Musings on a Small Life

Marching along....hahaha. Bad pun. :-D   I actually saw my very first sign of spring yesterday, on a brief lunchtime walk (other than flocks of geese heading north).     I still have not seen or heard a robin, though I'm sure they must be back in some neighbourhoods. (I also haven't been out in the early mornings, either.)   This cutie, below, looks bored, or perhaps just sleepy in the sun shining in through the window. Snapped yesterday at lunchtime. We're on the verge of Spring, so you know that, for me, it means the annual junk pick up, which I had early this morning. I was too lazy to tackle the oversized cardboard from the big home office purchases last year, which took up most of the volume. Junk pick up certainly is not inexpensive. I balked at the price range quoted to me, and in the end they took it all for a slightly lower price. I have the strong sense that this is the company directive: Quote high and if the customer refuses, come down in cost. I had that...

Sleet, pouring rain, snow...we had it all. Though we managed to escape the freezing rain that other areas had, a small mercy. Even so, on Saturday there were lots of accidents in the city and on the highway, including a transit bus that slid off into the ditch (with people aboard) out in the west end. As far as I know, everyone was fine. The view Saturday afternoon from one of my upstairs back windows is the first pic, below. For those who haven't seen my tiny back space, you might notice something odd attached to my fence. (Click to enlarge the pic.) I had an addition built in 2010 designed to prevent Nicki from escaping. Tricky Nicki was my "Houdini" and he had gotten out of the back space a few times prior, in spite of the home-made fence additions my dad and I had done years ago. You can see the frame of the addition, and that's greenhouse roofing attached to it at an angle. It has worked very well through the years at allowing the cats to go out into the gar...

I am couch-less. Without sofa bed. Camping out on the floor. Woohoo! They came prepared to cut it up, but didn't need to. They didn't even need to take the doors off! They took the short legs off and got the right angle and out it went. I asked if I could take a pic, no faces, for my blog. The guy on the left stood up and asked if I wanted to snap another with him standing. I said no, the pants sliding down was fine. LOL.    He's not bending from the knees. Sorry for the blurry pic, but I couldn't exactly tell them to stop so I could fiddle with the camera. In any event, there she goes!  :-) The company (1-800-Got-Junk) does donate what and where they can, so I hope it will go to a charity or that someone they know can make good use of it. But if not...shrug. It was about 25 years old and didn't owe me any money. Speaking of which, it was half what I thought it would be to remove it, so I gave them a hefty tip. It's ironic that the...

The main level flooring is scheduled for Friday April 8th and Saturday April 9th. He figures a day and a half. Only one doorway (two sides) to angle grind this time, and everything else should be (fates willing) straightforward. I'm looking forward to having this done! **** I called 1-800-Got-Junk this morning and arranged an after-work time (today) for them to come and get rid of the old sofa bed. I specified in my comments that both the main door and screen/storm door would have to come off and then be put back on properly, or the sofa bed would have to come apart, possibly the frame cut. I'm not sure they can do either of these things, and if so, for a price I can manage, but I'll find out. Someone please cross their fingers this is doable, without breaking or damaging anything, because I'd really like to get rid of the thing. It's become the "weight" around my neck (my mind) now, and I want to streamline and simplify, so that when the time comes ...

He showed up a few minutes early, and yep, it was the constable -- he told me so himself as he was finishing up, but I knew he was the cop when he arrived in a white truck. (P had said the truck was white.) I told him I already knew, that I had Googled his name and had found a 2011 local news article that mentioned his name, wasn't sure it was the same person, thought maybe . Didn't mention P, of course! I also did not mention the a&&wipe neighbours, but I might have more generally run off at the mouth when he asked what the neighbourhood was like now, because he remembers the days when our complex (and the one below) would be getting a lot of police visits. He was very good -- called me by my name several times, which makes a "friendly connection" -- workers coming in don't do that. (Let me guess, he's the "good" cop.) Very observant, as a cop would be -- I was joking about all the junk and telling him my house was tidy (really), and he...

I finally bit the bullet and went to Kijiji to look for someone who picks up junk, because I really need my garage cleaned out. I can't easily get to my Christmas decorations right now, tucked into a back corner as they are. Oops. It's not like I have a ton of stuff, but there are a lot of little things, and a few large items, that need to be cleared out. So I saw an add listing $x per load, all in, no added disposal fees or hidden costs and emailed the fellow yesterday. Supposedly he'll come by after work tomorrow (he has a "full size long box pick up truck"). And he will take a personal cheque--I asked. I could pay him cash, but prefer cheque because there will be a record of my payment. Of course I tried to find this fellow's address via Canada 411 and via a postal code look-up. (The ad has a postal code associated with it.) It's an address in the west end of the city. I also Googled his name, with the only local reference being to a 2011 news...