Musings on a Small Life

As of 4 PM today, Friday the 29th, I am on vacation for 17 days, back to work on August 16th. Cue the happy dance! It will be my longest break in almost 20 years. I typically take a week or a week and a half at once, not two full weeks, so the extra days will be nice. I'm tired, work-surly and generally burnt out, so it's much needed. When I return we'll have two new hires, as one person retired at the end of June and another is retiring in September. So it's a farewell to most of the old guard, as it were, leaving only two of us who have been there for 20+ years. Pics snapped this morning, to and from a dental appointment. As far as I know, my bathroom vanity still isn't in. I had touched base with my contractor yesterday and he hadn't heard anything. So my hopes of having the bathroom finished next week have been dashed. It's certainly not his fault that Home Depot is so slow with the shipping, as the latest due date was supposed to be today, July 29. I co...

It must have been a wild night for Derry, or a wild few seconds anyway, because when I came downstairs early this morning, this is what I saw: Eight of his nip toys scattered, plus a ninth one off to the right, out of view. Derry hardly ever gives them any notice, even when new or "renewed" in a baggie of catnip, so he was full of beans for a short time. :-) I have no further progress to report on the bathroom reno, because we're still waiting for the vanity to come in. Until that happens, the guys can't proceed. In the meantime, I'm making do with the tub and toilet, and I have three other sinks to use in the house (kitchen, basement bathroom and basement laundry tub). I did find a pretty (to me) shower curtain on Amazon, though: I had ordered four shower curtains, returned two and am debating on the third one. The fabric of this one is the heaviest of them all (though still not "heavy"), and the colours are the nicest, not garish like the two I sent ba...

Derry approves. Comments are off; it's wordless for you !

 ...means a newly installed toilet in the bathroom! No more multiple nighttime trips down to the unfinished basement, flashlight in hand.  :-) The vanity is on order, with an expected delivery between July 16 and 29, so it could be a couple of weeks yet before everything is done. However, that's the only piece I'm waiting for, everything else is here and ready to go in after the vanity. I finally can see some light at the end of the reno tunnel! I have one very frightened cat who alternately hides under the covers on the guest bed or under the plants in the garden. He'll be VERY happy to have everything done! (He was trembling uncontrollably when I snapped this pic, I could see the leaves around him shaking. Poor love.) Take care, all!

This seemed appropriate and amusing, given the ongoing bathroom reno.  :-) Comments are off.

The feral cat has been waiting for me for the past couple of mornings, from his vantage point of underneath a nearby parked car. He alternately squeaks and hisses at me, but he doesn't go too far, having quickly come to understand that I have his breakfast. (I had to zoom in with the phone for the snap below.) He's got something stuck in his tail and there's a small patch of something else stuck to his fur (looks like a surface thing, not a skin issue) on his right haunch. Poor little man. I've seen him only in the mornings, would be happy to feed him supper too, if he came by and I saw him. When he finishes eating he heads off in a specific direction, so I guess he has his territory. As a bittersweet contrast, here's MY mancat late yesterday. He was pretty clingy all Saturday, but had settled down a bit by Sunday. ****** I'm just waiting for the guys to show up, they should be here around 8 AM. I think they'll only be sanding and mudding the drywall patches...

Happy week's end, everyone. It's been a short work week for me, but it feels LONG. I'm waiting for the guys to get here; they had to do some shopping this morning. Nothing better than spending someone else's money! (That is, mine!) So since things look pretty much the same as they did yesterday, and will until the flooring and vanity get here, I'm sharing some pics from Tuesday's visit with friend R. It was a dreary, rainy day, but still lovely in Presqu'ile and down at Brighton Bay. Take care, all. The snapshots are best viewed by clicking to enlarge. Keep in mind I had only my little pocket point and shoot, not my better camera! Along the marsh boardwalk in the Park. Note the pale legs on the swan, below. Most swans have black legs! Down by one of the rocky beaches. The waves were high, and the young mergansers (think they're common mergansers) wanted to go into the water, but it was too rough. Huge extended goose family down at Brighton Bay. Teenagers...

How things were left yesterday: The tub drain had to be moved today, because the old one didn't line up with the new tub. (Of course not, that would be too easy.) One of the guys did tell me yesterday that the plumber might have to cut through the bedroom side to gain access, so with that in mind I emptied the built-in bookcase early this morning. (This is the room I now sleep in, so I had a lot of stuff on it.) What a mess now in the spare room! Everything from the hall, bathroom and my bedroom is crammed in there now. It's a good thing I was proactive, because I popped out to make a Starbucks run and came home to this: Three shelves removed, and looking toward the new tub and surround. The guys also had to remove the door frame and extra drywall because the new tub was too wide to (a) get in the doorway and (b) maneuver into place. However, it's in: I didn't want glass doors, too hard to keep clean, and I don't think there's a shower rod yet. Maybe I have to g...

Early this morning, before the demo. Last fall's plumbing repair included the wrong colour plate to cover the older, large hole from the two separate taps that were there before.  White duct tape comes in handy.  :-P I've been living with a cracked tub surround for about 20 years and with a steel tub that had patches of its finish long gone. I will be glad to have a new tub and surround installed! I was off visiting a friend yesterday, have some critter to pics to share another time. For now, I'm just trying to get through the chaos! Derry was out for part of the morning, and I had wanted him to stay outside in the garden, but he got around me and made a beeline for the front bedroom, where he is now, hiding under the covers. Oh, and there's a young feral cat, the cause of Derry's early morning howling outside. I finally spied him yesterday morning and gave him a couple of cans of Fancy Feast. I had to back up about 20 feet, but he ate them, he's starving. He at...