It's Been A Week....Or Three

I haven't given up on the revival, yet. I just had company for a week. And then I had a week of missing company. And here I am back. I went to stay at Sim's the night before Halloween. I carved what can only be categorized as a labour of love. It literally took me hours. And when Sim offered to let Pippa try out her cutting skills I may have barked no. Ok, I barked. Not my proudest moment. Now that the girls are getting old enough, maybe it will be my last year for pumpkins.

I left TO in the morning and drove out to Zurich to pick up Steve. We talked about him taking transit, but the route was near impossible with about 5 transfers. I insisted on picking him up. We drove back into Cobourg in the middle of trick or treating. I was worried the light I had left in Bowser might give the impression that I was home. But no fear, the toothless former dictator with a pathetic electric tea light against a backdrop of dark windows created no such illusion. We probably only had about 15 kids come to the door, with about 6 knocks in total. The first was a kid which declared "I USED TO LIVE IN THIS HOUSE." I was a bit taken aback as I despise the trash monsters who sold to me, but I think it was perhaps one family before that.

I can only describe the week that followed as one of my more enjoyable weeks living here. I did the shopping and the meal prep and Steve whipped my property into shape before my eyes. Highlight was definitely taking down the birch in the back yard. With a nylon rope tied around the tree, Steve made strategic cuts and told me to pull. And we crossed our fingers that it didn't hit the fence...or me. It was an adrenaline rush. My heart was beating out of my chest like I couldn't believe. And then down came the second trunk and we were done with the scary bits. Steve also took the opportunity then to trim the nubs off the sandbox cover I made so it was a perfect square (we later screwed it onto the box with hinges I had picked up). If I had given it proper thought I would have stuck with my barn door design, but I'm still quite taken with it as it is now. I went back to work, and every time I looked out more of the cleanup was done. He limbed the entire two trees and moved the logs to the back. I helped pickup wood debris and he raked the entire yarn. He even raked the sandbox which had amassed a small pile of leaves. I went back out after work and cut the trunk into a few dozen pieces, and then we zipped through the limbs and cut them down as well. And all the while as the tree was being dismantled he had a roaring fire going. First with the brush that I had cut down in June, and then with the brush Spence had cut down in August, and finally with the birch itself. We had fires every day and night following the felling. Steve cleaned my garage. Rearranged everything in my shed. Hung the busted bad choice plywood I bought for the sandbox without measuring first up on the walls and hung all of my outdoor tools on them. My heart swells when I think about all the things he did for me. I actually wanted for him to have a relaxing week, and maybe just help me take the tree down, but he outdid himself. And then when it got too cold we'd go inside watch action movies I had no idea existed on Netflix. I miss him. But I also enjoy walking around in my underwear and having cereal for dinner if I'm feeling lazy. Russ probably misses him too. My backyard is far less active or exciting without him. Nothing for Russ to spy on. Only hitch of the week was locking myself out on Friday morning. But I finally had a reason to go talk to my two doors down neighbours, and also followed that up with a stop into the Cafe one of them owns on Saturday.

 

A tiny christmas tree currently adorns my front hallway. I'm going to look for my bag of christmas decorations and maybe try to make it a bit festive in here this year. If my house were a Wheel of Fortune Before & After it would be, A Christmas Carroll Cres. I think I should make some sort of elaborate Cross stitch with that phrase on it.

I feel like things are kind of coming together for me. I finally rehung the living room wall art. The HRV filters I ordered online have finally shipped and will arrive this week. I have Lily's gift purchased with a cute card to go with it. I'm slowly getting thru recycling all the broken down boxes I was collecting in the garage. Steve arranged them in boxes said I should put them all out and see if they'd take it, but one week I came home and my bins were strewn across my driveway and everyone else on the street was neatly stacked, and I've been scared of annoying them ever since. Not sure what I did wrong the first time either.

I have a few trips into Toronto on deck. My winter tires are going on this week. I'm actually surprised they could fit me in with such short notice.

And yeah, that's all. I might come back and throw in some photos to round out this tri-week post.