Good times

I had a great, if tiring, time with Eli and D early this week. My drive out on Monday was unremarkable; there was one short section of construction that had me stopped for a couple of minutes. D had warned me, there was more construction, but it was finished and I surprised her by arriving twenty minutes ahead of schedule.

Eli and I spent the morning watching 'toons together, while his mother caught up on some housework. I'd brought the carpet cleaner with me and she put it to good use. After lunch we headed out to the parks, first to one I'd not been to before where a resident cat named Lily often makes an appearance. Eli was disappointed that she didn't show up that day. We played tag for a bit (Eli climbed the equipment out of my reach), and then took a walk on the nearby path. Then it was time to head for the park close to home. There were lots of friends in the park so Eli was quite content to let his mom and I sit in the shade and watch.

That evening, he chose to sleep with G'ma. We read a couple of stories, then he wanted me to tell him a story. I started, "one upon a time, a long time ago, and far, far away lived a little boy named Eli, and his best friend a dragon who was a very nice dragon". At this point, Eli stopped me and told me the dragon's name was Bon, and that Eli lived in a castle. So I started again adding these details, and then saying that one day an evil dragon came to the castle. He stopped me again, and told me that Eli lived in the castle with his mommy and grandma, and he had a secret stash of weapons in the basement. Start again, he said. So I did and this kept on as he added more details until eventually the hero Eli slayed the evil dragon and everyone was safe. 

I can't say I slept well that night because, not only is he a wiggle worm, he's a little furnace too. Their house has no a/c so I slept on top of the covers. A couple of hours in, I opened up the window to let the breeze in.

Tuesday we had plans to head to the beach about a half-hour away. D and I did a few things around the house in the morning, she pulled some weeds in the front yard, and then we started packing lunch and all the beach items while Eli played his learning games on his tablet. He doesn't yet know the names of the letters but can identify the sounds - he even sounded out the word fish on his own. He is only able to access his video games when the learning games are complete. Smart mom!

We arrived at the beach about 10:30 and were one of two small groups there for about ten minutes before several more families showed up. Both D and I wore our bathing suits too, so we were all able to get into the water. Eli had a blast on the slide, jumped off the dock into the water or our arms. But his happiest moment was when he was able to dump a pail of water over G'ma's head!

The water felt a bit cold initially going in, but once I was in and mostly wet, it felt wonderful. We stayed and played in the water for an hour or so before heading back to the beach for our lunch.

D and I had made sandwiches, while Eli had a bento box of crackers, veg and cheese. For dessert, I'd cut up a few pieces of watermelon. What I didn't realize is this kid loves watermelon. I was able to get a couple of small pieces before he inhaled the rest. Then after a bit of play on the equipment, we headed back into the water.

We stayed another hour or so, then headed back into town. It was quite warm by this point, but there was a good breeze so D and I stayed outdoors to catch up on some yard-work. We were both tired so D ordered and I picked up dinner that evening. At bed-time I again read a couple of books to Eli before he asked for Chapter 2 of the dragon story.  This time I knew enough to stop and ask for the details and eventually all was well in the world Eli and Bon once again. This night he decided to sleep in his mother's bed so I had his big boy bed to myself. 

I got away fairly early on Wednesday morning after lots of hugs and kisses from my boy. The temperatures increased as the days went on, and though my son had watered for me on Tuesday, I figured things were going to need a good watering earlier on Wednesday. By mid-afternoon, the tomatoes were looking a little peaked, with the top leaves starting to curl. I gave them a good watering, and waited until early evening to do the rest.

Other than the tomatoes, I might well have waited. We had an incredible series of thunderstorms roll through with heavy rain starting about midnight. I was woken several times during the night and could see the flashes of lightening through the window. The storms finally passed by about six a.m. At that point, the cat wanted to be fed and watered so I was up for the day.

I did get the closet painted in the new room on Wednesday and Thursday. All of the painting equipment has now been cleaned up and put away, or in the case of my plastic drop cloth and couple of rollers tossed in the bin. I'm going to give myself a week or two break before I finish the caulking and baseboard painting. I'm tired of it all.

Yesterday, I went out early and got the grocery shopping done before it got stinking hot. Once home, I spent some time on Ancestry, did some knitting, and had an afternoon nap. As I was watching baseball and football in the evening, my phone alerted me to a tornado watch in our area. I kept one eye on the radar and when the wind picked up and the sky was darkening, I headed outdoors with the camera. (Maybe not the safest place but I wasn't alone - lots of neighbours were on their driveways). These are a few of the photos I took.

The storm seemed to circle around the city, it came from the north but swung around to the east.

Meanwhile the sky to the north west still showed a bit of blue sky with the sun glowing on the clouds.

This was taken a half hour later than the others. The clouds were lit up by the sun. The storms continued east of us, then turned again and went northeast. We didn't get a drop of rain but I'm sure other areas got a dump. D told me this morning, they didn't get rain but did get a lot of wind. One of the city trees in front of her house lost a large branch and there are reports of trees down throughout the small community. 

I was up early this morning in order to get some things done outdoors before the heat arrives. (35C/95F). The containers and front flower bed were watered and did some need deadheading and weeding. I made some breakfast and took it out to the front patio to enjoy the cooler air and the breeze. I opened windows in the sunroom and front room to allow the breeze to flow through the house. It's now after 11 a.m. and my a/c has yet to kick in, though I don't expect it will be much longer. We had a recent announcement that the power company is seeking a 17% increase in rates effective August 1. I don't think they'll have the approval quite that quickly but it's worrisome to think costs are going to increase that much. I'll likely have to rethink my usage and find ways to economize. Our energy costs are also increasing but by a much small percentage. 

The football starts shortly, so I'll be picking up my knitting, to watch our Riders play the Toronto Argonauts. It's an away game for both teams as the game is being played in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Later the Blue Jays are at home playing the Kansas City Royals. You know my butt will be planted on the couch for much of those games. I'm making decent progress on my knitting and hope to have the front of the top complete today.

Have a great week ahead everyone. Stay cool.