July!

And so today is the last day of July. It sort of slipped by, but still a bunch of things happened.

First we saw a little Royal splendor on Canada day. (See the previous post.) That is also the point where mother nature was suddenly done with her ridiculously wet spring and ripped open her grab bag of heat waves. A little bit of a sudden adjustment for us! By mid month we were setting temperature records.  Still we were trying not to use our very old central air conditioner. Hydro rates are through the roof, and the unit clearly has only little life left. Sometimes when you turn it off, it makes the most awful noises.

A lot of time was suddenly spent lounging about, reading and enjoying the fact that summer is finally here and not getting overheated. Still a few things did happen. And in the evenings once it was cool enough I pulled lawn ivy or creeping Charley or whatever you call this annoyingly resilient weed. It's like untangling your lawn by hand, because you have to get every singe piece of it, or it will grow back. I expect this to be a multi-year project, but I want to put a dent in it this year, or I may lose my lawn, it will completely take over and choke out the grass. Since they banned chemicals here, all I have against this is elbow grease.

Early in the month we finally finished our living room.  We never really knew what to do with this long and narrow space. Initially we had a "formal" dining area in the front, and sofa and chairs in the back. Many little tweaks were made to this arrangement, but it never worked well, because the space is just too small for it. We always ate in the kitchen when we entertained, simply because there was more space, and it is more convenient.

Earlier this year we decided the "dining room" had to go, and a new and bigger (and further extendable) kitchen table was acquired.  The dining room chairs are now also all in the kitchen with this bigger table, which left a table in the old dining room area with no chairs. That stayed like that for a while, because we could not find what we wanted to put there.

But eventually you do run into the right stuff. Ikea to the rescue, to make it all affordable!

The completed living room - a 12 year project........

 .......and the other end.

In the middle of the month Annemiek, BJ and Frederique came over to our house. I had not seen Annemiek since 1982, and only recently reconnected via facebook. They toured New York state, Ontario and Quebec this year, and therefore had the opportunity to stop by for a BBQ. Luckily it was just cooled down enough that we could sit outside before dinner, because it had been a scorcher all day. We had a great time together!

Unluckily the photographer did not take a single picture that evening.........odd.

Our collective agreement was settled after many months of stress, and so that was off our minds too. With the possible strike threat gone, we both put in for our vacation in September. We were not expecting this problem to be resolved over the summer, so we had made no decisions what we are going to do or where to go during this vacation, but we will figure that out. (And faster than the living room, I am sure.)

Oh and then the car caught fire...........yeah.........

The photographer's 20 year old "baby" was in the shop for new gas lines. We waited for back ordered parts for SEVEN weeks (disadvantage of a 20 year old non domestic car) and then got the call it was done. While we settled the bill they were going to wash the car. I had already left at this point. When they pulled it into the wash bay, the engine was on fire.

They put it out very quickly, but it was the last straw. Fifteen years ago, we also had a mechanic set an old car on fire in his garage. He was welding an exhaust part, and there was a tiny hole in the floor. The damage was extensive, but our budget was very different then, so he was told it needed to be fixed. The mechanic ordered a same model car from a scrap yard, and used the parts to fix the car. As you can suspect, it was never the same, and niggly problems kept surfacing.

After ruminating on replacing the car for the last little while anyways, we exchanged the 20 year old for a 5 year old, and they were very reasonable about making the deal. Although you can make a case that this is their fault, I certainly feel that they stepped up to the plate in dealing with it, and at the end of the day, that is all you can ask. If all goes well the detailing and small repairs will be completed Tuesday, and we will pick it up then.

Cruel, at the beginning of a week.......

Goodbye

Hello......soon.

Yesterday it was hot, but not humid. The kind of day where sitting in the shade is divine. So we tried to find this bird sanctuary on a lake nearby, figuring there might be some great photo-ops. But it turned out to be a true sanctuary, no paths, no nothing, and therefore not for us. Moving on we ended up in Perth, and sat at the edge of the water in the park. We watched people set up chairs for a wedding nearby, had a coffee in a cute coffee shop, walked around the park and relaxed. It was so nice, I could have pitched a tent and stayed there.

Tay River, Stewart Park, Perth.

I can't believe tomorrow is already August.