A Lot of Words
Was thinking that if I waited long enough, it would be two months since last post and the three of you who check would have gotten bored with the absence of wordage and I could drift into the silence of autumn and slip away. Unfortunately, someone mentioned the absence so ....
In News Weather and Sports: The Invasion of The Jr Girl and Her Beau was survived helped mostly by The Jr Boy taking time to hang out and by WonderPoppa arriving for a weekend of frivolity which included steam train riding and eatage and drinkage.
Three days after they left, I left for the Wedding of the Year in PEI which involved more eatage and drinkage and driving and living with people I didn't know very well for 5 days which just about tipped this closet introvert over the edge but was rescued by four things: a bedroom (mostly) of my own; a putter through some yarn stores and some yarn enablement with an older friend; a putter along the harbour at North Rustico with another older friend - now know more about the Atlantic fishery than I think some federal cabinet ministers do; and a glorious lunch by myself of lobster, avocado, and bacon clubhouse + glass of wine the last afternoon in Charlottetown. (hmmmm... just re-read that sentence. Look out, St Paul and all copycat writers using your name.) The rest of the rescue occured in TO and involved a great B&B in an art gallery, lunches with The Jr Girl, celebrity chef spotting, market venturing (How many types of mustard can one person try afore taste buds shut down? Six, it turns out.), dinner out, dinner in, street car/subway rides with my own transit pass and the AGO. The AGO deserves a separate think - suffice to say: WOW!!!
Home to Part Two of the Ongoing Adventures of Renovations R Us, 2009. Part One: The Window Replacement is everything I wanted and it is already noticeably warmer in there and in this computer corner. Big Yahoo!! Being the Alternate Employment Site means that the final picky details (some mine, some theirs) will get done before Spring but I can live with most of that. So - seeing as that's in hand, why not expose oneself to more excitement and take on the other side of the house?
Picture a West Coast Contemporary House situated cunningly in a forest. Situated so cunningly, in fact, that the house can hardly be seen for the trees and that to get to the front door, one walks along a wooden bridge that is about 16' in the air. Kids on Hallowe'en loved it, their parents hated it. Note the tenses in that last sentence.
With the Removal of Twelve Trees, the house looked like someone with her clothes ripped off and the bridge looked like a cattle chute. Something Would Have to Be Done. In the space of 2 weeks, I had a dump truck, backhoe, bobcat, one excellent worker, one so-so worker, one boss, one project manager (The Jr Boy), and one designer all doing their various things. I made coffee, decisions, and calls to the bank.
"Something" currently looks like this: One massive interlock brick terraced repro of the Great Wall of China at the driveway end and a lot of air between it and the front door at the house end. The front door is attractively closed with a heavy board nailed across it to keep fools and sleepwalkers from investigating the "lot of air". At the moment, there is a pause for engineering stamps and bank balance correction.
Pause for explanation: some of you (all right, one of you) asked me why I don't put pictures in this thing. There is a very logical explanation: I don't have a camera. If something desperately needs to be recorded, (Twelve Trees Being Removed From Around the House) The Jr Boy usually takes care of that. I like to think that my deathless prose will paint pictures enough for those of you interested. For those who need visuals, sorry, move along. And as for "Why don't you get a camera? They're so easy now.", let me say this: you are talking to someone who spent 33 years with a man who took 99.997% of the pictures in the eleventy-seven albums/storage bins that are spread about this house and which The Jr Boy had to pack up during the Summer of Fire. In the past ten years, I can think of only one photo I could not take and wish I had. For Daguerre's sake, I even went on the 2005 ramble that started this whole blog thing without a camera and only picked up one-timers when I realized that perhaps I was being a bit too - what's the word I want? - obstinate? bloody-minded?? about going camera commando. All of this is to say, however, I am sorry there are no pictures of the New Project. If The Jr Boy brings 'round his camera and teaches me how to do it, there may be some in the future. Don't hold your breaths - remember that most of my "real" writing is done elsewhere with a fountain pen.
Back to regular reporting: All this action has happened without any rowing. That is a long and sad tale for another day. All I can say right now is thanks be that there has been new snow and it's almost cross-country ski season.
This still has not dealt with The Third Annual Father/Daughter Road Trip nor the fabulousness of the new Ballet Kelowna season nor piano practice nor knitting projects nor possible trips nor the Ongoing Issue in California nor the lack of a Good Housekeeping Fairy Other Than Me to take care of the vaccuuming around here but this is enough print to the page for now.
Still breathing....
In News Weather and Sports: The Invasion of The Jr Girl and Her Beau was survived helped mostly by The Jr Boy taking time to hang out and by WonderPoppa arriving for a weekend of frivolity which included steam train riding and eatage and drinkage.
Three days after they left, I left for the Wedding of the Year in PEI which involved more eatage and drinkage and driving and living with people I didn't know very well for 5 days which just about tipped this closet introvert over the edge but was rescued by four things: a bedroom (mostly) of my own; a putter through some yarn stores and some yarn enablement with an older friend; a putter along the harbour at North Rustico with another older friend - now know more about the Atlantic fishery than I think some federal cabinet ministers do; and a glorious lunch by myself of lobster, avocado, and bacon clubhouse + glass of wine the last afternoon in Charlottetown. (hmmmm... just re-read that sentence. Look out, St Paul and all copycat writers using your name.) The rest of the rescue occured in TO and involved a great B&B in an art gallery, lunches with The Jr Girl, celebrity chef spotting, market venturing (How many types of mustard can one person try afore taste buds shut down? Six, it turns out.), dinner out, dinner in, street car/subway rides with my own transit pass and the AGO. The AGO deserves a separate think - suffice to say: WOW!!!
Home to Part Two of the Ongoing Adventures of Renovations R Us, 2009. Part One: The Window Replacement is everything I wanted and it is already noticeably warmer in there and in this computer corner. Big Yahoo!! Being the Alternate Employment Site means that the final picky details (some mine, some theirs) will get done before Spring but I can live with most of that. So - seeing as that's in hand, why not expose oneself to more excitement and take on the other side of the house?
Picture a West Coast Contemporary House situated cunningly in a forest. Situated so cunningly, in fact, that the house can hardly be seen for the trees and that to get to the front door, one walks along a wooden bridge that is about 16' in the air. Kids on Hallowe'en loved it, their parents hated it. Note the tenses in that last sentence.
With the Removal of Twelve Trees, the house looked like someone with her clothes ripped off and the bridge looked like a cattle chute. Something Would Have to Be Done. In the space of 2 weeks, I had a dump truck, backhoe, bobcat, one excellent worker, one so-so worker, one boss, one project manager (The Jr Boy), and one designer all doing their various things. I made coffee, decisions, and calls to the bank.
"Something" currently looks like this: One massive interlock brick terraced repro of the Great Wall of China at the driveway end and a lot of air between it and the front door at the house end. The front door is attractively closed with a heavy board nailed across it to keep fools and sleepwalkers from investigating the "lot of air". At the moment, there is a pause for engineering stamps and bank balance correction.
Pause for explanation: some of you (all right, one of you) asked me why I don't put pictures in this thing. There is a very logical explanation: I don't have a camera. If something desperately needs to be recorded, (Twelve Trees Being Removed From Around the House) The Jr Boy usually takes care of that. I like to think that my deathless prose will paint pictures enough for those of you interested. For those who need visuals, sorry, move along. And as for "Why don't you get a camera? They're so easy now.", let me say this: you are talking to someone who spent 33 years with a man who took 99.997% of the pictures in the eleventy-seven albums/storage bins that are spread about this house and which The Jr Boy had to pack up during the Summer of Fire. In the past ten years, I can think of only one photo I could not take and wish I had. For Daguerre's sake, I even went on the 2005 ramble that started this whole blog thing without a camera and only picked up one-timers when I realized that perhaps I was being a bit too - what's the word I want? - obstinate? bloody-minded?? about going camera commando. All of this is to say, however, I am sorry there are no pictures of the New Project. If The Jr Boy brings 'round his camera and teaches me how to do it, there may be some in the future. Don't hold your breaths - remember that most of my "real" writing is done elsewhere with a fountain pen.
Back to regular reporting: All this action has happened without any rowing. That is a long and sad tale for another day. All I can say right now is thanks be that there has been new snow and it's almost cross-country ski season.
This still has not dealt with The Third Annual Father/Daughter Road Trip nor the fabulousness of the new Ballet Kelowna season nor piano practice nor knitting projects nor possible trips nor the Ongoing Issue in California nor the lack of a Good Housekeeping Fairy Other Than Me to take care of the vaccuuming around here but this is enough print to the page for now.
Still breathing....
posted by Another Joan at 12:29 p.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home