Tail Feathers

Today the sun is shining, the thermometer says it is above freezing, the wind is blustering, and the snow is melting.

Today is Family Day, a statutory holiday here in Ontario, Canada. I am celebrating by sitting in the sunshine and counting my blessings. Attila is working today, he has decided to work on statutory holidays.

I had planned on attending a Tai Chi class this morning, but I was not diligent in my planning. The class began at 9:00 a.m., and I assumed it began at 10:00 a.m., I know not why. I decided to check the schedule as I was ready to walk out the door at 9:00 a.m., to drive to the class. I had my snack in my backpack, my water bottle was filled, I was ready! But alas, I was too late. I could go to an evening class, or perhaps to another morning class later in the week. Luckily I have options.

I am keeping busy. This morning I put in an online order, for dish soap, and some other items that are impossible to find locally at a reasonable price. We use a dish soap with no additives, not dish detergent. The dishwashing liquid in the grocery store often contains my allergen, which is a gratuitous use of an allergen, in my opinion, but that’s the profit oriented mind set for you. So I order Canadian made dish soap in bulk, online. I don’t mind paying a little more to buy items locally, but twice the price is ridiculous, and I am in no position to give away that much of my income, just to support local business people who are far more affluent that I am.

The people who bought the house next door are a young man and a young woman. I met them a few weeks ago when I was out of doors, and their puppy dog showed a keen interest in me. They seem very friendly. Apparently their possession of the house is contingent on them doing significant repairs. The last time I was in the house it looked fine, it is much newer than our house, and quite well built. But the couple with the two young boys that lived there, and the brother in the basement, had a peculiar attitude towards “renovating”, which it now turns out was destruction, and did not involve any putting back together. I didn’t realize just how much damage was done in the house until yesterday, when I looked out my window, and into their small bedroom window at our side of their house. All of the drywall is gone on the main floor of the house, I could see right through the studs and out the window on the other side of their house, nothing there but bare studs now. That is a major renovation! They seem very keen, as they are there working on the house most days.

The work on the construction site at the end of the street has slowed for the moment. They have decimated the trees on approximately half of the land they plan on clearing. With the milder weather, and the recent rain, the ground is quite wet. Since they are clearing a low lying area that was environmentally protected, and is no more thanks to the town council, the large machinery would sink deep into the mud. I assume they will be back at it as soon as the ground begins to dry out.

The web site I was developing is now complete, and it is up and running on the internet. A few reconfigurations are needed here and there, before the project can be considered to have come to an end. I tried hosting with gandi.net this time around, and I found their developer interface relatively difficult to use, compared to the two or three other hosting companies I have dealt with. From the perspective of the web site owner though, it will make no difference, it just made my end of the project a lot harder.

The crochet blanket continues to get longer. I like to do a few rows a day, the repetition over a long period of time allows for a solid foundation of body memory when it comes to the making stitches, and handling yarn tension. The project is getting too bulky to take with me here and there, to work on while I “wait” for various appointments, or sit as a passenger in the car.

The weather is very interesting. It was warm enough through the night last night, that the air source heat pump heated the house. This is a welcome eventuality, as the extreme cold weather we experienced earlier this winter depleted our fuel oil supply, we are down to 1/4 of a tank, which was where we usually found it at the beginning of April.

I notice that I am still writing we, and not I. I suppose that is because I am living here, Attila is living here, we own the house together, so a lot of the domestic functioning is still we. It is a different we though, than it used to be. Language is seldom a straightforward affair. I have to keep reminding myself of this fundamental change, because it would not serve me well to slip into a state of comfortable denial, allowing myself to feel that things have not changed.

I want to be light hearted, but it isn’t in me right now. Every time I try to lift off, my bottom scuds along the runway, sparks fly, and I come to a jolting halt, tail feathers smouldering from the friction. Up again! Try again!

Worldly Distractions

Weather

2°C
Date: 10:00 AM EST Monday 19 February 2018
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.3 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 2.2°C
Dew point: -2.4°C
Humidity: 72%
Wind: S 28 gust 41 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“My friend is one… who takes me for what I am.”
Henry David Thoreau
1817 – 1862