Musings on a Small Life

This is Raye (not sure of the spelling), the young pup of one of the front desk staff at the chiropractor clinic.     She's no more than 12 weeks old, if that (she's big!) and she's so quiet! Most pups I've encountered are eager to jump up and race around, but she didn't budge. She did give a tail wag to my chiropractor, though, so perhaps she's shy around/overwhelmed by all the clients coming and going. Anyway, she's a cutie and it was nice to see her at my appointment yesterday. She certainly was a "ray" of sunshine, as we're having several consecutive days of chilly, raw temps and wet snow. I'll take more "Rayes" please!  Take care, all.

This is Rosie, snapped this morning at my chiropractic appointment. What a sweetie she is!   She's my chiropractor's elderly dog, now blind (Diabetes), though I didn't realize she couldn't see until my chiropractor mentioned it. She wanders around without any issue except the occasional bump into a wall, and definitely likes attention and cuddles. I hope I see her there again!  Happy Friday, have a terrific weekend!

There's nothing "exciting" to report on at my end, folks, it's the usual mundane work and personal life stuff. I did have lunch with a friend on Saturday, though (he's kind enough to play uber driver from time to time, when I need help with large and/or heavy things) and a lovely visit from friends on Sunday. My outdoor holiday decor, such as it is, is up now. I don't think I'll bother with lights this year because what goes up must come down. The wreath is new, from Rona. (Home Depot's competition here.) I thought about it for a few days before I bought it, just to be sure (it wasn't particularly expensive, either).   My decor inside is up too; also, such as it is. Linens and Christmas floral arrangements, my strings of warm white lights, LED candles, etc. That old Santa in a boot thing from my childhood (beside the tree); I assume it's older than I am. (It was the only Christmas decoration I brought back from Halifax after Mom passed.) I have...

Overheard this morning on the bus home from Tim Horton's (I popped out to grab coffee before work hours) and said by a tween boy who got on the bus and sat beside a friend. He leaned over for a look at the perfectly gelled hair (possibly a sniff too!), then said it. 😆   Morning sky on Nov 11   I was watching them out of the corner of my eye and at one point they had a brief, friendly "boxing" bout. I couldn't help but think of angels Nicki and Derry tussling; that's exactly what it was like! Whappy paws!

I was in HomeSense/Winners on the weekend (I always like to browse, seldom buy) and saw these two Christmas cat condos. Is this the pinnacle of Christmas consumerism? I mean, I suppose they're cute, but where do you store them for 10 or 11 months of the year?   BTW, I got chatting with a young mother on the bus over the weekend, and we were talking about "stuff." She told me about a 2009 video on the actual "story" of stuff, aptly named, " The Story of Stuff ." It's and educational video, animated, and worth checking out if you're of a mind (about 21 minutes at normal speed; I played it at 1.25x normal). It's even more relevant today, IMO. And look who has been showing up recently: Jake! I haven't seen him in a while. There's always Fancy Feast to be found here and the mooches know it! (Jake has a nearby home, though not the same home as George.) Take care, all.

George of the splendid whiskers. 😻 He'd already had his Fancy Feast plus two rounds of Greenies at this point. What a mooch! 

A week after the reno finished, I'm starting to feel "normal" again. Morning sky on November 1st. Nope, I haven't yet painted the one remaining upstairs door. But I have been on the hunt for replacement covers for the floor heating vents. Some of the Home Depot ones I found in taupe are fine, but the others don't fit. (The old ones are brown and no longer look good with the new floor.) Technically, my floor vents are supposed to be the same size, and the old registers are all 4x10, but it seems that in the intervening decades, sizes (of the inner vent part, not the "frame") have changed. So I have a few on order from Rona; I think they'll work. Weird that even "standard" sizes aren't actually standard. Heaven forbid manufacturers make it straightforward for customers. (And heaven forbid that tradespeople actually do a decent job and cut the subfloor properly for each vent.) Our fall colours have passed their prime and many trees are ba...

The guys finished putting down the vinyl and trim (baseboards in three bedrooms, shoe moulding throughout most of the house) at 5 PM Friday afternoon. The stairs were prepped Friday morning, and carpeted Sunday morning.  I'd rather have nice oak stairs and a stair runner than outdated-looking carpet on the stringers, but these stairs are in too bad shape to do that. I think they must have had to use up their entire supply of floor screws, screwing down the subfloor and stairs as much as possible. The fellow who did the stairs even put construction-type glue between the treads and risers.   They all did their best, IMO, to lessen the squeaks. A few were simple and easily remedied, most not--just a function of poor construction when the unit was built. I appreciated that they tried, though. (And it was what I was paying for too!) I had taken Friday off as a "vacation" day, which I desperately needed, as it took me all afternoon and into the evening to get the downstairs mos...

OMC, I thought doing the tiny kitchen was chaos. That's nothing compared to the flooring reno.   They got the vinyl put down in the two back bedrooms; all the trim (throughout the house) will be done on the last day. With the exception of the front bedroom (10x16), the other three rooms are very small. I have to keep moving stuff around, cramming things in, as they work. I won't be able to settle in fully until after the shoe moulding goes on, since they need space to move around the boxes and furniture to install the trim.   They're also having to spend a lot of time screwing down the subfloor, since it was such a poor construction job. They've been able to remove or at least lessen some of the floor squeaks so far, which is great. They can't work miracles, but they're doing their best.   There will be a third fellow here on Friday to work on the stairs. It's quite possible that he will not be able to finish in one day, as he apparently will need to put 3...

My vacation is almost at an end; 16 days definitely has not been enough. If you hear weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth on Monday morning, you'll know it's me. Here are some pics from the visit with my Brighton friends--it was mostly sky and landscape pics this time! October 17. Below: October 18, a misty early morning. You can see the progression of the bank of mist over the water, passing in front of the rising sun. Incredible. There are a few other pics I can/will post; I just wanted to share these. We were lucky to have perfect timing!

I took the train to Brockville on Wednesday to spend a handful of hours catching up with my aunt and the friend of Mom's who is visiting from Nova Scotia. We had a lovely lunch downtown at the  1000 Islands Brewing Company  and did some poking around, then checked out the old Brockville train tunnel , Canada's oldest railway tunnel. The two entrances/exits are unremarkable. However, the waves of light inside are really funky and fun! The lights come in waves from one end to the other and it's quite something! They have old photos and information kiosks along the way. It's also quite damp and dripping in various places (by design) and you can see the water (heavy in calcium) forming deposits on the rock. I'd been wanting to check that out for some time, so I was glad to get the chance. The one thing that we missed out on was the Aquatarium , which had just changed hours and was closed. Too bad! I'll leave you with a pic of this very friendly fellow who was with h...