...leaky roof...Gotchya!

Just a follow up to the last post.

Rob and Sylvia's house actually looks like this:


Mission accomplished...Rob called around and left messages with me and his tenants, and fired off a few inquiring emails (read: "I had no idea work was being done to the house."). Eventually he got on the horn with Ryan who had the privilege of snickering while having Rob casually ask about his house. At that point it was revealed that he had been taken by our conspiracy. Definitely worth the hour of digital image manipulation.

It's just our way of showing that we haven't forgotten about you guys!

early morning walks and leaky roofs...

The last couple of days I have a canine alarm clock. At around 6:30 (am!) I hear the ticking of claws on the wood floors, followed by a snout at bed level poking at my hand. Being early and a beautiful morning I thought to bring my camera along for the morning walk. Well...more like a sniff & crap...but anyway, on through the alleys. Cruising by the Serrouya-Woods house I saw the work that has been done(so far?) on the purported leaky roof.

Whoever is working on it, I hope they thought to cover that strange black hole-like thing before the torrential shower this afternoon. I think Loki pissed on their fence as I was taking the picture. The subsequent attempts at sunrise pics didn't turn out. But the 7:00am Modern sure did!

touching my void...

Have you ever had that "just moved in" feeling? I have. I was lucky enough to be reincarnated into a child belonging to parents who are chronic movers. Since I've been around I've participated in about 11 of their 14 moves. Now, I'm not criticizing this...I know the finger points both ways. Since my 11 moves with them, I've tacked on an additional 20 permanent residences, not counting tents, cars, and long-term couch surfing. So, back to that "just moved in" feeling...your stuff is generally confined to a couple of rooms. As you shuffle around opening doors, wondering where you'll put your 'stuff', you're reminded of the fact that it's a fresh dwelling by that empty sound. A sort of a hollowness that you can feel.

Funny that. Lately I get that fresh, "just moved in" feeling all the time! I sort of like it...for the time being anyway...before I become lonely...or before I become the brunt of "empty" humour.

Here's a little collage depicting the emptiness of my house....


...the barren floors
...the desolate shelves
...the desertified rooms
...the exposed, forsaken bath tub (showers have become a challenge...I point the nozzle towards the wall and hope for the best)
...the linen closet wasteland

I liken it to the Death Valley of homes.

But, all is not lost! Amongst the vast arid wood floor landscapes inhabited only by the occasional feral dust bunny there lies hope. Hope in the new beginning.

I present to you the Phoenix of 7th street...which was once banished to the garage(Hades) in favour of higher quality, survived over a year of harsh elements...now rises from the dust...

My box of kitchen "stuff"!

The Phoenix may fill some voids but other voids must be filled by adaptation. Not to be confused with evolution(which doesn't exist). What is one thing that always seems to inhabit a home and serves no useful purpose in the modern day of the internet? Give up? The YELLOW PAGES!! Yours truly couldn't find his cutting board in the belly of Phoenix but I did find the ever-lingering and mostly cursed and unwelcome YP in drawer.

Voila...


So. There you go. I may be having my own little "Into the Wild" episode here but at least the old Yellow Pages are here to save my ass. (not only save it...I can think of other uses for YP!)

The Yellow Pages, the Higgs Boson of my void. Who would have though?

nieces, Brownian Motion style

My stochastic existence yesterday took me to my sister's place for a little surprise visit. Having not visited in a while it took a few minutes to convert the shyness of my nieces into the little clinging monkeys that I so enjoy. It's pretty neat to see their personalities and interests develop. Ember, junior nature nerd, is 4 and Ivy the analyzer is just about 2.

Being a nice day outside we quickly suited up for adventures at the park. Crossing the street, soccer, blowing dandelions and disaster containment led us to the "wee wees" (Ivy-speak for swings) where we hung out for a while. Ember had Erika to explain the various cloud types, including the term "nimbus" (which I learned means a cloud that produces rain). I had Ivy on my lap who was busy saying "weee, weee", punctuated by the odd "dat" while pointing at something.

Round 2 outside, after a bathroom intermission, took us to a little community garden across the street. Ember and Erika bee-lined for the veggie patch to learn the names of all the plants, which flowers were edible, why some tomatoes are green and some red. It seemed she was already quite familiar with all that but still needed some pronunciation tips for "nasturtiums". Before joining the veggie patch, Ivy directed us to a rototiller on the periphery of the scene. Encountering no resistance from me, we had a "basics of rototiller 1" lecture...covering the blades ("dangerous, don't touch"), the motor("moves it"), spark plug("zaps"), exhaust("hot"), and the control panel. The throttle had little icons of a turtle ("slow") and a rabbit ("fast") which she seemed to enjoy (mental note: revisit this interface once the rabbit and hare story+analogy has been learned). I can't wait for rototiller-2 and 3 where we'll cover "magnetos", "2 vs 4 stroke", and the differences between a rototiller drive("horizontal"...good for go-carts) and "vertical"(typical, useless lawn mower).

On to the jungle gyms, slides, and stuff. Many ups and downs, near misses, don't throw rocks at other kids lessons, that's dangerous lessons kept us on our toes for a while. Eventually, getting bored with the play structure, Ember wandered over to a tiny tree aka "baby pine" and started gently covering its base with pine needles and other organics collected from the area. "it'll keep it warm so it'll grow big and the pine beetle won't get it and I'll water it too" was the motivation. She's quite fascinated by the pine beetle and was eager to hear from me that the beetle only eats a teeny bit of the bark inside the tree but then the whole thing dies...she ran over to Erika and explained word-for-word this new revelation...and, in return, learned the term "phloem layer"...Erika's replacement for my "teeny bit" vocab.

Turning to locate Ivy, and possible trouble, I was relieved to see her taking a look at the playground's modular construction...the joints, pipes, and bolts. We learned about "Allen bolts" and made a game of trying to find as many as possible. This reached a mini-crescendo when we happened upon a "different" type of bolt. I started in on the differences between Allen bolts and the newly discovered "torx" bolt but she just laughed at me. I don't know quite how to take that...I'd like to think that she's just a toddler and can't comprehend such things but I reckon closer to the truth is that her mental capacity to learn far outstrips my own and the the bolts being different is such an obvious, and thus hilarious, fact to make a lesson about.

Before going inside, Ivy and I decided to take a peek at my bike that was suspended off the back of my car. Turning the front wheel proved to be a hit...as did the chain ring when her head smashed into it. As the bawling decibels ramped up I gave her a little hug and started to quickly explain the bicycle sprocket and drive train. After about 3 seconds her knowledge receptors overtook her pain receptors and she eagerly soaked in some basics. I left out "gear ratios" but pretty much covered everything else...including the tactile element of "pointy and hard" ...and also "dirty". A careful touch of the end of a chain ring cog with the tip of her finger led to some giggles. Ember then demonstrated the proper method of "ducking under" the pointy and dirty parts of the bike while I explained the technique. "Bikes are cool" would be the net result of that interaction.


Ember explaining something to me...


Ivy enjoying life...


Happy sibs...


Happy feet...


Ivy and uncle John...


Hugs!


Belly button...


Cuddle puddle...