Feels Like Work

I was sitting in the dentist’s chair, minding my own business having my teeth cleaned after Dr. Julie had poked and prodded all of the tiny crevasses in my mouth. She had finished drawing all of the blood possible and reluctantly told me that although I will need to replace a crown in the not too distant future, I was good for another few months. The dental hygienist was doing her thing scraping and polishing when Dr Julie popped back into my field of vision.

Of course I thought she had had second thoughts about future necessary work or remembered that she needed a down payment on that summer home on the Riviera. To my surprise she told me that Louise had told her I did some wood working. I said that although it is true I like to work with wood, I am not that good. Like most women, she ignored what I said and asked if I could make a treasure chest for the dental office. I mentioned that a bank would be a safer place to keep her money. It turns out that when kids are good (or bad) they receive a toy to go home with. When Dr Julie moved offices the other office kept custody of the chest and the new office needed somewhere cool to keep toys.

I agreed and regretted it almost immediately when the receptionist gave me measurements by holding her hands apart like she was describing the fish that got away. I asked about colour and got a shrug as an answer. Nice… Well, at least I didn’t have any cavities.

I had some ideas and went online to see images of treasure chests and possibly find a design that would work. Most of the ones online were beyond my skills, too large or just wrong for the application. I decided that a curved top was the way to go and recessed panels for the sides. The top worked surprisingly well and in no time at all it all came together. Good on me!

Well, that was a couple of months ago and I had let apathy creep into the build, doing a little here and there, but effectively doing nothing. Sure it was cold in the garage where I mostly worked and I had gotten sick for a week or two, but I was just lazy, finding it easier to watch TV when I had spare time. I wasn’t writing blogs or really doing anything. Well, until I got the email “Just wondering how the treasure chest was coming along.”

I fired off an email with a comprehensive list of excuses that sounded lame to me, but they replied that they had infinite patience. I just hate people that are that nice and understanding.

Long story short, I kicked my ass into gear and assembled the pieces I had; made the ones I didn’t and went to the hardware store to pick up the hardware needed to finish the project. I had a few set backs, but managed to get it built pretty quickly, stained and put the hardware on. It looked pretty good if I do say so myself. Sure, I would do the next one differently, but that’s because like most humans I learned a few things by my mistakes.

I dropped it off yesterday and they seemed pleased with it. They are far too nice to tell me the truth if they didn’t like it. When Dr. Julie asked how much, I told her a root canal, two fillings, an x-ray, two tooth brushes and a package of floss. She smiled and said that I also needed a crown.

I am always happy when I finish something I make for myself. I am very understanding when it comes to excuses about how lazy I am. To do a commission just feels like work and I am retired.

Grass Being Green

Well, the whining and bitching can end starting tomorrow. Our wonderful weather forecasters have decreed that we will hit 20°C tomorrow. I will be able to get my pasty white skin out in the sun where it should be.

I will be at a loss for something to complain about, but being an old man I should be able to find something worth spending my opinions on. The world is spinning as it should.

You can tell it is spring because I have seen a couple of robins hanging around the trees. The rhubarb and chives are beginning to sprout. I suppose that if I had planted crocus or tulip bulbs in the fall they would also be sticking their noses up thru the fast thawing soil. I have planted bulbs in the past and all it got me was a couple of fat squirrels. It is possible that the squirrels buried some of my neighbour’s bulbs in the garden, I will check tomorrow.

The real sure sign that spring is here is that Stan and Karen the neighbours across the alley were sitting on the deck in the afternoon sun drinking a couple of beers. His garden is still under a foot or two of snow, but that should be mostly gone by late in the day tomorrow. Life is good.

Well, not so good for some of the towns near rivers, as those rivers are rising over their banks. Some of the towns north of us are in mandatory evacuation situations. Farmers in southern Alberta can’t get onto the land to seed because it is so water logged. I hope it stays warm and dry for a week or three so that they can grow the food I love so much.

The other sure sign of spring is that today I swapped out screen doors to the back yard. We have a nice insulated door to keep the winter cold outside where it belongs that functions from late October till late April. The rest of the year we use a door I made last spring with a doggie door in it so that I don’t have to keep getting up every time someone walks past the house to let Buster out. It gets old very fast and I have suffered months of getting up just in the middle of that exciting scene on my favourite show.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the large pot holes on the road and road gravel putting chips in the front windshield. I have been living with a chip for a while now and will continue to do so until the city sweeps the streets.

I am looking forward to grass being green and having leaves on trees and bushes in a month or two… 

A Little Easier To Take

I am on my third and last dog.

I never had a dog when I was a kid, I don’t think my dad saw any use in them at all. Maybe mom didn’t like dogs, I really don’t know. What I do know is that my brother and I never had the opportunity to be responsible to pick up dog crap on a regular basis. I had a vision of teaching a dog to catch Frisbees, wrestle with me, share my popsicles, act as my wingman to help me meet girls and just love me unconditionally. Yes, I know that only happens in the movies, but I could dream.

The closest I came to a dog was when I was eight and had my tonsils out. I must have been really scared and asked for a dog if I was to go through with the operation. I didn’t get a dog and I didn’t get to eat ALL the ice cream I wanted either. My throat was too sore to swallow anything. Instead of a dog I got a moulting canary. It could only give a pathetic Peep and would shed feathers every now and then. Crappy pet for a little kid.

Anyways, I have made up for not having a pet for the past thirty years or so. I have had the pleasure of walking the dogs, picking up after them and trying to work my life around what is best for the damned dog. Don’t get me wrong, I do get pleasure from my little four legged friend, he is always happy to see me. Perhaps he is the only being on the planet that I please that much. Cool!

Buster is a barker. God help anyone that thinks they can casually walk in front of our house. It doesn’t even have to be anything real, Buster seems to hallucinate things that need barking at. I’d like to say that his barking is an endearing quality but it really isn’t.

Every night, just before bedtime he has to go into the back yard and bark at the wind. Well, I used to think he would bark at the wind but now I am not so sure. I recently rewatched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and Hermione casts protective spells around their campsite as soon as they arrive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdRs73qCcMo

Maybe that is what Buster is doing late at night. Perhaps he is a mighty dog wizard and for reasons I can’t begin to understand he feels compelled to protect our home and ourselves. So far in all the years we have had Buster no one has broken into the house and we have been more or less healthy. I suppose that could be a coincidence, but I kind of like the idea that I have a magical dog that protects me and all that I own.

It makes the humiliation of picking his shit up a little easier to take.

Well Shit!

I woke up this morning and it is snowing as hard as or harder than it has all winter. The weather assholes are calling for ten to fifteen centimetres but console us with warm weather for later on in the week.Yea! Oh yeah, and Trump didn’t die or have a blood vessel burst in his brain even though I and millions others prayed for it last night. There is always hope for later on in the week.

As upsetting as the snow is, it is much more acceptable than the freezing rain that is happening in southern Ontario. Stay strong...there is always hope for later on in the week. I just heard that Kelowna BC is expecting up to 30 cms of snow today, usually at this time they are concerned with the tourists coming to visit and when they should pick the fruit off of the trees. Oh, and my asshole friends that live on Vancouver Island have their own problems like are the tulips bigger this year, should I cut the grass two or three times this week and should I wear a light jacket or long sleeve shirt. The struggle continues.

Here we are later on in the day and the snow has stopped, a lot has melted and there is a good chance that warmer weather is on the way. You would think I should be happy and I am. Sort of. My reason to bitch is that we should never have had the snowfall in the first place. No one asked me my opinion on an uncalled for snowfall. Come to think about it, no one ever asks my opinion on anything. Louise sometimes tells me what I think, but that just isn’t the same.

If there is a plus to our spring snowfall is that Arwen and Brendan are vacationing with their families in Cancun and the Bahamas with their families. It is nice when you are someplace warm and a stranger on the beach mentions that there was a snowfall back home. Doesn’t even much matter where home is, it is just nice to hear that you made a good choice in vacations. To add the cherry on top, I had to shovel Brendan’s sidewalk. I sent him a picture of his old man slaving away over a hot shovel. I didn’t do Arwen’s place mainly because it is that much farther and I do have a life.

The dogs are patiently waiting till I go to bed so they can push me and Louise to the edges of the mattress while they take the lion’s share. Last night when I pushed back they gave me the same look I give to a rib eye steak. I might sleep downstairs with the door locked tonight…

Digital Trash

So, yesterday’s blog is in the digital trash bin. Not that it was any worse than all of the trash I do upload, it just didn’t get finished by the time I was finished for the day. Such is life.

I was just doing last nights dishes when I thought of a woman from many years ago. She is the wife of a friend and although we aren’t friends, we have been friendly in the past. I fault myself that for some reason we have never pursued our friendship. Be that as it may, the reason I thought of her is that she was very protective of her lawn.

At the time the kids were small and she had a small kid but they weren’t allowed to play on the lawn. This struck me as odd back then and strikes me as odd now. Throughout my years as a mailman I ran into a number of people who were very dedicated to their lawns. It is also possible that they hated the Post Office in general or me in particular and just wanted to keep me the hell off of their lawn! I generally walked on lawns because it saved me time and most of the lawns were composed of weeds, crabgrass and dog shit. Not necessarily in that order. When I came upon a lawn that was very obviously well looked after, I would stick to the sidewalks because whoever lived in that house really loved their lawn.

My opinion on lawns is now and has always been is that they are there to be walked on. They are pretty, comfortable, cool, springy and a lovely green. Mankind spent hundreds of thousands of years walking on grass and just in the past fifty years have some people decided that grass should be looked at and not used. I still walk on lawns whenever I can even though I am no longer delivering letters. I believe that it is much better for your feet and your well being in general.

A facebook friend has been touting the benefits of “Earthing” for the past few months. I guess the premise is that if you spend an hour or so a day with your bare feet on the earth you will stay healthier in body and mind. I have to admit that when I was a kid I was pretty content when I was barefoot. Well, until I stepped on some glass from a broken Coke bottle that some SOB tossed on the pavement. To tell the truth I am never so content as when I am walking along the beach in Hawaii in bare feet. That might be “Earthing”, or it just might be that all of Hawaii makes you stay healthy in body and mind. I do plan on spending more time in bare feet this summer on my brown, patchy lawn.

I started out talking about my friend and her crazy obsession with her lawn. I guess we all (the crazy ones) have things we do that others find odd or disturbing. I know a guy that has a house filled with stuffed animals. They are cool and creepy at the same time, but they do give him joy. One fellow I worked with had an amazingly well equipped workshop but he never, ever did any kind of work in it. He just loved looking at his workshop. Another guy I know has a collection of cameras, most never used. Personally, that is a collection I would like as well. Some people collect “friends” on facebook which is nuts. Can you imagine how many birthday wishes you would have to send out every year if you had thousands of friends? I have a too large collection of backpacking stoves, at last count I had seventeen or eighteen. If I still did backpacking I could justify my collection. I collect Tim Cards, old tools, chisels, planes, pens, interesting items I find on the ground and any number of bits of wire and washers.

Maybe we are all nuts. Maybe that is the way God meant for us to be. I guess it wouldn’t hurt if more people looked after their grass in particular and the planet in general.

Happy collecting!

Age of Aquarius

It is hard to believe that it has pretty much six months since my last regular blog in mid November. Sure I wrote one on December 5^th, but that was more of an oddity than anything else.

I should say that I have written blogs since; I just didn’t finish them or deleted it rather than post it. Yeah, I don’t get it either. I’m not even sure if this one will get posted.

I have been trying to work out why I just stopped writing, but so far I haven’t come up with a good reason. The best one is that I have slipped into a mild depression due to the recent geo-political climate of the world. Perhaps I have just reverted to my animal ancestry and decided that hibernation is a viable option for me. Now that it is spring, I can come out of my den and forage for new and interesting things to do.

 

I say spring, but I am looking out the window at a landscape covered in white with more snow falling. The weather asshole says that we will have double digit temperature for the next few days. God I hope they are right!

I was pretty sick last week and I am more or less better now. There are things that I need to do but I just don’t have the get up and go to get up and go do them. Maybe sun and warm will get me motivated. It doesn’t help that two of my three kids and their families are flying to warmer climates for the next week or so while I get to look after their dogs. I still like one of my kids…

It is pretty depressing when you pay attention to what is happening in the world politically. I have always known that politicians are self serving bastards but underneath the graft and corruption I wanted to believe they had the good of the city/province/country/world as an end goal. In the past ten years or so it has become about getting richer and re-elected without a core for the people who voted them into office. Someone found out that if you tell a lie with enough feeling and often enough then the people will believe you. What a horrific state we are in!

In my youth we sang songs and protested the power brokers of the time in the hopes that a better world would ensue. I didn’t really believe that we would change that generation, but I knew in my heart that when my generation came into power then we would build the world into the paradise it should be.

 

Well, for the most part the hippies became businessmen and lawyers, warehouse workers, office workers, farmers and some even became involved in politics. We were in position to change the world. Maybe we tuned out and turned on too much, because the world is pretty much the same now as it was forty years ago. There have been some baby steps made, but we still have racial and gender inequality, powerful people doing whatever they want and the bureaucracy is more complex now than it has ever been.

I had trouble spelling bureaucracy and spell check gave me burro rat. I should have left it.

 

Well, so much for the Age of Aquarius. My hope is that the calendar was off fifty years or so and it will start to make a better world for my grandkids.