Jul 17 - back and forth

Or is that forth and back ?

We went to Toronto (Oakville), stopping at the HD in Barrie along the way and picking up a sheet of 3/4" plywood, 1/8's so that I can trim out the windows downstairs, 2x4's because ... we'll, I'm always using 2x4's. 3/4" plywood and 2x4's make a nice, heavy duty temporary table for when everyone is here -- one that won't blow away in the wind ! As we hit the road again I could feel the difference that a little weight in the trailer makes to it's tendency to bounce around.

Next stop -- Oakville -- Stef's -- picking up Kylie. Abby played with Mya. Sandy visited with Stef & Lauren. I got Kylie's stuff into the back of the car and the trailer. Silly me I'd left the minnow traps in the car so they went in the trailer too. Abby, of course, had to move from her preferred back-seat driver position to the back of the SUV.

Next stop -- Oakville again, close to where Stef had a temporary house that she hardly stayed in due to the mould problem. Kylie's friend Kat - Katerina (sp?) was coming up with us. We met her mom -- or, to put it another way, her mom checked us out (being a good mom) and we were on our way again.

Next stop -- Subway down Ford Drive. The girls had lunch already, Sandy and I had not.

Next stop -- Dufferin and Finch -- with some jammed-up 401 traffic along the way. In retrospect it would have been faster to go across the 407, off at Keele, east along Steeles and south on Dufferin, but what the heck. The traffic was just merging, merging, merging and slow. It was Friday afternoon, after all, on a summer weekend.

We waited a bit to get some service, this is just a small place, and they loaded the fridge into the trailer. It would have fit standing up, but so close that you couldn't tip it. They lied it down on its back, which apparently is ok for a fridge as long as you don't turn it on for 24 hours after standing it up, and that worked perfectly. With the spare tire behind it to stop it from moving backwards in the trailer and wood on either side of it, the fridge wasn't going anywhere. Now with a moderate load, the trailer was set. It will hold 3500 pounds ... all told this was well under 500, in fact, probably under 300 -- it's not a big fridge.

Traffic was predictably heavy on the 400 but not slow. We stopped at the Service Center at Barrie to let the girls use the facilities and then again in Parry Sound to fill up the gas tank. I'd reset the gas consumption computer heading South and over the day we got under 15 mpg. That trailer has a lot of wind resistance. It's 6' high inside so well higher than the car -- it doesn't draft well !

We were home around 6:30 and I stopped by the barn to unhook the trailer and then drove down to the house. It was raining, naturally, but only lightly. The girls unloaded the car; I used the 4-wheeler to put the trailer in the barn and unloaded the wood and the fridge. Slide it back, lean it up, stand it up -- the easy part is done. Now I need help to get it down to the house -- the easy part with the hand-truck -- and then down to the basement.

In the meantime it's still in its cardboard cocoon.

We had Sockeye Salmon for dinner and everyone had seconds. Luckily Kat eats fist. There's a small piece left for my lunch -- after all, it was 2 pounds of salmon -- but the rice and beans were polished off. That's sauteed rice and green beans, by the way, not cooked together like Daniel (Arlene's) would think of "rice and beans", a typical Mexican dish.

It was raining -- no fishing -- I watched some of the day's Tour de France but was tired and went to bed not seeing the conclusion. This morning I checked Velonews to see that there was no change in the standings. Tomorrow will be a big mountain day that should shake things up. Astana will be attacked -- they've lost Leipheimer -- but will Contador and Armstrong attack each other ? Time and opportunity will tell.

Today promises to be another rainy day and then we have three days of sun and cloud. I'm going to go out shortly and set my minnow traps and hopefully, rain depending, go fishing tonight. Donnie is supposed to be up -- don't know yet and don't know about Jason. Bonnie has a partial crowd -- Pauline -- and Pam is supposed to arrive Monday, so she'll have a busy week.

Bonnie and Jim hit a deer (no, a deer hit them in insurance-talk) last weekend and they've still got a rental. I'll bet that it takes a month or more to get his car back. I know what it takes to fix a front-end since that truck backed into me with the X5.

Before we could take a deep breath in the house yesterday Kylie and Kat were downstairs hooking up the Wii. It's set now; I don't know if they actually played it. I'm sure that it will get a workout.

That's it, enough furious typing for one morning. That's all the exercise that my fingers can handle. I have Mass this afternoon in Loring at 4:30. I expect that I'll see my uncle and aunt and some cousins, depending.

Oh - I checked the bat-spots and apart from one piece of cotton that may or may not have been disturbed, they look clear. I reset that piece of cotton and if it's disturbed tomorrow morning will secure the screen better so that they cannot get back once departed. Of course, it could simply be more bats departing too -- poppa bat never came home so momma bat had to go forage for food ? we'll see.