Aug 9-10 - a flurry of activity

How much can you cram into one day ? That was probably the motto for August 9th.

David, Kim & Jeffrey went down to Parry Sound - they never got to the 30,000 islands trip the other day nor did they yesterday -- it was a day for browsing the shops of the little town. It is the height of the summer -- and just to prove it, Sobey's (the grocery store) was out of skim milk. We'll have to live with 1% for a while.

Kylie's friend Lauren, the Matthews' granddaughter, arrived early in the day so Kylie was off playing with her.

Aaron and I went for a bike ride, or at least a 9 mile bike ride, and then Aaron took off (that was the plan) to do a 25 mile time trial. I saw him again about 2 miles from the turnaround point, going the other way, so he got back to the cottage about 35-40 minutes ahead of me for the 36 mile round trip. I'm the tortoise and he's the hare ! Also, I could feel the effects of the activity below ... in my back and legs ...

Prior to biking I moved some topsoil, a project that I finally started yesterday. Last fall we had two truckloads of topsoil delivered between our place and Davies' -- half theirs and half mine. I hope to have this spread by the early fall and plant some small trees in that space between the cottages. We'll leave a path but provide a view-break.

Arlene, Ernie, Ira, Daniel & Kerri left a little before 11am, heading to Niagara Falls, hopefully a visit with Sue and Flory and some fun time at the Falls, before heading back home on Saturday.

I checked with Steve on ETA for the doors for the basement -- August 17th -- just as we leave for Florida next week. Oh well, I'll deal with those when we return. I'm not in a rush at this point.

Later in the day I puttered around a little figuring out how I was going to trim the basement door and windows, and by then it was 5pm ... time for a cold one. I hardly had a mouthful though and the phone rang -- could I take Lauren & Kylie tubing ? ... of course ! Then David, Kim & Jeffrey arrived from Parry Sound -- when are we having dinner ? Could they go tubing first ? ... of course !!

The next two hours were dedicated to watersports -- first Kylie & Lauren tubing with the Whaler, then David & Jeffrey tubing with the Bayliner, then David & Gavin, then Gavin by himself ... stop the boat, put the port loins on the barbecue ... back in the boat and waterskiing for David. Whew !! It was great fun. Stef took some videos so we'll have to watch those.

We had a late, great supper -- port loins in a marinade, pink and juicy, roasted rosemary potatoes, barbecued zuchini ... leftover cake and ice cream. For the first time in many days we ate inside -- it was late and cooling off outside.

By tonight we will be back to two ... I have a meeting in town at 10am, the Lost Channel Roads Board, that I committed to attend -- Jason and I will go in together plus he wants to pick up some pipe at Timbr-mart first. Jeffrey will be leaving early, taking David & Kim to Toronto airport and then continuing on to Philadelphia. Stef & Aaron will be leaving around 11am or thereabouts, stopping in Toronto tonight and then heading to Philly tomorrow. They don't like doing the drive in one day.

This evening we will be going across the lake to the Scott's for their annual get-together. Jason & Lorraine will be there too and many others from the lake. That's good -- Sandy will not have to cook ! (I don't think that she would anyway !).

It has been great having everyone here. As usual it's tiring, but good tiring. It seemed very quiet last night at dinner with only (only !) nine of us -- down from 14 -- down from 18. We would do it all again in a heartbeat -- that is why we built this place.

Yesterday was NOT a day for using the computer -- we got FAPped around 10pm -- exceeded our download rate and were restricted to dial-up speed for 24 hours. Apparently Jeffrey had not heard the admonition and did some program updates which, along with the other computers connected -- my two, Stef's, Aaron's, David's, Jeffrey's, the Davies' ... put us at 90mb for that hour and we got throttled back. Slow ? -- it took 15 minutes to access maps.google.com and print off some directions for Arlene. Patience ... island time ... there are many metaphors for that speed.

The next six weeks will be busy of a different sort -- we have a few days here and then down to Florida. Ten days here takes us to the weekend after Labor Day and we'll make a 4-5 day scouting trip around Lake Superior for the bike ride that I plan for next spring, visiting Philip along the way. Later in September we will likely make a trip to London & Amsterdam, ending up in Philadelphia for the MS150 bike ride. We'll be here for the month of October and then shortly after that head to Florida. 5/6 weeks in Florida with a visit from George Cederholm early December and then we'll be back up for Christmas ... the year is rushing by !!!! Slow down !!!!

That's all for now I guess. Life's wild ride continues.