Oct 15 - a day in the life

My friend George Cederholm commented in his blog that his blog would be boring now that they are home in Arizona and not travelling. In fact, "a day in the life" of most people is somewhat boring, when you get right down to it -- not front page news and hopefully not back page (obits) !

However, my blog is different. I know that you, and I, look forward to days when I'm not laying tiles, day after day after day. That is boring. Variety is good.

So ... yesterday was variety, not unlike many days when we are home and do not have a major project underway. First off I got those 8x8's down to the waterfront deck. I can't do anything with them yet because I need to lay the plywood on the deck before I stand those posts. I also need to notch the posts at the top to be ready for the 8x8 beams but that will wait until the beams are delivered ... speaking of which, they should be here today along with the plywood. The 8x8 posts were already on the Whaler boat trailer so I simply pulled it down to the waterfront with the ATC and unloaded them.

I went into town to: get my small game and migratory bird licenses at Buchanan's; pick up a couple of weeks mail (Bonnie & Jim had picked up the first couple of weeks mail already but then they went travelling); pick up a few grocery items from the general store; stop at Timbrmart to arrange delivery of the 8x8's (I tried calling before I left but was getting a busy signal); and drop off the empty beer cases from the summer ... nope, the LCBO was closed. It is closed on Mondays, which I just discovered.

Back home, I puttered in the basement, removing the trigger locks from the guns and firing some test rounds. I had picked up a laser sighting tool which I tried on the .22 and 30.30 and pellet gun -- it works great, you just insert the tool in the barrel, turn on the laser, point the gun at an object at the distance you want to sight and adjust your telescopic sights. That's a lot easier than firing shots into a target and making adjustments -- and a lot quieter !!

The Remington semi-auto shotgun was not firing -- it is very subject to dirt accumulation, especially in the firing pin area. The hammer was falling but the pin was not dimpling the primer -- so I did some disassembly, did some oiling -- boy was it dirty -- and it is working again. I don't use this gun much because it ejects the shells out the side and we were forever chasing floating shells -- not because we want to be neat but because I reload them and the empty hull is one of the most expensive parts of reloading. I use the over/under double barrel shotgun when we are duck hunting in the boat -- speaking of which, Alex is coming up this Friday for the weekend so we'll get some hunting in.

Hunting -- hunters are everywhere this week. They are all getting ready for next week, I expect since they are so visible. I'm guessing that next week is moose season here. It is a one week season and they take a lot of moose in that one week. Moose numbers seem to keep climbing though based on the number that we see.

Yesterday coming back from Loring, just on the outskirts of town (which is not far from the center of town you understand), I slowed down and stopped for a big bull that walked out to the middle of the road. A pickup truck coming the opposite direction also stopped. The bull looked at me -- he was huge with a huge rack -- and walked off the road and into the bush.

Oh -- one thing that I forgot to mention in the blog yesterday -- coming home was different this time -- no truck. The old red Ford Ranger is now in Thunder Bay with Philip. It has been an institution on this road and Loring for so many years -- 25 I think -- I hope that it's happy in its new home. I am sure, however, that it will not like the road salt this winter. It never saw salt here because it was never driven during the winter.

Sandy worked in the garden yesterday -- first off picking raspberries for breakfast then any remaining edibles -- zucchini, beans -- but we had the zucchini for dinner and it was not good -- woody and tasteless. The beans will probably be the same. Oh well. The raspberries, on the other hand, complemented her morning cereal.

We both cleaned up ants -- me the basement where I used the vacuum because there were many dead ants -- Sandy on the main floor where dead ants seemed mostly to be gathered at the doorways -- perhaps they wanted to get out ? Who knows ... The dead ants were due to the ant-man coming while we were away and spraying outside and putting bait inside. It appears to be working. The other thing that appears to have worked is my treatment for bats -- no bat poop on the front step -- hooray !

Before we left for a month we arranged for the water guy to come and test the water for chemicals etc. We also tested for bacteria -- zero. The water is testing fine but there is a faint earthy smell -- he tried to sell me a charcoal water filter and a UV treatment for bacteria -- the latter "just in case" we ever get bacteria. Well, these things are expensive and a) I'm not sure that it will do the job (for the smell) and b) I can get them for about 1/3 of the price in the U.S. and c) we can add the UV filter later if we are having a problem (testing the water in Sudbury is free). I may try a small in-line charcoal filter to see if it does the job on the smell before investing in a big unit ... and I will definitely buy it where it is cheapest. I am prepared to pay a premium for in-house service by these guys but not that much of a premium.

It's always something -- ants, bats, water -- we have ants in Florida too and what I'm learning about water treatment will be useful once we are back south where I have to deal with very hard water with a lot of chlorine. Sandy claims that it bleaches her hair ... not as much as the pool that we had in Mississauga, I'm sure. So far, knock on wood, no bats in Florida !

For dinner -- a good Cotes du Rhone Villages (I love Grenache / Syrah) along with trout, zucchini and sweet potatoes. Everything went on the barbie, except for the CdRV of course.

This morning -- clear, cold (supposed to be zero C overnight / 32 F) with fog on the water because the water is warmer than the air. There are still some leaves on the trees adding their splash of red/yellow/orange to the green of the pines ... there, that is my "wax poetic" for the day.

So -- regular life is just dull, right ? Not dull, but busy.