Friday, November 12, 2010

A picture would have been worth a thousand words

I was on the train this afternoon from the University station heading south. When the train arrived at the platform, I along with two others stepped on board through the door at the end of the car. We turned right only to discover a very large fellow sprawled from one bench, across the aisle to the other - three seats from the front.

He was asleep.

I quickly ducked into the first seat inside the door - reserved for priority seating, but conveniently empty at the time! The girl in front of me chose to climb over the fellow's legs and make her way toward the rear of the car.

I watched - for two stops - as people would board the train and awkwardly climb over this fellow to get to available seats. Oddly, no one said a word about him, and no one even disturbed him. At the second stop, a lady got on with her young son. She looked around and decided it wasn't worth clambering over the giant of a man and chose to stand near the door. I decided to offer up my seat, stepped out into the aisle, hopped over sleepy-guy's legs and grabbed a seat two benches behind him.

At the next stop, three Peace Officers were on the platform. One boarded the train, woke the fellow and asked him to step off the train. With no commotion, no fuss, he simply got up and exited the train. The Peace Officer grabbed the fellow's backpack and said, "I'll just grab this for you so you don't forget it." As the train pulled away, I saw the group of three officers questioning sleepy-guy.

I'd never seen this before; I had left my phone at home - kinda wish I'd had my camera.

Monday, November 08, 2010

More Wisdom

Second post today, I know.
...but I couldn't resist!

Wisdom

Sunday, November 07, 2010


t's no surprise that once Halloween has come and gone, the retail Christmas season is right there to take its place... for about two months, if you count the Boxing Week sales.

Today I trundled through the mall because I felt the need for something completely mindless. I came upon this display which made me feel, well, maybe not old, but odd.

Note the CD that's labeled "1988".
Incidentally, 1988 is the year that I graduated from High School.
Note too, the sign that reads "Gifts For Mom and Dad"

I thought for a moment,

"Am I REALLY that old? ...Nahhh... um... Yah..."

Speaking of "Old", I saw a trailer for that Disney movie, "Old Dogs" with John Travolta and Robin Williams. I thought it was pretty cute, AND there's a version where B.A. does a music video for the movie that features himself as each musician in the band. You can see it on YouTube, here. The trailer is really cute, and the full B.A. music video can also be viewed on YouTube.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Indeed, a Turtle blog.

I have so many photos archived away, waiting for a post to accompany them. I called my sister the other day and she eagerly asked when i was planning to post about the hardwood floors that were done here months ago. She suggested I do another multi-story post, so we'll see how this one goes. I'll abbreviate the story so that it actually gets done and posted.

MOVING OUT
I literally had to move out of my house - all furniture stored in the shed and garage, the contents of the shed pulled out to the patio, the contents of the garage/shop pushed toward the front and crammed to make room.















ORIGINAL FLOORS
When I moved in, October 1993, the upper floor was covered in wall-to-wall 70s yellow shag carpeting. The flooring underneath was suitably warn and had knife marks where the installers had scored the underlay. Over time (and with the help of a couple feline friends - note the black spots) this floor has seen better days.










PREP WORK
I had to go through the house and pull the fir door frames prior to sanding. Also, you will note the patching on the walls; I figured since we were going this far, a fresh coat of paint wouldn't hurt!







THE SANDING BEGINS!
My friend Matt and his wife Liz stepped up to the plate to help with the grunt work. The first pass was with the heavy drum sander which will in fact leave waves in your floor if you don't control it well. My confidence was in Matt since he and his Dad had done numerous floors prior to mine. The dust was actually quite minimal, and the fresh wood smell at the end of the day was really quite amazing. I ended up sleeping in front of the fireplace that night.














IT'S ALL IN THE WRIST
My job between drum sander day and buff sander day was to go around each room and, with a palm sander, sand the perimeter to remove what the larger machines could not reach. The hardest to work on of all these areas was under the fireplace shelf. It was a 2.5 hour job to get that span to look like the rest of the floor!





REFINISHING BEGINS!

We started in the closet of the Master bedroom. It was my job to pour out the polyurethane. Matt had an applicator that made it a breeze to spread evenly.












A WHOLE NEW SPACE!
After two coats, we were done. The low-sheen finish turned out absolutely amazingly. Here is the office mostly back together. I made another project of refinishing the shelves here and some other pieces throughout the house. I'll post about that separately.




I'm almost settled in now. Perhaps around Christmas I'll have a wee party to celebrate new floors, not to mention a few other little victories along the way.

About Me

My photo
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
English student, Pottery enthusiast, Yoga novice and lover of all people. I make friends over a warm handshake and a beverage. I discover, every day, someone willing to help me along my path.