Musings on a Small Life

So close! Peace . Comments are off.

No, not the boys -- they're always sleepyheads...except when *I* want to sleep, of course. No, it's one of the squirrel visitors this afternoon, apparently exhausted from burying so many peanuts in the little back space. "After" "Before"     Work done and settling in for a snooze. I envy any Being's ability to fall asleep wherever they are! Our thoughts, purrs and purrayers to all those who have been and will be impacted by Irma (and the other two hurricanes as well, Jose and Katia). May All Beings be well. Peace.

Yesterday evening I was sitting in the lawn chair in the corner of the garden, by the gate, with Derry on my lap. One of the young squirrels was scampering all across the fence, and when Nicki finally noticed him, he leapt up the fence, behind me. I had to crane my body around to snap pics as best I could, without disturbing Derry too much.         Oh well, better luck next time, Nicki! Comments are off; it's "wordless" Wednesday for you! Peace .

Caught in the act yesterday afternoon. Could use a good caption! (I'm not clever enough to come up with one.) Click to enlarge for best viewing, as always.     Peace .

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these squirrels couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."  With apologies to those in the U.S. for borrowing the unofficial motto of your postal service.  :-) I caught Mr. or Ms. Squirrel yesterday afternoon, snacking on a peanut, and snapped the pics through my living room window.   When I looked out after s/he had gone, I realized s/he had been into the back space, to the peanut stash (probably under the steps.) There are more squirrel tracks in the snow this afternoon, so it must be a veritable squirrel treasure trove under there.  :-) Peace . Comments are off.

I had to use up a half-day vacation yesterday for furnace repair. When the tech came out a couple of weeks ago for the annual inspection and cleaning, he found that the blower motor had just started to leak oil. (It's a gas furnace that's pushing 20 years of age now.) I pay $25 monthly for the company's protection plan (parts and labour up to $800 per calendar year), so yesterday's replacement was covered, though it ate up most of that amount. Nevertheless, it needed to be done, and I'm happy that my furnace is blowing hot air out its pipes! (Apparently once the blower motor starts leaking oil, it usually fails within days, weeks at the most, so I was very lucky to still have had heat.) I'm going to have one of their salespeople give me a quote on central air plus a new furnace. Someone had done that about 18 months ago, and if I recall, the cost for both, taxes in, was around $9000. Not in my budget at the moment, but at some point, sooner than later, ...

It's the winter "coat," right? Or maybe the camera angle.  :-D Peace .

Not a bad day at all, just plugging away at the office, lots to keep me occupied. Mr. Grey made a nuisance of himself all weekend, in the garden. I would just settle on the couch to read and hear a great commotion outside, only to jump up and see Nicki half way up the fence after him. This happened repeatedly; the squirrel really wanted in to the garden! BTW, he was in among my plants at one point over the weekend, the boys were inside for a change, so I stepped out and down onto the grass...no reaction from Mr. Squirrel, who obviously has no concern about me whatsoever.   My insurance company got back to me about how much they'll cover for my root canal. Let's just say that I need two hands to count, in hundreds of dollars, how much I have to shell out on my own. (They're pretty good, really, cover all but $200+ of the actual procedure, but that doesn't account for the several hundred dollars in tax. I hope I can claim the balance on my income tax, though it ...

I took one of my bathroom vanity doors to Home Depot yesterday and ordered two custom doors via Renuit . It'll be 4 to 5 weeks before they come in. Too bad my doors weren't a standard size, I could have bought replacement ones off the shelf. I ordered this "7000 Series" style, below, but in the white lacquer, middle option, top row. There must be some trick to getting doors back on and hanging straight, though, as I couldn't manage it. My old door is crooked now, but after fussing with it for far too long, I gave up and put my energies into doing a second coat on the bathroom trim Chuck had installed last weekend . I'll have to consult a YouTube video on getting doors back on properly. As for the trim, this quick snapshot is blurry, but you still can see how great it looks (IMO). I love it! I thought it looked terrific last weekend, unpainted, but wow, two coats of trim paint makes it look fantastic . (Or that could be because I'm so used to...