No Description Necessary

I have a terrible commute. I whinge about it all the time (as you know by now). And while I whinge, I like to sing, and this is a current fave.

Sick Bed

Well, the worst came to pass and I eventually did get really sick. Ironic since, 2 days earlier I'd patted myself on the back for having escaped a real flu this year.

At first I was worried it was Tuberculosis, then Meningitis, but it may just be a wicked flu. I posted that I was sick on my FaceBook account and got no sympathy (and my sister asking for my car if I didn't pull through), and then went on to read on the news that Megan Joy, a contestant in American Idol, performed with this flu and got the sympathy vote.

Worst thing is, my husband hates when I get sick, so there's not one iota of sympathy there, either. My mom was the same when I was a kid. Maybe I need (more) therapy.

Hate To Say I Told You So...

I warned him. My husband came in to town to visit me (sort of - not really, he was working in a neighbouring town) and he spent the night at his parents' house (where I've been house-sitting for the winter) and he was a bit tired and a bit grumpy and he was getting ready for bed and put his glass of water on the side table and I said, um, you really shouldn't do that, the Agent of Terror Cat will drink from that. And he ignored me...

Not Dead Yet Wood

I have a wonderful cousin who has periodically sent me shoes that she no longer wears. In this case, it's a pair of wooden clogs that I absolutely love. I also happen to have a dog that loves to chew shoes and loves to chew wood. These clogs have presented him with an irresistible combination.

Boo Tim's

So here in Canada we have an institution called Tim Horton's Coffee Shop. Every once in a while, Tim's runs a Roll Up The Rim To Win contest. I don't know if it's just me but in the old days, I'd win a free donut or free coffee all the time, and in the past few years, my winnings have been far and few between. It sucks.

Turbines

Wind turbines on Wolfe Island, at the very eastern end of Lake Ontario. Taken from the shore.

Very controversial issue out here. Eye-catching, nonetheless.

(taken with real camera and not iPhone because of the distance)

Dog Takes Flight

Our dog's favourite hobby is "leafing" - chasing dead leaves. This is Max leafing on the shores of Lake Ontario.
(disclosure - taken with another camera because I forgot my iPhone! This, yesterday's and tomorrow's are all cheats)

Glass

The ice has pretty much melted on the Lake and a windstorm the other day blew the shards of what look like glass, ashore, where they piled in to the coolest patterns. Really pretty on a sunny day.

Night Ferry

Ferry crossing at night. Some industrious people, spouse included, read. Day or night, I put the seat back and snooze.

Confection

This confection of a building is a prison. And in this particular town that I was driving through, there a tons of 'em.

My New Car

This is a picture of my "new" car. It's a 2006 Saab 92x Linear that isn't. Which makes it sort of like me. It's really a Subaru Impreza and because of that oddity, it's often called a Saabaru. Sometimes called a Snaabaru but in my case, it's a Slaabaru (or as my spouse and beloved cousin say less delicately, Slob-aru). Within two days, my new little old car was filled to the brim with stuff. And it's been that way since. And honestly, there's no point in promising that the situation will change.

The Picture I've Been Dying To Post

Here it is, the picture I know everyone's been waiting for: the cat-inflicted deep and nearly-mortal wound. This is from the attack last week. I'm so excited to be posting this today because I know that finally I'll be eliciting the empathetic reaction I've been deserving during these 8 weeks of looking after this Agent of Terror cat.

Here is my history of house-sitting this cat (who I now willing sleep with, to be honest):

Cat Post 1
Cat Post 2
Cat Post 3
Cat Post 4
Cat Post 5

It's a Cluster F-F-F-Fly on the Wall

Here's another thing that I discovered when I moved to an old farmhouse in rural Canada (why is it that other people discover gold or stock certificates in the walls): Cluster flies. So called because well, I don't really know. These things breed like no species I've ever encountered (I guess I should not say that - who knows what else I'll discover in the coming months).

There are so many in our attic that the floor has a half inch of dead ones at any given time (twice a year, when they hatch). They lay eggs in the walls - but now that we know what's up, those suckers are done for - I've got a plan. Cluster Busters. Fingers crossed.

Fifty

Today is my husband's fiftieth birthday. This is extraordinary because only three and a half months ago he was 22.

A Drive On The Wild Side (and, not by me)

Great Excitement in Northern Ontario when a poor local soul put his truck through the river ice. People there drive on the ice - it's been done for a long time (I was going to say centuries, and maybe it has but not in Chevy trucks) (or maybe it has, GM's not doing that great after all, and if they've not changed their model in centuries, that could be an issue).

Anyway, this poor dude was doing what people do but unfortunately hit a pressure crack and fell through. I asked him, when did you know you were in trouble (thinking he may have heard or felt something) (and thinking, how fun, I'd like to be able to drive to the beer store sometime) and he responded, when he was in the water. No laughing matter: thank heavens he was close to shore.

He managed to save his carton of beer, but lost his package of smokes. And sadly, he'd just paid the truck off last month.

Over the course of a few hours, while extracting the vehicle (no easy feat), the truck was demolished. Some of the locals were worried that others will scoff but to me, this was a there-but-for-the-grace of God thing and nothing to scoff at.

My Train Passing Me on the Right

This was a weird sight for me as I was driving down that infamous road (yes, that one): my train overtaking me and I wasn't on it.

Parking

This is one of those oddities that catch my eye (daily, it seems)...I was zooming along Canada's Long And Winding Road (aka the 401) and in the middle of nowhere - seriously - N O w h e r e - and there was a parking sign on the side of the road. One of those places for car-pool-participants. Not only did I wonder who on earth would join this but I also wondered, how do they get back to their cars at the end of the day? There were no exits around that I could see. Would they have to overshoot by 50 miles and then double-back? What's the point of that?

Anyway, this important issue kept my brain occupied for a few minutes and helped to pass the time.

Cellar

I love living in a house with a cellar. I've only been in it once - but I love having a cellar. I'll go in it again soon.

Walk-In Clinic

This was a miserable afternoon - staring at the horribly stained carpet in a walk-in clinic where I waited to see a physician for my eye infection. Thing is, I'll be lucky not to have caught tuberculosis, ebola, or worse. This was a festering, musty, stale-air, gruesome, yucky way to spend a few hours. There were sick people in this doctors' office. And lots of them.

It was awful (I'm a bit of a hyperchondriac to be honest)(or would that be hypochondriac?). Anyway, I can't tell you how difficult it was, trying not to breathe for two hours or to touch anything.

On the other hand, there's something to be said for the fact that I'm in Canada and any sick person can drag themselves in to a clinic and get medical care without mortgaging their house. If they are able to ....

My Dog on Crack

My dog is an addict. I have enrolled him in a 12-step program but he just wont adhere to it. I think he's not ready - proof that interventions don't always work.

His drug of choice is The Wellington Boot. And there's a local woman here, we call her Auntie Ida, who feeds our dog's addiction by bringing him Wellington Boots. She brought him this one, in fact.

Like any addict on a mind-blowing high, our dog will drool and need attended to - spouse claims that Dog is forever driving himself nuts as bits of rubber boot become lodged in between Dog's teeth and spouse has to reach in to do the extraction (of the boot bit - not of Dog's teeth).

House Sitters

So, more about the temporary abode: There's the Agent of Terror cat, but what I've not written about is the temporarily-apartment-less nephew and girlfriend who are co-house-sitting with me while the inlaws are away. It's as though I've got two wives - they actually enjoy cooking and this photo is a picture of a night they roasted potatoes and vegetables for fun.

They eat vegetables because they had decided to become vegetarians - on the exact day that my husband came in to town and joined us all for dinner at ... Swiss Chalet. Not a very vegetarian-friendly restaurant, but they stuck to their guns and ordered vegetables.

A few weeks later nephew says to me, so girlfriend and I are thinking of cooking a TurDuckHen - a Cornish Hen stuffed inside a Duck and then stuffed inside a Turkey (good thing the turkey's dead, that's gotta hurt) and I responded that I didn't think that sounds like a typical vegetarian meal. Nephew said earnestly, nooooo, we are "meat reducers".

I can say that I'm a reducer, too - I've been a vegetable-reducer since I was two.

Another Sign

Here's another funny sign that I saw - this time, in an airport in Mexico. I think I was the only one in the crowd of thousands who was bent over double laughing.

Remote Clutter

Saturday morning spent trying to figure out a new DVD recorder. This one chosen from the online reviews saying it's "easy" to use. Hmm. Using the Spouse Irritation Level barometer, I'd say I don't really concur with those reviews.

I also bought a universal remote, but he wasn't as thrilled as I thought he'd be. Guess that's a project for another week. If I can find it! I put it somewhere logical, or so I thought. The instructions on how to set it up are impossible anyway, so maybe it's a good thing it's AWOL.

Mall? What mall?

So a guy I work with says to me a propos of the town near my permanent home, is that place near the mall still there? I said, what mall? He said, the big mall on the corner of that intersection. I said, mall? There's no mall there. Well, turns out I was wrong and the proof is right here in this photo. Moving to a new town - well, the *last* thing I'd ever think about is, where is the nearest mall?

Who knew? In my old town, I went to the mall so rarely that one day I discovered a new shop there. I asked the clerk, wow, I didn't know that you guys were in this mall, how long have you been here? And she said, three years.

I loathe shopping. I loathe malls. I buy things online where I've no fear of stumbling across a mirror.

Wow !!

My life is filled with unbelievably exciting moments and this is one of them. This is the point at which the highway (the one I moan about weekly) goes from two lanes to three. Doesn't sound thrilling but then a half hour or so later it becomes four !! And then before I know it, it's 18 or so and I'm in the middle of Toronto and only an hour from my temporary abode(s).

My mom used to say: Small things please small minds. I don't think she was talking about me though, because this is a really, really, really big thing.

That Darn Cat

It was a toss-up today which photo to put in of the Agent of Terror cat - this one, where I discovered that she's been stealing my night-time water, which I carefully place near the sink and fill to the brim before bed (so that the chlorine and chemicals evaporate before they can pollute my pristine body); or the photo that depicts how she nearly clawed me to death (I'll save that one for another day - you can actually see the mark on my arm that she gouged during her vicious attack) (well, I exaggerate a bit, but if you look closely, you'll be able to see it) (I'll post it soon).

Anyway, I've been living here for 5 weeks, cat-sitting, house-sitting, and it turns out that she's obviously been pilfering my water. We've been lapping from the same glass. I've imbibed her saliva. And to be honest, I've not been that good about cleaning her litter box. This darn cat sure knows how to keep me in my place.

Sticks and Stones

I've been called a lot of things in my life - yeah, well, *those* aren't the ones I'm thinking of right now. I'm thinking how my husband calls me hedgehog, cauliflower, and other assorted flattering names - all to do with my hair in the morning. I have naturally curly hair but get more compliments when I straighten it than when I don't. So I do - sometimes. It's a long process and definitely doesn't fit in to my "get showered, dressed, ready for work, check my email, update this blog, search for my iPhone and keys, and out the door in 10 minutes" philosophy.

Spring in Winter

I love winter. Which means I'm living in the wrong province because we don't get a whole lot of it. We were in the middle of one of our fortnightly thaws when I saw this a few weeks ago - crocuses or something - popping out of the soil. Cute and all, but I'd prefer 2 feet of snow.

Oooooh I just realized, the previous owner Doug-of-the-Well, horticulturalist extraordinaire, may cringe that I don't know what variety of plant those green spots are going to grow up to be...

Doug's Well and Good

Some things about being new to rural life are plain embarrassing and one of them is pictured here.

This is our well. In fact, it's not just "a well": it's a Dug Well. The embarrassing part is that for the first year I assumed when people had need to talk about our Dug Well, that they actually were talking about our Doug Well - because the previous owner's name is Doug and I just assumed people called it that because he'd had it installed or something.

Tech Savvy (Not)

Got a new ('06) car. Then got a new radio. It has one channel programmed in to it. I'd program more, but I just cannot figure out how to do it and yes, I've read the manual (at red lights).

The installers set this channel up as a test (I'm guessing it was as a test - or maybe it was as a public service because they knew they were selling a radio that's impossible for people with only Masters degrees to figure out). This particular channel happens to be one that I like so I'm OK with the situation for now.

Flighty

I know people who know me will think that the title of this post, Flighty, indicates that it's about me ... but it's not. Where I live (permanently and not the temporary city abodes), there's a really cool bird population and a lot of birders come to watch them.

What I like to do, is to watch the birders. They behave sorta oddly. For example, the set of birders in this photo were driving down one of the two paved roads in the area and all of a sudden they stopped. All four car doors opened and they poured out. We were driving behind and ... had to stop. They seemed to be oblivious to the fact that they just stopped in the middle of a road with cars behind them. It's actually pretty funny.

Wails

Only a couple months in to this blog and by now you'll already have noticed a few recurring themes. Meaning that, there are a few things that I whine about over and over and over. One of them is the dreadful commute that I do each week. Hours and hours and hours and hours of exhausting tedium while driving a section of the ribbon that is the TransCanada Highway.

The problem (and it's not a small one) is, when I drive, I fall asleep. I put it down to my far-sightedness and the strain on my eyes. I dunno what it is but there are a few tricks I've learned to combat this. One is, stop for a sugar break. The other is to put The Carpenters on my iPod and sing along at full blast.

I often wonder if I'm the only one listening to The Carpenters on this whole stretch of road. And not only that, the only one who actually paid to download this album from iTunes.

Then I wonder if I'm the only person who wonders stuff like this, day in and day out.

Winter on a Boat

What a great way to live, surrounded by a moat.

Dead Cat Bounce

Before ya'll worry that this is a picture of the cat I've been harping about throughout this blog, relax. It's some poor critter that met its fate at the bottom of our yard sometime over the winter.

There was also a dead and frozen fish (that the dog ate before I could photograph).

We figure that one of the local bald eagles or hawks must've had something to do with the demise of this cat.

Sky High

This is taken as I drove across Hamilton Harbour one day - it's the Skyway Bridge at the very western edge of Lake Ontario. When I was a kid, there was only one bridge that handled both directions of traffic, but they built a sister bridge a few years back (well, it seems like a few years back but it was actually decades ago).

Another Ferry Crossing - Friday Night

The setting sun. Frozen water with a channel cut through it. Ferry packed to the rafters. End of another long week away. Home at last !

Peared

The Infamous Sanj, a buddy at work, is an artist and was working on his carving skills while we were whiling away the rest of a pre-holiday-weekend-but-still-at-work morning. He pared the pear 'til it disappeared (ouch).

Cat Self-Portrait

Where I go, my iPhone goes - and so does the cat that I'm house-sitting. She loves me and sleeps on top of me and causes me all sorts of issues - from dreams of spiders with large incredibly soft and fuzzy legs to no sleep at all to pinpricks in my skin from her kneading me all night (seriously makes me wonder about cat owners who've had breast implants) - not to mention the bleeding sinuses from allergies. I'm still not able to stop her from sleeping in the crook of my arm. I just don't have the heart to prevent her.

And I find that I now have begun to talk to her when we're alone.

Anyway, she managed to take this picture of herself.

Snooze

The other night after work, I had a snooze under a desk in an empty office - I was tired and far from home, with a competitive Bridge game to play that night in a still-further-away city. I managed to relax for an hour but the floor was cold and hard despite my having made an attempt to insulate myself with pilfered vests and jackets from the empty cubicles around me. And it's not as though I don't have built-in insulation of my own...

The funniest thing was that, when I told my sister, she said that she had once slept in her office's supply cupboard. I guess I'm the normal one in the family after all.

By the way, I'm pretty hopeless at Bridge but enjoy it immensely.

Car Wash

I live in a part of the country where the typical winter cycle is 2 weeks of cold and snow followed by 2 weeks of thaw. We've had a long bout of record-breaking snow and cold and now are in to the first real thaw. I waited 30 minutes for this car wash today.

Where There's Smoke...

This is the washroom in my office's new building. We've just moved facilities (uh, well, that too). This bathroom is half the size of our last one and serves about 1000 percent the number (last time I was 1 in 4 women; now I'm 1 in a zillion).

Thing about this washroom is that the women in this building seem to light matches when they are in there. It's difficult not to sit there and wonder who lit that last match and why and if they've taught their kids to do this and who taught them to do so - I picture communal washrooms and people clad in many layers of monochromatic, torn and old clothes in some far away and cold land, each with long-ago and carefully-knitted woolen caps with ear flaps - it's very distracting.

Thank God though, so far, all of the women I've encountered in there have been hand-washers.

Back Seat Driver

This dog is one happy camper. When spouse has brought him in to the City, we take him to the leash-free park. Funny thing is, my husband had to sit in the back seat because there was no way this dog was giving up the front seat view - it was as though he were thinking he'd get there sooner by sitting up front.

Dinner on the Go

Most Sundays you can find me on the road again - usually around dinner time - and usually, I'd not have food at any of my temporary, city abodes (of course I don't - see most of the January posts in this blog). So, this is a typical Sunday, solo dinner - one of the healthier ones (I'm kidding of course - I know it's not healthy). Today though, I'm commuting nowhere and stand a good chance of eating well because my spouse was in town and bought me some food (at a grocery store).

Glory Be

I enjoy taking pictures of signs that catch my eye. Nothing much to say about this particular one ... photo taken in Juneau, Alaska ... well, two things to say: first is a disclosure - I think I took this with a real camera and not my iPhone; second is, this is not what it appears, it's a soup kitchen. It was kinda sad, actually. The whole scene.

City Living

Sometimes when I drive back in to the City on a Sunday night, I stop for a solo dinner at a local pub. City life has many good points! Cold beer on tap is one of them.

Stockade

My neighbours down the road have a fence that looks like this...reminds me of what I think of as, a stockade. There are cows in behind there but it was too cold to wait for one to put its head through the gap - which I thought would've made a cool photo (but not as cool as if this were a cat stockade).

Wiper Schmiper

So a buddy of mine says while he's helping me move: can you take my truck to the store to pick up some supplies. I say, I'll take my car. He says, you don't have enough room, take my truck. I say, I'm not so comfortable with that, what if something happens, I hate driving other people's vehicles. He says, what could go wrong and besides, I have insurance. I say, nahhhh; he says, go on, and tosses me his keys.

I take the keys, climb in, snow's falling fast, I settle in to the seat, turn the ignition, find the wipers and turn them on...and the passenger side wiper catapaulted ten feet across the parking lot.

He says, what did you do now? I say, nothing.... but it reminds me of the time I was a student pre-computer days and I borrowed my landlord's typewriter, hit the carriage return and it flew clear across the room.

I am not comfortable borrowing stuff.

Catipulation

This is me (or my clothes, since I was taking a picture with my iPhone of me) lying prostrate on the ground in a state of complete capitulation to The Cat. She wins. There's no more fighting Her Power.

Last night, I did my usual thing of closing the bedroom door of the house I'm house-sitting and she howled all night long in indignation. Of course, this was punctuated by her flinging herself at the door and scratching. I took a sleeping pill and still was awakened (what seemed like) every two minutes.

So I give up. Tonight I'll take an antihistamine and sleep with the door open. I feel defeated.

Swedish Jungle

Our house, even though it's a rural Canadian century farmhouse, has an interior that's pretty much entirely Swedish. Ikea: what an overwhelming store. My spouse gets paralyzed the moment he steps through the door. Sadly, I know my way around all Ikeas within two hundred miles. I thought this was a funny sight: a Home Organization sign in the midst of visual chaos.

Zzzzzzz

Sometimes all I can do during the ferry crossing is flip the car seat back, put my legs up on the dash, and snooze. Which is what I did on yesterday's liquor store run. This was the view.