All We Asked For Was A Walkway

At long, long last our landscaper arrived last week and began digging for the back walkway. We were put on his list last Winter but because of the rainy Spring we’ve had, he’s not been able to start until now. Having said that, the poor guy had only just began when it started to rain again!! He even rented a backhoe for digging out the lawn in large batches, which was a huge time saver and his hired guns made great progress on the first day. Nat and I were ever so pleased that the project was finally underway.

We understand that our landscaper is soooo far behind in his jobs because of the almost constant rain we’re having, but he’s managed to at least get started, or so it seems. Poor Mike has been receiving calls on a daily basis – “When will you be starting?”, “What’s holding you up?”, “You should’ve been here yesterday”, etc. We’re beginning to feel like we’re living in the Rain Forest, with this constant, constant rain, humidity and intermittent bouts of sunshine. Depressing to say the least. It’s also been suggested that the whole Summer may be like this, and I’m hoping this person is wrong.

Just as Mike’s hired hands had dug out the lawn, laid down the base and began tamping, it started to rain AGAIN! Naturally no further work could be done until the base has dried completely in order to finish the tamping, otherwise the base will stick to the tamping machine and the whole process will be for naught. The two men returned the next morning and sure enough, everything was still damp. Then they returned again this morning, but what were the odds – it rained again last night!! One of the men hails from Port Dalhousie and advised that area received nothing. We told him our little story of how we had just gone to bed when the skies opened up and a small, but mighty lightning and thunder-storm began. The bloody thing only lasted an hour, or so, but it was enough to soak everything to high heaven – and just when the walkway path had finally dried out. So, we’re going another day without any work being done. Mike was around after lunch and between Nat and himself it was decided he’ll check back tomorrow and will work through the weekend, if required. Mike advised he’s so far behind that he’s going to have to work seven days a week for sometime just to try to get caught up.

During all of the ins and outs of the walkway being done, I’ve been waking up 7:30 each morning in order to get a dressing change at the Red Cross Care Plan Centre in Niagara Falls. Going there every other day has been a bit of a pain, but necessary to get this wound to heal properly and make sure it IS healing properly. This little clinic is strictly for wound care – post-op, accidents, etc – and everyone there is very caring. My nurse this morning advised it looks like my wound is healing really nice and it just may be a matter of a couple of weeks before I can stop coming. God, I hope he’s right. If he is, I’ll maybe wait until the end of Summer to have the actual cyst removed.

I’m also still in the process of converting our 45 Record collection, which is a real trip down memory lane. All of the 45 Records Nat and I have collected as teenagers is being digitized for our iPods, and I’ve been listening to some pretty old and golden goodies. I also remembered I have a very early Gordon Lightfoot single – “Daisy Doo / Remember Me (I’m The One)” - which came in a 3-pack when 45 Records were first being sold. I would buy my 45 Records in a small appliance shop in downtown Beamsville where they would sell a few records from a small square bin in the back of the store. You could buy a 3-pack which contained a hit record along with 2 other 45′s that weren’t necessarily a hit, but a bonus at least. Sometimes you’d get lucky and get a good unknown artist that would soon become a known artist or just a “dud”. The Gordon Lightfoot single was one of those bonuses I was really happy with. His version of  Remember Me (I’m The One) is still, to this day, the best version of that song I’ve ever listened too. So glad I still have that single and am able to convert it to digital for the future. Now I can listen to it anywhere I want and whenever I want. The rest of my collection is, naturally, only favourite songs I absolutely had to have. I have a good collection of The Beatles first hits (She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, etc., along with some other major British artists from that era. Not being able to afford to buy the whole album, I could at least afford to buy the hit single. As teenagers, we would swap our 45′s between friends just for a change of pace once in a while, in order to see if we liked any new artist that our other friends were listening too. It was all great fun.

Looking forward to the huge “Battle of the Garage Sale Wars” being held this weekend (Saturday and Sunday 8:00 – 12:00 noon). The sale contains over 70 vendors in and around the Town of Ridgeway / Crystal Beach and I’ve got another chance to try to sell the kidney-shaped coffee table with matching end table, again. We’ve tried to sell the set on Kijiji and through The St. Catharines Standard online but to no avail. I was probably asking too much, but the whole set was very expensive at the time and I had to at least give it a shot. Hopefully someone will be drawn to it on Saturday and take it off our hands. Our new little coffee table is just perfect and provides a bit more space in our living room. I’ve also got a bunch of small stuff but it may not be enough to keep my sale open on Sunday, too. Each customer will be given a map of where every vendor is located and it looks like there will be something for everyone. I think this idea was a brilliant one to get people drawn into our little village and while looking for bargains also have a chance to see our wonderful surroundings.

Once my sale is closed at 12:00 noon, Nat and I have to zip into the clinic again for another dressing change. So, looks like a bit of a busy day – and hopefully a bit profitable – landscapers aren’t cheap!!!!!