First baby robin sighting

 There have been many baby grackles out and about seeking food from parents but I haven't seen any baby robins. Today, there was a teenage robin on my driveway. It quietly slipped away to avoid me. It looked like the parent was on my front lawn.

Kim is fostering 2 baby turkeys after a predator attack on the parents.

I deep cleaned the fridge today- took me a lot longer than I thought. I took all the shelves out and washed everything. Except for the door. By the time I had finished the main body, the door had been open a long time so I packed it in.

Oriental peony update- blowing in the wind

Oriental peony day

 

I think normally the oriental peony opens in May but this year June 5 is the day! A couple of more buds to come still.

I had a vacation day today. I went to Food Basics to pick up some buns and some other things. The buns were the Food Basics brand and were really good and fresh. I also got some Kawartha tiger tail icecream, also super good.

Today I worked on cleaning and washing most windows. Nothing looks better but you can see outside clearly.

The bike lock that internally combusted

 Yesterday I rode my bike to work and locked it up as usual. Nothing seemed different than any other day. My day had a complication though- I had to ride the bike home in the middle of the day and then walk back as I had an evening meeting and I didn't want to ride home after that as it is too dark. So my plan was to ride home, take the laundry in, have a bite of dinner and then head back into work.

However, when I arrived at my bike to head home and turned the lock, it felt like nothing happened. So I thought maybe it got stuck so I pushed the lock in and pulled it but nothing changed with what the key was doing. It seemed fully stuck. So I went to find someone with bolt cutters in my building and he tried the key- the key turns but nothing happens. So he took the bolt cutters and within 5 seconds my bike was free. Clearly if a serious thief wanted to steal my bike it wouldn't have taken them long despite what looked like a hefty lock. However, my bike is very old so hopefully not a good target. The lock seemed to have internally combusted and the innards just were no good anymore. The lock was about 25 years old so not unexpected I guess. Just the bike outlasted the lock!

Happy Birthday to my mother!

 

I am heading to see my parents on Thursday so we'll celebrate on that visit!

This is the picture that James took of me for my staff card. I now have a staff card!

May flies

 Today I had a dentist appointment before work. As it wasn't outwardly raining I biked into work. Things are busy with wrapping up the term and getting my summer students all that they need.

When I biked home there were heaps of may flies. I had to make sure to keep my mouth closed. There were also may flies in my house. May flies everywhere!

Tomorrow is the big lunch so will be up early cooking!

James also realized that he needs to renew his drivers l. and health card. We tried online but he was not able to, so he made an appointment for tomorrow. (We have 2 service ontarios in kingston, one that had appointments for tomorrow and one that didn't have appointments until may 22)

Taxing

 

Last week I had a board meeting, an alpha session and I needed to complete the taxes. I always try to get it right but yet, it is always wrong. I just wish the government would tell me what to pay rather than me trying to guess and every year I get it wrong. At any rate, it is now done and sent off.

On Friday most of my summer students started but one more is starting tomorrow. Tuesday I have a dentist appointment before work. Wednesday I am hosting a special lunch for my course. Then on Friday the board and I are heading to Camp Iawah for a working retreat.

Snow in the city

 Yesterday I wore my spring coat for the first time. Today it is snowing.

James is part of a team running tryouts this week and he is in charge of jerseys. Meaning that I am in charge of washing said jerseys. Which in general would be fine but the dryer is on the fritz. However, I have discovered that once the dryer warms up, it does not squeal so much. So things have been functional, just occasionally loud.

Back to the winter coat for today!

Not spring

 Things are looking like a winter wonderland. I wonder if the birds and rabbits are confused as they did not get the weather warning on their phones.

Today I am working on showcase details and reviews of project receipts.

On the weekend I did manage to scrub the downstairs bathroom and pump up my bike tires. Now my bike is ready to go, just there is too much snow (that rhymes!)

Is it spring?

 When I try to leave my house, I never know what footwear to wear out, which means it may be spring.

It has been a busy few weeks as the water heater died and so have been dealing with plumbers and flooring. Not so much fun.

But yesterday Clara was in town and we went out to Kelsey's and hung out for a bit. She and her family were heading to pick up Erika today from Hamilton and they have a rental on Lake Erie and they were having a big family get together for Easter.

Today we had a short service for Good Friday. Sunday will be a big one as we are having baptisms.

James started sorting things in the basement this evening so the basement is a mess.

There was a lot of cleaning needed after all the workmen in the house so I have been working on that.

Maybe this can be considered spring cleaning.

Round 2

 John the plumber came back and tightened the gasket that was leaking. He also fixed the valves that I opened and a lever that wasn't working and showed me the correct levers to use if I need to shut things off in the future. I am still working on drying out the basement. 

Getting caught up on email at work and ran a training session. Tomorrow interviews start.

It was ok until it wasn't

 Replacing the water heater only took an hour (I had expected the whole day) and I was feeling much better after having a shower. But when I was doing the laundry I heard some dripping and found that there was a leak in one of the connections from the new water heater. So I went to switch off the water using the lever that the plumber showed me but that didn't work. I didn't want to touch the knobs that he said would need to be replaced but ended up having to. So currently the new hot water heater is switched off and we again have no water. I should have checked more carefully after they finished up, I was just so pleased to have it sorted out.

leaking

 On Friday, went to Sarah's birthday party, that was a good time. On Saturday and Sunday my goal was to work on timetabling. Today when I went downstairs the carpet was a bit wet and I found that the water heater was leaking. So spent the day trying to dry things out. I tried to turn off the water to the water heater but that valve seemed to have an issue and that started leaking. So instead we needed to turn off all the water to the house. This did resolve the water problem from the water heater. So for most of the day there was no water. But then we needed to turn on the water for a short time to flush toilets and get water. However, then I discovered that there was a new leak at the water source for the house. Now the water is switched off again and there are no leaks from the assorted leakage spots.

The people to fix it should be here at 8am Monday. Let's hope that they can sort out all the various problems.

I did manage to finish the timetabling amid all the extra stress.

footwear

 Yesterday I wore rain boots and that was the correct choice. Today I wore winter boots and that was the correct choice. The weather is giving a bit of whiplash as spring slowly creeps in.

Today I did some ironing, then went to Rustle, came home for a short time then headed back for a musical evening. Have been up since 4am so hoping for a good sleep tonight!

Changing weather

 Today the forecast said the precipitation would begin at 9am. I left the house at 8am and it started precipitating. Within 10 minutes, things were pretty slippery on the sidewalk. The roads were good so I walked on them when I could.

On the way home things were slushy and so I had to walk home with wet feet. 

Very different boots were needed at the start of the day than the end of the day.

I did some shoveling in the night trying to clear things off before the flash freeze, we'll see if it was helpful or not tomorrow.

heavy snow

 My computer said it was heavy snow but nothing was going on. We'll see what things look like in the morning.

I made it through all of the projects for review, so that is good. I need to do the second course tomorrow.

Tomorrow we have our small group at Sarah's.