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alfvaenThis morning I found some gumption, and managed to mow(most of)the lawn. (Sorry, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snugsbug.) That is, the front lawn, and all of the back lawn except for the former garden patch in the back corner, where the weeds are so tall that the mower's output will regularly get clogged by thick clumps unless I go very, very slowly.
In some parts, it almost didn't need the mowing--I didn't even notice a change in the height of the grass. But in other parts, there were thistles that had grown tall enough to go into bloom. If I had any Scottish blood, I might have spared a few. There was another patch near the back fence where the grass was high and many, many mosquitoes lurked therein. I had doused myself with Off before going out, and I'm glad I did. I should probably go out before too long and rake up that grass, since the cuttings are apparently like mosquito breeding grounds or something.
Not that there was a shortage of bugs in the rest of the back yard. There were lots of moths, too, which probably has something to do with the small holes in some of the leaves of the tree back there. And some small bug that was crawling all over the lid of the sandbox...which I had to move, yet again. This time we decided that, since the grass from the first place we'd put it hasn't grown back yet, we'll just kill the one spot. It's easier to see from the kitchen anyway.
Then we dashed off to the mall for our usual trip. Except that a)it was time for a full-fledged grocery shop, and b)we had appointments to give blood shortly after lunch. I picked up a bunch of books at the library booksale tables(which had a bunch of SF/fantasy paperbacks, which somebody must have donated or something--score!). I had to pick up some fluorescent tubes at Canadian Tire--we have fluorescents in the basement, and the library with its new bookshelf has been limited to high-frequency flickers for several days now--then go all the way back across to the grocery store.
By the time we were done, we didn't have nearly enough time to go home for lunch before the blood donation appointment, so we picked up some KFC and resigned ourself to being a few minutes late. As it was, despite the usual efforts getting the kids moving, we made it only about five minutes after our "appointment". It's not a hard-and-fast schedule, I think, just an effort to keep everyone from showing up at once.
I went to get my iron levels checked while Nicole dropped the kids off at the babysitting room(a great feature, which makes it easier for us both to come in at once). It took Nicole some time to catch up with me, though, and it turned out that her iron levels were actually too low to donate. Apparently this happens to women more often than men, for some reason. So I got to give blood solo, though I chatted with the nurse and another volunteer woman. (She was obviously of East Indian heritage, but had a British accent, which was a little surprising at first, but then I have Indian school-friends who were raised here and speak with Canadian accents, so...)
Luke fell asleep in the car on the way back, but, blessedly, did not wake up thinking he'd had his entire nap when we got home. I'd picked up Wallace & Gromit's "The Wrong Trousers" at the library, and coerced Simon into watching it. He's so resistant to watching anything new, but often he likes it if we can just get him to sit down for a few minutes. I also picked up "Cube", which I kept hearing cool things about, so maybe we'll try that sometime.
Oh, and then while I was downstairs, trying to do some reshelving, I came over all tired and ended up lying down on the futon for a while. I don't know if I got any actual sleep, because Simon kept coming over from the computer room and visiting me. I'm not sure why I was so tired--maybe accumulating lack of sleep combined with reduced blood volume...
Later in the afternoon, Luke decided he wanted to go outside. Now this is a major production. For one thing, the sunscreen we have says it has be put on half an hour before going outside. Can you imagine that? When Luke wants to go out, he wants to go out right now, not half an hour from now. So we usually manage to get away with about fifteen minutes. And then of course there's Off to spray on these days.
And what does Luke do? He goes into the sandbox(newly repositioned to be more visible), and gets half of its contents stuck to his sunscreen. Then we actually have to give him a bath. (And when I saw "we", I mean "Nicole", because I can't handle bathing the kids, and to my everlasting gratitude Nicole lets me get away with it.)
What are you supposed to do? If you let the kids go outside without sunscreen, then you're a bad parent who wants their kids to get sunburns and skin cancer. If you don't let them go outside at all, then you're turning them into couch potatoes. And the middle ground, as I've said, just doesn't work. Maybe we need to try to find some quick-drying sunscreen. I don't know. I'm perfectly happy to raise indoors kids, and Simon can occupy himself well inside(and is not in any way a couch potato), but Luke likes to go outside. Maybe we just need to sunscreen him every four hours in case he does want to go out...but the stuff does not have the most pleasant odour you can imagine.
The downstairs toilet doesn't work that well, and hasn't for a while. We're too lazy to get it fixed. It takes a long, long time to refill after you flush it, basically.
Now, just to make it even more inhospitable, there's a goddamn spider on the seat. At first I thought it was in the water, but no, it's hanging there above it.
I'm really a pro-spider kind of guy. Charlotte's Web is an all-time favourite book of mine. I like the fact that they kill and eat insects. In many ways, they bother me less than insects. But hanging over the toilet bowl is going a bit far.
Right now I've closed the lid in the hopes that it'll pack up and move. Failing that, I suppose I should get a stick, or indoors equivalent, and scrape the web off of there, with its inhabitant. Because I can just imagine Simon running in there tomorrow afternoon and sitting on that seat... I don't want him to develop a spider phobia.
Or I could unscrew the toilet seat, take it outside, and wave it over that mosquito-rich area of grass! Now there's an idea. But it sounds like too much work.
snugsbug.) That is, the front lawn, and all of the back lawn except for the former garden patch in the back corner, where the weeds are so tall that the mower's output will regularly get clogged by thick clumps unless I go very, very slowly.In some parts, it almost didn't need the mowing--I didn't even notice a change in the height of the grass. But in other parts, there were thistles that had grown tall enough to go into bloom. If I had any Scottish blood, I might have spared a few. There was another patch near the back fence where the grass was high and many, many mosquitoes lurked therein. I had doused myself with Off before going out, and I'm glad I did. I should probably go out before too long and rake up that grass, since the cuttings are apparently like mosquito breeding grounds or something.
Not that there was a shortage of bugs in the rest of the back yard. There were lots of moths, too, which probably has something to do with the small holes in some of the leaves of the tree back there. And some small bug that was crawling all over the lid of the sandbox...which I had to move, yet again. This time we decided that, since the grass from the first place we'd put it hasn't grown back yet, we'll just kill the one spot. It's easier to see from the kitchen anyway.
Then we dashed off to the mall for our usual trip. Except that a)it was time for a full-fledged grocery shop, and b)we had appointments to give blood shortly after lunch. I picked up a bunch of books at the library booksale tables(which had a bunch of SF/fantasy paperbacks, which somebody must have donated or something--score!). I had to pick up some fluorescent tubes at Canadian Tire--we have fluorescents in the basement, and the library with its new bookshelf has been limited to high-frequency flickers for several days now--then go all the way back across to the grocery store.
By the time we were done, we didn't have nearly enough time to go home for lunch before the blood donation appointment, so we picked up some KFC and resigned ourself to being a few minutes late. As it was, despite the usual efforts getting the kids moving, we made it only about five minutes after our "appointment". It's not a hard-and-fast schedule, I think, just an effort to keep everyone from showing up at once.
I went to get my iron levels checked while Nicole dropped the kids off at the babysitting room(a great feature, which makes it easier for us both to come in at once). It took Nicole some time to catch up with me, though, and it turned out that her iron levels were actually too low to donate. Apparently this happens to women more often than men, for some reason. So I got to give blood solo, though I chatted with the nurse and another volunteer woman. (She was obviously of East Indian heritage, but had a British accent, which was a little surprising at first, but then I have Indian school-friends who were raised here and speak with Canadian accents, so...)
Luke fell asleep in the car on the way back, but, blessedly, did not wake up thinking he'd had his entire nap when we got home. I'd picked up Wallace & Gromit's "The Wrong Trousers" at the library, and coerced Simon into watching it. He's so resistant to watching anything new, but often he likes it if we can just get him to sit down for a few minutes. I also picked up "Cube", which I kept hearing cool things about, so maybe we'll try that sometime.
Oh, and then while I was downstairs, trying to do some reshelving, I came over all tired and ended up lying down on the futon for a while. I don't know if I got any actual sleep, because Simon kept coming over from the computer room and visiting me. I'm not sure why I was so tired--maybe accumulating lack of sleep combined with reduced blood volume...
Later in the afternoon, Luke decided he wanted to go outside. Now this is a major production. For one thing, the sunscreen we have says it has be put on half an hour before going outside. Can you imagine that? When Luke wants to go out, he wants to go out right now, not half an hour from now. So we usually manage to get away with about fifteen minutes. And then of course there's Off to spray on these days.
And what does Luke do? He goes into the sandbox(newly repositioned to be more visible), and gets half of its contents stuck to his sunscreen. Then we actually have to give him a bath. (And when I saw "we", I mean "Nicole", because I can't handle bathing the kids, and to my everlasting gratitude Nicole lets me get away with it.)
What are you supposed to do? If you let the kids go outside without sunscreen, then you're a bad parent who wants their kids to get sunburns and skin cancer. If you don't let them go outside at all, then you're turning them into couch potatoes. And the middle ground, as I've said, just doesn't work. Maybe we need to try to find some quick-drying sunscreen. I don't know. I'm perfectly happy to raise indoors kids, and Simon can occupy himself well inside(and is not in any way a couch potato), but Luke likes to go outside. Maybe we just need to sunscreen him every four hours in case he does want to go out...but the stuff does not have the most pleasant odour you can imagine.
The downstairs toilet doesn't work that well, and hasn't for a while. We're too lazy to get it fixed. It takes a long, long time to refill after you flush it, basically.
Now, just to make it even more inhospitable, there's a goddamn spider on the seat. At first I thought it was in the water, but no, it's hanging there above it.
I'm really a pro-spider kind of guy. Charlotte's Web is an all-time favourite book of mine. I like the fact that they kill and eat insects. In many ways, they bother me less than insects. But hanging over the toilet bowl is going a bit far.
Right now I've closed the lid in the hopes that it'll pack up and move. Failing that, I suppose I should get a stick, or indoors equivalent, and scrape the web off of there, with its inhabitant. Because I can just imagine Simon running in there tomorrow afternoon and sitting on that seat... I don't want him to develop a spider phobia.
Or I could unscrew the toilet seat, take it outside, and wave it over that mosquito-rich area of grass! Now there's an idea. But it sounds like too much work.
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Date: 2004-07-24 10:14 pm (UTC)Let the little bugger out in the sun... it's not like you're in the tropics or at altitude. A little sunburn didn't kill you or me (and i was in the tropics AND at altitude). Worry about sunscreen when it's feasible to apply it and not have it become a near catastrophe.
Destroy the spider's web with a stick; he'll either run away or cling to the stick. Then you can safely throw him outside. I have to be on spider patrol all the time here with Kim (who likes them the same way you do) and Renée (who does the full blown squealing-while-hopping-on-her-tippy-toes routine).