It was a great day going through the Exhibitors’ Hall catching up with some publishers I knew from my days in that world, meeting some new publishers, talking to authors and so on.
Since I rarely get out to my alma mater, I also took a big tour of campus bumping into everyone from a former library school colleague to someone I know from the political world to a musician I like (I apparently just missed a set he did in the beer garden at noon.)
I also spent some time talking to someone who I know from high school and that got me thinking about a long percolating post I’ve been planning about all the different influences that have led me to where I am today – from some of the values I learned from my parents to who my friends were to (obviously) the role that books played in my life.
(We also discussed an embarrassing story which I won’t bother sharing until I do that post. But let’s just say that the high school friend and another person who knows me from the publishing world suggested that my eventual autobiography be called “Dictionary Races: The Inspiring Tales of a Smalltown Nerd” 😉
I’ve been battling against technology recently – last weekend, my otherwise reliable ~2011-era Macbook Pro started doing a boot loop over and over.
I’d seen this happen before about a month ago but after a couple loops, it seemed to come back to life so instead of taking it into the shop for a check-up, I made sure my backups were up-to-date and carried on.
Luckily I did as the machine didn’t come back to life this time and just kept restarting. I took it in to a repair shop that said there was an issue with the logic board.
That got me thinking about *finally* buying a new laptop but then I managed to find someone on a message board who said they could replace the logic board for $300. That sounded better than $3000 for a new MacBook so I dropped it off and had it back the same night.
Because it was the logic board and not the hard drive, I didn’t even have to restore my backup which was a bonus.
Then this past weekend, my (also outdated but mostly reliable) iPhone 6 froze up on me and wouldn’t start past the red “battery charging” icon. Luckily, I knew it had been backed up to the cloud recently so when we got home, I put it in recovery mode, reset it to factory and then restored the backup, only losing a few pictures I’d taken over the weekend that didn’t backup because we weren’t on wifi and I didn’t have it set to backup over cellular.
So the lesson in all this? The obvious one is to make sure you have backups of your hard drives/smartphones as you never know when a device might crash/die/fall in the toilet.
And that goes doubly so if you’re going to be cheap and not update your technology when it dies but only when it reaches absolute end-of-life, being held together by replacement logic boards and overheated batteries! 😉
But having spent the May long weekend at our seasonal site at Nickle Lake Regional Park, we’re off to a pretty good start!
Shea’s Parents
Obviously, one of the biggest draws to be at Nickle is that Shea’s parents have had a seasonal site in that park for around 15 years. (Unlike provincials, regional parks allow you to hold your site from year-to-year so most seasonal sites get built-up with decks, sheds, etc.) Being near her parents is nice for a couple reasons – Shea’s mom just underwent seven weeks of cancer treatment so it’s good to be there to help care for her mom. It’s also nice to have her parents nearby for everything from them being able to keep an eye on our site when we’re not around to them having a bigger camper we can hunker down in *if* there is bad weather to lending us tools, rakes, shovels from their shed instead of having to take them out ourselves!
Weyburn Is Bigger *and* Closer Than Fort Qu’Appelle Fort Qu’Appelle was the nearest community to our campsite last year – about half an hour drive from where we were. It’s a beautiful resort town but only has a population of ~2000 people and limited amenities. Weyburn is both much closer (~10 minutes) to Nickle Lake and also much larger (~10,000 people) so it boasts more options for shopping, restaurants and other services.
Steps From Everything
We ended up with a site that’s fairly central in the park so we’re really close to everything from the paddling pool to the store (not to mention that Nickle even has a store – something Echo lacked and required a car trip to a nearby First Nation gas station to access) to washrooms.
Close to Water
Echo’s seasonal sites are on a hillside and though it makes for a lovely view, to actually get near the water, you had to drive down to Echo or Pasqua beaches which took a lot more preparation. At Nickle, we are also steps away from both the main beach and also the scenic waterfront boardwalk and pier (pictured above).
We Even Got A Site!
Since the provincials don’t allow you to hold your spot from year-to-year, every year provides lots of chances to get picked (one employee told us Echo had about 100 applications for 500 spots last year which is a 1 in 5 chance of getting drawn – and probably higher once you account for some people putting in their names multiple times using different addresses or entering into a variety of parks within an hour of Regina.) On the other hand, regionals have a lot less turnover – one person said he thought they might get 5 spots opening up every year and 100 applications making your odds 1 in 20. We didn’t get drawn at Nickle initially but someone must’ve cancelled as we got a call last weekend and because the site that opened up can only handle a smaller trailer (which is us!), we were fortunate to be the first person drawn that could fit in the site!
The next big one happened last Thursday as The Eagles were in Regina for the Memorial Cup kick-off but I didn’t end up getting tickets for a variety of reasons – I enjoy the Eagles (especially around a campfire) but I’m not as big of an Eagles fan as I am of some other “superstar” level bands. I also knew there’d be clips up on YouTube and other social media sites that would give me a taste of the concert (see below). Oh, and I also had to work on Thursday night anyhow!
Probably for the best I didn’t go – the weather was pretty shitty and after having an amazing night for Bryan Adams around the same time last year, last Thursday featured off-and-on rain and some pretty gusty cold winds that led to the band cutting their show a bit shorter than their usual setlist.
Still, as we’re home from our first long weekend at our seasonal site (no campfires because of widespread fire bans – ironically, given Thursday’s concert – due to lack of moisture) and so, after listening to my “Camper Campy Camping” playlist throughout the weekend, what better band to feature for “Music Monday” today?
And since it’s National Caesar Day, I’m going to break from Throwback Thursday tradition and instead of posting one of my own pictures of me drinking a caesar or making a caesar or looking lovingly at a caesar on a restaurant table, I wanted to post an awesome picture a friend posted on Facebook last summer of the Caesar bar that was set-up at a wedding she attended back in Ontario.
Why didn’t Shea and I think of that for our wedding? 🙂
