Tuesday 11 August 2015

Sliding Door, Dumb Waiter Blues, Part II: Tuesday, August 11th!

In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds. -Robert Green Ingersoll, lawyer and orator (11 Aug 1833-1899) 


Up at 6:30 am to ready my "office" for the installation of the new patio door. Took the blind off the window and draped a few towels over Murphy bed, as well as one over pictures of my grandparents, hoping to minimize cleaning up Gyproc dust that will coat everything once work begins. As soon as workmen arrive, shortly I trust, I will run a few errands as we have good friends, Gisela and Lore, staying in Oliver, coming for coffee around 10:00 am.

The Birth of Venus
Art: Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445-1510)
Hello Haz-Mat Man! Glad you made it home safely and all is well. Terrific that pet and parent are pleased to have you home. However, that will change, shortly, once they remember how difficult you are to live with, Dallas! Knew Doomsday Bill would be relieved that we had dodged the coming earthquake/Tsunami but we are out of the frying pan into the fire, so to speak, with the severe drought and hundreds of raging wildfires. Fortunately, I seem to have enough wine left in our cellar after Judithness left to be able to wet down our roof if fires get close to Penticton!

Be pleased to send along some snaps of house over next little while. On the installation of patio door front, am more than delighted to report that chaps are busy taking out window in office wall as I speak so work is well underway!

Hope to take clean dirty laundry to bus depot today. Bit of a delay with all the red-tape and paper-work, as you so astutely mentioned. Cora Lee, (aka Virgin Lady Mary!), had sprinkled holy water over the box before she left our place but the Geiger-counter at the Greyhound freight counter still went crazy as soon as she walked in the door of the depot. Before she knew it she was in cuffs, on the floor, with the Swat Team screaming at her to hand over her credit cards! Fortunately, our friends, Ruthless and Ricardo, were still here so he, being a lawyer, was able to post bail for her. Don't know who put up the money as it wasn't me! Must say I was a bit disappointed at her early release as I was looking forward to a month or two, on my own, until her trial date was set. Nevertheless, she is out of the jailhouse now but cannot frequent any malls or designer stores until the charges have been resolved!

Ayn and Chloë will drive up on Friday. Ayn flies in to Bellingham on Thursday and Chloë will drive down to collect her, and Winston, her Jack Russell. Will be great to have patio door in when they arrive. They will stay until next Wednesday as Ayn would like to see friends in Vancouver before she flies back to Tinsel Town.

Talked to my high-school classmate, Erika, last night. At the Daniel McIntyre reunion, this past June, we discovered that she owns a B&B in Summerland, The Alpine Rose. We had her and Amy, her 16 year old daughter, for dinner a number of weeks ago. She phoned to invite us all to her place on Saturday for brunch. Perfect timing as we will go to the Farmer's Market beforehand and then drive over to Summerland. She suggested that we might do a spot of wine-tasting after lunch and since we are keen to visit some of the new wineries on Bottleneck Drive, invitation couldn't be more welcome.

Before we seal your clothes, in a lead lined wine box, I discovered a pair of grey Hanes underwear. Do those belong to you, Dallas? If so I'll include them, in six Ziploc bags, but if not they look like terrific bike chain rags! Hello and fond regards to one and all. Let me know about sexy underwear. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Pics:  Back patio, flop-house for local juice-heads! Russian expert with guided missile, guarding malt cabinet in living room! Chloë, in Vancouver, with Keremeos cherries I brought when I drove to coast to collect The Great Danes! Cora lee with a clutch of Freeloaders on front patio! Back patio table; morning java, in living room, note Mme Coriandre is sitting in Grandma Kate's rocking chair; will have a wood-burning unit installed to replace electric fireplace. Lady Mary is waiting for the downstairs maid to clean the hearth! portraits of Adam and Kate covered up; door opening in progress.


Those likely are mine who else's could they be sounds like they were trying to come home on their own I thought they would along with the socks. I am looking forward to their return as Sunday Wednesday underwear had to become Saturday Tuesday underwear as well. I've taken to wearing them to bed as it saves that time of taking them off and then having to find them to put back on in the morning. Thanks for sending them I really wouldn't have bothered you for them at all except that Jude misses her favourite skirt and I really did like that shirt I left behind.

Chloe called when you were away to the winery dinner thingy I wouldn't have answered except she called twice in a minute and a half and when I picked up the phone to see who it was it answered automatically I'm sure she called back after, just giving you the message better late then never right! 


Hello Dallas! You should be back to your regular rotation regime by Friday as woman at bus depot here said about two days when I shepherded the box down the street, just before closing time at 5:00 pm. Had to put a leash on the package as the socks kept wanting to jump into Penticton Creek. Guess that they had had enough of the underwear by then. Unfortunately, I liked both shirts you left so we didn't include them. Same for Judy's skirt as Cora Lee finds it just right for gardening! We substituted some of my cycling garb so I'm sure you won't mind!

Reason I waited until late in afternoon was that I spent a couple of hours putting the office back together once patio door was installed. We are both very, very pleased with result and quite impressed with the two chaps, Ron and Dave, brothers, (originally from Abbotsford), who did installation. Quite a delight to see such competent, efficient workmanship. Hardly any mess and what little there was they cleaned as they went, vacuuming room once everything was finished. I draped furniture and pictures with sheets and towels but hardly needed to do so.

After I dropped off parcel I came back home and managed to change the two sinks in the master bathroom. (Simple job for you but a major undertaking for me!) Again, Mme Coriandre is delighted with new fixtures as one can actually use the sinks efficiently now. Not sure if you ever used them but they were simply too high and too close to downspout. One could barely put a toothbrush under faucet, let alone wash one's hands. Now light fixtures and cabinets. When are you coming back?

Had a busy morning aside for the installation as two workmate friends from UBC dropped by for java around 10:00 am. Gisela worked in the Library with me and Lore was an Executive Secretary in the Physics Department. I used to swim with Lore at the pool on campus before work each morning. They have close friends in Oliver and are staying there for a few days before heading to Salmon Arm later this week. Funnily enough, while we were visiting had a phone call from David Truelove, who worked for me for many years. He retired at the end of May, shortly before we moved to Penticton so I was unable to attend his retirement party. Another staff remember, Liz, knew we were moving to the Okanagan and she passed this along to David. He spent his teenage years here and we even stayed with his parents, in Gallagher Lake, between here and Oliver, south of OK Falls, on one of our wine-tasting trips in the '90's.

He and Wendy, his wife, will be coming to Penticton in mid-September so we plan to see them. We invited them to stay but David was not sure of their schedule at moment. He has a sister in Osoyoos and he told me that he and Wendy plan to move to Penticton in the next two years. They now live in Richmond. He also said that we are living in the same neighbourhood he grew up in. He delivered newspapers to 611 Burns Street! Cheers, Patrizzio! 
Pics: Patio door progress; Lore and Gisela; Lady Mary poses for a photo shoot! Note elegant wooden step! Selfie with new sinks! 

Hello Santiago Man! Glad you made it to Chile safely and all is going so well. Loved the snap of the skyscraper! Hello and fond regards to Señor Santiago from Orange is the New Black Cora Lee! She'd like you to put a file in her quiche, Lynne! Hello and best wishes to Joyce and Tony when you see them. Cheers, Patrizzio! Pics:  Kjell with Naramata Pete's home-grown phallic symbol, guarding malt cabinet! Door opening in progress!



 




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