Wednesday, August 17, 2005
What is up with summer?
No, I’m not talking about poor Summer from The O.C., although I have seen some of her recent fashion faux-pas on the lovely Go Fug Yourself site. I am referring to our lack of good weather this year. Sure, we had a few nice days, and there were even a couple over +30C, but today is a projected HIGH of +9C (which is just cold, people) and it is raining. Again. Another 10 mm. That doesn’t sound like much when you look at a millimeter, but it is. It is lots, especially for August in Calgary, where usually the weather is scorching and the grass is bone dry and prickly. This year, the grass has remained green through the entire summer and it’s continuing to freak me out. I never like the green grass in June, and am always waiting for July and August to come so it will NORMALIZE and turn brown again. That is not to be, this year. This is the year of the green, green grass.
It is also the year of the unclean house, the insanely busy work job, and the inability to relax. I know. People always tell me to relax. Even my father, who is one of the least-relaxed people I know, always tells me to relax. It’s basically his fault I have turned out like this, though, having learned from a young age to suck in my breath when I see people driving like idiots, or hear a strange noise in the car. He taught me to back-seat drive when I was five, for crying out loud. And I credit him with my fear and loathing of all things monetary. When I had my first jobs, and brought home my first paycheques, and was forced to deposit them in their entirety in the bank “for my retirement”, he was the one who “helped” me do my taxes. Even just typing the word “taxes” sends a shiver up my spine and makes me look around the room nervously. Doing taxes with my dad was a three-weekend long expedition into at least the fifth or sixth level of hell. Oh, we had calculators, but you had to do the math by hand anyway. And I am notoriously bad at math, having just graduated math with a 63% in high school, after intense tutoring and after-class help. Now, I cannot spend the money fast enough. Get it in, get it out, is my theory. If it’s not hanging around, it can’t cause you any trouble. And I pay someone else to do my taxes, which helps get rid of some money, and takes away all the anxiety of doing them myself, so I win on two counts, there. Paying someone to do your taxes is one of the best ways possible to spend your money. That, and hiring movers.
So, due to weather, work and an extreme amount of what they call stress, I’m not very relaxed these days. I’m trying hard to relax. I’m canceling out of the odd social event with Rob to stay home and hide. That’s somewhat relaxing, but not entirely. Summer has still dwindled away. I have not had enough top-down Tiny Car hours this year. No road trip. No visit to The Mac to soak up heat & humidity and to shop in the outlet malls. No lounging around on a deck in a lounge chair. No sunning myself on the roof when it’s really hot. None of my normal summer activities.
This also being the year of the unclean house, I am considering hiring a cleaning service. They used to call them “maids”, but I guess that’s not cool any more. They’re “services”, and you sort of have to pick up the house before they come over, but apparently these people will come in and clean stuff for you that otherwise, you would never get around to. It’s a fantastic idea. They even do this thing called “dusting”, which I think involves running some sort of soft brush over the objects on shelves in your home to remove dust. Crazy, I know!! We barely have time to vacuum any more.
It’s not that I’m not trying. I really am. Last night, in a fit of domesticity, I did apples from our front apple tree. I had shaken the tree on Sunday, collecting a massive bowl of apples. These are nice eating apples, all sweet and tasty (from what I gather – I don’t eat them myself, you know), quite unlike the tree at my parents’ place, which produces the most sour apples known to man. Put an apple from my parents’ tree in your mouth without a balancing measure of sugar to even it out, and your face will disappear into the black hole that your mouth has become. You will smack your lips. You will then try to find something tasty to eat instead. But those apples make fantastic pies because of the tang to ‘em. This year, it is my goal not to waste too many apples, and not to leave them hanging on the tree either, where they turn into little shriveled reminders of my lack of ambition in fall throughout the entire winter, and then, when it warms up, they get the birds all drunk - easy pickings for the cats.
The bowl of apples didn’t look like that much to me when I brought it inside. Sure, it was the largest bowl out of the kitchen, and was filled to overflowing, but the apples are small. I figured maybe I’d get a few pies out of that bowl. Well, last night, I peeled and cored about a quarter of the bowl, maybe a little less, and sure enough, there were enough apples cut and prepared for four pies. And that doesn’t touch the apples that are still on that tree, plus the giant tree in the back!
My hands are all stained from the apple juice and peel. Not that I’m complaining.
The garden is still doing very well, in spite of the cold weather. I will have to cover it tonight because there’s a possibility of frost, and I don’t want to lose all the tomatoes that are growing. I’m not sure if I can cover the entire thing – all the tomatoes, the pepper plant, the squash plant and the lettuce. I’m not that worried about the carrots, since there are only four or five of them, and the flowers are on their own. It is really nice having a garden, I have to say. And Smudge loves it, so I’ll have to keep up with it for at least a while longer. The evil dogs got into the garden – they breached the perimeter fence by going underneath it – and dug the hell out of a few spots, luckily not damaging any vegetables, but kind of trampling some of my flowers. I re-secured the fence on Monday, but they weren’t outside that much yesterday and are inside today because of the rain, so I won’t know if that will hold. I used croquet wickets to pull the chicken wire down to the ground and keep it there. Ingenious, I know!!
We went to a lovely wedding this weekend, it was at the zoo. The weather turned nice for the day, and the ceremony was held outside in the botanical garden, and the coolest part of the whole thing was that the peacocks from the zoo wandered all around during the ceremony. I totally want a peacock! Except it would drive both the cats and the dogs insane, I’m sure. But they’re neat. And the dinner and reception afterwards was a good time.
One more wedding this summer, over the September long weekend at the cabin in BC. And one more after that – a co-worker is getting married in September later on.
They’re saying it will be nicer over the weekend, like we can expect some normal weather. I’m not sure if they’re right, but I’m hoping. I have numerous projects for work outstanding because of the weather delays – we lost the entire month of June to rain, and July & August so far have been not that great. With only a few more weeks of weather for exterior projects, I’m starting to get really depressed that a lot of things aren’t going to be done at all, much less “on time” (the boat has sailed on that already).
Well, here’s hoping for a nice weekend… stay warm and dry, everyone.
It is also the year of the unclean house, the insanely busy work job, and the inability to relax. I know. People always tell me to relax. Even my father, who is one of the least-relaxed people I know, always tells me to relax. It’s basically his fault I have turned out like this, though, having learned from a young age to suck in my breath when I see people driving like idiots, or hear a strange noise in the car. He taught me to back-seat drive when I was five, for crying out loud. And I credit him with my fear and loathing of all things monetary. When I had my first jobs, and brought home my first paycheques, and was forced to deposit them in their entirety in the bank “for my retirement”, he was the one who “helped” me do my taxes. Even just typing the word “taxes” sends a shiver up my spine and makes me look around the room nervously. Doing taxes with my dad was a three-weekend long expedition into at least the fifth or sixth level of hell. Oh, we had calculators, but you had to do the math by hand anyway. And I am notoriously bad at math, having just graduated math with a 63% in high school, after intense tutoring and after-class help. Now, I cannot spend the money fast enough. Get it in, get it out, is my theory. If it’s not hanging around, it can’t cause you any trouble. And I pay someone else to do my taxes, which helps get rid of some money, and takes away all the anxiety of doing them myself, so I win on two counts, there. Paying someone to do your taxes is one of the best ways possible to spend your money. That, and hiring movers.
So, due to weather, work and an extreme amount of what they call stress, I’m not very relaxed these days. I’m trying hard to relax. I’m canceling out of the odd social event with Rob to stay home and hide. That’s somewhat relaxing, but not entirely. Summer has still dwindled away. I have not had enough top-down Tiny Car hours this year. No road trip. No visit to The Mac to soak up heat & humidity and to shop in the outlet malls. No lounging around on a deck in a lounge chair. No sunning myself on the roof when it’s really hot. None of my normal summer activities.
This also being the year of the unclean house, I am considering hiring a cleaning service. They used to call them “maids”, but I guess that’s not cool any more. They’re “services”, and you sort of have to pick up the house before they come over, but apparently these people will come in and clean stuff for you that otherwise, you would never get around to. It’s a fantastic idea. They even do this thing called “dusting”, which I think involves running some sort of soft brush over the objects on shelves in your home to remove dust. Crazy, I know!! We barely have time to vacuum any more.
It’s not that I’m not trying. I really am. Last night, in a fit of domesticity, I did apples from our front apple tree. I had shaken the tree on Sunday, collecting a massive bowl of apples. These are nice eating apples, all sweet and tasty (from what I gather – I don’t eat them myself, you know), quite unlike the tree at my parents’ place, which produces the most sour apples known to man. Put an apple from my parents’ tree in your mouth without a balancing measure of sugar to even it out, and your face will disappear into the black hole that your mouth has become. You will smack your lips. You will then try to find something tasty to eat instead. But those apples make fantastic pies because of the tang to ‘em. This year, it is my goal not to waste too many apples, and not to leave them hanging on the tree either, where they turn into little shriveled reminders of my lack of ambition in fall throughout the entire winter, and then, when it warms up, they get the birds all drunk - easy pickings for the cats.
The bowl of apples didn’t look like that much to me when I brought it inside. Sure, it was the largest bowl out of the kitchen, and was filled to overflowing, but the apples are small. I figured maybe I’d get a few pies out of that bowl. Well, last night, I peeled and cored about a quarter of the bowl, maybe a little less, and sure enough, there were enough apples cut and prepared for four pies. And that doesn’t touch the apples that are still on that tree, plus the giant tree in the back!
My hands are all stained from the apple juice and peel. Not that I’m complaining.
The garden is still doing very well, in spite of the cold weather. I will have to cover it tonight because there’s a possibility of frost, and I don’t want to lose all the tomatoes that are growing. I’m not sure if I can cover the entire thing – all the tomatoes, the pepper plant, the squash plant and the lettuce. I’m not that worried about the carrots, since there are only four or five of them, and the flowers are on their own. It is really nice having a garden, I have to say. And Smudge loves it, so I’ll have to keep up with it for at least a while longer. The evil dogs got into the garden – they breached the perimeter fence by going underneath it – and dug the hell out of a few spots, luckily not damaging any vegetables, but kind of trampling some of my flowers. I re-secured the fence on Monday, but they weren’t outside that much yesterday and are inside today because of the rain, so I won’t know if that will hold. I used croquet wickets to pull the chicken wire down to the ground and keep it there. Ingenious, I know!!
We went to a lovely wedding this weekend, it was at the zoo. The weather turned nice for the day, and the ceremony was held outside in the botanical garden, and the coolest part of the whole thing was that the peacocks from the zoo wandered all around during the ceremony. I totally want a peacock! Except it would drive both the cats and the dogs insane, I’m sure. But they’re neat. And the dinner and reception afterwards was a good time.
One more wedding this summer, over the September long weekend at the cabin in BC. And one more after that – a co-worker is getting married in September later on.
They’re saying it will be nicer over the weekend, like we can expect some normal weather. I’m not sure if they’re right, but I’m hoping. I have numerous projects for work outstanding because of the weather delays – we lost the entire month of June to rain, and July & August so far have been not that great. With only a few more weeks of weather for exterior projects, I’m starting to get really depressed that a lot of things aren’t going to be done at all, much less “on time” (the boat has sailed on that already).
Well, here’s hoping for a nice weekend… stay warm and dry, everyone.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
They are totally NOT killer bees…
Well, I had the bees inspected. By MYSELF!! I’m not an entymologist by any stretch, but I can recognize a honeybee. And they were totally NOT honeybees. Here’s the story:
My contractor, Tom, was tearing out a basement that had a water leak. He opened the wall and found these bees, see, working away peacefully over their egg casings. This should have been the first clue, because honeybees nest in combs and their egg casings are largely hidden from view, being inside the combs. Anyway, he, not wanting to get stung, had me send out an exterminator (poor bees!) who came and promptly killed all the bees with his magic bee-killing dust. Or whatever it is that he uses. Either way, the bees were offed, and I had asked Tom to find out what the hell kind of bees they were, because I was curious. The way he had described these bees was that the bees were small, but the egg-casings were HUGE!! So I wanted to know exactly what kind of bee I was dealing with, not having been able to find them on the innernet the other day.
So the exterminator, Zoltan from Best Control Pest Control, which is probably the best name for a Pest Control company I have heard of in a long time, especially if you say it the way Zoltan says it with his fantastic Hungarian accent, shrugs and says “Those bees, they are Africanized Honeybees”. And Tom duly reports that to me. And I laughed and laughed!! Africanized Honeybees? KILLER bees?? No way. Not in Airdrie, let me tell you. I told Tom to get me a sample of the bees and their egg casings. Which he did.
And they were then brought to the office amongst solemn ceremony. And the office co-workers, they did shriek (fearing bees). Not being there when they were brought in, the bees were placed in my overhead bin, and when I got in last Friday, I looked at them. These bees, they are not honeybees at all. They are carpenter bees. I should have guessed that they would be, what with the nesting in the wall and the egg casings and all. So no need to alert the authorities, no need to call the media. We don’t have killer bees in Alberta after all. I think they are still relegated to Texas in North America, although they may be on the move North. It will probably take them a while to get to Alberta, seeing as we have nice cold winters that will kill sensitive honeybees if not properly housed.
In other recent news, Rob has indeed started his little business, Liger Contracting. It’s an exciting time for us, really. He gets to sleep in, and as I am influenced by his morning sleep-in habits (i.e. not getting up, turning off his alarm clock, ignoring the muted pleas of the dogs wanting to get outside), I often also turn over and fall back asleep. I have been “late” to work all last week and part of this week. And AND, the deal is that some of this stuff Rob will be doing or go to after I finish work, so like a puppy, I follow him along. And if he’s going to be out there, doing work, I will help him because I love him like air. And then I end up working after work. And then I am tired.
Which is how it goes today. I’m tired, and trying to figure out how the weekend will go. Rob is supposedly going to play poker. I have a painter friend who is bacheloring it this weekend, and I can call him to entertain me, so I’m not sitting around waiting for Rob to get home. We are having friends come over for dinner on Saturday, which will be very nice because I have not seen my friend Rose much lately, and I miss talking with her. The house is, again, a disaster and needs cleaning badly.
All in all, a disappointing report. Except for the bees. Although it would have been pretty exciting had they been Africanized Honeybees… I am a little glad they are not because that would have been a bit of a circus, and I need it to slow down a little here at work.
Hopefully I will have more exciting news to report next week. Perhaps we will have a tornado, or some other extreme weather, or someone will get fired, or the TELUS union will try to force Rob to strike (which he will not do), or the evil dogs will learn to walk and talk, or the cats will mount an insurrection and take over the household (ha! Like they don’t control it now), or I’ll win the lottery. Cross your fingers for that last one, eh?
My contractor, Tom, was tearing out a basement that had a water leak. He opened the wall and found these bees, see, working away peacefully over their egg casings. This should have been the first clue, because honeybees nest in combs and their egg casings are largely hidden from view, being inside the combs. Anyway, he, not wanting to get stung, had me send out an exterminator (poor bees!) who came and promptly killed all the bees with his magic bee-killing dust. Or whatever it is that he uses. Either way, the bees were offed, and I had asked Tom to find out what the hell kind of bees they were, because I was curious. The way he had described these bees was that the bees were small, but the egg-casings were HUGE!! So I wanted to know exactly what kind of bee I was dealing with, not having been able to find them on the innernet the other day.
So the exterminator, Zoltan from Best Control Pest Control, which is probably the best name for a Pest Control company I have heard of in a long time, especially if you say it the way Zoltan says it with his fantastic Hungarian accent, shrugs and says “Those bees, they are Africanized Honeybees”. And Tom duly reports that to me. And I laughed and laughed!! Africanized Honeybees? KILLER bees?? No way. Not in Airdrie, let me tell you. I told Tom to get me a sample of the bees and their egg casings. Which he did.
And they were then brought to the office amongst solemn ceremony. And the office co-workers, they did shriek (fearing bees). Not being there when they were brought in, the bees were placed in my overhead bin, and when I got in last Friday, I looked at them. These bees, they are not honeybees at all. They are carpenter bees. I should have guessed that they would be, what with the nesting in the wall and the egg casings and all. So no need to alert the authorities, no need to call the media. We don’t have killer bees in Alberta after all. I think they are still relegated to Texas in North America, although they may be on the move North. It will probably take them a while to get to Alberta, seeing as we have nice cold winters that will kill sensitive honeybees if not properly housed.
In other recent news, Rob has indeed started his little business, Liger Contracting. It’s an exciting time for us, really. He gets to sleep in, and as I am influenced by his morning sleep-in habits (i.e. not getting up, turning off his alarm clock, ignoring the muted pleas of the dogs wanting to get outside), I often also turn over and fall back asleep. I have been “late” to work all last week and part of this week. And AND, the deal is that some of this stuff Rob will be doing or go to after I finish work, so like a puppy, I follow him along. And if he’s going to be out there, doing work, I will help him because I love him like air. And then I end up working after work. And then I am tired.
Which is how it goes today. I’m tired, and trying to figure out how the weekend will go. Rob is supposedly going to play poker. I have a painter friend who is bacheloring it this weekend, and I can call him to entertain me, so I’m not sitting around waiting for Rob to get home. We are having friends come over for dinner on Saturday, which will be very nice because I have not seen my friend Rose much lately, and I miss talking with her. The house is, again, a disaster and needs cleaning badly.
All in all, a disappointing report. Except for the bees. Although it would have been pretty exciting had they been Africanized Honeybees… I am a little glad they are not because that would have been a bit of a circus, and I need it to slow down a little here at work.
Hopefully I will have more exciting news to report next week. Perhaps we will have a tornado, or some other extreme weather, or someone will get fired, or the TELUS union will try to force Rob to strike (which he will not do), or the evil dogs will learn to walk and talk, or the cats will mount an insurrection and take over the household (ha! Like they don’t control it now), or I’ll win the lottery. Cross your fingers for that last one, eh?
