Dave & Sandy -- life in the bicycle lane: Sep 1

With the center of the games room done it was time to start cutting tiles for the perimeter. Boy -- this work is taking a toll on my tools -- the tile saw sounds like it may not make it through the rest of the work. When it was new (June) it was soundless when turned on. Now it is loud. I'm afraid that the bearings may not make it through the rest of my cutting. It's not an expensive unit, only costing $88 from Home Depot in Florida -- I bought it last fall knowing that this work was in front of me. I was wondering if I would have to change the diamond blade before the job was finished -- now I think that the blade will outlive the motor. Naturally the unit is more expensive in Canada ... hopefully it will last long enough to finish up.

So ... I cut enough tiles to last through more than a batch of mortar, mixed up a batch, laid those tiles plus two tiles into the closet (as far as I could reach), mixed up another half batch because I had overachieved in my cutting and finished laying tiles for the day. Two sides of the room done, I then went back to cutting, getting far enough that I'll be able to lay another mortar batch Sunday morning before waking up the neighbors with more cutting. To wrap up work for the day I moved enough mortar and tiles down to the basement from the barn to finish the job.

Our plan is to build a gazebo by the waterfront. I have taken delivery of some of the timbers already and more are on order. My original plan was to work on the gazebo this fall but that may fall by the wayside depending on our schedule. We also intend to tile the gazebo with these same tiles so the leftovers in the barn will be joined by some more tiles from the same colour lot that are on order. I also have leftover mortar which I will either send back or move to the basement. It will be too damp in the garage to store mortar for the winter.

Sandy spent much of the day weeding in the garden wearing her new Crocs. I have not gone the Croc route yet. I'll start wearing them when they are out of style.

Does it sound like a short workday ? -- yes, time to head into town for Mass -- this time Sandy came into town too and ran an errand while I did my thing, joined us outside to see my Uncle Phil's crowd and then we headed to the Labour Day Cornfest. Note to Arlene -- I brought a bag of the megamallows and gave them to the kids -- they were all wowed -- I guess that they were going to have a megamallow roast last night. For everyone's information these are marshmallows from Mexico that are huge -- more than two inches square but of course marshmallows are cylindrical, but you know what I mean.

Back to the Cornfest -- this is an annual event attended by hundreds, yes hundreds of people -- local country music, roasted corn dipped in butter, carved roast beef sandwiches, baked beans, beer, wine ... we ate well. They also have ice cream etc. for the kids and funnel cakes for everyone -- we didn't partake of desert.

Jim and Bonnie were there along with their daughter Pam and her family. Dale and Halle Brooks and their wives ... we didn't see Tom and RuthAnn though, which is unusual, nor did we see Udo -- we'll have to drag Udo and Sheila out next year. Art and Marilyn Ysseldyk were there and we chatted with them. Art is sitting on the local roads board next year and I told him that I'd serve for the following year ... but I won't be able to phone for the snowplow from Florida ... well, I could but I wouldn't know if it was snowing !

We got home around 8:15 -- it was still light out, but not much. Abby was hungry of course and bouncing all over. With her fed it was time for a little TV and early to bed as usual for me. Now it's almost time for breakfast.

Our plans for the next couple of months are continuing to morph. We are going to go to the Living Beyond Breast Cancer event with Bob Lopes again which is being held mid-October. The plan had been to head to Florida after we got back from Amsterdam then come back north October 5th or thereabouts. Rather than turn around a week later and drive to Philadelphia we'll probably visit with friends on the way down, stay in Florida longer, visit with other friends on the way back, take in the LBBC event and then be back up here Sunday October 14th. That will mean that we're gone from here for almost a month.

This is a classic -- Lauren & Kerri: