July 1 -- Canada Day

Formerly known as "Dominion Day" because the country was originally known as "The Dominion of Canada" it's the beginning of summer for most people, the start of vacation -- time for swimming and water sports.

Well -- the temperature might have hit 60 degrees -- we had a fire going all day. It was breezy and looked like rain but never did. For those looking forward to the long weekend and back at work on Tuesday, I'm sure it was a disapointment ... for we retirees it's just variety. It will get hot again ... and it will get cold again.

I actually spoke to Steve Pozgaj today. The last time we were together was probably 1975 or 1976 -- a whole lifetime ago. He and I went to UofT together, sharing a cubicle in the Sir Sanford Fleming building that does not exist anymore ... worked on projects together in 3rd and 4th year and generally "hung out". He took the photos for my first passport and developed them in his darkroom. We were driving to his house late one evening when the odomoter of my 68 Volkswagon Beetle "rolled over" to zero -- 100,000 miles. Later, when the engine threw a valve on a trip from North Bay to Toronto, he towed me down to Toronto -- mid winter, rope between us, going down the 400 with me in the Beetle scraping the inside of the windshield to see, freezing my a$$. He had a tire tied to his bumper ... for safety ! We took the car to his dad's service station -- Hollywood Texaco on the Queensway in Toronto -- but ultimate I found someone else who did a re & re -- rebuild and replace -- and I had a "new" engine.

He has a cottage in Muskoka somewhere and has family with him for the next week. He'll then be in Toronto for a week and then back north -- and will come up to visit. At least that is the plan. Later ...

Other than that, I puttered around at a lot of stuff yesterday.

-- put drywall in the cupboard under the stairs
-- mudded said cupboard
-- mudded area at bottom of stairs (it's now ready for fine sanding)
-- did fine sanding in the darkroom
-- painted the darkroom, i.e. white primer
-- rough sanding in the bathroom
-- built a 4'x4' deck step
-- made one out of two shoe rails for the stairs (yes, I'm going to install pickets)

None of these are major projects -- but there is a story on each of the last two.

I was planning on doing some more drywall mud work and headed up to the car to get the tub of mud that I had left there from the trip to town. Well ... the mud is still there. I decided along the way to select some of the 2x6x8' old cedar boards to make the additional deck step required at the corner of the deck facing the Davies. Having picked out a few pieces I then decided to only use the 2x6's for the base and use the old 1.25" deck boards (pressure treated decking that I had saved from the deck that I had built for the old cottage) -- as the surface.

This is true recycling. The 2x6's are cedar and from the old-old deck that was in front of the old cottage before my dad dismantled that deck. Those are more than 30 years old -- when you cut them the inside is still good. The 1.25" boards are young in comparison -- I built that deck 5 years or so ago.

Anyway, we now have two deck steps at that end of the deck -- before it was only one step -- a big one !

The shoe rail was a pain. I removed the shoe rail on the picket-less side (really just trim because it didn't have the picket shoe) from the lower section of stairs. It was too rounded on the one side (prior work with the router) to use as the new shoe rail so it's only a model from a length standpoint. I used the table saw and router to create the new rail -- which was a bad choice in retrospect. The router work required a guide and multiple passes lengthwise in an 8' piece of wood -- I clamped the board and a 2x4 as a guide but you cannot get it exact and the router wants to follow the grain as you run it down the length. Also -- digging out that much wood -- 1/4" deep, 1.25" wide, 8' long -- even with glasses and mask it's an awful job. Once complete I was covered head to toe with shavings -- I closed my eyes and turned that essential tool -- the leaf blower -- at myself to blow the crap off me.

Of course at the end of this I realized what I should have done to create the shoe -- used the dado blade for the table saw. It too will require multiple passes -- however, it's exact and it spews the shavings out a long ways away from you. I'll do railing number two on Monday and also cut all the pickets to size and angle -- I just propped up several pickets that were cut from the work before and they look good. Sandy will stain these, and the wall will be painted, before installation.

Sandy spent much of the day with the varathane can again -- putting second coats on doors. They look a lot better -- more depth -- with the second coat.

I quit around 5pm and showered to get rid of the dust. Jason, Lorraine, Gavin, Mike and Jill (and eventually Kim) came over around 6:30 and visited for an hour -- then it was wild sockeye salmon, green beans and rice.

Another day is done.