DEET and a Coke chaser ?

Hey, I work hard at these catchy blog titles.
Recall that humourist Will Rogers was proud of the fact " I don't make these things up, all I do is read'em ". Rogers called the newspaper, ' the joke book '.

2 Canadian women died in Thailand last month while on holidays. The autopsy revealed that poisoning was the cause of death. You guessed it - their cocktail was a mix of fruit juice, DEET and something called 'crackem leaves '( a local plant ). Yes, DEET, as in keep the bugs off ( or Off, as the case may be ).

An expert from a poison centre said " that although each ingredient may have a small effect, the synergistic effect could be dangerous to respiration and other systems ".
Yea, something tells DEET on its own is all the ' synergism ' one person could stand.

In our house, the topic of downsizing has come up. This is my fault. between the home and QMH, its two full houses to tend.
My thought was a condo or rental unit.

The fancy new condos are now 850 - 900 sq. ft. Older loft condos can be 1400 sq ft.

The negatives are:
1. I hate elevators
2. I hate condo fees ( there is no "I" in team, got it.
3. The property tax on new condos ( and homes )is approx 10 % of the list price. So, a 500 K condo comes w/ property tax of 5 K. This is 30 - 40 % more than we pay now.
4. As a corollary to the Peter Principle, I will fill any space left unguarded. I come by this honestly, you should have seen my father
occupy garages,sheds etc.

Also, I'm a stick in the mud. I like our home - double garage, workroom etc. There's a big divide between smart and what I want.

Our solution seems to be, keep our 1800 sq ft ' condo '- take an all seasons contract w/ Tony's Landscaping Inc. They're working out the numbers at Tony's but lawn mowing, fertilizer and snow removal and cleaning gutters - all in 180 dollars a month. Our neighbour has Tony already. We'll both get a discount b/c there is no down time between jobs -just one humongous property. I guess the boys can bring their lunch and spend the day or 1/2 day.
So, guess what, condo fees at home. However, one 1200 sq ft condo had condo fees of $ 950 a month. The  cheapest is $ 350 a month and thats suggested b/c the condo board hasn't been formed ( new building, ready in 2013, maybe )
The plan is to try this out and adjust. In our defence though, for several years we have paid for snow removal and the last 2 years a company and the next door kids have had the lawn contract. So ,we have had all season service anyway. Hey, am I convincing you, we're right. Thought so.

Oh, as now, we look out on a ravine. The leaves are screening the valley , to-day, so we're socked in, so to speak. In short we have a view - probably - third best in the city.
The view at QMH is probably, fourth best on Thompson, well, maybe 6 th best. But its OK, we like our place.

The next topic, tools. Tools !  What is he talking about ?