Yesterday we got a dumpster delivered. It was very exciting.

No, really it was, come back!

The guy came early, like I just got back from my walk early, and his truck was a wee bigger than I thought it would be. I got him to leave the extremely large container right where Ron told me to tell him to put it. He kind of had to wrangle the truck a bit.

And then? We noticed he had the lifter part of the truck caught on some overhead wires. Thankfully not connected to anything (I think) but wires nonetheless. So when he asked is he could borrow a shovel or stick or something to move the wires, well of course I said “OF COURSE!” and frantically looked around helplessly.

The guy and I had just finished saying to each other that neither one of us has any caffeine yet that morning either.

So that’s why I got to move the lever on the truck, see, because he was up under the back part that lifts, holding the wire up out of the way, and he couldn’t reach the levers on the side of the truck, so he showed me which one to pull to bring the level back down. All while he stood ther with it coming slowly towards him and both of us watching to make sure the wire got out of the way.

After that I was pretty much awake.

***

Today after my morning walk, I wandered around to look at the dumpster (it has a door) and saw MRS gopher runnign under it. I say MRS gopher as babies have been spotted.

This weekend we’ll be tossing things in a dumpster again, making a ton of nose and pleasing the neighbours. (They love it when we work in the yard - really.)

For a short week, this day is lasting forever. But I’m getting a ton done.

By short week, I mean I’m not sure where even the last two weeks went. It’s been a blur of work work work. We got our phone fixed, spent some time talking to customer service to get our internet fixed (mostly), and then just tried to play catch-up with whatever else before I fell into bed every night.

Turns out the satellite dish for our internet was tipped and possibly had water in it, which was bad, so the guy moved it and put a new… thing… on it. I’m trying it out for a bit to let him know and he’s testing that part he replaced to see if he really has to charge me for a new one. But the interesting thing he said was with the weather issues we should have called him right away (the installer) and not customer support. They only had ONE record of me calling last August. He got here around 9:30 and left about 12.

Anyway. He was literally just finishing up when I had to call in for a conference call. That went on for an hour and 45 minutes, then I finally had my lunch.

Somewhere in there Emma lost another tooth. It was hanging on bravely and the big tooth was coming in behind it, not directly above. The tooth fairy again forgot to place money under her pillow, but it showed up the next afternoon.

The US holiday slowed my stuff down enough I could catch up a bit work-wise. Intense focusing on one project makes it really hard for me to even remember much of anything else. (and then I have to switch gears and focus on a different project, but that’s work stuff)

And I just drew a blank on what I did yesterday. Work, I bet. And laundry. Oh, and Rosella brought me over a few stems off her peony bush.

I got up early this morning. A woodpecker was on the tree next to my open bedroom window, and we’re waiting for windows to be delivered, so we didn’t know if they’d show up at 8am. Sometimes on my morning walk, I see a couple families of ducks. This morning I saw some Canada geese and their babies, with the mist coming off the water.

Of course I didn’t have my camera.

I did get out to take pictures of the neighbour’s flowers, and this afternoon all the girls and I went down the road and picked a flat of strawberries. That’s twelve of those little wooden baskets they come in. They were charging $1.70 each, but she said I didn’t overfill so she gave me $2 change from my $20. Emma talked the whole entire time, and yes Mom she wore her sunhat. In among the rows of berries were blooming wildflowers, johnnyjump-ups and some other familiar ones I can’t name. the owner said it wasn’t on purpose, but I appreciated it anyway, sitting in the straw. We were there and back within an hour.

I also finished potting my tomatoes I had growing in the unused upstairs bathroom. When I told Rosella I did this, she asked me if we were into hydroponics and maybe we were secretly growing pot.

Ron is working on the front porch and the side porch today, and we just discovered it’s leaking again under the sink.

oh, and my flickr stuff is missing from my sidebar, no idea why. click here for the pretty pictures.

(Edit: I had connection issues posting this, so if half of it shows up in your feed reader… oops. You love me though, right?)

Emma and I went out for the mail one morning, so I was naturally distracted. then again, nature is just outside my door. At any rate, I was back at my desk, typing and clicking away, when I felt a tickle on my neck.

I should tell you right now I am one of those people who do not like anything or anyone touching my neck. I don’t even like tight turtlenecks. I swatted it away, and confused, looked at my hand which was… wet.

Ew.

So I pulled my tshirt away from myself to get a good look on whatever was on my shoulder. I thought maybe a bird had presented me with a gift maybe. Nope.

THERE WAS A BUG ON MY SHIRT.

Not only that, he was LOOKING AT ME. And reaching out with his flailing buggy arm stumps, trying to inch forward.

“GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF ME! OHGODSOMEONEGETHISOFFMENOW! AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Yeah, I kinda freaked out a little bit.

Ew, ew, ew, I grabbed a kleenex from the handy trash basket next to my desk and grabbed the bug off my shirt. Gah, it touched me. Ew. I tossed it in the bin under my desk.

After that, it was almost lunch, so I took care of that, saw Ron, told him all about it (he shook his head at me) and eventually settled back in to work, a drink by my side.

It was a while later, reaching for my drink, that I perchanced to look over. There, almost brushing my hand AGAIN, the Killer Zombie Bug That Would Not Die had crawled up out of the wastebasket, up the side of my desk, directly towards me.

And did I mention I almost touched it again? Ew, yuck, *shivers* gag.

I grabbed another tissues, got the bug and squished it good this time. It was big and icky too. ewwwwwww. Why I did not think to stomp on it, I dunno. I was too busy freaking right the heck out over it.

*shivers again*

I work hard all week, head down or lost online, and by the weekend, things happen so fast I need a blackberry or something to post it all in double time.

Last night Sarah, Emma and I wandered upriver. We had been planning to visit this used clothing store that is closing, but it was… closed. So we stopped in a few places. On the way back home, i notcied a car pulled over and a couple people peering off into a field.

Well, shoot, I’m driving so I’m pulling over. I grabbed my trusty camera and headed over to the couple to take the shot below and a half-dozen others.

The guy next to me had his camera in the trunk and it didn’t zoom well I guess. A couple other cars stopped to look, but a few peeled away with a “Geez, it’s just a moose,” attitude. Whatever.

So we were almost home and I see this:

I pulled over so Sarah could get the first shot (the camera was in her hand) but when we went down the road further we realized there were more people watching and it would be a good show. So I pulled over to a dirt road that turned out to be a direct route to the field they used for launch. We had a great chat with a guy who turned out to be the pilot’s dad.

I took about a hundred pictures and a half-dozen videos I have yet to upload, including one of landing. Then we cheered and clapped when he did land. We and another family (of Mennonites) walked down into the field for a chat and a million questions. Emma even gave him a free hug.

We talked over one another as the sun set behind us, having made a new friend.

Did I mention it was awesome? Because it was.

Click on any of the pictures to go see the rest. I’m making the entry short because the house is empty with Ron and the girls on some sort of secret mission, and I have some work I really REALLY need to get to.

My neighbours are having a yard sale today and tomorrow, so I was awake before Ron and the alarm clock. (No Mom, they do not have anything good left.) Ya think I can get a few extra things done today? Here’s hoping.

Anyway, Earl told me a good story.

Seems he was up at the hardware store and ran into a buddy of his who lives up the road. In the floodin g last week, Buddy’s basement got full of water, so he did what any handy country guy does, he got out the sump pump. He hooked it up and placed the end out the open basement window.

Then he went to bed.

Well, I was thinking that maybe the worst that would happen was the water flowed back in. When he went downstairs the next day to check on things, splashing around in the water was a skunk. So this guy did the first thing he knew of to handle the situation.

He shot it.

And that’s why Earl found him near the air fresheners, buying as many as he could carry.

I went for a short walk to get the mail, and when I saw this perfectly normal sign on the board, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe - just maybe - other people who live elsewhere didn’t get to see things like this.

And in case you wondered, we do shovel our roof on occasion. The highest parts slide off pretty good. We even have a special shovel called a roof rake.

You southerners never have to deal with this sort of thing, do you?