Not really again. Just on the road. More like finally.
After a nerve wracking couple of sleepless nights, DH has gone to get the rental, CU-4 is fed and watered, and CU-3 is still charging her batteries.
The Tardy Contractor has guys climbing all over our house like little worker ants. When we get home, I expect there'll still be stuff on the defecenies list (there are dings that have to be fixed as of right now, sigh. My paint job! Sob)
I'm trying to tidy-up some last minute items, mostly personal (like showering the night grime away) and a few non-personal - like making the cucumber sandwiches for CU-1, and collecting DH's pride of coffee cups that have collected around his desk.
Once the transport is loaded, we'll probably sit around waiting for the noon cut over time that DXH has so generously provided to us (two whole hours extra - cross-over at noon rather then the usual 2:00 p.m time). He couldn't allow the children to come earlier so that we could caravan with the rest of the family because they're job shadowing today. (Neither CUs are teens yet.)
So, oh well.
So, for the rest of you. I've found my address book and will call or post cards to you from points further South. I heard we're to have rain for about 1/2 of the time there. Maybe it'll only come at night.
Catch you in August.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
What goes around, comes around
That idiom has particular meanings as the clock ticks down.
Waiting at the karma bus stop.
Waiting at the karma bus stop.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Panic, and definitions of "prompt"
Panic is setting in.
We're a week to travel. The house isn't finished. Relations are hitting the city in FIVE (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) DAYS! DXH hasn't sent the travel documentation as of yet (unless, as DH has pointed out, he's couriering it.) This last thing has me nuts. NUTS I tell you.
I've sent the yahoo emails providing as many details regarding our trip as possible. The latest went out Wednesday night. Now DXH might complain that a detailed itinerary hasn't been issued for the trip, (um, he didn't provide one for his trip.), but that could be easily slapped down as being incorrect. But, by the time that's attended to, it will be too late, and the vacation would be borked.
DH and I have been having a verbal slap-fest over this one and the definition of the word prompt as used in the arbitrated agreement: "the parents shall provide each other promptly their written consent for any cross-border travel".
I want to prepare to escalate. It will, in the smallest possible way, help me feel like I'm doing something to move things forward, even if it's ever so slowly.
Part of me wishes ill will to befall upon DXH, even if it's in the most possibly childish manner (such as "I'll remember what you've done and give it back to you too when it's my turn!"
Like when I was eight and hurt myself badly, I'm going to hole up on couch. Wait, no. I can't do that (more because I can't find the couch! then because I'm an adult and have children to take care of). Maybe I can coax them to keep me company? ;-)
We're a week to travel. The house isn't finished. Relations are hitting the city in FIVE (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) DAYS! DXH hasn't sent the travel documentation as of yet (unless, as DH has pointed out, he's couriering it.) This last thing has me nuts. NUTS I tell you.
I've sent the yahoo emails providing as many details regarding our trip as possible. The latest went out Wednesday night. Now DXH might complain that a detailed itinerary hasn't been issued for the trip, (um, he didn't provide one for his trip.), but that could be easily slapped down as being incorrect. But, by the time that's attended to, it will be too late, and the vacation would be borked.
DH and I have been having a verbal slap-fest over this one and the definition of the word prompt as used in the arbitrated agreement: "the parents shall provide each other promptly their written consent for any cross-border travel".
I want to prepare to escalate. It will, in the smallest possible way, help me feel like I'm doing something to move things forward, even if it's ever so slowly.
Part of me wishes ill will to befall upon DXH, even if it's in the most possibly childish manner (such as "I'll remember what you've done and give it back to you too when it's my turn!"
Like when I was eight and hurt myself badly, I'm going to hole up on couch. Wait, no. I can't do that (more because I can't find the couch! then because I'm an adult and have children to take care of). Maybe I can coax them to keep me company? ;-)
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Cranky, what else is new?
Oh, the perpetual feelings anger and frustration.
After a roughish sleeping night, I was awakened by the sub-project manager coming through with a carpenter asking for clarification of the deficiencies list (that I had provided to the project manager that's actually running the show, over three weeks ago).
That's not even the bad part. I was in my painting t-shirt, not having found my pajamas for the last few days now, and being utterly exhausted from giving the master bed and bath their lick of paint, when the front door opens. DH jumps over the bed to greet the sub-project manager and the carpenter de jour. Though it was a gallant attempt, in giving me a minute to get up, DH looses points shortly there after.
***
So, there I am, in a thigh-skimming t-shirt, scurrying from my rumpled nest (which consists of a mattress and box spring on the floor in the front room) towards the kitchen where there's a mountain of clean laundry waiting to be processed. I figured there had to be some clean underwear and maybe a pair of shorts in one of the baskets that I could quickly swap out with.
In the kitchen, having no time to find, let alone swap out clothes, DH takes the project manager and carpenter on the tour to show the deficiencies that still exist on the project. First the kick-plate, next the missing molding, lastly the powder room. Where am I in all of this? Desperately trying to invoke my invisibility super power, inching closer and closer to the screen door so that while the carpentry crew can't check out my modesty, the neighbors can!
The tour continues upstairs from where DH has the gall to yell down to me to clarify something on the list!
After a roughish sleeping night, I was awakened by the sub-project manager coming through with a carpenter asking for clarification of the deficiencies list (that I had provided to the project manager that's actually running the show, over three weeks ago).
That's not even the bad part. I was in my painting t-shirt, not having found my pajamas for the last few days now, and being utterly exhausted from giving the master bed and bath their lick of paint, when the front door opens. DH jumps over the bed to greet the sub-project manager and the carpenter de jour. Though it was a gallant attempt, in giving me a minute to get up, DH looses points shortly there after.
***
So, there I am, in a thigh-skimming t-shirt, scurrying from my rumpled nest (which consists of a mattress and box spring on the floor in the front room) towards the kitchen where there's a mountain of clean laundry waiting to be processed. I figured there had to be some clean underwear and maybe a pair of shorts in one of the baskets that I could quickly swap out with.
In the kitchen, having no time to find, let alone swap out clothes, DH takes the project manager and carpenter on the tour to show the deficiencies that still exist on the project. First the kick-plate, next the missing molding, lastly the powder room. Where am I in all of this? Desperately trying to invoke my invisibility super power, inching closer and closer to the screen door so that while the carpentry crew can't check out my modesty, the neighbors can!
The tour continues upstairs from where DH has the gall to yell down to me to clarify something on the list!
If you get a laugh from this, good. I'll laugh. Eventually. Maybe.
Monday, July 16, 2007
It's Monday at the homestead
So that usually means no one from the construction company comes.
Surprise, surprise when the HVAC guy showed up to do a bit of work. No plasterer, no floor guys though. That's not a surprise.
I, on the other hand, have been dragging my wagon around, trying to get something done. Got a load of laundry in and on to the line, and a have a second coat of paint onto the study walls. I'm not a particularly good painter, and it shows. But, it'll hold until I can get the money together (if ever) to get the walls professionally painted. (Maybe if I win the hospital lottery draw today, this won't be an issue!!)
Surprise, surprise when the HVAC guy showed up to do a bit of work. No plasterer, no floor guys though. That's not a surprise.
I, on the other hand, have been dragging my wagon around, trying to get something done. Got a load of laundry in and on to the line, and a have a second coat of paint onto the study walls. I'm not a particularly good painter, and it shows. But, it'll hold until I can get the money together (if ever) to get the walls professionally painted. (Maybe if I win the hospital lottery draw today, this won't be an issue!!)
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Bagged
Seems that I'm making up for the lack of progress in recent weeks. Painting, tile installation, moving, clearing, and more installing, and that's just the inside job. Phew.
Tomorrow the plasterer comes to look at his job. I'm going to have him focus on two of the four areas he worked on as I've already started to paint and don't want to have to do it again. Supposedly the flooring guy is supposed to be in tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath. The contractor's been saying that for two weeks now.
Some where in the detritus of my kitchen (where everything from the study, which is being painted, has been shifted to) is my agenda. I certainly hope that I don't have anything planned for early this week 'cause I don't know about it!
Tomorrow the plasterer comes to look at his job. I'm going to have him focus on two of the four areas he worked on as I've already started to paint and don't want to have to do it again. Supposedly the flooring guy is supposed to be in tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath. The contractor's been saying that for two weeks now.
Some where in the detritus of my kitchen (where everything from the study, which is being painted, has been shifted to) is my agenda. I certainly hope that I don't have anything planned for early this week 'cause I don't know about it!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Primed
Well, the walls have been plastered and sanded. Now it's time for me to kick into high gear. The problem with that is that my gears feel stripped. After putting in a full day amusing to and attending to every one of CU-4s needs, followed by an intense four-to-six hour shift with CU-3, I then get the privilege to put in another four to five hours painting?
This is where I wish I had an extra five grand in my pocket to go "Krunk this" and hire help to paint every freaking wall in my house ...
Seeing that that isn't going to happen in my life time, I'd better get back at er.
This is where I wish I had an extra five grand in my pocket to go "Krunk this" and hire help to paint every freaking wall in my house ...
Seeing that that isn't going to happen in my life time, I'd better get back at er.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Does it really have to get worse before it get's better?
There really must be some turning point to that statement. I was contemplating the adage as I was taking new construction/house pictures for show-and-tell.
The front room is a big improvement, though I am vehemently against televisions in the bedroom (for reasons still unknown to me). (My bed is current in front of the TV, when it's on the floor, that is. So, it's not a good thing.)
Got a wake up call this morning. It wasn't DH giving me his travel status, but the contractor/company owner himself. Calls out to his number two man wasn't getting any attention, so I upped the anti yesterday afternoon by inviting him for a walk-through through this site. Got his attention, though as far as I can tell, he's not taking me up on my invite. And I'd bake a cake too.
No, no. Instead, he asked me for a copy of the deficiencies list (which the project manager already has) and kept on about "If you're not happy, I'm not happy." I told him there was very little more he could do to make me happy except to finish up and get out of my house. Really.
Oh there was so much back-peddling, the guy could have been in the circus. He tried to tell me the length of the project was Y, and I had to remind him it was X and that we'd not seen a projected project plan since the one that identified we'd be done six weeks prior. (BTW telling me the project could have lasted four and a half months, and here we're sitting at the seven month mark doesn't really make that much of a difference does it?)
So here we are now. The guy asking for two more weeks to be done. Sure. Go right ahead. I'm not going anywhere, nor is the house. What else am I to do? I still don't think you're going to have the trades lined up to deal with the issues I presented to your minion several weeks ago addressed (like the ding in the NEW bathtub. And hey, how about some handles for the door? Oh, yes, and then there's the trim work that's still not done, the speed holes in the bathroom because the HVAC guy moved the fan and didn't hook it back up, blah blah blah.)
I really just want you all out so that I can bork my house on my own.
The front room is a big improvement, though I am vehemently against televisions in the bedroom (for reasons still unknown to me). (My bed is current in front of the TV, when it's on the floor, that is. So, it's not a good thing.)
Got a wake up call this morning. It wasn't DH giving me his travel status, but the contractor/company owner himself. Calls out to his number two man wasn't getting any attention, so I upped the anti yesterday afternoon by inviting him for a walk-through through this site. Got his attention, though as far as I can tell, he's not taking me up on my invite. And I'd bake a cake too.
No, no. Instead, he asked me for a copy of the deficiencies list (which the project manager already has) and kept on about "If you're not happy, I'm not happy." I told him there was very little more he could do to make me happy except to finish up and get out of my house. Really.
Oh there was so much back-peddling, the guy could have been in the circus. He tried to tell me the length of the project was Y, and I had to remind him it was X and that we'd not seen a projected project plan since the one that identified we'd be done six weeks prior. (BTW telling me the project could have lasted four and a half months, and here we're sitting at the seven month mark doesn't really make that much of a difference does it?)
So here we are now. The guy asking for two more weeks to be done. Sure. Go right ahead. I'm not going anywhere, nor is the house. What else am I to do? I still don't think you're going to have the trades lined up to deal with the issues I presented to your minion several weeks ago addressed (like the ding in the NEW bathtub. And hey, how about some handles for the door? Oh, yes, and then there's the trim work that's still not done, the speed holes in the bathroom because the HVAC guy moved the fan and didn't hook it back up, blah blah blah.)
I really just want you all out so that I can bork my house on my own.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Inconsiderate stuff
Well, what suckage this morning to get up (late), get out the door running, only to do the shoulder check to see vandalism done to our yard. It wasn't much - the dicky little fence and lighting around the corner, but it was enough to pause and slow our progress as I heaved the fence out of the middle of the road back into a temporary place.
Drunks. It's drunks on a rip, going through the hood. Our neighbor got the same treatment last year. Nothing else was touched. Not the ceramic pig, the plastic turkey vulture, the polar bear cut out. Not the plastic pumpkin statue or the lady bug. My Russian Sage got a bit chewed up though. Minor stuff for living in this 'hood.
Oh, and for those of you who keep track, no plasterer today. This means no sanding, which means no painting, which means no room shifting, which, ultimately means, no progress.
Waiting for September. We might be done by then.
Drunks. It's drunks on a rip, going through the hood. Our neighbor got the same treatment last year. Nothing else was touched. Not the ceramic pig, the plastic turkey vulture, the polar bear cut out. Not the plastic pumpkin statue or the lady bug. My Russian Sage got a bit chewed up though. Minor stuff for living in this 'hood.
Oh, and for those of you who keep track, no plasterer today. This means no sanding, which means no painting, which means no room shifting, which, ultimately means, no progress.
Waiting for September. We might be done by then.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Plastered
That seems to be the latest joke around here. I'm getting plastered. Well, my house is. I'm not. Maybe I should do that. Might help lift my spirits.
I've been getting the feeling of late that I'm just not getting a lot done. I feel that when DH is home, I get a bit more motivated to do things.
Could be the result of the natural chemical cycle, that I've hit the 1/2 way point of my home stay with CU-4, heat, lack of sleep or the zillion year old mattress.
Lately I've been disasterizing everything. I'm hoping it's just fatigue talking.
I need a nap.
I've been getting the feeling of late that I'm just not getting a lot done. I feel that when DH is home, I get a bit more motivated to do things.
Could be the result of the natural chemical cycle, that I've hit the 1/2 way point of my home stay with CU-4, heat, lack of sleep or the zillion year old mattress.
Lately I've been disasterizing everything. I'm hoping it's just fatigue talking.
I need a nap.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Life, laziness and everything
So construction is grinding along - it seems that I can actually get things done faster then they can these days.
Was it just the other day that I asked the sub-Project Manager if we were going to be done before the end of July? I guess it was.
Grandma C had some sage advice which I now paraphrase regularly put your expectations that it will be done by September so you wont be so disappointed, and you could have a thrill if they're actually done by August!
Was it just the other day that I asked the sub-Project Manager if we were going to be done before the end of July? I guess it was.
Grandma C had some sage advice which I now paraphrase regularly put your expectations that it will be done by September so you wont be so disappointed, and you could have a thrill if they're actually done by August!
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Summer time and the lawlessness abounds
At this end of the country I'm having several WTF moments.
Working backwards:
WTF #1:
Canada Post has issued me a delivery notice to pick up my parcel tomorrow at their local drop-off site. Funny that. I was home, sitting at my kitchen table as I watched the delivery truck roll down the street. Did it matter that we've installed a door bell that plays the theme song to the Magnificent Seven? (my DH's choice), or that the door was wide open? or that the driver also left another parcel for CU-2? I guess not. Calling Customer Service didn't help much.
WTF #2:
Just coming back from picking up a few groceries, I see a black van with special *twinkly* lights. I recognized the van, and the burly guys all dressed in black emptying out of it as I'd witnessed something similar in one of my old 'hoods while taking a much younger version of Cu-1 and 2 to the park. These special cops, along with the regularly uniformed ones, plus the special canine unit were walking around the block where my home is located. The regular copy said I'd nothing to worry about and that nothing was going on. While taking down the laundry a few minutes later, the canine unit had asked if I'd seen some one scurrying across the back yard, possibly a la Ferris Buller. Nope. Only a squirrel with extremely large nads.
WTF #3:
Was out at a piece of outdoor culture yesterday, enjoying myself at the community park, when in came a couple with a large dog. When they were told it was a no dog park, they moved approximately 1 metre to the North of where the whole family was sitting. Upon giving my husband the dirty look, he handed me his cell phone so that I could call by-law. The couple had sited that they just moved to the neighborhood and didn't realize it was a no-dog park. Um. There are signs at all entrances ... Their leaving the park didn't give me cause to disconnect the call as there was another dog, (white lab?) tied to the tree. No water, no attention given to it. No indication who the owner was. After 40 minutes, the by-law officers showed up. The owners and their CUs disengaged themselves from the free entertainment we were enjoying, to confront the officers. Perhaps they learned, the hard way, that it is a no dog park with a $120 fine.
WTF #4:
Not ten minues after the family and their pooch left the park that a lady and her two Westies came in. She preceded to tell me that she didn't know this was a no dog park (even though I warned her about the fine that I just witnessed) and that she regularly brings her dogs there in the evening, particularly in winter, when no one was there. When I pushed to say that the fine is $120, and that they're doing construction all around the park so that there will be more eyes on the park, she said she'd be willing to chance the fine. Ok. So noted.
WTF #5:
Mexican stand-off with another chick-maiden about her dogs. She's shown the "screw you" attititude as she's been coming back to the park the same time every day now for several days. I'll just keep calling by-law until this matter is resolved, unless I happen to be able to identify her abodal address, then they can take the complaint, and the fine to her directly. (Doesn't help her case much that I've got pictures of the first infraction of her dog taking a crap in the park, and that the last time her dog came up and sniffed and licked me. No one does that uninvited.)
Working backwards:
WTF #1:
Canada Post has issued me a delivery notice to pick up my parcel tomorrow at their local drop-off site. Funny that. I was home, sitting at my kitchen table as I watched the delivery truck roll down the street. Did it matter that we've installed a door bell that plays the theme song to the Magnificent Seven? (my DH's choice), or that the door was wide open? or that the driver also left another parcel for CU-2? I guess not. Calling Customer Service didn't help much.
WTF #2:
Just coming back from picking up a few groceries, I see a black van with special *twinkly* lights. I recognized the van, and the burly guys all dressed in black emptying out of it as I'd witnessed something similar in one of my old 'hoods while taking a much younger version of Cu-1 and 2 to the park. These special cops, along with the regularly uniformed ones, plus the special canine unit were walking around the block where my home is located. The regular copy said I'd nothing to worry about and that nothing was going on. While taking down the laundry a few minutes later, the canine unit had asked if I'd seen some one scurrying across the back yard, possibly a la Ferris Buller. Nope. Only a squirrel with extremely large nads.
WTF #3:
Was out at a piece of outdoor culture yesterday, enjoying myself at the community park, when in came a couple with a large dog. When they were told it was a no dog park, they moved approximately 1 metre to the North of where the whole family was sitting. Upon giving my husband the dirty look, he handed me his cell phone so that I could call by-law. The couple had sited that they just moved to the neighborhood and didn't realize it was a no-dog park. Um. There are signs at all entrances ... Their leaving the park didn't give me cause to disconnect the call as there was another dog, (white lab?) tied to the tree. No water, no attention given to it. No indication who the owner was. After 40 minutes, the by-law officers showed up. The owners and their CUs disengaged themselves from the free entertainment we were enjoying, to confront the officers. Perhaps they learned, the hard way, that it is a no dog park with a $120 fine.
WTF #4:
Not ten minues after the family and their pooch left the park that a lady and her two Westies came in. She preceded to tell me that she didn't know this was a no dog park (even though I warned her about the fine that I just witnessed) and that she regularly brings her dogs there in the evening, particularly in winter, when no one was there. When I pushed to say that the fine is $120, and that they're doing construction all around the park so that there will be more eyes on the park, she said she'd be willing to chance the fine. Ok. So noted.
WTF #5:
Mexican stand-off with another chick-maiden about her dogs. She's shown the "screw you" attititude as she's been coming back to the park the same time every day now for several days. I'll just keep calling by-law until this matter is resolved, unless I happen to be able to identify her abodal address, then they can take the complaint, and the fine to her directly. (Doesn't help her case much that I've got pictures of the first infraction of her dog taking a crap in the park, and that the last time her dog came up and sniffed and licked me. No one does that uninvited.)
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