Anatomy of a Sunday
Written October 7th 2012
Maybe my ideal Sunday involves getting up
at the crack of dawn and driving my race car to a track event. Although it is
not really possible to head out to full-day events now that we have Jules to
look after, I can still have a pretty cool Sunday, as I did today.
The day began when my alarm rang at 8:00 so
I could watch the Japanese Grand Prix on TV. I set Jules up on the couch and we
sat in front of the TV together. The race was not all that exciting, but I managed
to get some work done and Jules was in a good mood. Breakfast consisted of 1/3
of yesterday’s baguette from Patisserie Gascogne, with butter and jam, and a
glass of chocolate milk. Very satisfying.
I continued to work a bit after the race
and play with Jules so Alex could catch up on some sleep. Then I decided to
install the rear winter tires on the BMW. I already had the wheels, my breaker
bar, my jack and my torque wrench handy so it seemed like it would be a
10-minute job. Of course, it never works out that way… I was not able to loosen
the lug bolts on one of the wheels as the guys at Canadian Tire who repaired my
flat tire a few weeks ago had tightened them way too much. I drove to the
Canadian Tire where the work had been done, but the garage was closed, so I
drove to a different store a few minutes further away. I was a bit annoyed, but
it’s always fun to go for a drive in the M3. There were a couple of Ferraris
(308, 355) parked on St-Laurent in Little Italy. I had the windows down and the
sunroof open, even though it was only about 8 degrees. I saw a Corvette with
the top down. Nice. People seemed to be driving in slow motion and I found
myself driving around them. The short drive was oddly satisfying.
They were able to loosen the lug bolts for
me at the other Canadian Tire and I retightened them by hand and headed home
and finished the job, then dropped the tools and extra wheels at the garage. I
was a bit sad as I saw the race car sitting in the garage, unused for the past
two months. I took solace in the fact that I would have one more event this
season with the Civic, at Tremblant in two weeks.
The 15-minute tire job had taken an hour,
but when I headed back in the house, Alex and Jules hadn’t really noticed, as
they were chilling. I went to Gascogne for another baguette and when I got
home, I made a wonderful sandwich with prosciutto, provolone and Dijon mustard.
I had some leftover pasta salad on the side. This was a near ideal lunch for
me.
I watched some TV while Alex got ready for us
to head out for a walk with Jules. We dressed him up more warmly than usual, as
it was colder today than it’s been since he was born 7 weeks ago. We headed
north on Parc avenue, then turned East into little Italy. There was a different
Ferrari (Mondial T) and quite a few people walking around. It was not too warm
but it was still a beautiful fall day. The leaves are changing colour and there
are starting to be more than a few of them blowing around the streets and
sidewalks. We popped into Jean-Talon Market and Alex bought some fancy-looking
soups before we headed to Première Moisson to buy a cake to bring to
tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner. Tomorrow is a holiday. The Sunday of a
three-day weekend is a special day, sandwiched as it is between two other days
off. It’s quite lovely!
Our walk ended up lasting quite a while as
we covered several kilometres. Jules slept in his stroller almost the whole
time. Alex was glad to get the exercise. As we got home, Alex put Jules down
for a nap and tried to get a few tasks done. I considered taking a nap, but
decided it would make more sense to go for a run. We had been for a walk on
Mount Royal yesterday and I could see that the conditions were ideal. I headed
out at about 5:30 for my one-hour run and I never regretted choosing the run
over the nap, even for a second. It was 12 degrees, which was a near perfect
temperature for me. It’s great to head out for a run when you don’t have to
worry about heat management. Although I have barely been running at all in the
past months, my speed was pretty decent and I was feeling pretty good. There
were throngs of people on the mountain, especially near the parking area near
Beaver Lake. When I see these people dressed for winter conditions, I really
wonder how much they get out of the house. I am so glad to live near the
mountain!
I got home, feeling pretty good about the
run, then had a shower. I was hungry and Alex told me to go ahead and eat on my
own, so I could watch Jules while she ate. I reheated some leftover pasta and
meatballs and made some garlic bread, enjoying baguette for the third time
today. Alex ate while I tried to calm Jules down, but he was having none of it.
He was in a particularly bad mood, so I decided to give him his bath at 7:30
instead of 8:30. As I had hoped, the
bath restored his good mood. I tried to stretch it out, but gave up when he
pooped in the bath water. I finished getting him ready for bed and put him down
at 8:30. He was asleep about 25 minutes later. Since we needed groceries for
the week, I left Alex in charge again and headed to the nearby Provigo. I
really should walk, as it’s only 10 minutes away, but I planned on buying a lot
of stuff, so it was back into the BMW, blasting the reggae mix for the short
drive. I love shopping at this store at night. It’s open until 11:00, but
generally quite dead after 9:00. I was able to shop efficiently and was home
after only 40 minutes. Alex informed me that Jules only woke up twice before he
settled down for real, which is not bad. This allowed us both to work on our
computers (and me to write this up). I am tired, but there is no pressure to go
to bed, as there will be no alarm clock tomorrow. All in all, it was quite a
satisfying day.
