Jul 21/22 - coming up for air

This is too much like work !  Actually only a part of it is like work.

What did I do on the 21st ... went for a bike ride.  David left in the a.m.  Sandy started staining the railings, made some progress over by the kitchen.  Jason, Lo and Kim had arrived the night before so they were about.  It's easy to tell when they're in; Chili barks :).

On the 22nd, I started early working on the submission for RUSA for a 1200k in Florida, or rather I continued to work on it.  Paul had sent me the cue sheet the night before so I could finish up my part.  He had not done the mapping, however, so that was my first task.  What ensued was a little like "who's on first".  Yes that cue is there; no it isn't; two anal individuals talking at cross purposes.  He's a lawyer and I'm a programmer, at least by trade.  What a riot.  That was the part that seemed too much like work.

The work, however, was staining the railings.  Those are largely complete, except for the (planned) strip underneath the top rail on the deck side.  I need to run the brush along there.  Below the deck the posts, knee braces and facing 2x12 or whatever it is, also need staining.  That's roller work and done separately.  I didn't want to use up the volume of stain required to do that part or I'd run out.  The other thing that I need to do is staining on the gazebo, especially the lake-facing side where the tarp has worn away the stain.  I'll probably use the leftover Cabot stain to do that (it's really more like a paint). 

As I was wrapping up, I could hear thunder.  Thankfully we only got a few drops of rain.  A heavy rain might have washed away some of my hard work. 

ps -- staining the railings is the part that isn't like work.  At work one often didn't get the sense of actually accomplishing anything.  With this project I could clearly measure my progress, slow that it might be !

Marda messaged Sandy sometime during the day -- Sandy was in Toronto getting her hair done -- "is everything all right ?  Dave hasn't blogged" -- clearly she's waiting for the new baby as well !  Everything is still on schedule, amazingly and knock-on-wood !

Sandy stopped in Barrie to visit with Stef, Aaron and Lauren who were all in their swimming pool.  Apparently Stef said that this was the nicest day all year ... it's been that kind of year.  It was hot here too, the temp inside hit 80; some open windows overnight fixed that.

Tomorrow I head to Oakville for a dentist appointment and hang out for the evening and then have an appointment at Truenorth Cycles on Friday a.m.  I then hang out for the rest of Friday prior to Saturday's 400k.  I expect to be back sometime early Sunday a.m., i.e. pre-dawn. 

Today it's cloudy.  I might go for a bike ride, might not.  It's supposed to clear and isn't supposed to rain.

Onward !