ChrisS

de-blogging

Well, I have made a decision. I have decided that I am not going to blog anymore, at least not regularly. Its just seems to have become one more thing on the to-do this, and I have enough on the to-do list as it is.

I will post photos and stories from any trips we take – which, in case you want to check in the future, will be New York in September, Napa Valley in October and a trans-Atlantic cruise in December, plus maybe an Algonquin weekend thrown in here and there.

I may fire up again in the future if it calls to me, but for now I am going to de-blog. I’ll upload photos to Facebook, you can find me there under my full name.

Thanks everyone, see you in September after New York!

What I did Last Week

Week three of my creative writing course was about non-fiction, and guess what one of the assignments was? “Write a letter to a friend about what you did last week”. Now how perfect is that for me? So here is my letter to you, my dear friends

My dear friend

I know you are keen to hear all about what I did last week – as always I am humbled by the interest you take in my wanderings, and hope that you have not become bored by them – you may even feel like rolling your eyes a little when I tell you, “last week we went to Algonquin”. Now how original is that for me? How often have you read that here, and seen my pictures and thought – woohoo, how exciting…. Algonquin… again.. yawn

Now I know you are more of a city person and I suspect you wonder what is so great about slogging over portages, using pit toilets and sleeping on the ground. So, I will try to explain it as best I can, the draw, the allure, that Algonquin holds for me.

I should state up front that it is not “Algonquin” per se, but any wilderness area where one can paddle for days and not see houses, condos, highways, or motor boats. Algonquin just happens to be the place closest to us where we can do that. We tried other places – for instance, the fabled Temagami area where we even arranged to be flown in and dropped off in the middle of it. The problem was you see, if we can be flown in, so can others, and after a couple of days buzzed by planes overhead we arrived at lakes where planes buzzed over head, landed nearby and had at least one fly in fishing lodge on each lake, where guests zoomed around in motor boats flicking out cigarettes as they left us bobbing in their wake. So back we went to Algonquin.

But I digress. The lure of Algonquin, for me is about stress, or rather, the lack of it. Luckily, I wear stress like a blanket, it’s there, but I can easily throw it off. When I come home at the end of the day, I toss it aside and don’t think about it again until the morning as I get ready for work. Sometimes though, the blanket becomes thinker, heavier, and I mistake it for a security blanket, feeling like I need to keep it wrapped around me.

That’s when it’s time to go to my Algonquin.

On the way up I fret about things, checking my blackberry until the reception fades, wondering if I really should be away from all my chores, hoping I won’t pay for it later. As we paddle across the first lake from the parking lot, I worry a little about whether the route I picked is nice, and if the weather will hold out. As we make our way up the first portage, my muscles straining with the weight of the pack, I shed the blanket, it slips to the ground easily and is left behind there. I start to notice little things; the way the sun dapples through the forest, the tiniest little baby toad hopping along the trail, the sound of the breeze playing in the trees, the big moose tracks with wee baby moose tracks in step right beside them.

If I am worried about the outside world, it’s just too bad, I can’t reach them anyway, nor they me. The longer into a trip we get, the more I have thoughts and dreams from months or years past, issues I obviously need to think through, but that the din of everyday life drowns out. Sometimes its small things, like suddenly realizing, with razor sharp clarity that maybe person X was upset or hurt by my flippant comments, or a stab of anger remembering a long ago malicious interaction. Interestingly, the thoughts are never about files, how clean the house is or how much money I’ve saved, but rather human interactions and the feelings those create.

As I sweat over the portages, the images come to life, sometimes bringing tears of frustration, or leaving me blushing with embarrassment. However, with everyday life set to “mute”, I have stillness at that moment to think it through, mull it over, and then come to peace with it, or at least chip away at it, so that next time it is smaller.

It always seems that Algonquin then rewards me for my hard work. With a show stopping sunset, the gracious call of the loon, a momma and baby otter swimming beside the canoe, little miracles that soothe anxieties and make everything just seem so right and perfect.

Everyone, I think, has their Algonquin, a place (even in their mind) where they can relax and focus on one thing, something that blocks out all the other noise, and they feel the stress blanket slipping away. For some it’s fishing, or running a marathon or playing tennis or reading a good book or cooking a fine meal, quilting, going on a cruise, scrapbooking, carving, model airplane building, prayer or all of the above.

So, I’ll leave you with that peaceful thought, pondering what your Algonquin is, and maybe next time I write I’ll also tell you about dropping my camera in the lake, hearing it glug glug glug down (did you notice I haven’t enclosed any new photos?), the day that was so hot I flung myself, fully clothed, into the crisp cool water at the end of every portage and the gourmet polenta that came out more like oily ground popcorn... which, being hungry, we ate anyway. The quietness is calming and wondrous, but I love the imperfections too. OK well maybe not the camera part....

I hope all is well with you and that you are able to take some time off this summer to visit your “Algonquin”. Take care and always know that even if we don’t have much time to chat or visit face to face, you are my dear and cherished friend, thoughts of you always make me smile on those portages, and for that I am truly thankful.

Chris/Christine/Steen

unplugging

And so the retirements continue, its getting downright depressing, all my friends are leaving, unplugging from the workplace grid. I started during the last big hiring freeze in the mid 90s, brought on by a small little bit of funding for new legislation. As a result, for the longest time I was one of the youngest people in my workplace. Now they are all close to or at retirement age, while I have quite a few years left.

Well, on the plus side, my mom finally retired this June, meaning it will now be easier to co-ordinate trips, not having to plan around two busy work schedules. Her company had a wonderful send off for her and I can imagine everyone is sad to see her leave.

                                               

She got a new scooter as a retirement gift from the company, and she also bought a new racing bike for herself, so she’ll definitely be on the move! no rocking chair for this retiree

We were down in the Toronto area last weekend to visit mom and Joe as well as for a delayed Father’s day bar-be-cue. Last weekend we went to Montreal for a cirque de soleil show, Totem. It was fantastic, as Cirque always is.

                                         

I have squeezed in a couple of days off of work, and we are heading to – where else? Algonquin …. Just need to unplug myself for a while

Thanks for visiting, and a big happy retirement shout out to all of you who are starting on that new chapter in your lives, make sure you come visit us working slobs once in a while

the window

So, I wasn’t find life busy enough with work (and work is very challenging right now), working out, quilting, blogging and canoeing, I decided to sign up for a creative writing course this summer, something I have been wanting to do for a while. I searched around and found an online course through Gotham City Writers. It’s a six week course, and each week they post a lecture on different aspects of writing, then give an assignment. This week’s assignment was about inspiration and how even one word can inspire a story. So our homework was to write 500-700 words using just “the window” as inspiration. I typed out the following story in about an hour or so, then edited it the next day. Not sure where exactly the story “came” from, it just sort of evolved as I typed. And while I didn’t say it, I pictured this as set in say the late 70s or early 80s. Ok, so here it is:

There it was, in all its glory, the floor to ceiling gorgeous tinted window. Me! Emily Merrick! With an office window! For in a world where titles are easy to give out, everyone is a Director or Chief or Manager of something. Space however, is finite, and so at my company, office quality has become the new title. Starting out, one has a small inside cubicle, and gradually works up the ultimate - a walled office with a window.

I started in the company almost 10 years ago, newly hatched from college with fresh degrees, ready to conquer the world. It wasn't easy, elbowing my way around the testosterone filled halls. The Old Boys aren't so bad, it's the Little Boys (of all ages) who haven't learned their manners that annoy. So I worked and worked and worked, always having to take on the crappy files, the bottom of the gutter dregs that no one wanted. I spent many Friday afternoons holding down the fort while they cleared out to golf, or drink or whatever else they could come up with other than actually work.

My worst tormentor was Fred. "Don't even try little girl" he would say, "you should go home and have some babies or something, leave the real work to the men". In my early innocent days I made the mistake of cheerfully piping up during a discussion about hobbies that I enjoyed painting. Silence all round, broken by Fred the Tormentor loudly chortling " I told you Merrick, go home and play with your coloring books"... "here", he said, motioning with his cup, "at least run off and get me some coffee".

Fred loves to kiss up to the Old Boys "So Bob, how's your golf score/backhand/poker game these days? Ya, really? wow, I could really learn from a pro like you...." fake laugh followed by kiss ass grin. Makes me fight the urge to punch him every.single.time.

Funny thing about work though, with enough effort, brains and creativity, you can really pull things together. Just as well that the Little Boys let me know my "place" early on, so that I knew not to share secrets they would just steal. Good thing they took off to piss away Friday afternoons, because that's when I could really get things rolling. Excellent that the Old Boys are actually pretty enlightened guys, or at least are smart enough to know that profits trump sexism any day.

So here I was, in a window office. "yes!" I said to myself with the appropriate victory arm gesture. What should I do first... ah of course, revenge is.... what's that saying? My fingers danced on the phone keypad.

"Hi Fred? Its me, Emi- "

"What do you want Merrick?" he snapped "I have important work ......and I heard they finally moved you off to the side somewhere"

"Well, uh yes, but hey I just wanted to wrap up that one file I had with you, you know, the one on..."

"car trade ins" he interrupted impatiently

"yes that one, do you mind coming by my ... um, space, to chat?" I intentionally used the word "space", giving away nothing.

" Ya Ok, every dog deserves a bone once in a while" he said "Where the hell is it anyway?"

"14W139"

The phone line clicked off with no "Goodbye", or "see you in a sec". Friggin' typical.

The name plate outside my new door didn't tell much "Emily Merrick, Chief Sales Coordinator", there was a short pause as he read the title, and then in walked Fred, with his usual smirk.

He stopped dead in his tracks.. "Window" he gasped involuntarily, open mouthed, mind reeling, flashing back to all the insults, the innuendos, the crap files tossed my way with a smirk. He pulled himself together, and sat down, in a guest chair I had positioned to face the view.

"So, Em," he finally said "I'm thinking about taking up painting, I bet I could learn a lot from you.. " fake laugh, kiss-ass grin, natural light from the window emphasizing the sweat on his brow.

Sweet.

 

So, I uploaded this story, my first ever that I have submitted for critique. I anxiously checked every day, and on Monday my instructor offered these comments:

Hi Christine,

Um...thank you? That's probably the best response I can give this story! Usually I have pages and pages of descriptions of windows to read through the first week--good descriptions, no doubt--but few students take the time to actually tell a story.

The story here is actually pretty deep considering how short it is. The character is well rounded and developed and there's even a great conflict.

The only thing I felt it was lacking was showing. What I mean is it's hard to actually see the story; give your characters a few descriptions; there's some description of your setting, but a few more will long a long way. Just try to paint a picture with words.

You’re off to a great start...I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work

Considering I was expecting a polite variation of “don’t quit your day job” I was pretty thrilled with the feedback and thought he offered great suggestions. This week’s assignment is all about “showing”, so I am working on being more descriptive in my next 500 word story.

Thanks for visiting, have a great week!

Algonquin in Bug Season

Yes we went to Algonquin last weekend! Yes there was rain! Lots of it! Yes there were bugs! Billions of them!. Ah but you know us, a little rain and a few billion bugs never scares us away. And the best part was, we had the entire park to ourselves, I swear no one else was there!

We are experienced campers, so for us we just set up our screened in shelter and enjoyed. We arrived around 8pm on Friday, yes of course I had trouble getting out of work on time, but I had arranged with the park for our permit to be left outside the office, so by 8:30 we were across the lake and setting up. It was dusk so the little bugs were in full force. We didn’t want to go tooooo heavy on the deet so used our head nets until we got a big fire going

                 

We woke up the next morning to on again off again sun and a cool day, which was nice because it was a tough portages day – long and uphill, working our way up the Petawawa River. By 2pm, just as we were paddling onto Catfish Lake, the skies open and rain came bucketing down. Which is really cool, paddling out on a wilderness lake in a downpour! It stopped just in time for us to arrive at our site and get set up. Then, being old people, we had a two hour nap, those were hard portages!  The rest of the day/night was spent reading inside our tarp shelter, making dinner and getting a fire going with very wet wood

       

Well the next morning it was already time to make our way back out, so late in the morning we packed up and headed over to the Nipissing River. We stopped for lunch close to the end of a 3km portage and Wow, were there bugs! A picture just wouldn’t do it justice. At one point I semi snapped, grabbed the DEET and started randomly spraying it in the air at clouds of bugs saying “F&^% off” “F*&^ off” with each spray. It didn’t work all that well, but at least brought some psychological satisfaction.

Before long we were on the Nipissing, paddling down current in high water, running some rapids and then coming out onto Cedar Lake.

At this time of year the loons are on their nests, and if you inadvertently paddle by, they come right over, swim up beside the canoe and lure you away, so while we immediately paddle away from what must be the nest area to avoid stressing them, one can get really close shots. I took this with my point and shoot!

Gorgeous! It’s worth the bugs!

what’s up

It was an emotional week last week – as I mentioned, we have a few retirements this month, and a fellow I had worked with for 12 years retired on Friday. Mike and I worked hard putting together a photo presentation with music – there was hardly a dry eye in the house. I started off the presentation by saying (among other things) “as the years go by and details start to fade, we don’t think fondly of the files, or remember who was right or wrong on an issue, but we DO fondly remember  the people we enjoyed working with”.

I had organized a photo in the morning with the entire group, which we included in the presentation.

               

So. Pat’s gone from the workplace. I walked by his empty office today several times, it was weird.

While life seems to be filled with work these days, we’re also carving out relaxation time, and I have been doing a lot of quilts. I made a vow to myself when I started again that, unlike last time, I wasn’t going to jump into complicated quilts that take forever to finish and therefore never are finished, so I wanted to do some simple ones instead and feel the satisfaction of actually completing them.

I made a super simple blue and white one for my nephew’s girlfriend, it turned out well, even if some of the quilting looked a little, uh, folksy. Tazzie as always came by to help – I don’t know what it is, but the second, and I mean the second I lay out some blocks on the floor she instantly appears and starts rolling in them. With this quilt  I had to lay out over 200 little block and make sure the shades/patterns were nicely distributed while I sewed… so…. I had to lock her out for the day…. she was howling and scratching at the door. Now that kitty loves her quilts!

                   

 

Oh, and speaking of quilting, I received my bday present a little early – a new Janome Horizon ( THE new sewing machine specialised for quilting) and boy do I love it. My skills improved overnight. I had to rearrange the scrapping/sewing room a little to fit it in, the big red chair had to go downstairs (where it works really well). And check out the free motion quilting I did – first try!

In addition to that, we’ve been having some nice outdoor time. With our new rooftop deck and the giant umbrella, we can sit out there even in the rain, which I just love. So I am always torn between that and quilting. Livin’ La Vida Loca, as always  

                                  

Did I mention we went to Algonquin? Just for a day, on the May long weekend. It was just perfect, as usual – here’s a little photo montage

Well that’s all the news from here. We are going to Algonquin for two full days and nights this weekend. I am trying to make arrangements to pick up our permit after the office closes (not sure if I can get out of work on time), it involves many phone calls and some begging but wow the Algonquin parks people sure are nice friendly folks! I would be too if I worked there

Have a great week everyone

hi ho hi ho it’s off to work we go

Oops, forgot to post last week :) the long weekend threw me off!

Thanks for you comments / emails / conversations on dreams. Fascinating really. Tornados, yes! I get those all the time as well, usually during a time of change. Nathalie I was intrigued by your "rooms behind the office walls" dreams, interesting how in the dream I have, new rooms are an exciting thing, with your specific version, its annoying, and that goes right to the point about same dream can mean different things.

I have been dreaming about work a lot lately, which brings me to my next topic – do/did you love your job? Hate it? Glad you retired? Work is a strange thing, I think, and generally falls into the "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times". I know a few people who are retiring very soon, both in my work and private life. My Mom for instance is finally going to be a retiree at 68. She's been working for the same company for years, loves her job, but, it's time to start that new chapter in her life.

And at the office too, I know of four people who are retiring in the next few weeks. It's had me thinking a lot about work you see, what it means to people.

Not too long ago, say 150 years, you either owned land/companies through birth or you worked like a dog in said company and had no real hope of moving up. You took the job you could find, didn't move above your station and never questioned those above you. Now things are a little different. The late teens early 20s are anxious times as you try to pick a career that will fulfill your every need for the rest of your life. People can jump around not just from company to company, but start a whole new career mid way through.

So, if you could go back and start all over again, would you pick your current path? Do you believe that people should jump around and try out different careers, or is that anarchy to you? What are the factors that make work "good" for you? in case you are interested, here are some of the things that studies/polls show most people think are important for a happy workplace (no particular study, just going by what I remember from various books and articles):

1. Feel like you are making a difference. No you don't need to be single handedly achieving world peace, but people like their work better if they can see the results, they know the accounts are paid on time, the store front looks awesome, the memo was clear and helpful. It's important actually to focus on those small things, rather than feel inept because you haven't saved the world.

2. Engagement. This roughly translates into being able to get in and do things, help steer the course. It could be coming up with a list of memos that are needed for clarity, helping organize the company picnic, figuring out how to fill your orders more efficiently. It might even be as simple as a 10 minute conversation each day with your boss/coworkers.

3. Happy workplace atmosphere. We all know the office pessimist/cynic. There's one in every crowd. But if there are three, or four, or ten, well, the place just starts to drag you down, takes on a negative vibe, becomes a downer.One of the most challenging things I have found in my career is to be the cheerful optimist when everyone around you "wants" to hate the place/file/life. But, it's also the most rewarding and it IS possible to turn a workplace around just by you yourself being cheerfully efficient. Like negativity, positivity is contagious.

I will say though, if you have a horrible nasty boss, sometimes all you can do is cut your losses and move on. That’s a whole other topic…

Well those are the top three I can remember. I'll add a few of my own thoughts ( I always do ) about how I keep perspective on the job, these go life in general too I think:

1. It's not all about me. Boss seems angry/distracted? Guess what, its not likely that he/she suddenly thinks you are a total moron and hates you. Here's a thought, maybe they have something else on their mind, maybe it's not all about me :)

2. I don't have to know everything ( relates to above). Frustrated that I am not involved in that working group/important meeting etc? Oh well, I have lots of of work, and while my opinion might be helpful, I do acknowledge that the world does not pivot on what I think. Things will be just fine if I am not involved, and I can always catch up later if they decide I am vitally important to the project.

3. There are many things out of my control, and I accept that. This has almost become a cliche, you know, change what you can, accept what you can't and have the wisdom to know the difference. I might find a certain direction/decision whatever, not one I would have taken, but again, it's not all about me :) The decision may have been made based on reams of information I don't even have. I can state my opinion, and then I let it go. Simple as that, it really is. And I am sorry, but about 10 out of 4 billion people in the world have the authority to single handedly make decisions that can have irreversible large scale devastating impact on the world. No one I know is one of them. Let it go.

4. Perspective. Yes I might have to work long hours, yes days may be frustrating. However, I have worked in India, I have seen what many people in the world need to go through just to barely feed their family. The vast vast majority of our workplaces in the western world are comparative luxury and privilege. They really are.

Well just some musings on a warm spring day as I get ready to head off to work. Have a great week everyone

to sleep, perchance to dream

Do you dream a lot? Or more to the point, do you often remember your dreams? I say that because studies show everyone dreams lot, but that you have to wake up at a certain point in the dream before you really remember it.

Dreams have fascinated me for quite some time, perhaps at least in part because I seem to remember a lot of them! I have read through some of the more, what would you call it - new age psychic  type explanations and for me personally, they just don't ring true. I don't believe dreaming about a black cat means bad luck, or whatever other ”predictions” they claim

Some of the more scientific explanations do appeal to me, and some of the most recent research is really fascinating. Dreams they say, are really the brain processing information. OK I think we all heard that at some point, but how it processes the information is really interesting.

Dreams are one of two very general types : kind of normal, follow a real "story" and totally bizarre make no sense I-must-be-insane for dreaming this kind of thing. Here are two of my own examples:

Normal storyline dream: We are canoeing, we can't find the portage, I can see the river water getting faster and I can hear a waterfall, we paddle erratically trying different strokes and manoeuvres and finally one works and we get to shore.
Straightforward explanation here: my brain was working through a scenario,  "practicing" what to do if that situation arose. The brain is so amazing that, better than a computer, or what you could do when awake, it can "feel" what the paddle against the water feels like, and with amazing accuracy "know" what paddle strokes would do what based on past experience. The brain is therefore training itself at night, and later, I will be a much better paddler for it. 

One study had people practice on a downhill ski machine. The skiers received a score for their "runs". That night, the skiers recorded their dreams. Most of them remembered skiing dreams, or dreams about gliding on snow, or dreams about water rolling downhill, all things that would help sort through how best to approach a hill for skiing. The next day, their scores were noticeably better. Skiers who had skied in the morning, had not slept, and had skied again in the afternoon had much less improvement than the dreaming skiers even thought they had more time on the machines to practice.
If you have every learnt a second language, you'll know that at some point, you start dreaming in that language, and it's usually at that point that your fluency starts to improve dramatically.

Fascinating, and really gives thought to the term about "needing to sleep on it" or the importance of having training go over several days rather than crammed into one.

The other type of dream, as I mentioned are the "weird ones" Here again is one of my own:
I go into my office in the morning as I always do, but then my computer turns into a giant loon and flies away, right at that time, I check my coffee cup and it is full of frogs. I walk out of my office door directly into a forest where office chairs are randomly scattered amongst the trees... ok I could go on but you get the point. Weird, nonsense, random ….These are the dreams that typically happen in the deepest of sleep, and, these appear to be the brain sorting and cataloguing the billions of information bits in our brains, comparing new information absorbed today with information stored from the past. Picture a computer trying to match something closest to say a dog, and on one side of the screen is the dog, and the side the screen is flashing images each millisecond, searching the database for what come closest to the dog. Broom? no. tree? no. cat? closer... until it finds a wolf and then a dog, identifying the two as the same. Experts think our brain does sort of  the same thing, but what exactly it's doing and why is still a mystery. The dream I just described happened after I had been planning a canoe trip, one where we were going to try to leave right after work. Perhaps my brain for whatever reason was comparing work information bits with wilderness information bits

What we do know is that if you miss this part of dreaming, you are extremely tired the next day, have difficultly concentrating, and have a hard time making decisions. Chronically depressed people have less of this deep – sleep - weird dreaming than others. Which comes first is not clear. 

Now, I was poo-pooing the whole imagery in dreams thing, but it is real,  in a personal interpretation sense. Example? Take the black cat I mentioned earlier. If a superstitious person who thinks black cats are bad luck dreams about a black cat, it likely represents bad things in their dream “storyline”. For me, who had a much-loved black cat, a black cat in one of MY dreams likely represents home, happiness, warm fuzzy feelings in general. See what I mean?  Interestingly enough, some imagery seems to be common amongst people, as if it is somehow in the DNA. Very common dreams include: teeth falling out/crumbling (feeling like things are falling apart), flying (this depends on how you feel about flying, could be a good or bad thing), falling (usually not good), and being swept away in water/wind etc (feeling loss of control).

I do have a recurring dream I can’t figure out: I am in my house and suddenly start discovering whole additional rooms/ balconies/ gardens I didn’t know existed, even though I have lived there for years. They are always exciting dreams, not scary or upsetting. So what does that mean? Looking forward to new opportunities? I have been overlooking what I already have? Any ideas?

So what are your recurring dreams? What do you think they mean?

may days

Isn’t spring just so great? I just love May… the flowers, the birds, the early morning light.. all the better for coming after a long cold winter…

We were in theToronto area for Courtney’s birthday and Mother’s Day this week. We gave Courtney a new camera for her birthday, so I actually have no photos, she took them all with her new camera and I dont have a copy yet. But it was a great dinner with us, Courtney, Reegan and my sister Karen.

For Mother’s day we went out for breakfast and then for a short walk down by the lake with Mom and Joe’s shelties, Boca and Buddy

  

 

I love the willow trees and magnolia flowers this time of year

                               

Mom has also started taking a quilting class, and has converted her office into a new craft/quilting room

             

So by late morning we headed home, I finished the hand sewing for the binding of my class quilt in the car. I’ve also been working on a baby quilt, which I had mentioned before. Now, if Tazzie likes quilts in general, she LOVES soft fluffy flannel baby quilts, so much so that while I was trying to actually quilt this one, she kept coming and plunking herself down on it, falling fast asleep immediately, and really, she was just so stinkin’ cute, I didn’t have the heart to shoo her away

           

Once she was finished her nap, I actually got it done. It’s now living at its new home ( a colleague with a baby on the way), much to Tazzie’s disapproval ( I am thinking I will have to make one for her)- here’s a picture of the finished quilt.

                                                               

The weather is gorgeous this week and we’re off to Algonquin this weekend – I can’t wait! Enjoy spring everyone…

Spring is here

 

Wow, reading my blog, one would think I was almost never at home. But we are at home, a lot, and really enjoy it too! Aside from quilting, we've been working on a few projects. For one, we got the fireplace installed in the basement. It works great, and even on the coldest of nights, I can get the room up to 24 degrees no problem. Very efficient and quiet too. No more cranking up the heat in the whole house just to feel warm in one room. 

But of course, the cold days are now behind us and so our thoughts have turned to the outside. We have a flat roof overtop of our garage (which used to be a car port only but was closed in some time ago), and even better, we have a door from the master bedroom out to said roof. When we first looked at the house, this was one of the features I really liked.

However like many things you think you will fix up first when buying a house, this has become one of the last areas, mainly because we instead had a nice patio installed out back, followed by the sun porch. We found too that while the roof was nice and sunny, it was a little too hot and sunny mid summer, and even with a little heat, the tar paper become too hot to walk on.

About four years ago we bought these snap together tiles from Home Depot, but they were, uh I think the technical term is crap, and after just one season were warped and falling apart. It sat like that for years, along with two lounge chairs that were, again, crap.

But, this is a great place in spring and fall when the days are still a little cool (so you want sun) and if there was a little shade, it would be a great place in the heat of summer too, because we get more of a breeze up there. So, it was time to address the space for once and for all.

We started by scouring the town for nice quality lounge chairs. I quickly discovered that the really super nice ones I saw in a decorating magazine where upwards of $1200 each. Yes they were gorgeous, but I dunno, just a wee bit too dear for me to seriously consider them. So instead we finally found some nice  resin "wicker” ones at Costco, still a little pricey, but a fraction of the wrought iron ones. I was happy. And in the process we also found an adorable little bistro set and this giant-a$$ folding umbrella, one that won't get blown ago by thunderstorm winds because in cranks right down and folds up against the wall. Too-much-sun-on-some-days solution found. Check.

So, now it was time to tackle the "floor". We decided to just lay a floating deck. Simple, effective and to the point. We decided the weekend of April 16th was perfect timing for that - should be warm and springy. Wrong. It was rainy, windy with periods of snow and ice pellets. Oh well, we were to keen have it done it time for it to be warm and sunny, after returning from Florida. 

We went to Home Depot right after work on Friday and picked up the lumber, and I was up and out by 9am, ripping up the old deck "tiles" and then power hosing down the roof. Mike then spent most of the weekend laying the floating deck and as luck would have it we were of course a few boards short, so we just finished it up this weekend. Here's the work in progress:

I have to say it is a thing of beauty and tazzie loves it too. We still need to stain the wood, once it all has a chance to dry out enough (the lumber was pretty fresh cut). I am thinking a dark brown stain but haven't made up my mind just yet. I also want some planter boxes at the road end, for a wee bit more privacy, but I'll give that some thought too. So anyway, here is where it is at right now:

                           

             

So last weekend was nice and sunny, we spent a lot of time on our new rooftop terrace, pulling out our other patio furniture and generally enjoying the blue skies…..