The uh Third One
21 juillet 2020 12:11 Laisser vos pensées
In spirit of quarantine still active to some extent, and the fact that everything interesting in my life has been cancelled, today’s blog will be about my freetime. Specifically, what I have been doing for the past few weeks.
I’m not as big into the video game scene as I once was, but I still enjoy a good game every once and a while. I picked up Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition for the Nintendo Switch the first day it came out (June 10th) and have put 100+ hours into it already. This isn’t a video game review blog so I’m only going to touch on it briefly. It’s a critically acclaimed Role Playing Game that starts off a little slow, but picks up after a while. I recommend trying this game if you’re considering it, but be prepared for the large learning curve.
I haven’t had much “free time” recently. I picked up some extra work at the Meadow Lake Golf Course to earn some extra cash and help out my uncle. My ultimate goal is to earn enough as to have financial stability throughout the 2020-2021 school year. I plan on moving back to Edmonton in the fall, even though classes are all remote delivery. It’s a lot of work, but I’m committed to my goal.
My desk job at the mill doesn’t allow me a lot of time inside the mill, let alone outside. It makes returning to the golf course calming. Being outside all day is something I used to take for granted. The birds singing is a familiar sound, playing the same melody over and over again, yet I never get sick of it. Other than the bugs and rain, it really is quite an enjoyable experience.
I started by using a string trimmer to clear grass from under trees so golfers could find their balls easier. It was simple, but I took pride in it. I always tried to beat my previous score of how many trees I could whip in a three-hour period, without sacrificing quality. My current record is 52, and it’s just a little challenge I set for myself to keep me motivated. After a while, I was moved to the sand rake.
Figure 1: The sand rake at the shop
I can’t even begin to explain my hatred towards this piece of equipment. Our rake is super old and has a bunch of problems. Sometimes when you lower the rake, the panels will flip or fold in some way that just pushes sand around and won’t rake anything. It can sometimes take four or five attempts just to correctly lower the rake, and it is incredibly frustrating. The side of the bunker must be raked too obviously. If there’s a clump of weeds or grass in the sand and you run it over, congratulations! The lines are ruined! The clump will get under the rake and dig into the dirt, making a giant canal. Lastly, it doesn’t have any shocks. This isn’t that big of a deal, but any bump causes you to bounce violently. I hope my boss sees this so he can understand my undying hate for this machine.
My usual job consists of cutting the tee boxes, and the fringes around the greens. There’s a lot of getting on and off the mower, but it’s not bad at all. I like to take pride in my work, just to do the best job I absolutely can. While taking bad selfies and making fun of my co-workers, of course.
Figure 2: A collage of bad selfies I took while working at the golf course
For the first time this summer, I went on a road trip. My sister, two of my cousins, and I went to cold lake for a leisure trip. We went clothes shopping, where I bought a cool new t-shirt, went for lunch at Boston Pizza, and ended our trip at the Marina, where we took this picture.
Figure 3: My sister (left), cousin (middle), and myself on a dock overlooking Cold Lake
Lastly, my sister and I went swimming upstream in the Meadow River on the afternoon of the nineteenth. We took the quads down the backroads to an opening in the brush where the water was quite deep from the erosion caused by the current. After swimming and sun-tanning, we made a little bench out of logs that I forgot to photograph. We were there for about three-and-a-half hours before returning home.