Allan

soooo much snow

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I shovelled the driveway four times in the past 2 days.  The snow finally stopped.  We got about 20cm (8″) of it.

So, of course, I had to include a comic or two.

Mom’s ceramics

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We found Mom’s ceramics.  Two were in a cabinet in the living room, and one was stored away in a cabinet.  Here they are.

Long ago, when I was a kid living in BC, Mom went to a ceramics class.  She didn’t mould these.  They came pre-made.  But she painted them.

The salesperson represented Glenn who apparently, at the time, sold corn (or maybe eggs) along the street where we lived.  The musician represented me as I apparently had musical skills.  The girl in pink was to represent Angela who apparently had no qualities or talent aside from being a girl.  (A person cooking or dancing might have been more appropriate.)

I had no idea that Mom had painting talents.  I knew she wrote songs long ago and may have had them published and played professionally if the old man had shelled out a little to get it started.

So now they sit in our cabinet.

plugged up heat vent

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It all started when someone forgot to turn down the heat at night.  Usually Floyd does, but sometimes it is me.  I woke up with a headache.

The conversation turned to how cool it is in Floyd’s bedroom (the north end of the house).  Mom & Floyd had a dresser left over from another bedroom set.  Mom has been gone for a while now, but the cabinet remained there.  It had been reorganized a few times but essentially remained there.  The issue is, it covered a heat register.

I said, “Why don’t we just drill holes in the bottom of it to let some heat out?  So last night Floyd and I did that.

There are holes on the side, too, closer to the window.

a week of sick

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Been sick the past week.  I cancelled all my classes on Thursday and limped through the rest.  I’ve been coughing up all kinds of nastiness and went through dozens of tissues.  I think I’m finally on the mend, but I’ve still a long way to go.

It all started last week when I pushed onward, tearing up plaster and lath boards in the upper suite at 1403.  The dust that had accumulated over the past 115 years was something fierce.  But … to catch a cold from that?

I’ve since bought another (replacement) respirator, a 3M this time, with new filters.  I hope this will help next time I muster up enough courage to get back in there.

five and a half Ws and their answers

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We all know the five Ws – who, what, when, where, why – and their neglected cousin, how.

But when we use these words to create compound words in reply, this happens:

  • somewhat
  • somewhere
  • somehow

But that about the other ones?

  • somewho (we have to say someone)
  • somewhen (we have to say sometime)
  • somewhy (we have to say for some reason)

English is weird.

sore sinuses

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I’ve breathed in too much dust while renovating a rental house – plaster dust, airborne debris from scraping up flooring, and general dirt-dust that had seeped in through the walls over the past 113 years.  I had to leave before sundown as my sinuses were so sore.

In the shower this evening, I used NeilMed, a nasal wash, to clean things out.  It certainly helped.  But still, at 8:00pm, my sinuses are sore and I’m coughing.

green mystery

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This is weird, almost as weird as the hidden receptacle (see hidden power).  For the past several years, there was a green tinge of … well, a kind of goo, stuck to one of the receptacles in the kitchen.  I often wondered, “Where is this green coming from?”  I wracked my brain (but not much of a brain wrack – just a things-that-make-you-go-hmm kind of wrack), wondering what would cause it.

I finally figured it out.  My Mom must have dribbled a little green food colouring on the end of the cord to the mixer.  The mixer is about 45 or 50 years old – a Sunbeam, I think.  Every time I beat some whipping cream, I got some green on the outlet.  Duh.

The funny thing is, Mom hated the colour green.

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