Monthly Archives: August 2006

At work we install double pane glass in all the old frames. Today I broke one of the specially made to measure half moon shaped panes. They made them slightly bigger than the template I provided and they don’t fit into the frames without me chiselling out some bits of the frame. In this one there was a hidden nail in the frame and when I applied some pressure to see where it was stuck, the glass cracked right at the point where the nail was. @#$#@$%$@!

The worse thing is that this is already the second one I broke, and these things are expensive. I have to pay for it myself so I basically I have to work a day and a half for nothing. Duh.

If you go down in the woods today you’re in for a big surprise
If you go down in the woods today you better go in disguise
For every bear that ever there was
will gather there together because
today is the day the Teddybears have their picnic

Every Teddybear that’s been good is in for a treat today
There’s lots of wonderful food to eat and marvelous games to play
Beneath the trees where nobody sees
they’ll hide and seek as long as they please
That is the way the Teddybears have their picnic

Picknick time for Teddybears
The little Teddybears are having a lovely time today
Watch them catch them unawares
And see them picnic on their holiday
See them gaily get about
They love to play and shout, they never have any cares
At six o’clock their mummies and daddies will take them home for bed
Cause they’re tired, little Teddybears

(There was also a cow, and some Montréal webloggers. And pigeoens, squirels, dogs and little kids. And geeks with big cameras, small cameras and poutine.)

So we went to the Canadian Tire, bought some cheap paddles (it’s a miracle how they can make wooden paddles in Canada for 15 bucks), and went back to ‘our’ lake. The canoe was still there, although it wasn’t hidden anymore, but just in the middle of the pebble beach. We loaded all our stuff in it and went exploring. The lake is quite big, in kind of a C-shape. On the narrow point in the middle of the C there are ruins of a house, that apparently burned down many years ago. Because the lake is now in use as a water reservoir, there are no cottages and you can’t use any motor boats. It is still a mystery to me why there aren’t a whole slew of other people but I don’t mind. At the north shore of the lake, we land on a rocky slab and enjoy the sun and the nice cooling water. Well, I did, Alison doesn’t like to swim. Poupoune however swam a lot, she couldn’t get enough of fetching the ball. At some point she was exhausted and cold, so I took her in the canoe so she could rest a bit. She is not very fond of paddling though so she probably was too anxious to really rest. Ah well, I enjoyed myself.

A lot of wooden steps had today’s hike in the Laurentians. Although it might have been good for my knee, it was rather boring. I felt a bit decieved that after driving quite long to get to a place you encounter a path that woudn’t stand out if it was located in a park. At the top there was a wooden platform and a view. Also there was a panel that explained how you should analyze the landscape.

Which is exactly what Alison is doing.

In order to be able to pay for the renovations on our house I currently renovate other people’s houses. It seems like I’m becoming a kitchen expert, but I also work on the windows and doors. Making them fit well; installing new hinges; making a new sill; making part of a new window frame; installing double pane glass. Slowly I become a real carpenter. It’s an old building under heritage so we can’t change much, everything has to be the same as it was. Strangely enough, we want to replace a recently added aluminum window with the original style wooden one and we can’t get a permit for that. Stupid city building inspectors…

On this kitchen I added some cabinet doors, salvaged from the kitchen on another floor. It still doesn’t looks good, but after we have installed a new countertop, new handles and done a paint job it will be just spiffy. Too bad the owner lacks the money to strip the 20 or so layers of old paint. It would be so much nicer if we did that, but it’s a time consuming and thus expensive job, and this apartment is a up to be rented. Maybe I can convince him to to it anyway, but i doubt it because we are over budget already.

In the never ending story of my frozen shoulder I went for a Distension Arthrography today. It’s a procedure were they inject a fluid straight into the shoulder joint so the joint opens up slightly and then you get a lot of physiotherapy to improve your range of motion. They do this under live X-ray (fluoroscopy) so they can see where the needle goes. It was quite fun to see your shoulder bones on a screen and to see them move while you do. But the fun didn’t last long because this procedure is quite painful. After it was done I couldn’t move my shoulder at all. The assistant said that was strange, and that surely this would go away after a while. And she was right. The cortisone they injected as well is probably kicking in, because the pain is much less now. I just did my exercises and indeed, I can flex my shoulder much farther. Before I could barely give the Hitler salute, and now I can reach for a plum in the plum tree. But the plums in our plum tree aren’t ripe yet. So instead I use and ice pack of frozen peas. Sorry, the last sentences don’t make much sense but I’m probably under the influence of all the drugs. A lame excuse but whatever.

Still it’s a big improvement.. My shoulder makes funny noises, of moving fluid, but as long as it’s not too painful I don’t mind. I thought I couldn’t work today but I think I’m heading out anyway