Oct 26 - Strange Happenings

What a beautiful day. Sunny, practically windless -- perfect weather for Jason to close up. He commented that it's about the first time that he's done this NOT in the pouring rain. "This" being taking the top off the drilled well pipe and using the compressor to force the water out. Of course we've only had drilled wells since 2006 so it's not a large sample :).

Move the dock, doctor the drains, drain the dishwasher and clothes washer, drain the water lines, pack the truck ... oh wait ... 5 beer left, we'd better drink them ... so we sat around their fire pit (no fire) around 1pm, the 7 of us -- each of the guys having a beer and the girls with their glass of wine. I'm sure that I've had a drink earlier in the day before -- know that I have back in the "good old days" when having a drink at lunch was normal -- or at an afternoon-in-the-summer party, but not for a long time. It was a touch on the cool side ... perhaps one of Donnie's "special coffees" would have been better, but it was a fitting end to a not so fitting summer season. I don't remember one so cool and wet. Global warming ?

No wait ... Jason had Ditra on his list ... yes, I have a full roll and most of a roll of Kerdi membrane. He took those and will use same on projects, paying me back as he uses it. That's a good deal for me, since they're just gathering dust and a good deal for him, since it's a lot cheaper than by the small piece at Home Depot. These were purchased for me to do the basement floor and bathroom -- the multi-roll pack of Ditra and full roll of Kerdi were much cheaper than buying smaller quantities.

The Davies left around 4pm while I was off fishing. I didn't have any luck fishing, however, nor did I really expect any, but it was pleasant sitting out there watching the sunset. It was quiet and I could hear voices and ATC's and sure enough, when I came back home I could see that the Troups were in and Bonnie and Jim were working at their leaves. I stopped to talk to Bonnie for a minute, not quite at the shore so that Abby didn't make a nuisance of herself, and then headed home.

After I was back from fishing, we were both sitting in the Great Room (sounds bigger than living room, right ? but it's not) and the phone rang. Well, it was Lorraine. They were not home yet but remembered that they had left a burger on the barbie when they brought said barbie into the house and also were not sure if they'd propped the fridge and freezer doors open on their French Door fridge. I went over, silly me without a light, took the cover off the barbie and felt around, finding the already-cooked burger; before that I'd propped the doors open with a tea towel and hand towel, closed up again and went home. I threw the burger out on the lake ... as I said to Jason in an email, some pike will have a treat.

That reminds me of the time that I got home -- in Radnor PA, from the cottage and remembered that I'd not done something in winterizing the drains. Well, Radnor is a 12 hour drive ... I called Alex, who lives only 2.5 hours away who made a trip up and fixed the drain for me. Then there was the time that we were up for a weekend in the winter, long ago when the kids were small -- we got home to Mississauga and I remembered that I hadn't set the satellite dish at the most inclined setting. This was one of the big six foot dishes and Dad always wanted to move it to pointing at a satellite low on the horizon so that the dish wouldn't accumulate snow. Well, knowing that if something went wrong there would be hell to pay ... David and I made a one-day trip up the next weekend. In the meantime there had been a ton of snow and I even have pictures of snow on top of the red Ford truck. We came, we adjusted the dish, we left a couple of hours later. Of course the cottage was the same temperature as the outside and I wasn't about to cut a hole in the ice to use the bathroom so we had to limit our time here.

Ah ... the joys of owning two houses or being responsible for two houses, which happens when you use your parents house or a friends house ... yes.

What else did I do yesterday, other than kibitz with the neighbours ? Well, I did go to Mass and I did do some puttering around. That's me ... putter, putter, putter. That aforementioned puttering always includes some time on the computer, naturally.

I didn't think anything of it at the time but when I put wood on the fire a couple of times last night I got some smoke in the house. It quickly disperses what with the size of the house, the constant operation of the HRV and the ceiling fans. This morning, however, when I added wood the smoke came right out of the fireplace. Huh ? I opened the bottom where you remove ash, usually good for a maxi-draft that burns like crazy. I do this every few days anyway to heat up the chimney to 900-1200, important for elimination of creosote buildup. Well, the flames in the fireplace looked like I had the draft closed ... slowly dancing and the glass darkening with smoke.

Worried about the chimney, I turned on the outside lights, got the ladder and the chimney brush and a flashlight and went up on the roof. Sure enough, the screen at the top of the chimney was almost completely blocked with ash. Smoke was just seeping out of the chimney. All I had to do was poke at the screen with the brush and particles flew in all directions and the full flow was restored.

I don't know if this is due to the Hemlock that I've been burning ... a gradual accumulation over time ... or what. I was up on the roof a few days ago clearing the gutters and don't remember seeing anything strange about the chimney, but then of course I wasn't looking for that either. I'm going to go back up on the roof shortly, now that it's light out, to brush the outside of the screen again.

When Alex is here I'll have to get his help taking the top off the chimney and running the chimney brush up and down. It's not much of a two-person job but I need moral support while I'm up there ... actually it is handy to have help. The last and only time I did it Aaron helped. I had no idea how heavy those chimney sections would be and was worried that I could not lift them by myself or that I wouldn't be able to prop them up single handedly. to get the screws in. Now, of course, I also have the stays in place so I'm not even sure if I can remove the chimney sections at the same spots. We'll see.

It's drizzling again. Our one day break is over. Most of the rest of the week is supposed to be nice, but we won't be here. I'll spend a chunk of time today getting the car packed with all the tools I'll need to do the tiling at Stef's. All the tools I definitely need and all the tools I may need make quite a list. The back of the car will be loaded. Packing all these tools in the car will be fun in the rain, but there isn't much choice. We'll be out of here relatively early tomorrow since we have eye appointments for 1pm tomorrow in Erin Mills.

Onward ...