May 23 2008
After
(Now I have to clean the rest of the house; lots of sawdust there…)
home
May 22 2008
Team
Before we can start using the new bookcases our special test team has to test its integrity. We were slightly worried before they started the rigourous tests but that proved unnecessary: the bookcases passed with very high scores.
So now we have to unpack the boxes of books and put them into the bookcases. I think they’re nicer now in their virginal white state, but I don’t have a say.
May 16 2008
Paint
After a lot of work (and some paid contracts in between for distraction) I can finally start painting the bookcases. But first the ceiling and walls of the living room need a coat of paint. You don’t want any splatters on the new bookcases.
When Alison moved in our appartment, the previous tenant had just painted it. “It still needs another coat, shall I do that?,” she asked. But Alison hated the drab brown colour so she replied her not to bother. It took her 13 years to find someone to do it for her, but today, at long last, the brown is gone. It’s a very light pink now, and it looks great.
Painting the bookcases, the shelves and the mouldings is more work than the ceiling and walls; it is going to be painted white and it will at least take 3 coats.
I hate painting. It’s stupid work but you still have to stay concentrated in order to prevent leaving streaks and blobs. And the water based paints dry so quickly that you really need to work fast and still be precise. Ah well, in a few days it will be all done. I can’t wait to see the results.
May 15 2008
Pruning
Pruning the maple so our tenants can use their washing lines. It’s a yearly ritual, but this time I used a tall ladder to be able to saw off a branch that was very high up. I attached the top of the ladder to the tree with a sling, so it wouldn’t slide off the tree and fall down. It was windy so the branches were moving and I got a little seasick.
This is of course part of the master plan to be a good landlord. I’m sure the tenants won’t even notice that the tree has been pruned. But who knows, maybe next year they won’t refuse the rent increase. There is some improvement on that front; this year only 2 out of 4 refused.
May 13 2008
Finger
You really have to entice Pepe to start eating the special low protein food he gets to prevent his kidneys to deteriorate . Mix the food with peanut butter and water. Heat it up in the microwave. Dip your finger in it, put it in front of him. He looks elsewhere. Try again. Wipe some food on his lips so he licks it off. Sometimes he start eating then, sometimes he doesn’t. If not, try harder. Often we present two kinds of food so he has another choice and can decide that food A is worse than food B so he’ll eat some of food A, gets into it and then also tries food B.
If after that he still doesn’t want to eat we put the food away so Poupoune doesn’t eat it and try again in a few hours.
All in all he’s doing quite well on the new regime. He gained some weight and in general seems to be happy and in good health.
Apr 23 2008
Final
The final patch of snow, bravely holding out against the warm weather of the past two weeks. Thanks to the eternal shade of the neighbour’s garage and being part of a huge pile of compacted snow it was able to survive until today. Tomorrow it will be gone.
The humongous piles of compacted snow did quite some damage to Alison’s dogwood shrubs. I can’t wait to see all the plants turn green and the many firns we planted last year to unroll their heads. Very soon it will be summer.
Apr 21 2008
Stretch
The results of the MRI are in:
- A Baker’s cyst 3 x 2 x 4 cm
- Old minor tear at the lateral meniscus
- Grade I-II patellar chondrosis
- Osteophytosis at the medial trochlea
If you’re interested you can Google what this all means. Basically I have fluid in my knee, and the cartilage behind my knee cap is damaged. There is also a small bone spur, a bone that the body makes to make up for a lack of cartilage. Unfortunately that is not a good plan and over time this can get very painful when that bone hits other bone.
I’m going to have physiotherapy and have to do a lot of stretching and strengthen exercises. They hurt.
And my doctor referred me to an orthopaedist. He’ll probably see me in 6 to 9 months.
Apr 16 2008
Before
I finally started building built-in bookcases in our living room. It was long overdue but I was just too busy with other things to make something for ourselves.
Here’s an artist impression of how it will look like in a few weeks.
Apart from the bookcases there will be drawers for CDs and a big shelf for Alison to put plants on. After the bookcases, one in every corner, are finished, my books can finally leave the boxes that they inhabited for the past four and a half years. I don’t even remember which books I brought to Canada and which I left behind.
While temporarily putting Alison’s books and the books I collected over the past years into boxes I felt very sad. It somehow seemed I was moving out, instead of building something new. Fortunately that feeling didn’t last long, but I surely hope I didn’t suddenly became clairvoyant…
Apr 6 2008
Candles
44 candles, and I managed to blow them all out at once but one.
Alison baked this cake, a Gugelhupf or something. It turned out to be very bready, so I suggested to top it with icing. That worked well and the result was delicious. A really sweet birthday cake.
My mood has lifted today (Yay!), so Alison invited (and instructed me to invite) some friends to come and eat the cake. Of course it was very last minute, she had to see if I was feeling well enough to cope with visitors. On top of that it is beautiful, almost-spring weather so we just left a lot of messages on answering machines, hoping that at least somebody would show up. Two people did and we had a good time.
Jun 10 2008
Crime
Ever lived on the wrong side of a crime scene tape?
I do now.
Don’t get too alarmed though, it’s (un)fortunately not as “Journal de Montréal” as it sounds. I heard a big bang in the front of the house. High winds preluding a thunderstorm had broken off a big branch of “our” erable and it had landed smack on our and the neighbour’s fence. It was just small enough that I managed to move it aside since it blocked the sidewalk. Then I went inside because it started to rain heavily. Ten minutes later the police had put up this tape. I thought it was overkill until I investigated the tree overhead. There is another branch broken off and the only thing that keeps it from falling to the ground is the power line entering the neighbour’s house. So that crime scene tape is maybe not such a bad idea.
Why we don’t have subterranian power lines like in Europe (also in Scandinavia! so don’t give me the snow argument) is of course another topic of discussion.
By mare • english, home, montréal •