Today is a Big Day!
Greetings once again from the wilds of North Vancouver. We’ve had a couple very warm and sunny weeks here lately, but it is cloudy this morning, and the rain is supposed to return tonight. I’ve gotten a few things done in the sunshine — which is great — but I also like the rain, unlike most of my fellow Vancouverites. Or so it seems.
Anyway, the big news this week is this:
Didn’t even get a bandage. That’s right, I got my first dose of Covid vaccine. AstraZeneca in my case, and only just a couple hours ago. I am really happy about it. I will be a bit less worried about my personal health in three weeks or so once my immunity has had a chance to build. Going to the grocery store will feel a bit less deadly, for example, and that’ll be good.
Of course I still have to do all the things: mask up, social distance, wash hands, avoid crowds, and follow all the other rules. Vaccines help a lot, but until we reach a certain critical point the risks remain.
But it’s progress, and I look forward to a more normal situation ASAP!
Last week I mentioned I was moving a couple of stairs (which one reader wanted me to call “steps” because they are outside). OK, I moved some steps. Here’s the result:
It’s still only temporary, but at least there’s nothing up against the siding anymore, and that’s a start. I have additional plans for that path that I hope will come to pass this summer. But for now it’s much better for the house itself, and I am happy about that.
A lot of time this week has gone into working on the local community association website. Or rather, planning a lot of work on that website. I’ve created a spreadsheet full of data about what we have and what I’ve been told we want the revised site to contain. I’ve crawled over every page of the existing site looking for issues and potential changes, logging them all. I’ve also fixed more than a few bugs that had crept in since the last time anyone was working on it regularly. It’s amazing how that happens and no one notices.
Next I need to work on a proposed map of the new website, laying out the pages I think will be there and what they will contain. It appears that others will write the actual content of those pages, so I should be able to focus on the technical side of things. Fingers crossed.
Another time sink has been working on the bench in my new indoor studio. Here’s it is:
The base is the two drawer stacks I bought from the hotel furniture reseller place. The top is a rubberwood island countertop bought from a local hardware store, and is now fully coated in seven (!) coats of polyurethane and curing. I can probably use it any time as each of the coats dried very quickly, but giving it a few more days is fine. All the drop cloths can come up at this point, but I’ve been lazy.
Once I am a bit more comfortable with my Covid immunity status I will be more willing to spend time in a hardware store again. At that point I will pick up some lumber to raise the table up another 3.5" which will make it a nice height for me to work on. That will also make the drawers easier to access, though they will be closer to the ends in the final assembly anyway.
This is where the weird sculpture material I hinted at last week is going to get tested again soon. We’ll see how it goes.
I’m sure everyone (in the northern hemisphere, at least) is noting the arrival of spring. We’re seeing it here for two very obvious reasons. First, we have things like this going on:
That’s the magnolia tree in the front yard putting on a show. It’s only gotten more impressive since I took the photo, though the number of flower petals on the driveway is reminding me of fall under the maple tree.
Behind it you might barely make out the new red leaves of a Japanese maple tree, and other things blooming, budding, and leafing out as well. In fact, the large maple tree on the other side of the driveway (visible only in the top left to a degree) is actually throwing a ton of pollen on the cars below as it blooms. Nature, it seems, is messy.
The other way we know spring has arrived is thanks to this one:
Sleeping this past week has been odd, and Cruzer is more than happy to get us up with the dawn. And as dawn arrives earlier and earlier these days, he gets us up earlier and earlier as well. We have no choice. He’s the kind of alarm clock you cannot snooze.
Mind you, he’s not the only one waking early. This past week has seen both Anne and me get up on our own more than an hour before the alarm is supposed to go off. The dog aids and abets these early risings, in addition to causing others all by himself.
And for you dog lovers out there, here’s an action shot in my office this morning:
Tinkerbelle loves to play — and bark at full volume — in the morning. I doubt the neighbours are happy about that, but she doesn’t have an “inside voice.” Cruzer enjoyed it as well today. Why it had to happen right in front of me I really don’t know, but it went on for so long I got out the phone and took a number of photos. This was the best one. Trying to catch moving dogs in interesting poses is not exactly simple.
That’s it for this week. Good progress on many fronts, and a lot got done. And I got vaxxed! Keep safe out there!