Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Ten Bags Full!

This past weekend was full of unexpected excursions and visitors. Whenever I seemed to want to relax, read, or blog, something would occur that would intervene with my plans! In retrospect, I enjoyed myself and being flexible and grateful for what does come my way is important!

Today, Remembrance Day, is marked by a national holiday here in Canada. Last week at school, we held a wonderful assembly where the choir sang songs of peace, a grandparent shared poems received during the war from her father, and representatives from the Royal Canadian Legion and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were in attendance.

Having a holiday on a Tuesday is unusual and will probably throw me for a loop for the rest of the week. I had three things on my "must do" list today:
  • Assist my son in replacing a headlight on his car. They can be beastly things (headlights, not sons) to remove and replace.
  • Replace the toilet that leaked in the laundry room.
  • Rake up the leaves on the front lawn. I thought this was an optimum time since my son was also home :)

    The headlight was a snap! Luckily there were only two screws to remove in order to get the old one out, so we were done in about 10 minutes!

    The toilet proved even snappier! I cautiously turned on the water tap to see where the toilet was leaking, and nothing dripped...so I looked into the tank and realized that the little spurty hose had become dislodged and was spraying water out rather than in! Once I had repositioned the little devil where he belonged, all worked like a charm.

    Now, on to the leaves. It took the two of us about two hours to rake up and bag the leaves. Recently, my neighbour, equipped with proper ear protection, has been walking around with a leaf blower and for the past two weekends I have been gritting my teeth whenever I heard the drone of this gas powered machine (the leaf blower;). However, the other morning when I went outside, I noticed that my sidewalk and driveway were completely cleared! Hmmmm...just goes to show you! Today, as we were bagging all of these leaves, the same neighbour happened by, and I thanked him for clearing the sidewalk and driveway. He said that since he had it on, he thought he'd be helpful. He then offered to take our bags of leaves away in his truck along with his own as he takes his to a farm. So from now on when I hear a drone of a lawnmower or leaf blower, I will smile, and either put on some music...or put in ear plugs...and be grateful :)

    After a well deserved bowl of hearty soup and some homemade biscuits, the rest of the day was ours to enjoy at our leisure :)

    Photobucket

9 comments:

  1. I should have read this before I emailed you!
    It's good to see that you had a good day and didn't have to spend all of it faffing around with the headlight and toilet!
    You're lucky to have the day off as a national holiday as we don't, although I think that we should!
    That was good of your neighbour to both blow the leaves then take them away. xx

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  2. Yours did have a wonderful hue when still on the tree, didn't they? We don't quite get that colour here.

    Our street is almost full with leaves now and, with the rain we've also had, very slippery. No-one here to blow them away so I hope the council come soon.

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  3. Ah, so the gorgeous leaves in your photos end up in piles than have to be whisked away. I think that was a great way to change a teeth-gritting experience into a thankful heart.

    Like Flighty, most of the working world here in the US don't get Veteran's day off either.

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  4. Hi Flighty ~ Well, we don't faff (or chuff) much in this part of the world...but I know what you mean. Perhaps I'll start using the word! ;) There were many acknowledgements of Remembrance Day as well...write-ups in the paper, wreaths laid down on cenotaphs, etc. It does give a person time for pause.
    All the leaves were off the trees in the front, except the ones caught in the branches so it was a perfect time to rake them up.

    Nic ~ thanks for coming by :) Yes the leaves were glorious when the sun shone on them ~ and now they're gone! There's still 4 of the five leaves on my little oak tree that I grew from an acorn.
    Hope yours get cleared away soon!

    Nikki ~ All whisked away is right! They seemed to have dropped fairly quickly, but there was some gusty weather which helped them on their way.
    Yes, I do try to be grateful every day each chance I get ~ so this was a little reminder to look for the shiny side!
    There is a lot of importance attached to Remembrance Day in this country, and I think it is good for young and old to recognize it for what it means. I agree ~ a non-working day would be a fitting gesture.

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  5. Glo, this will sound silly no doubt but I think I would like to rake leaves for awhile. I am sometimes very tired of computers :) Your soup and biscuits sound so very good!!

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  6. Beginninghere that doesn't sound silly at all! In fact I'd like to join you especially if we get soup and biscuits afterwards! xx

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  7. My goodness, Glo, you are handy. It's very fulfilling to fix things yourself.

    I love it when neighbours are, well, neighbourly :)

    Hey Flighty, I think Canada gets more holidays than Britain - I believe kids get Victoria Day off school!

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  8. Well guess what Roomie...and Flighty ... there's a whole back yard of leaves to rake, so come on by and I'll be happy to make up a fresh pot of soup, biscuits and even a chocolate cake for dessert!

    Liv ~ thanks :) I do like to be able to fix things, or try my best anyway...and I like to think of ingenious ways to solve problems...*rubs hands together*
    I agree ~ neighbourly neighbours are the only kind to have!

    Yes, we do have Victoria Day off as a holiday ~ in fact I think we have a holiday every month except during February...

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  9. Oh how dare the Canadian government not give you St Patrick's day off? There are enough Irish up there to make it happen! ;)

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