Well…reading my blog can’t be the worst way to end a weekend, can it? I know that usually I post my blog on Friday nights but between procrastinating and doing other things, the weekend got away on me as far as providing an update. I guess it’s not a huge loss since there never seems to be a great demand for it, save for the Swedish bots and the population of North Bergen, New Jersey, to say nothing of visitors from Singapore, China, and Hong Kong.
Oh well, for my international fanbase, let me make a quick update. This past week was actually a pretty good one. I was able to help my Mom do some work around the house, including getting our garage and shed cleaned up and some items taken out to the curb for Thamesford’s large item pick-up. We were going to take a trip around town to see what else had been put out but, as my Mom said, “What do we really need?” and I couldn’t come up with a good answer. We also took a trip out to the north dump to dump off some of the leaves we raked up last weekend. (And not a moment too soon as it started raining on our way over. The dump grounds were muddy enough but certainly would have gotten worse had we waited even another 15-20 minutes.) We did save a couple of items to go to next weekend’s ReuseapalooZaha event in Brownsville, Ontario.
In between some promising news on the job hunt front (which I won’t go into here since I don’t want to jinx anything – buuuttttttt….if you’re really curious, hit me up on Facebook Messenger), my Mom and I did take a couple of day trips, including to Ingersoll (to get groceries), to London (to get the oil change and go to Value Village (more on that in a moment) and to Stratford, to the Habitat for Humanity and Value Village in search (in part) for material that my Mom could use for the upstairs bathroom.
Our trip…or should I say “trips” to the Value Village at the corner of Huron and Highbury on Monday is a rather fun story. My Mom collects prints of paintings by Canadian artist James Keirstead, having picked up most of her collection at Value Villages and antique and collectible stores. When we went to the Value Village, I saw a Keirstead print on one of the shelves and took it over to Mom. She was fairly sure that she had that one. After we got home, she consulted her list and discovered she didn’t, in fact, have that particular painting. Meanwhile, she was a little curious about the bill of sale that was on the back of the painting. The person who had originally purchased the print (and possibly donated it to Value Village) had paid over $300 from Keirstead’s studio…in 1986. At that price, Mom began to wonder if it was an original painting. With that possibility and the fact there was another work by Keirstead she could add to her collection, we decided to head back to Value Village and get the print.
Initially we were going to go back on Tuesday morning but I was willing to head in Monday afternoon. Eventually, Mom decided that, rather than wait, we’d head back into the city. The artwork in question was still there but it wasn’t an original painting. It was, however, a limited edition print and one that my Mom didn’t have. Plus we ended up getting a $300 print for $17.99 so that was a definite win.
As for thinking about going in on Tuesday…well, we woke up the next morning to find out that there was a water main break in London…at the intersection of Huron and Highbury. I’m not sure if the Value Village would have been open, but businesses in the Canada Trust building on the other side of the parking lot were closed. I guess it was fate – and a nice twist of fate at that – that we went in on Monday afternoon, and Mom was able to add another Keirstead print (and a fairly valuable one) to her collection.
If you’re actually a living person, you most likely came across this post from my Facebook page. And if so, you have probably seen my posts about FM 96’s Taz and Jim’s Small Town Tournament. I think it’s a fun way to give some of the smaller towns in our area a bit of bragging rights and engage the respective communities. I’ve got a few towns that I am rooting for, especially Glencoe and Thamesford but it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to see Tillsonburg, Ingersoll and Ailsa Craig come through for the win (as long as they don’t eliminate Glencoe and Thamesford). No matter who you might be rooting for, definitely stop by the website and cast your vote.
Also, this past weekend, at long last, I started my long-awaited rewatch of Daisy Jones and the Six. As someone who loves movies about rock and roll bands, having a six-episode TV series chronicling the rise and fall of a fictional rock band from the 1970s is right in my wheel house. I always promised myself I would go back and give it a rewatch and I guess it’s finally time.
After all, man can not live on NASCAR alone. Although next week is Talladega!!!!
As always, hope everyone has a good week!
johnmilner.ca 