Day One

The process of gathering and packing things for a vacation is exhausting. It was compounded by having to deal with my old car battery. The thought of it sitting around in a shed or garage didn't sit right. I got rid of the car battery at Canadian Tire. Meanwhile bdot finished packing and went ahead to the cottage. So we ended up leaving separately. With two cars, at least we could each go at our own pace. Driving the beater, I took only back roads with made for a longer but quieter drive. My arrival was met with gray skies and a massive downpour. Unloading a car in the rain sucks.

The cottage itself is old but clean. It has a lot of rooms (bedrooms we didn't use) and it sits directly on waterfront. Which was awesome. It is, what most would consider, a typical Muskoka cottage. The bandwidth here is poor at best. I'm on LTE with 2-3 bars max. Sigh. We started Eugene Levy's Reluctant Traveler. It is pretty funny and the production quality is very good. I was so tired I went to bed before 11. Hmpt.

Day Two

The data issue was due to a setting on my Phone. For some odd reason it was locked to LTE. I switched it to 3G and voila, glorious data. Weird. We met one of the neighbours today. The lots are pretty tight on this bay. Hi Greg. Seems like a nice guy. It turned out to be a pretty quiet day - was really cool - the Sun poked out late afternoon. It was a lazy day...Isn't that the point of vacations? Packing everything and driving up takes a lot out of you. (me anyway) I see the attraction to having a cottage where you just have to arrive with food... Not *everything* you want to use for the next week.

Day Three

Bdot's sister's cottage is really close by. So we saw a lot of them while at the cottage. We get the mutual benefit of tiring each others dogs out as well. Today we ventured over to their place. We were treated to quite a feast. Bill made his first salami and it was remarkable! We also lucked into a yummyfish and chips for dinner. Pretty amazing! Unfortunately, the older dogs get along like the Middle East and dealing with that nonsense gets tiresome fast... so we headed back to our cottage. We were pretty wiped out. More Reluctant Traveler in the interesting Maldives then bed. We have been spending a fair bit of time in the screened in room that faces the lake. It is the ultimate for being inside and outside.

Day Four

The weather looks great today. This meant we could finally get out kayaking. Yes, everyone got a tour on the kayak. This includes the enthusiastic Mystic and Edie. We also did a bit of swimming to cool off. Being next to water is amazing. It was another relaxing day. I've been making some progress in Moonring. I think I've finally past the intro dying all the time phase.

Day Five

It was another nice day at the cottage. We had a visit from the SiL and family. Sam had two paddles with Mystic. We paddled later in the evening. The weather report says rain is coming... so trying to get as much outside time as possible. We finished the Reluctant Traveler Season One. Pretty solid series.

Day Six

We spent most of the day at the Gloucester Pool Cottage. Once again the food was great, Pulled pork paninis. MMM. It was another chill afternoon. We stopped in Big Chute for grossly overpriced Ice cream. (We were going to get water but they wanted $25 for a case of water! LOL. Nope!) We are getting all sorted of alerted about the impending rain storm. But nothing significant ever occurred. *shrug* We started The Newsroom. It's incredible! Witty, fantastic funny dialogue, great plot and great acting.

Day Seven

We have to be out tomorrow by 11 so ... today is really out last day. We spent it with SiL and family in Coldwater. We were originally just going for fries and ice cream but lol, it was Harry Potter festival weekend! There were tons of magic vendors and Potter related merch available. It was really interesting. I got to meet a very chill owl. I finally got my Kawartha Lake's Black Raspberry Thunder ice cream. MMM! My favourite. A great way to end the week. We had a visit just off our cottage road from a black bear. I'm not sure where it went, we didn't see it again after we returned to the cottage. I'm mostly concerned about our dogs with the bear. Black bears are typically cautious of people and generally non-aggressive.

The drive home was atypical... We finally experienced the storms that we were alerted about earlier. Wow...Likely the most intense rain I've driven through. I saw video from Toronto and Mississauga and they has flooding and there was even a tornado outside of London. Jez. Unpacking was just as tiring as packing. Glad to be home. It was a chill week in Muskoka.

Ukraine

Huh, Ukraine continues to hold a significant part of one of Russia's oblasts. Lots of speculation about the purpose of this. Possibly leverage in peace negotiations... but there are other benefits like undermining P*tin, forcing troop reallocation and causing unrest.

Olympics

Pretty nice take for Canada!

The Acolyte got cancelled. 🤬🤬🤬