We've had a lot of stuff on our plates this summer and it hasn't left us with much time or energy to use for much that is fun.
Having said that, we did get to two Roger Waters shows in June and earlier this month, Mark and a good friend of ours, drove to Quebec City and stood with 75,000 of their closest friends to see Roger wrap up the Wall on the Plains of Abraham.
Roger shows aside though, we have just been running and running. I've been pretty busy with work stuff, Mark's been recovering from his Kidney surgery and the days have just flown by.
On Saturday afternoon, on our way home from doing some errands, we drove by the outdoor municipal pool which is ridiculously close to our house. A couple of years ago, the pool was demolished and rebuilt and it reopened last summer. We wanted to get there last year but it was either too busy or the weather was crappy and we never made it.
When we drove by on Saturday, it didn't seem too busy so we decided to go for the evening swim at 5 p.m. We were SO glad we did. I love to swim and it had been ages since we had been. The facility is gorgeous, the staff are very friendly and obviously very well trained. I was quite impressed with the way they dealt with the kids who were having dive-off contests in the deep end. The place has sunny spots and shady spots and even provided really comfy lounge chairs.
On Saturday evening, we had such a good time that we went back on Sunday morning. We'll definitely go back again, hopefully this weekend if the weather allows. We're starting vacation on Friday night and I think a few visits to the pool will be on our agenda. I totally forgot how much fun it is to be in or near the water. We're both nursing a bit of sun burn this week but I think it was worth it!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
surviving
So we both went back to work yesterday. Kind of glad it's a short week.
Also glad that we survived our "vacation" last week. I use the quotes around the word because in my head, vacations are relaxing and last week was not relaxing. It was fun at times, frustrating at others, worrying and scary too.
After a whirlwind, 3-day period spent zooming up and down the 401 to see 2 Roger Waters shows, we landed back at home, pooped and happy. The shows were so fun but I had, stupidly, booked the furnace maintenance/inspector dudes to visit us at the crack of insanity on Tuesday morning. We had arrived home from Ottawa at 1:30 a.m., gone to sleep around 2:30 a.m. and were not thrilled to have to crawl out of our pit at 7:30 a.m. to await the 8 a.m. arrival of furnace guys.
I spent the morning outside with the dogs. The dogs, Sam in particular, hate it when strangers visit the house. He barks at them for what I believe are a number of reasons:
1. He’s informing us that we have allowed a stranger into our house and stranger = danger
2. He’s informing the stranger that no guff will be allowed in Sam’s watch. If that stranger gets out of line, watch out, cuz he will bark MORE at him!
3. Once it appears that the stranger is friendly and not going to cause any danger, Sam needs to tell him that he’ll protect the no-longer stranger but he needs to come here RIGHT NOW to be protected
4. When the time comes for the stranger to leave, Sam needs to let him know that it’s NOT SAFE outside and the stranger needs to stay with Sam. If he is out of Sam’s sight, Sam cannot protect him.
Simple huh? If the door to our basement was somewhere else, we could have probably been in one part or another of the house. Unfortunately, our basement door is smack in the middle of the house so the best we could would be to hide out in a bedroom and that would have been less fun than outside.
On Wednesday, Mark finally had his kidney stone surgery. We arrived at the hospital for 10 a.m., almost immediately saw the surgeon and Mark went into the OR at 11 a.m. I was told when he went in that the surgery would be about 2 hours. What they don’t tell you is that you need to factor in the time that it takes for the Anesthesiologist to get their stuff done. I later learned from a nurse that it’s normally around an hour. When the surgeon came to find me (while Mark was in recovery), he told me that the actual surgery was 2.5 hours. I’m not sure if this is a lot but the Doc told me that he used 6 laser fibers to blast the stones in Mark’s kidneys. Kinda glad that the Doctor also confided that he was a wiz at video games. I think that helped. Because Mark has sleep apnea, the Anesthesiologist and respirology folks insisted that Mark spend the night. Neither of us was happy about that but in the end, I think it was better than coming home the first night. When he did get home, he experienced some back pain (not to mention some pain peeing) for the first few days but that seems to have subsided (as well as the blood in his urine). He needs to go back to the clinic in a couple of weeks for a follow up but hopefully, after that is done, he’ll be done with the kidney stuff for a while. It’s been a really long haul, waiting for this to happen, we’re both pretty relieved that it’s over with.
So while last week wasn’t relaxing, it was productive and, at times, pretty fun. We have more time booked off in August which will see us having the roof on our house replaced and also getting a new chimney liner installed for our furnace.
The good times just keep on coming at our house!
PS Happy Birthday Hartland Covered Bridge! You are 111 years old today. I took this picture when you were still a very spry 101 years old. Hope you get some cake today to celebrate!
Also glad that we survived our "vacation" last week. I use the quotes around the word because in my head, vacations are relaxing and last week was not relaxing. It was fun at times, frustrating at others, worrying and scary too.
After a whirlwind, 3-day period spent zooming up and down the 401 to see 2 Roger Waters shows, we landed back at home, pooped and happy. The shows were so fun but I had, stupidly, booked the furnace maintenance/inspector dudes to visit us at the crack of insanity on Tuesday morning. We had arrived home from Ottawa at 1:30 a.m., gone to sleep around 2:30 a.m. and were not thrilled to have to crawl out of our pit at 7:30 a.m. to await the 8 a.m. arrival of furnace guys.
I spent the morning outside with the dogs. The dogs, Sam in particular, hate it when strangers visit the house. He barks at them for what I believe are a number of reasons:
1. He’s informing us that we have allowed a stranger into our house and stranger = danger
2. He’s informing the stranger that no guff will be allowed in Sam’s watch. If that stranger gets out of line, watch out, cuz he will bark MORE at him!
3. Once it appears that the stranger is friendly and not going to cause any danger, Sam needs to tell him that he’ll protect the no-longer stranger but he needs to come here RIGHT NOW to be protected
4. When the time comes for the stranger to leave, Sam needs to let him know that it’s NOT SAFE outside and the stranger needs to stay with Sam. If he is out of Sam’s sight, Sam cannot protect him.
Simple huh? If the door to our basement was somewhere else, we could have probably been in one part or another of the house. Unfortunately, our basement door is smack in the middle of the house so the best we could would be to hide out in a bedroom and that would have been less fun than outside.
On Wednesday, Mark finally had his kidney stone surgery. We arrived at the hospital for 10 a.m., almost immediately saw the surgeon and Mark went into the OR at 11 a.m. I was told when he went in that the surgery would be about 2 hours. What they don’t tell you is that you need to factor in the time that it takes for the Anesthesiologist to get their stuff done. I later learned from a nurse that it’s normally around an hour. When the surgeon came to find me (while Mark was in recovery), he told me that the actual surgery was 2.5 hours. I’m not sure if this is a lot but the Doc told me that he used 6 laser fibers to blast the stones in Mark’s kidneys. Kinda glad that the Doctor also confided that he was a wiz at video games. I think that helped. Because Mark has sleep apnea, the Anesthesiologist and respirology folks insisted that Mark spend the night. Neither of us was happy about that but in the end, I think it was better than coming home the first night. When he did get home, he experienced some back pain (not to mention some pain peeing) for the first few days but that seems to have subsided (as well as the blood in his urine). He needs to go back to the clinic in a couple of weeks for a follow up but hopefully, after that is done, he’ll be done with the kidney stuff for a while. It’s been a really long haul, waiting for this to happen, we’re both pretty relieved that it’s over with.
So while last week wasn’t relaxing, it was productive and, at times, pretty fun. We have more time booked off in August which will see us having the roof on our house replaced and also getting a new chimney liner installed for our furnace.
The good times just keep on coming at our house!
PS Happy Birthday Hartland Covered Bridge! You are 111 years old today. I took this picture when you were still a very spry 101 years old. Hope you get some cake today to celebrate!
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