Life Off the Grid 38 - July 21, 2012

Life Off the Grid 38 – July 21, 2012

7:50 AM

Only 15C so far. Guinness tried the same thing again last night. About 1:30 AM he woke me up and indicated he needed to go out. Rushing to the door, rushing back to the bed, wagging his tail. Rushing back to the door, looking at me expectantly. This time he had his collar on. I took a sweater and my flashlight.

Without his collar he moves silent as a ghost. With it he jingles slightly when he walks. He peed and then started to wander off down the beach. I said, “No way, Guinness, come back here.” He ignored me. Disappeared into the darkness and bushes. But I could hear him. I knew he was close by. Soon I could hear him peeing again, a little way off. When he was done, I called him again. More jingling. No Guinness. I called again. And waited. Finally he came back. It wasn't quite as long this time and I wasn't panicking. I could hear him.

More painting today. More brushing off awful things. More spiders. Blech.

Such horrors...

1:50 PM

Finally! Made it all the way around the cabin with a second coat of trim and edge cutting! As high as I can reach, anyway. Over 30C out there. The thermometer on the deck says 36C...

Tired. I really hate spiders.

2:35 PM

Been sitting here, making a list of everything that needs to be done and matching jobs to dates left before Jeff gets here. Well, that and zoning out. It's amazing. The summer seems to be slipping away so fast! I have just barely over a month left out here before I begin the big trek back to Alberta. I always plan to get back in time for Garnet's birthday on August 25. So far, I have been able to. I don't know how many more years that will be important to him, but while it seems to matter, I will make the effort.

7:20 PM

Went and played with the dogs on the dock for awhile. There is a monstrous fly out there that wants to bite me. Not a deer fly, they are flat and smaller. Maybe a horsefly, although this seems bigger. Not any sort of bluebottle, this was big (close to an inch long) and evil. I hate flying things that want to take a chunk out of me almost as much as spiders.

Anyway, we played and then I took shelter in the cabana, checked messages, responded to messages. Somewhere along the way I ventured up to the cabin and finally ate – leftover curried lentils and veggies – and felt better for a bit.

But now I have have had most of 2 litres of Peach cider and I am faltering... Happy, yes. Competent...not so much. Ok then. But much better than I was down on the dock hating all living, flying, biting things. And wishing them all dead. I know, I know. Eco-system and all that. But why do they have to horribly disrupt my small amount of R&R? Surely there are other things they could bite? I have become very pacifist but I draw the line at flying things that want my blood, and chunks of flesh.

At some point you have to defend yourself. Else you wind up just another rotting corpse in the woods. Am I right?

Ok, peach cider is considerably stronger than what I usually drink out here. Feeling quite...what's the word? Unable to type without severe concentration, that's for darn sure. Lots of cool tunes, as usual,

on Vinyl Tap on CBC.

I probably need to eat. (afraid to admit how long it took to type that).

News on now...6 shooting incidents in Toronto in a week. Holy cow.

What on earth makes these people with guns think that is any kind of solution to anything?

8:40 PM

Pistachios for dinner, Jian says they're healthy...