Up w/ the Birds

 actually, I mean that I saw the clock at 5:15 AM and again at almost 6. Now, its 7 and I am typing

I believe technically the birds were officially awake before me.
Go birds. The Toronto Raptors - centre less Raptors, are out of the playoffs. A short run but short.
The BlueJays of Major League baseball are a ' hit ' and pitch success.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a force in the NHL.

A repeat, I'm sure. The program, an A&E channel original called          ' Nightwatch ' is our regular choice at 10 PM Thursday. Nightwatch follows the EMS response in New Orleans. LA. Of course, its the 8P to 4A shift. Not a job that I'd have wanted.

Alright. Talk and action is shifting to the Quarter Mile House. My truck bed is loaded w/ ' plastic ' tiles to overlay on the backdeck. The wood is of dubious finish [ the urethane or waterseal is long gone ]. Thus, the new owner, A. is covering the boards w/ black tile. I'm in charge of transport. Along w/ a ' post jack ' [ in case, its needed some year ], a hedge trimmer and baking sheet 2 1/2 ft by 3 ft.
The wholeload is cottage bound on Monday.

I'm hoping the guys mean to help me prep the boat too!

The Long Range, courtesy of Brett Anderson at Accuweather. The headline reads " Stubborn Cold to  Linger into May "

May 4 - 10 `the lower Great Lakes Basin is cool w/ drier to the NorthEast and wet to the East and south

May 11 - 17 the lower Great Lakes Basin is surrounded by : Cool to the North and dry to the East. SouthW, there is wet and SouthE there is warmer. 

May 18 - 24 the Lower Great Lakes Basin is wet [ extending almost to Superior ] and coolNorth of that w/ Warmer down the Atlantic seaboard

I fiddled w/ the bookshelves in the spare / workout room plus sewing machine. ' Fiddled ' b/c the shelves in the middle are fixed. These are Ikea CD or cassette holder shelves. We have paperbacks and CD / cassette tapes there. The original intent was to re - organize [ my speciality ] and make the storage more efficient and cull what is not wanted
Surprise ! Everything went back - of course it did ! On the positive side, I did an inventory and streamlined the shelving [ a bit ].

So ,we ask who keeps cassette tapes ? And for what. But in my defence, there are Sherlock Holmes material and Donna Leone stuff [ she writes the Inspector Guido Brunetti series ]

" Offer up your best defence " is my style

When the Movie

doesn't have machine guns - I don't think that they even use that term - its machine pistol or Uzi or rapid fire
Sorry Kelly

' Julie and Julia ' by Nora Ephron [ no guns but smoking ] The true story of two true stories, relates how a turning thirty mid - level bureaucrat tries to find a purpose - Julie. Julie turns to cooking and attempts to make every dish in the Julia Child book ' Mastering French Cooking '. 
The movie parallels the lives of Julia Child as she goes from government employee espoused to a mid level bureaucrat in France to a wonderful cook w/ Julie working  her way through that cookbook.
Butter ! hope I didn't spoil the movie for  you

Next. ' Carrie's War ', yes, no guns and smoking. Two children are sent from London to Wales to avoid the bombing in WW II. Life can be good but trying as the two, Carrie and Nick ease into semi - rurual life in Wales. 

The red banner in ' local weather ' announced - frost warning. The day is sunny and headed for north of 60 but not too far north.

We went and had our 2 nd booster for CV 19.      We are a risk group  < over 60 and over 70 > w/ cascading health issues as we age.

The air is cool b/c that wind is brisk and carries a chill

May Is Coming

 lets see :

dandelions are a threat but this is the earliest that I've attacked them. The lady next door spends a day at a time going after them [ umbrella and little stool ] she digs them out.
I'm replacing the soil and seeding.

Next door fishing friend is asking about the walleye opener in May [ as in ' are we going ? ' ]. Guess we are !

My phone shows photo from previous years [ as in - this is last year, same time ]. Four days ago, it was me fisning last year in the creek behind the house

This morning is a cool start to the day but big sun coming

Got out early, and went after those dandelions, again ! 
At 8 AM started on muffins w/ a deadline of 9AM eat'em time
Accomplished !

The Red Banner

 on the weather section for CBC says ' Frost Alert '

Its 32 now and will hit 40 and a  little. There is sun to start and the wind is up slightly w/ drizzle to follow.

Nitfix, has a new offering ' Yellow Peril ' in which an alien life form called DANDELION attempts to conquer the known world. Despite the best efforts of mankind, the alien sinks deep tap roots into the Earth. Almost impossible to unseat, once begun - inevitably the Earth is covered in a lifeform so nefarious that no earthly power can cope.

Alright. So, I have these nightmares. We know that they are not real. Except, the lawn is a maze of holes, filled w/ grass bedding and some seed. In an anonymous poll, voting showed that the holes outnumber the dandelions.

Good Start

 sun and blue sky

Rain is likely. And did come. Announcing snow flurries are possible.

The day was fine, otherwise.

Day 3 or round 3 of dandelion patrol. I'm digging the stuff out and refilling the holes w/ turf starter and then seeding the patches. I figure this is payback for letting them establish a stronghold.

OMG. Wells Fargo.

1. We could not M a replacement debit card. I ordered one and three PIN #s arrived and 2 cards.
2. I cancelled one card b/c it never arrived. In the States all remaining cards worked fine. Great !
3. Get home. An email arrives. Wells Fargo requires all account holders to have a permanent U.S. address. Great < NO >
4. We deposit a cheque to clear out the balance and transfer the $ U.S. to our Cdn bank.
5. The cheques is received and 1/2 the money is credited w/ half on hold.
6. An email arrives. Balance is - $5. Yes, they are charging us for letting the balance fall too low.
7. Call Wells. The lady is hard to understand b/c of a interrupted voice problem. But the lady gets out " oh, if you do't know someone w/ a U.S. address or can get to a branch - you'll have trouble cancelling this account ". I said ' you're hard to understand, I'll call back '
8. I get Diane. ' Oh, I see you're emptying your account by cheque. Do you want to close the account now or wait for the full cheque to clear '
Really. She was competent and could do something. We'll wait for the cheque to clear. What a relief.

I Built a Wall

 last year from the pavers excavated when we took up part of the walkway.The wall stood for the winter and anchored the Xmas display in the backyard. Thus, it seems if this wall stays for another 4 000 yrs - I'll have surpassed the Chinese. Please note, no one died in the building of this wall. I took a peek at the wall and noted that it has a slight concavity top to bottom and side to side plus it leans toward the house. The land there slopes the other way.

W/ some more leftover pavers, I trimmed the tree bed. Originally, I used a garden hose tacked down as the boundary of the tree bed. It was a whim and looked cheesy as I layed the pavers - however, from the picture window up here, definitely, a positive addition to the overall look of the yard.

The day is partly cloudy and little wind w/rain due this afternoon. We'll touch somewhere neat 50 this afternoon and pretty much be close to 60 all week. Thurs looks to be the winner.

A little shopping trip to Walmart and the Italian bakery w/ a hot table was on the agenda. At least, I borught home dinner

' You Can Lay Your Head

 ... back on the ground
Let you hair flow all around 
Offer up your best defence
Cause this is the END of the INNOCENCE ' lyrics by Bruce Hornsby and Don Henley

I'll bet you, every decade, every two years, somewhere, someone believes those words were meant for their present NOW. B/c I do.

How innocent could I be ? I live in North America. 10 % of the population owns or controls 90 % of the wealth. In the  ' Unforgiven ' English Bob says ' that you [ Americans ] should elect a king or emperor instead of a  president /b/c you'd be less likely to kill them ', ..slightly paraphrased..

The day is starting off, cool w/ a stiff breeze.

The sun burst out but that wind is a force - cooling off the day.

I did gardening IF re - sinking garden edging counts. And dandelion patrol hit its second go - round.

Now, as night falls, there is peace and stillness out there. Very typical of eveening conditions - land is not being heated and the winds fall to gentle breezes