Nov 8 - projects always take the available time

... and then some ?

It's after 5pm. I quit about 1/2 hour ago. What took so long ?

Well ... when I started to do the minnow thing, which should have been just dumping the minnows and water into the lake, I found that the pump had died. Of course I tried to find out why, partly disassembling it. Then I thought -- since the minnows have lived quite some time without any new water coming in and only the bubbler going ... could I keep them until I get back in December ? So ... I got one of my bins, put it right by the back door, partly filled it with water, put in one of the old thermostat controlled wire wraps of my Dad's for a heater (only comes on when it's cold), added the bubbler and crossed my fingers. It remains to be seen whether I will have any live minnows a month from now.

What else ... well, packing takes some time. We're taking two cases of wine with us and that takes time (choosing what to take). Ah yes, Sandy wants to use the piece of marble that was broken from Mom & Dad's coffee table. A piece was broken from the end so the table itself was scrapped when we cleaned out the apartment but I brought the marble pieces up here. We're not sure if the color will go well with the tiles that we are putting in the master bath in FL, but if it does, the the marble, cut appropriately, will form the seat at the end of the shower. The coffee table that we as kids could not sit on ... what can I say ?

Of course the marble was too long, with it's jagged cut, to fit sideways in the trunk. At 46.25" at one end and over 48" at the other, it needed cutting. Have you ever cut marble ? Neither have I. Dad had a masonry cut-off wheel for his skill saw -- unused -- so I cut the marble. Slow going and dusty ... but done. So I'm taking this large piece of rock down to Florida too. Once that was in the trunk of the X5, real packing could start. I'm basically there although Sandy will probably produce something out of the woodwork at the last minute that will cause me problems :).

My lightweight bike, of course, is the coup de gras on top of everything in the trunk area. Tomorrow morning I'll have to pack the cooler, some Christmas gifts and our small bags into the back seat to share with Abby. She's going to be crowded between here and Toronto; less so the next two days. Sandy also wanted to bring Emma's plastic tricycle but there's no way that it fits. I'd have to tie that to the roof or Sandy could carry it on her lap !

One of my last projects was cleaning the griddle in the barbie. That's done and the barbie covered. By the time we get back there will probably be a pile of snow on top.

Sandy, meanwhile, spent the entire day cleaning house. We're gone less time this time but somehow it seems, and is, a bigger deal to leave at this point. Winter is coming, but you wouldn't know that by the forecast for the coming week. No rain, warm weather ... perfect for deer hunting ! I have to semi winterize as we close up -- drain the water lines but no anti-freeze in the toilets. I may rethink that since the anti-freeze step takes so little time and would ensure that even in the event of a delay in our return and a power/furnace outage, damage would be limited to the clothes washer, dish washer and ... yikes ... the wine cellar. I could winterize the former but the latter would have to rely on contained alcohol. My only backup plan for the wine cellar would be to rush back and get the generator going.

We're loaded with groceries and other stuff to take to Florida. Bread making flour that I favor, Sandy's cereal, flatbread that we like, chicken soup base from the General Store, the aforementioned wine along with LED Christmas lights that are not available down there, a toner cartridge for my printer (I bought two up here since I have the same printer in both places) and perhaps other things that I'm forgetting at this point.

Tonight we're having Chili & salad. The chili came out of the freezer. The salad will be freshly made :).

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I was wrong. We had Chile con Carni and green beans. Earlier in the day Sandy had made my Chili more interesting by sauteeing and adding everything in the fridge -- another onion, more mushrooms, green & red pepper, celery -- no letucce -- so that's where the salad went. There are a few leftovers in the fridge; some will come with us and some will go to Stef.

When I went to bed last night it was 41F outside and 72F inside. When I got up this morning it was 50F outside and 75F inside. We are already warming up to Florida weather, it seems, at least inside.

My checklist is in hand; I've already done my multilevel backups of the computer and Windows is shut down (I'm working in Linux right now). I await Sandy's pleasure. With us not leaving until late morning, she won't rush to get up. I'm itchy to leave, however, but that's normal.

Abby gets more and more agitated as packing continues. She doesn't know where she's going, but she gets worked up nonetheless. As we get close to Stef's she will recognize the territory and will be up and bouncing, ready to play with Mya. We have no errands to run once at Stef's so she'll calm down ... and then we'll leave early tomorrow and she will settle down for the long haul.

That's it. If I believe my own blog schedule we'll be back here December 17th or 18th. That could vary since we'll be watching the driving weather at that point, trying to avoid a snowstorm on our way north.

Onward.