Thanksgiving Weekend, Oh Joy

Noon hit on Friday afternoon and Mike, Vero and I hit the road to head up North for the weekend. It was an uneventful drive other than the fact that I had realized my iPod has messed up and it had a total of 40 songs on it for some reason. Doh! We also happened upon a man who needed help right outside of Cochrane. We pulled over and asked if he needed any help and he didn’t say anything but came running across the highway to our car. At this point I am remembering the time when Annie, Eric and I went to Timmins to see X-Men and we were on a dark highway and happened upon a car off to the side of the road so I parked the car, rolled down my window and asked if they needed any help. They walked right up to the car without saying a word and this is where we all realized that perhaps parking the car wasn’t the best thing to do. Luckily, nothing came of the experience and they had just hit a moose so we phoned the police upon hitting Driftwood. But, boy, we’re we scared! He could have very well pulled a knife on us or something with my window wide open.

So the memories of that night popped back into my head when the man was running across the highway to our car without saying a word. I was whispering to Mike “Let’s just go man!” but it turned out that the guy hit a bear up the road. We called 911 and were describing what happened when Mike drove up the road to see where the bear was. While on the phone, my story of a man hitting a bear with his truck changed to him hitting a dog as our headlights spotted the REAL victim of the car. Poor dog. The 911 operator and I both realized how silly it was that I was on the phone so I stopped that conversation pretty fast.

I headed up to Hearst after dropping Mike off in Kap. The drive was a long one as we lost 30 minutes somewhere along the way. We rolled into Hearst around 11:30 at night and I was dead tired. I found it hilarious that when we walked into the house, Vero’s step-mom thought one of her daughter’s friends had showed up to the house at the late hour and didn’t realize it was us in the doorway as she had just woken up! After sitting and talking we crashed for the night and the next morning, went around town and then went out for some pizza with friends. After that, we headed out to the woods to check out the cottage which was a decent time, however it was raining all day so my shoes were soaked after walking in woods looking for partridge. That night brought forth a great lasagna supper as well as good company. Vero and I then headed out to the local watering hole to see if there was anyone she knew and we stayed there for a bit. All in all, a good trip to Hearst. I was disappointed to hear that the music store was closed for the weekend as there was a closing out sale and guitars were 50% off. I’m not saying I needed a new guitar, but hey, when the higher powers deliver a good deal, you take it.

We headed into my side of the North on Sunday after loading up the car with Vero’s bike (which is hoping to visit Ottawa sometime soon) and a year’s worth of jarred goods. Got into town in time to attend church with Mom and then headed home to see my sister and hang out for awhile while Mom fixed all my clothes which needed fixing. Mike, Vero and I headed out to Philippe’s baptism which was an alright time. It was strange to be in the very church where they got married a few years ago and see all the same players there (minus a few of course). It was a different feeling…baby, us not in tuxedos, Eric with a goatee. I felt like I was in the Mirror-verse from Star Trek.

Headed back home to see Dad who had come out from hunting to hit up the turkey dinner. It was a relaxing time at my parents…watched some movies on TV and ate some turkey. I was happy to see an old 1930s documentary on Abitibi Canyon which Maurice and I had seen years ago while working out there. It is quite hilarious – especially when the Natives canoe by the screen and the narrator talks about the Redskins.

Jammed a little bit with John (read: John played amazingly while I sat and watched.) and had a few beer. John is probably the most amazing guitarist that I’ve ever met so it is a treat when I get to see what he has up his sleeve. I’m really no calibre compared to him so I must admit that I was rather content to just sit back and watch as his is into the metal solos and I am but a lowly crooner with his three chord rock. 😉 We revelled in our love of Megadeth and reminisced of days gone by when there was a song entitled ‘The Pigeon Song’.

The ride back was hell also as it took us longer than thought due to a random one lane bridge, and an accident to contend with. Dropped off a bunch of baby stuff over at Eric’s place and headed home where I was anticipating a relaxing night but thought I would be ambitious and install the new version of Xbox Media Center – only for the thing to mess up in my hands and I spent two hours trying to fix it. After that I settled in for some Lego Star Wars action. Oh yeah, and I found a bootleg of the Eric Clapton concert that we went to! Sweet!

Hope everyone had a little turkey this weekend and good times all around.