29 August 2010
Fall and Claws in the Morning
29/08/10 07:18
So Sunday morning I got up at 5:00.
"Wait", I hear you saying. "You got up at 5AM on a Sunday?" Well yes I did. Because I have the best alarm clock in the world: A cat. You see Geiger really knows what time it is, (to answer the question put by the band Chicago, and yes he really cares). Precisely at 5:00 every morning Geiger wants to be fed. It doesn't matter if there is food in the dish. He knows what time it is and what is supposed to happen and if I'm not up then he starts hinting. Really it's a wonderful way to wake up. The weight on your chest, breathing in your ear, claws sinking into your clavicle. A raspy tongue tasting your carotid artery. It brings back memories of childhood. Not my childhood mind you. More like about three and a half million year old memories of a morning in Africa when an Australopithecus was about to have a really bad, albeit a short, day.
Anyway , so I was up at 5:00 this morning and as I staggered through the dark kitchen trying to not step on cats that decided that right now in the dark with a half asleep human crossing the room was the perfect time to flop over and beg for a belly rub, I glanced out the back window. There framed above the ridge was Orion. The consummate winter constellation. I stopped and gazed at it for a bit. Fall is nigh. Yesterday we noticed a touch of coolness, I wouldn't even call it a chill, in the air. Oh it's still sunny out. Warm if you're in the sun. People still play in the sea. Motorcycles are still zooming up and down the Island Highway. To all appearances summer is going strong. And yet there are little hints of what's to come. The slight coolness in the air. Winter constellations sneaking into the morning. The fact that the Hallmark store has their entire Christmas collection on display and Zellers has started to refill the Back-to-School aisle with cases of gift wrap and heavy coats.
Gotta love retail.
Speaking of retail, I mentioned last week that Marsha's brother Rick's house caught on fire. Well now they've inventoried all the stuff that is getting written off. Next they need to come up with prices for everything. We've been helping with this. They have been scanning copies of the inventory sheets and sending them to us by e-mail. We hunt up the prices on the web and then e-mail the completed sheets back. We've been doing pretty well too. So far we've completed 18 sheets and have been able to find almost all of the items. Thinks like "1, iPod Cable" or "12, Bath Towels", are right up our ally. We can hunt those down and get a good retail price in nothing flat. We have though, had to skip a few items, like the entry for "1, 12oz Rectangle", (a pan? a candy bar? a block of gold?) or my personal favourite from last night, one entry that said: "&, Brocoli Scung Mil" (I have no clue). But these are few and far between and I just chalked them up to fatigue on the part of those that did the really hard and dirty work of climbing through the scorched and soggy mess that is the house, digging all the stuff out and writing it down.
In addition to that my sister Jean and her husband, Ron came for a visit. They stayed with Barbara. As they said "You're great but Barbara has a coffee pot". We were able to see them a couple of times. It's always a lot of fun to sit and chat with them. On Tuesday we got together at Barbara's for dinner. Pretty much everyone was there and Barbara put on an absolute feast. Roast salmon, potatoes, corn, a couple of kinds of salads. Barbara is such a good cook that I even enjoyed her beet salad, and I normally can't stand beets. The wine flowed freely and we all had a wonderful time. Then on Friday we had another gathering at our place. We chatted and tossed back some beers. Marsha and I put on our own fantastic meal: the best that Pizza Hut had to offer. We had ordered the usual Veggie, Cheese, Meat, and Tuscan but when the pizza's arrived everyone was out on the deck and we hadn't told them what we'd ordered. I took a big felt pen and on the top of the boxes I wrote what kind of pizzas they were: Musk-Ox Burger, Squid & Salmon, Tofu & Eggplant, and Banana/Mango. The look on their faces when they came in was priceless. The evening went well we sat and chatted and a good time was had by all.
But as I started to say all the signs of fall are here. We've (well, mostly Marsha) has been tidying the yard, weeding and pruning. She picked up a couple of huge mum plants to set beside the front door. I pointed out that it made it impossible to get IN the front door so she moved them to the flower bed. Nonetheless it is pretty. I'm getting my telescope ready so I can pull it out on these clear fall mornings. Soon the kids will be back in school and we'll need to watch for many more people walking up and down our hill. Soon the rains will return and we won't have to worry about watering restrictions. Soon I will be wearing my coat again and for the first time in 4 months will finally have enough pockets for all the tools and phones I carry. I think Fall is my favourite time of year.
Here are some pictures of our yard, all ready for fall.
Well back to work. Anyone know where I can find a price on "15, HaDkoy Boogs"?
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Sunset
Gratuitous cute picture of Momiji in the guest room.
The rest of these show off all the work Marsha has done on the yard this year. The new flagstone path along the uphill side (It used to be weeds and nasty clay.) The complete overhaul of the backyard landscaping. The front yard that she's cleaned up and added a wonderful mulch and driftwood 'island'. There's a lot of hard work in all of this and it shows.
"Wait", I hear you saying. "You got up at 5AM on a Sunday?" Well yes I did. Because I have the best alarm clock in the world: A cat. You see Geiger really knows what time it is, (to answer the question put by the band Chicago, and yes he really cares). Precisely at 5:00 every morning Geiger wants to be fed. It doesn't matter if there is food in the dish. He knows what time it is and what is supposed to happen and if I'm not up then he starts hinting. Really it's a wonderful way to wake up. The weight on your chest, breathing in your ear, claws sinking into your clavicle. A raspy tongue tasting your carotid artery. It brings back memories of childhood. Not my childhood mind you. More like about three and a half million year old memories of a morning in Africa when an Australopithecus was about to have a really bad, albeit a short, day.
Anyway , so I was up at 5:00 this morning and as I staggered through the dark kitchen trying to not step on cats that decided that right now in the dark with a half asleep human crossing the room was the perfect time to flop over and beg for a belly rub, I glanced out the back window. There framed above the ridge was Orion. The consummate winter constellation. I stopped and gazed at it for a bit. Fall is nigh. Yesterday we noticed a touch of coolness, I wouldn't even call it a chill, in the air. Oh it's still sunny out. Warm if you're in the sun. People still play in the sea. Motorcycles are still zooming up and down the Island Highway. To all appearances summer is going strong. And yet there are little hints of what's to come. The slight coolness in the air. Winter constellations sneaking into the morning. The fact that the Hallmark store has their entire Christmas collection on display and Zellers has started to refill the Back-to-School aisle with cases of gift wrap and heavy coats.
Gotta love retail.
Speaking of retail, I mentioned last week that Marsha's brother Rick's house caught on fire. Well now they've inventoried all the stuff that is getting written off. Next they need to come up with prices for everything. We've been helping with this. They have been scanning copies of the inventory sheets and sending them to us by e-mail. We hunt up the prices on the web and then e-mail the completed sheets back. We've been doing pretty well too. So far we've completed 18 sheets and have been able to find almost all of the items. Thinks like "1, iPod Cable" or "12, Bath Towels", are right up our ally. We can hunt those down and get a good retail price in nothing flat. We have though, had to skip a few items, like the entry for "1, 12oz Rectangle", (a pan? a candy bar? a block of gold?) or my personal favourite from last night, one entry that said: "&, Brocoli Scung Mil" (I have no clue). But these are few and far between and I just chalked them up to fatigue on the part of those that did the really hard and dirty work of climbing through the scorched and soggy mess that is the house, digging all the stuff out and writing it down.
In addition to that my sister Jean and her husband, Ron came for a visit. They stayed with Barbara. As they said "You're great but Barbara has a coffee pot". We were able to see them a couple of times. It's always a lot of fun to sit and chat with them. On Tuesday we got together at Barbara's for dinner. Pretty much everyone was there and Barbara put on an absolute feast. Roast salmon, potatoes, corn, a couple of kinds of salads. Barbara is such a good cook that I even enjoyed her beet salad, and I normally can't stand beets. The wine flowed freely and we all had a wonderful time. Then on Friday we had another gathering at our place. We chatted and tossed back some beers. Marsha and I put on our own fantastic meal: the best that Pizza Hut had to offer. We had ordered the usual Veggie, Cheese, Meat, and Tuscan but when the pizza's arrived everyone was out on the deck and we hadn't told them what we'd ordered. I took a big felt pen and on the top of the boxes I wrote what kind of pizzas they were: Musk-Ox Burger, Squid & Salmon, Tofu & Eggplant, and Banana/Mango. The look on their faces when they came in was priceless. The evening went well we sat and chatted and a good time was had by all.
But as I started to say all the signs of fall are here. We've (well, mostly Marsha) has been tidying the yard, weeding and pruning. She picked up a couple of huge mum plants to set beside the front door. I pointed out that it made it impossible to get IN the front door so she moved them to the flower bed. Nonetheless it is pretty. I'm getting my telescope ready so I can pull it out on these clear fall mornings. Soon the kids will be back in school and we'll need to watch for many more people walking up and down our hill. Soon the rains will return and we won't have to worry about watering restrictions. Soon I will be wearing my coat again and for the first time in 4 months will finally have enough pockets for all the tools and phones I carry. I think Fall is my favourite time of year.
Here are some pictures of our yard, all ready for fall.
Well back to work. Anyone know where I can find a price on "15, HaDkoy Boogs"?
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Sunset
Gratuitous cute picture of Momiji in the guest room.
The rest of these show off all the work Marsha has done on the yard this year. The new flagstone path along the uphill side (It used to be weeds and nasty clay.) The complete overhaul of the backyard landscaping. The front yard that she's cleaned up and added a wonderful mulch and driftwood 'island'. There's a lot of hard work in all of this and it shows.