Since Sept.30

Are you kidding? I can't recall last week, never mind last month!
Most of my time in early Oct.was spent on the wall(s) in the driveway. After I saw how good the two looked on either side of the garage door, I felt I needed a single layer (that's a virgin hen) where my driveway meets my neighbour's lawn. Laying these 4" - thick, 18 -pound guys is no picnic, so the first 25 feet took a couple of weeks;then I decided to take a 30-degree detour of about another 8 feet, and then bury the "loose"end in the lawn slope. I thought I was working to a November 5 deadline, set by the paver. Then he changed it to Nov.12, so I relaxed a bit on what little had to still be done. Paul and Ted helped along the way, as I put in two window wells at grade so I would have some more places to plant flowers. When he changed it to Nov.8, I trimmed the lawn a bit on one side, and removed any greenery that might be in his way. Imagine my surprise when I came home on the afternoon of the first to find the job 3/4 done. So I chewed out the foreman, and told a little lie - that I was still making changes to my plan, and that the wall needed modification. In the end, I still paid him cash when he finished;although, if I was dealing with a contractor again, I would hold back 10%, just to afford me the opportunity to inspect the details, and negotiate more attention to flaws. Anne made sure all the neighbours came by to tell me how beautiful it looked;and each had to ask me how I liked it, so I lied again!

Saturday last was the church's annual Arts & Crafts show and sale, so I put a lot of miles on my feet and dropped 500 flyers in mailboxes;plus I took 10 sets of 50 to each of 10 schools, as Friday was a P.D.Day, and all the staff would want to know how to spend their Saturday, right?Friday afternoon I put 200 more under wipers at the GO station, and then called it a week.

So the new front door gets installed tomorrow, and I sure hope I have the guts to stand firm on my insistence on a quality installation. If there's one thing I hate, it overuse of Silicon caulking; and I made that known up front, so it better be a good fit. There will be a full height side window, and a 3/4 height oval in the door. All set off by new brushed satin hardware. We'll have no storm door, of course;and I want to replace the mailbox with something more suitable, and that's down the road.

Anne gets her new pacemaker sewn in next Tuesday at 10:30 am, and gets to spend the night there just to be certain all is well. She has an aberration in her heart that shows up when it wants to, and essentially, it's a case of the one chamber not always waking the other one up with a timely "shock". This all came about because she had the sense to discuss a sudden weakness she experienced a few weeks ago, while climbing a hill with her walking partners. All the tests pointed to the same solution, so it's a pacemaker for her;and all I get is a T-shirt, suitably monogrammed. I'm looking for suggestions!


That's it for now. Love to all. Warren