05 August 2012
Moving Day
05/08/12 05:37
China had the Long March. The US had Valley Forge. We had Moving Barbara.
OK maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole but it was a lot of hard work. People were packing and moving boxes nearly every day this week. Wednesday they had a truck so they got much of the smaller furniture moved. Every day they moved a bit and so by Saturday the house was looking fairly empty. Saturday was important because it was all-hands-on-deck, everyone that could come out did, the big push to finish day. The good news was that we did not have rain. The bad news was that it was over 30 degrees (that’s over 90 for those of you in the colonies). Saturday was also important because it was the first time I could do anything of value. You see all week I was “working” at the “office” and so I could not take part. I was so “disappointed” to not be able to help but that’s the way it was. But Saturday I made up for it. I picked up the truck at 8:00 a.m.. We got every thing packed, loaded, unloaded and the truck returned by 12:00. It helped that we had a total of ten people sharing the load, but I really feel that my 2.5% of the work made all the difference.
The cats were another story. Mind you they had already left their mark on the move. We found something like a dozen rodent mummies underneath furniture, including at least one flat piece of mouse-jerky under the rug. Then when all the commotion started the two cats just avoided the house completely. Barbara had decided to move the stuff first then catch the cats and bring them over once things had quieted down. Great in theory, but in practice, a bit trickier. After things had calmed down a bit we went over, found Sesame hanging around. We stuffed her in the carrier and brought her to the new place. She was clingy and scared at first but after a while started to settle in. Cosmo, however, was nowhere to be seen. We went back over to the old place around 7:30 that night but saw no sign of him. We sat around the back yard chatting with Barbara for a half an hour. Finally as we were just getting ready to go he wandered in, all edgy and frightened. We picked him up and petted him and talked to him. Then just as he was starting to get calmed down, we stuffed him in the carrier and headed down the road. He was not a happy cat when we got to the new place. We let him loose in the new house and he paced up and down, obviously frightened. Even Sesame and Barbara couldn’t calm him down. Marsha took him into the bedroom and he recognized the bed. He curled up on the floor under the bed and finally he seemed to be starting to relax. Sesame too was beginning to get acclimated to the new place so after the rough start it looked like things were finishing up well. Marsha and I departed, went home and fell into a deep sleep, utterly exhausted from the days work.
Sunday Mike came by and gave us an update. In the night the cats had dislodged a screen in the bedroom and were gone. He’d been looking for them but there was no sign either around the new place or the old. We’ll see how that turns out. We think they have tattoos in their ears so if they are picked up they can be traced back to Barbara. If they aren’t found though, Barbara has mentioned getting another cat. We may push her toward a nice older, indoor cat that doesn’t leave carcasses underneath the furniture, but we’ll see what happens.
In all fairness we also had a couple of projects going. Last weekend we painted 300 linear feet of cedar siding for the side of the garage. It used to have a really ratty shed on there that I pulled down a few weeks ago. Then on Wednesday our friend Dave came by and put on the new siding. It looks much better now. There’s just a few things to trim out and that project will be done. This week we also met with a designer and the contractor for another project: the conversion of the garage into a useful space. The quote will arrive next week and if it isn't too horrendous we'll give them the go ahead on the first part of that. In preparation for the possible work in the garage I've been doing a lot of the demolition in the space. Pulling the ceiling and the wallboard down mostly. Like I told the contractor, I don't mind getting my hands dirty and I'm good at breaking things.
Of course the Olympics are still going on. I’ve not been watching a lot of it but I have caught a few events. Two things did catch my eye though. First Rona is the big home improvement company up here (it’s like Lowes but better). They have a great commercial running during the Olympics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvEQtdtDuQk
In case you don’t catch it, they go all the way across Canada.
The other noteworthy ad was the one for Discover America, a tourism campaign:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcfbdiiEQDM
For a long time the ad made no sense to us. We must have seen it a dozen times before we realized that they were singing “Land of Dreams”, not “Lemon Tree”. I guess we’re just not tuned to the twang of country music any more.
But all is well. Tonight we’ll stay up to watch the landing of the Curiosity probe on Mars. Where Spirit and Odyssey are the size of a large suitcase, Curiosity is the size of my Mini Cooper. Where the earlier rovers were designed to last 90 days and lasted for years, Curiosity was designed with nuclear power and engineered for a primary mission of one Martian year (nearly two Earth years). If the previous missions are any guide it could last a decade or more. Of course it’s all assuming the complex, multi step, untried, landing system including a rocked powered sky crane to set the rover on the surface works as planned.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Monday is BC day. We get a holiday and a short work week. Marsha departs for Minnesota on Thursday and the drunken debauchery starts Friday. Of course, those of you that know me know that my version of drunken debauchery is me, the cats, a 2 litre of diet caffeine free Mountain Dew and a Dr. Who video.
Woo Hoo. Paaaaaarty!
Doug & Marsha
Here is a picture of that Citroen I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Notice the sky and clouds reflected in the hood.
Barbara's new place.
OK maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole but it was a lot of hard work. People were packing and moving boxes nearly every day this week. Wednesday they had a truck so they got much of the smaller furniture moved. Every day they moved a bit and so by Saturday the house was looking fairly empty. Saturday was important because it was all-hands-on-deck, everyone that could come out did, the big push to finish day. The good news was that we did not have rain. The bad news was that it was over 30 degrees (that’s over 90 for those of you in the colonies). Saturday was also important because it was the first time I could do anything of value. You see all week I was “working” at the “office” and so I could not take part. I was so “disappointed” to not be able to help but that’s the way it was. But Saturday I made up for it. I picked up the truck at 8:00 a.m.. We got every thing packed, loaded, unloaded and the truck returned by 12:00. It helped that we had a total of ten people sharing the load, but I really feel that my 2.5% of the work made all the difference.
The cats were another story. Mind you they had already left their mark on the move. We found something like a dozen rodent mummies underneath furniture, including at least one flat piece of mouse-jerky under the rug. Then when all the commotion started the two cats just avoided the house completely. Barbara had decided to move the stuff first then catch the cats and bring them over once things had quieted down. Great in theory, but in practice, a bit trickier. After things had calmed down a bit we went over, found Sesame hanging around. We stuffed her in the carrier and brought her to the new place. She was clingy and scared at first but after a while started to settle in. Cosmo, however, was nowhere to be seen. We went back over to the old place around 7:30 that night but saw no sign of him. We sat around the back yard chatting with Barbara for a half an hour. Finally as we were just getting ready to go he wandered in, all edgy and frightened. We picked him up and petted him and talked to him. Then just as he was starting to get calmed down, we stuffed him in the carrier and headed down the road. He was not a happy cat when we got to the new place. We let him loose in the new house and he paced up and down, obviously frightened. Even Sesame and Barbara couldn’t calm him down. Marsha took him into the bedroom and he recognized the bed. He curled up on the floor under the bed and finally he seemed to be starting to relax. Sesame too was beginning to get acclimated to the new place so after the rough start it looked like things were finishing up well. Marsha and I departed, went home and fell into a deep sleep, utterly exhausted from the days work.
Sunday Mike came by and gave us an update. In the night the cats had dislodged a screen in the bedroom and were gone. He’d been looking for them but there was no sign either around the new place or the old. We’ll see how that turns out. We think they have tattoos in their ears so if they are picked up they can be traced back to Barbara. If they aren’t found though, Barbara has mentioned getting another cat. We may push her toward a nice older, indoor cat that doesn’t leave carcasses underneath the furniture, but we’ll see what happens.
In all fairness we also had a couple of projects going. Last weekend we painted 300 linear feet of cedar siding for the side of the garage. It used to have a really ratty shed on there that I pulled down a few weeks ago. Then on Wednesday our friend Dave came by and put on the new siding. It looks much better now. There’s just a few things to trim out and that project will be done. This week we also met with a designer and the contractor for another project: the conversion of the garage into a useful space. The quote will arrive next week and if it isn't too horrendous we'll give them the go ahead on the first part of that. In preparation for the possible work in the garage I've been doing a lot of the demolition in the space. Pulling the ceiling and the wallboard down mostly. Like I told the contractor, I don't mind getting my hands dirty and I'm good at breaking things.
Of course the Olympics are still going on. I’ve not been watching a lot of it but I have caught a few events. Two things did catch my eye though. First Rona is the big home improvement company up here (it’s like Lowes but better). They have a great commercial running during the Olympics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvEQtdtDuQk
In case you don’t catch it, they go all the way across Canada.
The other noteworthy ad was the one for Discover America, a tourism campaign:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcfbdiiEQDM
For a long time the ad made no sense to us. We must have seen it a dozen times before we realized that they were singing “Land of Dreams”, not “Lemon Tree”. I guess we’re just not tuned to the twang of country music any more.
But all is well. Tonight we’ll stay up to watch the landing of the Curiosity probe on Mars. Where Spirit and Odyssey are the size of a large suitcase, Curiosity is the size of my Mini Cooper. Where the earlier rovers were designed to last 90 days and lasted for years, Curiosity was designed with nuclear power and engineered for a primary mission of one Martian year (nearly two Earth years). If the previous missions are any guide it could last a decade or more. Of course it’s all assuming the complex, multi step, untried, landing system including a rocked powered sky crane to set the rover on the surface works as planned.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Monday is BC day. We get a holiday and a short work week. Marsha departs for Minnesota on Thursday and the drunken debauchery starts Friday. Of course, those of you that know me know that my version of drunken debauchery is me, the cats, a 2 litre of diet caffeine free Mountain Dew and a Dr. Who video.
Woo Hoo. Paaaaaarty!
Doug & Marsha
Here is a picture of that Citroen I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Notice the sky and clouds reflected in the hood.
Barbara's new place.