The week that was.

Are they going faster?  The days and weeks,  that is.  Used to be it took what seemed like forever for Christmas to arrive.  Then a few decades passed,  and now everything has sped up. 

I don’t think I’m alone in this.

 

The last of the roses.  And yes,  I cut them off and brought them in the house.  Normally I leave them,  but I figured I’d snip these two off.  Mind you, the stems are not very finger friendly.

 

Mostly all I remember from this week is going to Toronto for the afternoon on Wednesday.  Travelling Companion thought she’d see if her brain was still functioning and decided to take a tax course.  Most of which was accomplished online,  but the tale end of the course was a “case study” that took place in a building right downtown.   Not really one of my favourite places to be,  but I was pressed into service to drive. 

Story of my life.

She promised that that would be the last time I’d be pressed into service to drop her off someplace and then have to hang around for a few hours.  I’ve done this a few times,  trust me.

I mean,  I can rummage around in a few shops for a while,  but after an hour or so,  I’m done.  Thankfully the car was in a nice warm parking garage, so that’s where I ultimately ended up with a copy of the Globe and Mail. 

 

Unfortunately (at least in my opinion) the Toronto Landscape has devolved over the last few decades into a forest of rather nondescript highrises.  Everywhere you look,  there are either huge bank buildings or condos.  Just glad I don’t live there.

So any time I came across a building that was remotely interesting,  I took a picture.

 

 

Wait,  Beer Academy??  Oh, it’s a brewery.

This is pretty much what I came up with within the five block radius of King and York.  I’m sure there are more,  but I had no desire to doggedly go from street to street looking for a bit of character.

Such a contrast from Vienna,  where you’re hard pressed to find a building that’s NOT interesting.

 

In keeping with what is expected of a big city,  I did encounter a smattering of bums.  First ones I’ve seen since we moved home from Vienna.   Mind you,  we do have our own suburban version in our neighbourhood.

Had to go back to March to find that photo.

Lives a couple blocks from here.  In a house.  So I guess he’s a better class of bum?  We call him “Dan two cells”, ‘cause that’s an estimation of the number of functioning brain cells he has working for him. 

Long story.  Kinda sad. 

Don’t sniff glue kids!

 

Which brings me to why I want to replace my camera.

No, not the glue sniffing thing,  the picture thing.

We need to part company.  I think it’s starting to get tired.  Sometimes the lens doesn’t want to talk to the body,  so it won’t fire.  I tried to get a photo of this guy when he was outside the house.  Think the camera would work?  Nope.  I haven’t smashed it on the ground just yet, but I’ve had my moments.  If I unhook the lens and click it back in place, it might work.  I’m starting to get a little tired of that.

So some of my time on Wednesday was spent checking out a new camera.   I’m intrigued with the Canon G15.  (although,  by now there’s a “G16”) 

Whatever.

 

I’ve read good things about this camera.  One of my brothers-in-law has a “14”,  and it takes brilliant photos.

I suppose somewhere in the lengthy list of all the features each of these machines have,  there are some differences.  Not sure what they are at the moment.

Takes pretty awesome movies too,  as can be seen here.

So I went into Blacks.  I was a little taken aback by the price they were asking.  Started with a five.

Anyway, I still haven’t decided.  I’m terrible at that.

I suppose if I had some sort of unlimited budget, I’d simply have a bunch of cameras but then,  I’d still have to decide….like, which camera to take along that day.

 

Hope y’all have a fine weekend.

 

Keep those sticks on the ice.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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Is it that weekend already?

 

 

Why are we still doing this?   Saskatchewan, Arizona and Hawaii seem to get along just fine without mucking about with their clocks every spring and fall, so I don’t get it.

But whatever.

I suppose the good part is,  I do methodically change the batteries in our smoke/CO detectors.  That’s a hidden benefit,  so I guess I’d best not complain.

Anyhoodle,   I’m starting to get a little tired (there’s a theme in there somewhere) of the whole “window prep” situation. 

I’m still at it.

These are the four “operators” that will go in the two big units that will sit in the big opening.

I did put in one more trapezoidal (I think that’s what it would be called?) unit the other day,  in time to punt out the old beat up thing. 

It’s the shape of that thing below.

 

 

No more window that’s an odd colour,  and has been chewed by bees.

Yes,  you read that correctly. 

The previous owner of this fine establishment (that would be my late father-in-law) decided at some point in time that he’d like to keep bees.  And yes, I ain’t makin’ that up either.  They made a helluva mess.   We won’t be keeping any bees.  Thanks.

Who keeps bees in the front of their house?  Really.

 

I did get a little reprieve the other day when I went over to Daughter Number Two’s place to install a new light fixture.   The plan was,  I was supposed to “school them”,  since they wanted to do it themselves.

Well, it took me less time to just change the darned thing than if I had tried to do a “play by play”.   There was a tutorial in there somewhere,  so they may attempt it on their own the next time. 

One of the joys of home ownership.

For me,  the most frustration part is getting those stupid little GU10 lamps in,  so I left that part up to Daughter Number One.  She didn’t mind.

Like this:

I stole that off the ‘net. 

 

I suppose that’s about it.  I’ll check in in a few days I suppose. 

Keep it between the ditches.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

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One last visit.

Before spring,  that is.

I really couldn’t get a photo of the boat we crew on,  since by 6:30 it was already way too dark.  That’s the one part of the onset of winter that I’m never too thrilled with.

We had a little pow-wow over a jug of beer,  only as an excuse to have a little pow-wow over a jug of beer.  Said “so long”,  until the spring.  Oh, and we were pretty much the only ones there.

 

Meanwhile,  the window work continues.

I had made arrangements with one of my nephews to be on hand if I needed any help installing a couple windows at his Mom’s place. 

That’s not him.  That’s one of his firefighter buddies who came to help seal off the top of the chimney.

This is Dan.  He was on hand last summer to help at our place when I went to install our huge front window.  He’s always willing to help,  so I try not to abuse his generosity.

Anyway,  the pictures can tell the story.  Those two are in and sealed up.

I went back this morning for a couple hours to patch the plaster on the inside that I messed up,  as well as put some caulking in the gap between the two frames and cut away the excess foam.  It’ll be a day or two before I have the trim sorted out.  All in due time.

When I went to install the first operator, something was definitely not right,  so I went home to take a look at one of the ones I installed last year.

Sure enough I had reversed one of the hinge type fittings. Well, there’s a “left” and a “right”.  I had them switched.

Easy fix.  Then it was all good.

I figured I’d take a stab at installing one of the trapezoidal windows here at home,  which of course meant having to treat it like any other woodworking project.

What I didn’t take into account was,  the sill onto which this window was supposed to fit,  was not exactly FLAT.  We had come up with the notion that putting on all the cedar cladding was something akin to trying to clad a car.  At this point in the life of the house, the cedar front has sagged just a tad.  It’s not really noticeable unless you get your eyeball right down next to what should be a flat surface.  Certainly not noticeable from the street.

At this point I have two of the six windows in.  I’ve started out with the most difficult ones,  and they haven’t exactly gone in like greased lightening.  I’ll spare you the details.

It was kinda fun using one of my Christmas presents (that power planer there),  but man does that thing make a mess!  Yoiks!

Other than those boring little bits, I got nothing.  The hope is to have everything done by the weekend.  These remaining windows aren’t temperature sensitive,  since “The Veranda” is an outdoor space.  

I still haven’t decided yet if I want to foam them all in place,  but I can’t really think of any reason why I’d want to take them out again. 

I might just wait until spring.