RECORD STORE TALES #1185: The Worst Weather, and the Best Weekend!
April 2025

We had a busy weekend lined up, but we were prepared for the worst – and the best!  We got a bit of both, but our spirits have never been higher.  Let’s rock this spring 2025!

Preparation is always key.  We left town at 8:30 AM, bound for Toronto.  It was time for Jen’s annual face-to-face with the neurologist, but traffic was light.  Apparently it was quite busy the day before, with Metallica in town playing Thursday for the first of their no-repeat weekend.  That was a stroke of luck, but then we hit a second one just as we arrived.  Our appointment was for 10:00, and the 9:30 had cancelled at the last minute.  That means we got seen early, and we got to the lake early too!

The doctor was happy with Jen’s progress, and is increasing a couple medications that seem to be have a positive effect.  Good appointment, and we were back on the road.

The music to Toronto was Live-Loud-Alive by Loudness, and the music to the cottage was the brand-new Dreams On Toast by the Darkness.  The Darkness album is easily their best since Last Of Our Kind, and will warrant a lengthy review over its 29 combined tracks.

We had a second pleasantly uneventful drive up, arriving in Kincardine at 2:00 PM.  We made our first stop of 2025 at our butcher, the Beefway.  There we picked up two beautiful T-bone steaks, some assorted bacon ends (applewood smoked), and some pickerel, pickles & pies.  In and out in under 10 minutes.

Friday afternoon was a weird one.  It was cold, then it rained, and then got warm and humid.   I took a stroll and found the last patch of snow left on the beach.  I attempted to make a snowball, but the snow was not good for packing.  It was dark all day, and  I set up on the front porch to rock the music.  The first album of the year was Combo Akimbo by Blotto, since the guys have been so cool to me this year.  Always a fun record.  Around “Metal Head”, I decided to try flying my drone.  Just as I got it in the air, it started raining.  No flying on Friday.  The rain did not hamper the 100th episode of Grab A Stack of Rock, which broadcast from the porch as planned.  Even Broadway Blotto came to check out the festivities.

We were indoors for the rest of the weekend, but the pickerel and steaks were sublime.   The sun did finally come out Sunday morning, which enabled me to take the first real flight of 2025.  Nothing fancy, but plenty of beauty.  I think I need to start flying less as a pilot, and more as a cinematographer.  Maybe that will be part of 2025’s goals.  Improve the drone videos with better, smoother shots.  I may have something in the works there.

I always like to do something every year at the lake that I have never done before.  Here are three for this weekend alone:

1. First time seeing snow at the cottage this late in the season.
2. First time barbecuing Spam.  (Frying pan is better for Spam.)
3. Took the drone a teeny bit further this time and got a look down the river.

The music home was, of course, Iron Maiden!  There is no rest for the wicked, nor for 50 Years of Iron Maiden.  Fear of the Dark is next up on the recording schedule.

It was such a packed weekend that I slept for 13 hours on Sunday night.

We’ll be back soon.  The April showers will bring the May flowers.