June 29, 2025

Happy Canada Day weekend, for those of us who have always observed. I know that Canada Day isn’t until Tuesday, July 1, but we ended up getting a four-day weekend so that was a nice surprise. It’s like getting a weekend…and then another right afterwards…and then a three-day work week and then ANOTHER weekend. Holy crap, not a bad way to start the summer. Plus, on Tuesday, my genius nephew will turn 17. (I still remember the night he was born and the fireworks that were set off that night to announce his birth!)

Unfortunately, the summer didn’t get off to a completely great start. As indicated in the last post, our cat Pepper passed away on Tuesday afternoon. He had gone down in the basement and we kept thinking “He must be gone now!” but then we’d see him twitch a bit. On Tuesday, my Mom was sure Pepper had passed but she waited until I got home. We checked one last time and then buried Pepper by our garage. I will say, you can cross “Animal Undertaker” off my list of preferred occupations. It wasn’t so much that it was hard to bury him; it was just the doubt of “Is he really gone?” Mom and I had both taken a really good look to make sure Pepper was no longer with us. Pepper was with us for almost 8 years. (We got him on July 1 at the Embro Town Wide Yard Sale. So, it’s been strange to not think “Don’t leave the door open, or the cat will get out!” My Mom says Pepper was our last cat. But then, she said that after Ginger passed, so you never know.

BEFORE

With a four-day weekend, it gives me a chance to work on some of the elements of Project 56. While I’m never 100% happy with my progress on my To Do list, I have managed to get a lot of things done so far. I decided that the “weekend” was going to focus on a lot of the smaller items but the “extra days” (starting on Monday) will include some of the larger projects and stuff I’ve been putting off. (Part of Project 56 is for me to stop procrastinating, especially on items that involve me dealing with people.)

Earlier this week, I got my “NASCAR Room” set up, and with that, the “physical set up” for Project 56 is pretty much complete. There’s a few tweaks I will want to make here and there but the bulk of the basics are in place.

AFTER

Of course, the whole weekend hasn’t been spent just working around the house. Back in late April (or was it May 1), when my Mom and I were taking a cab into Ingersoll to pick up the new car, we went past the Ingersoll Theatre of Performing Arts. My Mom mused that she would like to go to one of their performances. I was game and looked into getting tickets to this weekend’s matinee of “The Long Weekend” (ironic since this is the long weekend.) As you might have seen on my Instagram, I got semi-dressed up and accompanied my Mom to the theatre on Saturday afternoon and we really enjoyed ourselves. The story was quite humourous but it was the efforts of the actors that really made the play. Major kudos to them.

As I probably have said before, I’m really enjoying WordPress’ stats about where my readership is coming from. The only weird part is seeing people from places that I’m not 100% I know anyone. I want to say I know someone from Dublin, Ireland (and sure, London, Woodstock and Toronto) but Belleville, Woodlawn, Orillia, St. Catherines, Delhi, Kitchener, and Sarawak? (And they’re all coming from my Facebook link so these are obviously people I know.)

So, on that note, if you are reading this, let me know where you’re reading from. And, of course, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.