One finish, no start

Wednesday's photo was lifted from an e-mail my brother sent me - you can see the runners ahead of him on the trail. Taken at the top of leg one of his 53 km/33 mile run, the first 20 mile leg had the runners climb 2145 feet, the next 13 miles required an additional 2122 feet of climb. As R said, he was quickly at the back of the pack, but he reminded himself that only 8 months ago he was on crutches and wearing a boot due to damaging his ankle on a fall down rocky terrain. He had the three dogs on leashes and they took off on him, pulling him down the trail. I, helpfully, reminded him he is  also now 61 years old. By the end of the race he had passed some runners ahead of him, and was pleased to not finish in last place. The entire run took him about 9 hours! I think he's nuts, but on the other hand he saw some absolutely incredible scenery.

It's been another week of some hurry up and wait. The landscaper wasn't able to start on Monday, but the flooring showed up and the crew was back on Wednesday to finish the flooring and baseboards. Meanwhile on Monday, the fence company finally appeared to repair the leaning fence my neighbour and I had installed less than two years ago. G contacted them, a year ago, but they failed to show up so her husband had tried to repair it using some foam material. By this spring, two of the posts were leaning, and the gate latch had snapped off as it kept coming loose in the wind.

About three weeks ago, I contacted the owner to make the necessary repairs, and although he responded quickly, again they failed to show. For my second e-mail, I channeled a tone I previously used in my career, expressed my concerns and suggested that legal action might be taken if a resolution wasn't reached. Apparently that lit a fire under his butt, as they were at the house mid-morning. There was quite a bit of grumbling over the foam material, as it all had to be removed before new concrete could be poured. My response was, you should have been here last year as requested. It took an hour or so, but everything was taken care, the posts were straight and level, and the metal handle and latch had been replaced by steel ones. When I checked out the gate later, it was clear the reason the old one had been damaged because the latch was installed in the wrong place. Sheesh!

After the fence guys were gone, I headed out to pick up some groceries. Our local Co-op had meat on sale, and most of the $60 I spent there re-filled the fridge freezer. It should keep us going for a few weeks. Safeway had some decent sale items too, and Walmart provided the rest of the items on my list.  It was stinking hot (32C/90F) so I was in and out of the stores quickly.

Tuesday I tackled the bathrooms and gave them a top to bottom scrub. Normally I mop the floors but this time I got down on my hands and knees to scrub to get into the corners. Doing so meant I identified a few areas were the baseboards needed touch up or paint. By the time that was done, I was ready to relax, so I started a mitten and watched some PVR'ed episodes of the various iterations of FBI. 

The crew showed up by 8 a.m. on Wednesday, worked their tails off, finishing up around 5 p.m. One of the fellows worked on the flooring in the master bedroom, while the other two tackled the baseboards in the spare room. I had moved my stuff out of the closet into the other spare bedroom to give them access, and they moved the furniture to the center of the room to finish off the baseboards. By about noon, everything was installed, and the baseboards had been sanded and one coat of paint applied. They took a short break and then got back at it. More sanding, more paint, lots of sweeping and mopping, and then they moved my furniture back into the bedroom. Last of all, they cleaned their way out of the house (one swept, one mopped), while the other fellow was loading things up outdoors. I noticed he brought out a leaf blower and blew most of the dust off the patio as well. 

I spent a half hour or so moving the contents of the closet and making up the bed. 

The rug is new - I purchased it from Amazon, and it is sooo soft and plush. I was concerned that the bed frame might scratch the flooring and I had a $100 gift card to apply, so paid about $60 for it in total. 

I texted the landscaper on Thursday and heard back from him later in the day, that he would be here Friday. Since Friday started cooler than it has been, I decided to tackle the garage while waiting for him to appear. I'd been out there a few weeks ago breaking down some cardboard boxes and getting rid of the winter debris. This time, I sorted the recycling, loaded the car with it and some old electronic items, swept, re-swept, and re-swept the floor some more. I also sorted items on the shelves and organized the items stored there by what will up in storage and what belongs to C, or will be going to his place. I had an old armoire in the garage I'd been using for storage after I bought a dresser several years ago. I offered it on the FB Free Regina and it was picked up shortly after lunch. 

Next up was cleaning the weeds that have grown in at the edge of the sidewalk in the xeriscape rocks. This is thankless chore as they'll grow in again in a week or so. I must ask my neighbour what they use because they don't seem to see as many weeds. I've used sprays, salt, hot water, and nothing seems to thwart these tenacious plants.

You may have noticed I haven't said anything about the landscaper. That's because he was a no-show. I texted him again, indicating I understood he might have been delayed on another job and asking that he contact me with a start date...perferably Monday. He responded to say, he'd was trying to finish another job, but didn't confirm for Monday. I've asked him to keep me in the loop, but I suspect I may have be persistent.

My life for the next while will be sorting, cleaning, and more cleaning. I've been washing windows, vacuuming screens (and rugs), and dusting window ledges, and cabinet doors. I want to tackle the closets and cupboards - if you only saw the amount of stuff I had crammed in the closet! As I'm doing the clearing, I'm deciding what will move to my son's and what will go into storage for the time being. I might be jumping the gun as the house isn't even listed yet, but I'm hopeful and eager to move on.

I'm off to spend a few hours with my friend C today. There may be a few garage sales to be visited, and definitely a coffee shop stop. It's been a few weeks since I've seen her so it will be good to catch up.

Since I have no landscaping photos to share, I'll leave you with some photos from my containers. With all the rain and heat, the plants are doing exceptionally well.