Recent Developments

Don’t let that title fool you into thinking this will be wildly interesting. 

First off I’d like to talk about eavestrough.  The instalation has been a long drawn out process which started before our freak snowstorm with some guys showing up at the house and ripping the old stuff off the garage.  Then of course they couldn’t work in the wretched weather, so we were able to fret about the ice in front of the garage door and the icicles hanging in a neat little row above that, waiting to kill us.  Once it warmed up it took a couple of long days to get the job done, with an incredible number of ladders and pieces of stuff littering both front and back lawns and the whole driveway, making coming and going more challenging than usual.  Then I got to write a cheque for an amount that was easily nine hundred dollars more than the estimate.  Apparently W. added a few upgrades.  Like some kind of leaf guard thing.  We did discuss that one sort of;  I remember asking if it was really necessary.  Like, how much of a leaf problem do we have?  I reminded him that he practically dwarfed our only big tree in the back yard, having it cut back so severely that it looks deformed.  It’s not like we’re living in the middle of a forest.  Leaves fall off briefly once a year.  Our neigbour just had a big tree on the other side of our fence removed so he can put in a garage, and that tree was 90% of the (in my mind very minute) problem.  W.  said he supposed he could get up there with a hose and flush out the clogs if he had to.  It appears he had second thoughts on that one that he didn’t share with me.  Then there’s the width of the gutters.  If we ever have a monsoon we’ll be okay.  I get that the damn things are necessary to carry-run off from the roof away from the house but that’s about as pumped up as I can get about eavestrough.  W. on the other hand, took the eavestroughing excitement to a whole new level.  In the pouring rain he went out the front door and stood on the front lawn admiring the awesome workmanship.  He came in and went out the back door and stood in the back yard doing the same thing I guess.  Then he stood in the driveway for awhile gazing up.  He blathered on and on about the great job, the seamlessness, the amazing down spouts, and how we will never again have to replace it.  Gawd, I hope not.  And he was ecstatically happy about the fact that they weren’t leaking.  How in the hell can you see that they’re not leaking in a downpour?  Everything is dripping wet.  Including you.  Amazing.  I wasn’t referring to what he thought,  but he was satisfied with that comment.    

I had Kenzie for the weekend, then dropped her off at her dad’s on Sunday night.  We had a great time!  Did some serious shopping, getting some pink sketchers and a couple of great books.  Pirateology (because she had borrowed it from the school library and LOVED it)  and Dragonology because grandma likes to buy things in twos.  And a seal puppet that I had to be convinced was necessary, and of course turned out to be the favourite thing that never left her left arm even while sleeping.  We also picked out a nice Mother’s day gift for her mom, and I hope she remembered to get her dad to help her make a card.  And then we went to Montana’s for lunch.  On the kid’s menu there’s a couple of speach bubbles on the coloring portion where it suggests that you give the deer and the moose something funny to say.  So she made the moose say BURP and the deer say HAHAHA.  There’s nothing quite like the humor of a seven year old. 

The rest of the weekend she spent with the two little girls next door (they’re much younger, but they have a trampoline), plus the beautiful little red haired girl who sometimes comes to have a sleepover with her grandma, two doors down.  One of their games involved an incredible amount of running around and screaming.  I learned later that they had invented an illusive ghost that could be spotted by any one of them pretty much anywhere, and when sighted he caused everyone to run away in terror, because if he got too close he could cut off their heads.  How delightful.  I wonder what kind of nightmares that caused. 

On May long weekend I’ll be driving up north to look after my other three grandchildren while their moms go to see Kid’s In The Hall here.  Dressed as the Sizzler Sisters?  I think I got that right.  They’ll have a fun time, being the KITH’s biggest fans.  Having me go up there seemed like a much better plan than having to bring three kids and two dogs here.   This is happening while W. and son are off to Ontario for their spring fishing trip. 

And that’s my life up to the minute.  I’m looking forward to life on my own for a couple of weeks.  Perhaps I can out-do the whole eavestrough thing with a much needed inside renovation of my own.  Because when we’re finally selling this house I would bet my life on the fact that no woman will be standing on the lawn with her husband admiring the down spouts.