Weekly Musings of the 17th

 

Yup, it was back to hot, hazy and humid and for added fun the smoke from the wild-fires in Northern Ontario have drifted down through most of the province and it just isn't a good idea to go outside for long.

One of the mornings I decided it would be smarter to go for my 30 minute walk with a mask on which helped a lot.  

This morning was finally cooler but the smoke is still hanging around. On top of that just down the highway from us a barn fire happened which killed 20,000 hogs, a devastating loss to the farmer and his family.

After that fire was brought under control the sky became a horrible yellow colour and the smell of smoke got worse which was from the wild fires and not the barn fire.  We kept everything closed and the A/C on which help a lot.   This morning seemed a little better as the temperature was finally cooler so we opened the windows for about 30 minutes before closing things up again.  

 The sun has looked like this for 3 days now.  

As to the lines of the parking lot, well, after seeing what they painted I have a new name for our 2 apartment buildings - The Half Done Apartments.  Everything they have done lately has been only half.  They painted the hallways and doors but not the stairs nor the step into the apartments, they remain in the stairs - two colours ago and on the step one colour ago.  Oh, and they still have not put any numbers on the doors yet.  They say they are waiting for a template.... seriously?!?!  They are numbers, how tough can that be?  

They paved only half the parking lot and therefore only painted half the lines.  Not even all the newly paved area, only the front part.  The baseboard carpet in the hallways they pulled out for the painting over 5 years ago and still have not put them in again nor changed the hallway carpets nor cleaned them as they say they don't need to clean them as they are replacing them.... not sure what decade they plan to do that.  The owners of the buildings live in another city so really not that important that things get finished.  Reason we stay?  Simple we moved in when the rent was reasonable and will stay until it isn't and keep our home clean and maintained behind our door.   

 Didn't take a picture of the lines yet but this is the only area that they are painted.  

Okay enough of the rant of the Half-Done Apartments.  

Since we like breathing without smoke in the air we stayed home and of course I curled up with another amazing book.  This series is one of the very best I have read.  I told you of the first one how the author wrote from the Egyptian point of view instead of from Moses's side which was such a different way and made it such a great read.  This one too was even better.

This one was the 3rd of 6 and I started the next one.  If it is as good as the first three I can't wait to get into the story.

Well, that was the week, pretty much of a stay put and keep the A/C on and windows shut.  I am hoping that through the weekend rain will come and winds to dispel the smoke and the heat and next week will be fresher.

Today we are off to the reserve for our monthly trip - probably with the windows closed and the air on in the car to keep the smoke out. 

Wishing you all a great day and fun weekend.

 

  Kind of hope I am that kind of person 

Weekly Musings of the 10th

 

Here we are again.  As I mentioned last week, they were paving our parking lot.  Found out that those that owned the building (who live in another city) decided to do only half of it.  Mind you, it is the part that had all the potholes and damage so that is great.  Funny thing was they told people it was because the back half had been done pretty recently.  I smiled because I know that it has been longer than 13 years because we have not seen the back half being done since we have been here.  Another funny thing is that I asked the Super if the lines were getting painted before the parking lot is opened up once more and he actually said that he doesn't know.  I just smiled and said - oh good, I do love a challenge.  

I know that through all the paving that those spots that were available for parking would have been at least 5 or 6 more spots if people had just parked a little closer to each other.  Still having room to open doors but most put enough space for half a truck on either side of them.  

So, that is the finished product without lines.  You can see our car at the very back between the two black ones.  I actually like being parked back there.  The shade made the car easier to get into during the hot days.  

The photo here, well, I just had to take as there is one guy driving the little bobcat back and forth and the group at the side looks like a bunch of supervisors discussing what the one worker is doing.  

In all fairness I have to say this crew worked non-stop during the hottest days from 7 in the morning to 5:30 every afternoon.  They took only a half an hour for lunch and took only 15 minute breaks.  That photo was actually one of their 2 breaks.  

During this part of the work I still took my morning walks but I went down the street and walked around the blocks for 30 minutes.  Basically it meant I went down to the main park and back again each morning.  

As you can see I had a large audience watching my walk each morning and this morning I was very happy to be able to walk the loop around our buildings again.  I don't mind the audience but not a fan of dodging their poop.  

Another fun thing was even though there were days that were cool enough to leave the A/C off we had to keep things closed and keep the A/C on because of the dust and dirt that was flying around when the wind came up.  

Turned out that, of course, it was a bigger job needing a lot of extra dirt to even out the ground that had sunk over time.  Apparently before these apartments went up there was a pickle factory here. Who knew?

So, quiet week with timing when it would be the easiest to go in and out.  Hubby had his eye appointment which he was pleased to learn that his eyes had not changed at all and everything was good.  Mine is coming up in another week and I am guessing there will be changes because I am noticing differences myself.  

However, such is life in the senior lane.  

As to which book I got into this week, another old testament one of Queen Esther.  

Good read although I had read in the past another version which had more depth to it than this one.  Still all in all a good read and very thought provoking which is what I like about these books. 

Now, I am onto another about David's first wife. 

So far quite interesting.  Again like Esther's story I have read a couple other authors versions of Michal's story.  I still enjoy them as seeing them different ways makes me think about the person more and brings them to life once again.  

So, hope you all had a fine week and managed to keep cool.  

Huge hugs and much love.

Weekly Musings of the 3rd

 

What a hot, hazy, humid end to June and start to July.  Canada Day saw storms moving through the area, we had high winds and a bit of rain but Ottawa got hit really hard and had to cancel the evening show and fireworks.  They had 100mm of rain with flooding in many areas and lots of power outages as well.  

This triple H is suppose to last at least until Sunday and our little A/C unit is working overtime each day.  

This week also meant the beginning of the replacing of the sidewalks which, of course made it challenging going in and out of the building.  From our balcony the fun part was watching people who either wanted the workers to let them in the building (where they didn't live) or walking exactly where they were trying to work. 

The first two walks are having the finishing part done today and I am sure that means the front will be the next one.  After all the walks are done they are going to replace the parking lot too.  Should be a fun time but certainly really needing doing this year, there are way too many potholes now.

Had the chance this week to catch up with my sister and chat about life in general and solving all the problems of the world - LOL.  It was great to get the chance to just sit with her and video chat.  I think back on the long distance phone calls after 6 or on weekends and not seeing the person or writing letters if they were overseas because phoning and the connections were just too difficult and now we can sit and chat with video and not worrying about the minute costs and see the loved one.  That, I thank Meta for too.

I still kept to my morning walks although still hot I was glad to walk as early as possible to be out of the full morning sun.  As well, hubby's pictures are finished the clearing, sorting and naming as well as my Pinterest has been deeply cleared out from over 5,000 to under 100.  I am sure the collection will grow again but I am planning on purging each summer in the future to keep it from getting silly again.   

As I stayed out of the heat I am enjoying the 3rd book of the Anna series

Another powerful book and I cannot wait until the 4th one comes out next year.  

So, that was the very quiet week that was and I must say I hope we get to open the windows at night once more next week.  Keep cool everyone and enjoy the weekend.  Happy 4th to my American friends and family.

That's me - ROTFL