*Tap tap tap*...Is This Thing On

 I regularly lament my inactivity here. It's not that difficult. It doesn't take much time. And it provides for endless enjoyment to reflect back upon the small joys in life years later. I'm not going to make anymore vacant promises, but for myself I want to try to keep this up more.

Since April, I have moved into my new house. There was much drama surrounding the closing the residual findings of scumdum left by the previous owners.

• The deal closed and they hadn't left. I pulled up to a lawn and driveway covered in garbage bags. I wanted to rip her a new one for not vacating in time but I didn't want her to leave 10 tons of garbage behind so I squeaked out, "Well when do you think you'll be gone then?" Instead of a string of expletives that were boiling beneath the surface.
• The dishwasher first thought to be covered in calcium was unusable. The soap dispenser was broken, and the unit was filled, filled, filled with filth. I regret my decision to clean it out, but it at least made for a slightly nicer removal. The fridge also started leaking, but guess what, I REPLACED THEM BOTH *throws money in the air and spins between two new appliances*
• The downstairs sink had cat shit in it, so I had that replaced
• The central vac was broken
• The entire house was filled with cat hair and was uncleaned. It wasn't immediately apparently dirty but the filth was everywhere. I scrubbed that condo on my hands and knees until it shined, and then I checked every cupboard 5 more times to make sure they were all clean. I had to replace the shower rod as it was covered in rust and was absolutely disgusting. I'm not always on top of my cleaning, and I'm currently sitting beside a life-sized stack of empty boxes, but I would never present this to the world or sell & close without showing respect for the next buyers.
  
• And they also left shit all over the house. Including a razor and half a can of coke zero upstairs. Filth pigs. Oh, they left me a hose on a hose reel in the backyard, no it's broken, thanks guys.

But hey. I got a bunch of guys in to clean the ducts, steam the stairs, new appliances, new driveway, and then one more guy to bump out the dent in the garage since I smashed into it with a uhaul cube van ;)

Summer has been busy with trips across the city and up to TP. Sim and the fam came out for a visit in August. I dug out the backyard sand pit and bought 750 new lbs of sand to fill it back in. It was worth it for the few hours we sat out back and the girls dug to their heart's content. Rainbow slip and slide and unicorn bowling. All remnants of an amazing weekend which now exist in my basement. The bowling is still set up if anyone wants to stop by for some six pin.

I stopped working out after I moved. I had been in such a good routine at my parents' house, but the stress of fixing everything beavis and butthead left for me was overwhelming. My bank opened an extra line of credit in my name without my permission and my car had half a dozen repairs within the span of a month. And then trying to find my rhythm which was always sprinkled with exhaustion from weekend travels, after work grocery shops, and the dreaded lawn cuttings. I opted for an electric mower because I do not have time or patience for small engine repairs. So of course my first purchase was a lemon, which caused my great anguish like I was somehow too incompetent to use a plug and play mower. I had trouble getting it out of my trunk to start and could barely load it back in on my own. I made Home Depot fetch it from my car and reload the replacement. As I stood there and they evaluated the mower, the guy said where's the mulch bag? Oh hanging in my garage I replied. He cleverly took the mulch bag from the replacement to complete the return and let me on my way.

I participated in a veggie box program this summer and it was a complete failure. I found myself week after week being faced with buying either $6 bags of lettuce or turnips or beets or carrots which spoiled too quickly or potatoes. I have so many potatoes leftover from weeks of overflow. A few weekends I sent my mom to the market to pick up my goods. I would budget out what she could buy with my allowance credit. One week I told her the prices they quoted me, and they took attitude with her at the market and said she was wrong and they had always been a different price. (When two weeks of previous emails proved that statement wrong). When I heard that, I wanted to tear them apart. No one talks to my mom like that. So I sent a less than friendly emailing bluntly asking them to provide correct pricing in their weekly emails. And then the lady farmer pointed out how price depends on harvest size and that is clearly stated in their emails. Well, I'm pretty sure a pint of beans never changes size you absolute horrible excuse for a human. Today was the last pick-up. 18 weeks of over-priced and less than appealing veg. Next year I'll save my money and buy the veg I want, in the quantities I want, when I want. Broccoli and corn and cauliflower and every once in a while some beets. I have a great pickling recipe now I'm quite taken with.

A few weekends ago we had a company retreat up in Huntsville. 3 days and 2 nights paid for by the company. When we arrived we checked in and then almost immediately headed across the street to an ATV adventure sight. I almost didn't fit into their largest gear so that's a bit of an impetus to get back to my regular programming. It started out with a bit of a demo course practice. The place had this tarmac with a strip of bush in the middle. And it was legit. You had to stand up for half of the ride as the bike shook from side to side. There were two drop-offs which almost gave me a heart attack. The trainer said, do not brake. The ATV will self-manage the speed, just steer. I ended up nailing the last drop, only braking after I planed out and the track took a sharp turn. I almost hit a birch on the track, it was by the grace of the ATV gods that I didn't. I had to keep telling myself, this is all on me. There is no stopping. There is no turning back. No one is here to stop you from falling off the ledge and sliding down into the forest. No one is stopping you from slamming into a birch and causing a few Gs in damage to this beautiful machine. No one can get you out of this nightmare but yourself. And like some twisted motivational speech is worked and I made it out. I afterwards declared that it was a once in a lifetime experience. Because I would only do it once. And it's done, so moving on! We also took a group kayak the next day which was amazing. And though I trailed behind the pack, there was one guy worse than me. Sarah and I ended up travelling on the last day with the two other girls in the company and we met for lunch in Barrie and then the two travellers split and went to the airport and I dropped Sarah home and headed back to the 'Bourg.

Fall is upon us. I don't have many concrete plans, but I do have visions for the future. I have visions of bone broths and tasty soup. Knitting projects and homemade loafs of bread. A beautiful season of NFL with hopefully a handful of Sunday trips into town to visit the Heaths. And if I'm lucky, I might have a visitor next month that will help with some electrical DIYs that I would rather not touch with a 10ft pole. TBD

I picked up my pumpkins at Moore Orchards today. I have plans for a Mario theme. One of my pumpkins has a curly Q on the stem which has me swooning. Maybe that one will be Peach.