Short But Sweet

Friday, September 16, 2011

I’ve just worked five days and day number six is tomorrow. It has been a relatively good week, there were even a few very good days at work. I enjoyed it while I could.

Attila and I are going to see the GrandBabies this weekend. The visit will be short but sweet. Actually Imp and Elf are five and if they knew I called them GrandBabies I do not think they would approve. And if they don’t approve, it is likely their little sister Tink, now two years old, would not approve either. However, so far they are not reading this journal, so I am safe to call them any endearment I so choose, and I choose GrandBabies!

I did a little bit of shopping for the big celebration. I filled my shopping basket with three of this and three of that, all little gizmos and gadgets I think they might find amusing in the short term.

Terra and Lares will be there too, so it will be a lot of fun seeing them all together.

Muskoka Rock: Why We Don't Get High Speed Internet
Muskoka Rock: Why We Don't Get High Speed Internet

The weather is cooling down now, the temperature dropped to 0C last night, there was a frost warning. We have no garden at our country house, so we are not worried about covering things up. Hopefully we will manage to pick all of our tomatoes from our garden at the little house in the city, before the frost gets them.

It has been a very bad technology week for us, as it happens. Our older little car has a muffler problem that Attila tried to fix and cannot. A friend of his is going to do some welding on it at some point. Until then, Attila is a hard man to ignore when he is roaring down the road!

Last night there was a terrible racket in the back kitchen. The drum in our washing machine has disconnected itself and is sitting at an odd angle in the machine. This is very disappointing because this was an expensive washing machine and is less than three years old. The warranty is long gone, so is our money, so it will be off to the laundromat for us!

The high speed Internet connection continues to decline in quality, almost to the point where I cannot read email anymore. I’m so glad I didn’t let the bank talk me into receiving digital statements, because I’d have no access to them at all.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Attila and I have been there and back again, on our visit to see Luna and Janus and the GrandBabies.  We had a wonderful time, seeing Imp and Elf and Tink, not to mention Benny and Bim, Luna and Janus, Terra and Lares. We ate far too much, stayed up far too late and had a great time. The kids are so much fun to be with!

Since our washing machine is not working at the moment, Attila has taken the laundry and driven into the village to wash it at the laundromat. We will dry it here at home.  I have decided to hand wash my “delicates”; I wouldn’t want to lose a sock at the laundromat because I might not get it back! Until we can figure out how to fix this washing machine Attila will be visiting the laundromat on a regular basis.

The Internet is still working intermittently, and very poorly when it does connect. I’ve lined up an alternative service, and will be calling them to arrange a site visit. They are more local to the rural communities, and more aware at the special challenges in providing decent Internet services where rocks and trees predominate. A site visit is performed to ascertain that the service will actually work at our location, and only after success is established do they install the antennae and equipment.

Attila is still waiting for a friend to do some welding on his muffler. I’ve my fingers crossed that it will be sooner rather than later, because I can hear him traveling down the road for two or three minutes after he leaves the house; on his ten minute journey to work.

And so the short weekend draws to a close.  Tomorrow morning it is back to work for both of us.

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Crochetlady

Yup, you don’t have to be the dog to hear the ‘master’ making his way home when the muffler on the auto is gone! Hope you do get internet service soon!

Stubblejumpin' Gal

Sorry to hear that some of your hard-earned dollars and rare spare time will be taken up by the laundromat. I’ve been doing ours there (till a month ago, my son was; I just did the driving, provided the cash and soap, and helped with the folding and toting)(now he’s gone, guess who’s got the entire job) and do find it frustrating at times: the dryers don’t reliably give the amount of time they’re supposed to for a quarter, clothes come out marked with black sludge or bits of plastic burnt into them sometimes because heaven knows what other people have put in there (last week what came out of the dryer with my clothes, that I knew didn’t go in with them, were a panty liner and a rock), a new flannel pillow case sticks to the top of the inside of a washer and almost is left behind unnoticed, and so on. On the up side, while waiting for washers and dryers to finish their cycles, there is nothing to do but read or go do other errands. It doesn’t have to be wasted time, by a long shot.

Maggie

Crochetlady, your comment reminds me of a childhood experience. We had a dog named Moose. Moose was a wanderer. My Mom would pile us all in the old jalopy and head out to look for Moose. That old car was something else, and the brakes in particular were trying, they squealed loudly every time Mom tried to slow the car down. All she would have to do was brake at stop signs, and before we knew it Moose would come running from out of nowhere and hop into the back seat with the kids.

I think they will do the assessment for high speed after Thanksgiving; it will be dialup until then. It is surely better than nothing at all!

Maggie

Kate, we have been lucky so far, it is only the washing machine that broke down! So, Attila takes the laundry to the laundromat, comes back an hour later and we dry it in our dryer. So it isn’t so bad really, but it is expensive. Attila reads and does errands while he is in town, just as you describe.

Any time spent reading is time well spent!