It started innocently enough...
Yesterday I got "suckered" into accompanying Rachel to her cottage for part of the day so we could clean out the fridge, etc and get it ready for the winter. Really, it just means making sure you leave nothing available for the mice to have a party with. So, I agreed. There is no harm in a road trip. Our i
nitial plan was to leave at 11 am and stay for the day and come back in the evening. Ha! Initial plan being the operative words. Because I had to get my hair cut at 11, we pushed that back to noon, and well, we were flexible. So, my hair got cut, some errands were run, and some food was eaten. In the end we left the city at 2 pm!The ride up to the cottage was relatively uneventful except that we seemed to hit every single type of weather possible on the way there. First it was dreary cloudy weather with sun in the distance, next it was a sprinkling of rain. Then came sun, next came a downpour of rain, then came hail! Luckily Rachel drove like a pro, and inside the couch we had Ben Folds keeping us going. (Yay Song for Silverman!) Finally we pulled into the cottage safe and sound around 5 pm. It was such a contast to see the autumn leaves on the ground a bare trees, but it was lovely.
Just as I was taking in the view I suddenly here "Oh Holy Shit!" I'm thinking there can't be anything wrong now, we're safe...and then Rachel says "I forgot the keys to the cottage in Toronto!" WHAT?!?! Oh my goodness. It was almost surreal. Really funny, but surreal. We paused, and decided not to give up after our 2 hr drive. So, we get into the covered porch and check out the locked cottage door - how do we pick this? For a few minutes we played with tools, which were luckily outside, an tried to get in. Then while Rachel was on the phone to engineering/possible deliquent type friends in Toronto I decided to investigate other ways of getting in.
So, I went checked out the cabin. I tried the screen door, and thought about other windows. Then it struck me - the windows near the dining area! I ran over to Rachel and screamed "I've got a plan!" and set about my task. With a little craftiness, I managed to get the screen to come off one of the windows at the back and wanted to desperately get the window open. Luckily after a little playing, I managed to get the window to open as well. Now the next step was deciding how to get my body in - would I fit? I decided there was no better way then head first. I launched myself in. Just as this moment, Rachel came back to see my arse in the air half-way in her cottage. She laughed and said "Let me in!" And that is how we managed to start our cottage adventure.
Once we got in, we got the hot water and baseboard heaters working. Next step
- a nice fire to warm the house up. I managed to get a fire lit, and we sat in our coats under blankets and decided to watch Sleepless in Seattle. Of course, at this point we were a little hungry, but didn't really feel like heading into town for dinner supplies. We were fortunate to find some frozen burger and buns among the condiments, so we decided to settle for that. (Little did I know they weren't completely frozen before Rachel defrosted them - not until she asked the next day! Oi! I swear she's trying to poison everyone!)By this time, things were getting a little warmer in the cottage. My goal was to maintain the fire to keep us warm
, but I was having some trouble. All they dry logs in the cabin were thick and were burning really slowly. I wasn't about to get a hatchet and chop them on the hearth, so I settled for trying to improvise. I managed to find a nice flat board to burn, tucked in the back. I do admit it was a little big for the fireplace, but still, it would burn. And burn it did. But in doing so it filled the cabin with smoke to such a degree we had to open the window to let cold air in and the smoke out. Oops! Of course, I didn't want to give up my piece of wood, but finally I caved to Rachel's reason. I took the lonely, burning log and threw it over the balcony into the wet leaves. And no, it did not catch on fire, but it was pretty funny.
The rest of the night was significantly better. We watched Mr. Holland's Opus, ate our not-so-poisonous burgers, and just layed low. Rachel and I had a good talk about stuff, and I also got a chance to work on a project I've been meaning to start for a while now. It was good. I managed to find some better logs to burn and built the fire up right before we crawled under tons of covers on the sofas next to the fire. And we slept.
We got up earl
y the next morning with the intention of leaving for home early, aiming to be back around 10 or 11. We left at 9:30. We took an hour long pit stop in Barrie for coffee, dollar store goodies, and we even looked in Winners. We left the parking lot in Barrie at 11:55. We arrived at Allan Road at 12:32. Go Rachel! It was a good drive, the weather was much better, and we arrived safely. No gut rot, no overly smoked out lungs, happier and in good stead.Thanks for a great time, Ms. Beck.
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