in Winnipeg!”

Facepalm. “So how’d you get caught?”

“After I broke out of prison? Got caught hopping the border at Fort Frances.”

I’m undecided how much of that story I believe. I couldn’t find any archived news stories about it and I’m pretty sure that would be a big headline!

I half-expected a pizza day, but apparently the little treats like the days Jenna brought in donuts and watermelon were just to motivate us into staying, and now it was the last day they saw no reason to reward us.

It was a slow day. No racks, just odds and ends. Me and Terry put up 6 core walls and then spent a good chunk of the day messing around and staying out of Zack’s sight.

At one point Ernie sent me to find a cart of paper signs intended to go at the end of the aisles. I discovered one of the bright sparks who works for Home Depot pushed it out into the garden yard… where it had been raining all night!

I hurt myself at some point. I must have picked up one of the core walls awkwardly and pulled something in my hip. As the night wore on, it started hurting more and more, until I was limping. Terry made me go tell Zack, in case I ended up needing to see a doctor about it (I did not).

And then it was over. There was a round of handshakes and “nice to work with you’s”, and then I was in my car and disappearing into the night.

Time to switch back to being a daywalker!

Friday I did nothing. I barely existed. I napped for 4 hours. I tried to play some Minecraft, but I was too tired to focus. Or write. I could barely watch John Oliver. I rotated heat and ice on my hip.

Someone in the Discord posted a video that I just have to share because it is hilariously accurate.

Except for the bit about brickies. We don’t like sparkies up here in the True North, which is especially funny whenever I have to admit my dad is a sparky cuz I always gets the gears about it, as if I had a choice.

Oh well.

I slept fitfully when I finally let myself go to bed. Around 3AM my body decided it was lunch time, so I got up and made myself a bite to eat.

The race!

I tried napping a bit, but eventually I had to get up. I went to the store to grab a lunch (the race starts at 12 and I was too delirious to cook the day before) and something to share at the potluck, in this case chocolate hummus. I thought it was clever… high protein for after a race!

I got there just as Chris got there, which was good timing.

Chris benched me! He said it was because I hadn’t sailed in a while, but I don’t forget stuff and no offence to Doug, but he owns a sailboat and he’s still sooo slow on the main! So I just say on the deck and released the jib. Chris also told Marissa to be “tactician”, which was funny because Marissa didn’t want it and kept sneaking up to the foredeck to ask me what to do.

At 11 there was the skippers meeting, and then the race! The race started from Amethyst, looped around a couple of island and then came back.

And we’re off… with a whimper. There was no wind!

We were also dead last. Yay!

Which did afford us a great view of someone running aground. See, near Amethyst is a giant rock they call Temple Reef. It’s a slate shelf that rises rather abruptly from the floor. As in, the floor of the lake is around 200 feet, but Temple Reef rises in an almost straight vertical to 4 feet. The clearance for most of the boats is 6 feet, but every year someone tries to cut too close to Temple reef and hits it.

Put out of your mind a catastrophic hole gushing water into the hold. Usually they just get stuck on the keel and have to turn the motor on to get off of it.

This year, it was Brigadoon’s turn to get stuck. They remained stuck as we looped around them.

“Lucy, can you go to the pulpit and keep an eye out for us?” The light level was such that it was perfectly reflecting off the lake, making it hard to see what might be below the surface.

“Aye, Cap’n!”

I ran to the front of the boat, unsure what I was looking for.

Then I saw Temple Reef.

Not sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I have thalassaphobia, the intense fear of deep bodies of water. Which always causes everyone to joke about me playing Subnautica and I have played Subnautica all the way through… crying and whimpering the whole time.

It rose from the murky waves like Monstro surfacing to swallow us whole! Where before there was nothing, suddenly there was pale grey rock… still too hard to determine details, but details were not important at the moment. Fear shot through me.

“Starboard!” I yelled. Chris was turning too far to port!

He corrected and we passed it safetly.

Despite passing Brigadoon, they caught up and passed us. For reasons. We still technically beat them because of our handicap.

There was supposed to be a second race at 3, but the wind was so light and we got back so close to 3 that they cancelled it.

We had some pre-party snacking on the boat, then I changed into into my bathing suit and we went up onto the private island for the afterparty!

Chris’ brother Ross has a property on the island, complete with sauna! Happy drool

I was one of the first ones there. The little old ladies grilled me for a bit. Once more sailors started filtering in, I made an effort to go around and try to get to know others.

Chris took me around to show me the carpentry on the property (his brother did it himself) and asked me what my plan was for next year. When I confessed that I want to travel the world to see it before it’s gone, he agreed with me that he also thinks the world is in a fragile state. He also added that he thinks I should do what I want to, while I can.

Once I gave up on socialization, me and Marissa hit the sauna. It’s perfect, cuz you can jump in the lake as a cold plunge! Unfortunately, other people noticed us having fun and decided to join in, including a couple of skippers who were also tradies.

“Car painter? Hey Bruce, she’s a car painter!”

Hah hah.

“How long you been a car painter, girl? What kind of work have you done?”

“Why’d you get into that?”

“Well, I wanted millwright – “

“Oh, why didn’t you say so? I’m with the millwright union, I could get you in!”

“Er….” I mean, I’m leaving for a few years. Also, I don’t know you from a hole in the wall.

Around 8:30 I called it, got home for 9 and crawled into bed shortly therafter.

Sunday was gonna be a busy day.