They're Here

My tiles are coming today. If you’re not hyperventilating from reading that, you’re not experiencing my reaction. In just a couple of days Darrell will finish the studio and I’ll get to move in and set everything up. Oh my God. Pant. Pant.

So I started fetching my craft supplies from the loft and sorting them into Mason jars and other containers. When I saw all the stuff up there, I got excited about going through everything and donating all I don’t need to GIRO (our recycling society). They earn money to underwrite the services they provide to us islanders by selling things donated.

It’s weird but it really excites me to clean, sort and cull stuff. The former owner left a ton of pipes, wire, planks and things that I will slowly transport to GIRO and I’ll send a lot to the dump when the construction garbage is removed by a paid garbage hauler.

Patsy came yesterday and took the many plastic containers of nails, screws, nuts, bolts and so on. I invited her to take the Oak stained glass door and frame to raffle or sell to raise funds for the Gabriola Tool Library but she needs to consult her partners before she gives me an answer. Her people may also take the old table saw that’s here.

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And I upped my Uberman game yesterday.

The removed studio floor included many interlocking rubber mats so I laid them in the shed. My entire parking area now has a rubber floor and there’ll soon be a wide rubber aisle where I do most of my work while I’m in there. It’s practical and saves me from having to dispose of them. Bonus!

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I’m going to walk, unarmed, through the cage of an indeterminate number of long-unfed lions today at two o’clock. What I’m really doing is going to a meeting of the fundraising committee of the Gabriola Arts Council — a meeting with an undetermined number of strangers. I’m very nervous about how my speech will be and how I’ll be perceived. But I have experience that could be helpful — plus a will to be helpful — and I can’t allow my stutter to keep me from being with people.

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The cats no longer have any interest whatsoever in Mertz Manor. They have discovered the loft and love it up there.  They jump from the chair onto the upper part of the tapestry on the wall and climb straight up the wall get to the top. It’s quite impressive. And the loft is where I intend to put The Manor so it’s good they have figured out a way to get up there.

That’s another reason I want to get rid of anything I don’t actually use. They get more space and I can find them if I want to.

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 And I now have a squirrel that’s a regular visitor. I call him Chip (as in Chip and Dale). He’s discovered the bird feeders and I’m fine with that. I welcome all animals at Pinecone Park. And I’ve decided that the fawn that visits regularly is a girl and I’ve named her Roo because she looks a bit like a Kangaroo when she eats the brussel sprouts I feed her. She comes to my office window seeking food.

(My character voice is named Rand. It’s a voice I can use to talk without stuttering. The story of deer and me will be called Rand and Roo.)