Two important metaphors

A dog with two bones:

A dog, carrying a bone in his mouth, passes over a stream. He sees another dog in the water, with a bigger bone than his. The dog decides to try and take the bigger bone, and he opens his mouth to grab it. His own bone falls into the stream and is washed away, and he comes up with only a mouthful of water.

Upsetting the apple-cart:

"to cause trouble, especially by spoiling someone's plans"(ref). To have somethign working just fine and then get rid of it and anger the people around you.

Now, can a dog, trying to get a bigger bone, knock over an apple-cart? Have to be a big dog...

And, because it seems a propos:

Breaking points

I made a little note in my calendar to keep the 21st of June open. To schedule nothing into it. And I mostly didn't.
The only thing I scheduled in was a quick run out to a friend's place to do some handy-manning, which took about three hours, travel time included. (It's hard to breeze and do the work and breeze out when a baby is napping.)
I did this so that I could recover from what has been a fortnight of mad crazy running around from place to place. And recover I did.
I slept until 10am, and again from 2pm 'til 7pm and again from 10pm on.

Eep!

Drum sets are very expensive.

They are also more expensive than you think, because the cost on the ticket does not include cymbals or stands.

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):