Island

As I was tending to the Glade last evening, I was suddenly surrounded by canoes from the island where I have been spending most of my time ashore.

I was startled by the horns, the trumpets... It must have been an odd spectacle, a man in rags on a raft tending to a tree, with the sun resting on the horizon surrounded in broad sea by colourful canoes full of brightly dressed islanders offering fruit and inviting him to join the celebration.

I tried my best to demonstrate that I please to see them, attempting to balance my gardening tools in one hand and accept enough fruit pieces to be grateful but not so many as to indicate I wanted them to stay and have an island party right there. Perhaps I could have done more, lashed my raft onto their canoes and relaxed. Maybe I should have.

Summer in the tropics

The rain has stopped, and the sun has transformed this little ocean corner into the kind of seascape that graces postcards and tourist brochures.

I continue to live on my little raft, in fact have pulled it out some distance from the islands around me to ensure that I am not mistaken for a native islander.

Not that this helps of course. Given that I work, in exchange for basic provisions, on one primary island it is no mystery that people consider me to be a resident there.

The people of that island have seen this I think, and have made an effort to assure me that my comings and goings are not monitored, and that taxes, papers, etc. are not required of me. Their effort is somewhat undermined by their habit of monitoring my comings and goings and asking for my papers.

Ah well. It is too nice, under the sky out here, to complain about that too much.

The outlook on life these days:

Things are very positive!

I feel very productive around the house, and my amazing system for keeping the house cool is maintaining it about 5 degrees cooler inside than out. I am getting various things done in the backyard, and plotting the last and final addition to the front yard:


The backyard projects for the year remain:
Finishing the balcony
Constructing my south-side nook beside the garage
and
Cleaning the garage.

My garage and I have a complicated relationship, not unlike that between cancer and an oncologist. It creates mess on its own (I swear) and I go in and root it out occasionally. Every time I do it gets more organized. Somehow someone (who wasn't me, I swear ;)) left an abandoned car behind the garage which I also need to get hauled away.

If there's time, I'd like to put in some paving stones beside the house in preparation for starting to use my side door instead of my front door, but that is all dependent on getting my eavestroughs done (by a gang of sinister swarthy men) and the other three projects.

I'm in fine shape financially, which is nice, although the last lingering debt still hangs around like BO in a locker room.

I'm also, unfortunately, WAAAAAAAAAAY to busy. The calendar for the next few weeks is as packed as an outdoor pool in a heat-wave. I have the 21st open, and that's very nice. I will try to keep it that way.

I have joined the ranks of the hobo elite, by scrounging and revitalizing a bike trailer, so that I can go and pick up my cat litter on my bicycle. Sadly, I blew a tire on it coming back from the hardware store, so I now need to buy tires and tubes for it.

And that's what's new over here!

Blowing the dust off the blog

0700, leave the house, cycle 4 kilometres to work with work things
1300, leave work, cycle 4 kilometres to meeting
1450, leave meeting, cycle 2 kilometres to swap work stuff for music stuff.
1500, leave home, cycle 5 kilometres to lessons
1700, leave music, cycle 5 kilometres home, swap for class stuff
1730, leave home, cycle 4 kilometres to class
2130, leave class, cycle 4 kilometres back to home, swap for folk fest stuff
2200, leave home, cycle .5 kilometers to meeting
2400, leave meeting, cycle .5 kilometres home.

Total cargo swaps: 3
Total kilometres: 29
Kilometres cycled while inebriated: .5
Calves: Like iron, thank you very kindly.

EDIT: Sorry, this one was 32 kilometres:
See it here (I'm still learning the tool so bear with me):

Celebrity fight:

Who would win a fight between Wendy O. Williams and Courtney Love?


VS












And why have I never heard of Wendy O. Williams before today?

Life reboot:

Okay, I've been kinda focused on fiction recently, and now I get back to work on my real-life.

I can work on my house and get it entirely ship-shape and get back on schedule with my renos. I need to come up with a formula for WHEN I do major renos, and how I save for them. Shoudl I save up 50% and debt the rest, or should I save 60%, what?

I need to restart my (momdon'treadthis) not-smoking techniques, having fallen intentionally and spectacularly off the wagon this weekend

On a related note, I need to get my menu back under control at home, and get back into a stable routine there and get back into being a good cook, etc.

To come soon: A list of summer projects around the house!

Poor neglected blog

So my poor little corner of the intartubes is all neglected here, but that's largely as a result of being incrediblyu busy and having tucked my home computer away into the basement.

I've actually hit a period busier than anything I have ever experienced before. Work is frustratingly busy, in that I have a lot of meetings but no product to show for it.

Most pressingly on me at this point is a big theatre event next weekend for which I am missing a large quantity of my props, thanks to the cold cold spring inhibiting my ability to get outside and make them.

Once that is over, I need to put the brakes on everything and reset my domestic routine back to where it should be.