Let’s be honest, straight off the bat. The only reason any of you are here is because, after you spit out whatever you were drinking, you want to know the story behind the photo of my ass climbing onto the roof of our garage.
Well, just for that, I am going to make you wait. Admittedly, it’s not really worth the wait…or is it?
Meanwhile…
To say that the atmosphere around our house this past week was “electric” would be an understatement. On Tuesday morning, I was awakened just after 3 a.m. by the sound of something falling. I also saw a flash of light but didn’t pay too much attention, as there was a thunderstorm. I called upstairs to my Mom to make sure she hadn’t fallen out of bed or something. When she denied any such incident, I went back to bed.
The next morning, my Mom called me to the window to our backyard and that solved the mystery. While at first I suspected that the strong winds of the previous night’s storm might have brought down not one but two branches, we have since determined that it was a bolt of lightning. While the branches coming down made a big mess in the yard, once Mom and I got working at it, it didn’t take that long to clean up. We spent about twenty minutes using hedge clippers to remove the smaller branches and another twenty minutes bagging up the leaves. Our thought is that if we put another hour or so into bagging up the rest over the weekend, that should really get the backyard back in shape. The cost of cutting up the big branches may be a bit much for us, and the local squirrel population seems to enjoy running all over them, so we may just leave them on the edge of the property for now. The biggest issue may be picking up the several dozen walnuts that came down with the branches.
(Scroll down to see photos of the back yard on Tuesday morning and again on Friday afternoon.)
But cleaning up the backyard wasn’t the only activity we had going on. In addition to taking a run to the South Dump and mowing the lawn, my Mom and I believe we have fixed the leak problem on our back shed. We had been using Gorilla Glue spray on the inside of the shed but while it was working to a degree, we were still getting some leaks. On Sunday, I decided to climb up on the garage roof and walk over to where the garage met the shed and use the spray to plug some more of the holes. Of course, rather than use a big ladder, I decided to just use the step ladder and hoist my butt up onto the roof. (And of course, my Mom had to snap a photo of me in mid-hoist.) After the storm on Tuesday morning, we checked out the shed and discovered there had been no water coming in the roof. Mission Accomplished!
While it was another disappointing week on the job-hunt front, I will say that I applied for nine jobs this past week. Of course, I did receive several rejections, some within days of applying and one for a job posting that closed on May 31.
I also corresponded with members of the Heroes of Zorra Project and the Ingersoll District Nature Club about their continued efforts going forward. I also completed the update for the August/September issue of Shelf Life Magazine.
My sister and nephew are headed down for a visit this weekend. This will most likely be the last time my nephew comes down before heading off to university in September, so we’re going to try and make it a fun weekend. Yes, there will be the aforementioned yard work but we’re also going to be headed to the One of A Kind Antique Store in Woodstock. Plus, since Jack is headed to Carleton University, I am hoping to show him the Blues Brothers, starring former Carleton student (and someone who shares a birthday with Jack), Dan Aykroyd. (Plus, it’s just a cool movie that everyone should watch.)
That’s it for another week. Hope everyone has a great week. Stay safe, happy and healthy!
johnmilner.ca 