suddenly the leaves have begun to change colour, so if I don't put the pictures up from our sunday walk up to the ridge, they will soon be outdated. it was a steep hike and good to get away from the housing and pavement for a little while.

sept29-04
wed, 7:47 a.m.

enjoying a last few moments before emil gets done in the bathroom. then it’s my turn to get in there, shower and dress, make my peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and begin the day’s activity.

it’s another day at the arena, and i dread it. oh, i’m okay once i get there, and don’t mind the work half as much as i expected to. it’s not that strenuous, though my body is tired by the time my five hours are done, and the bottoms of my feet ache so i want to stay off them when instead i must make supper or practise my tap dance or stand and sing my two songs for thursday or whatever. so much to do, so little time and energy!

scott called this morning around 7, as he usually does. today he is doing his last cement job, so a lot of pressure around getting it done before freeze-up will be lifted. he can focus on his farmwork after that.

i slept on the couch the past two nights because a loud machine has been going in my bedroom, drying the carpet. the restoration company is supposed to be on top of getting things repaired in there now. but they didn’t come back yesterday, to my knowledge, so perhaps it will take forever ... as it already has seemed to, for my landlords to get around to handling the problem.

i booked a flight to saskatoon for the thanksgiving weekend, while gord will be here with the boys. if i would do that, scott said, he would feel less pressure to finish up there and get out here; he’d be able to stay there a bit longer and get more done before he leaves. i am not looking forward to the travel aspect of it, but it will be a treat to see scott and be home for a few days, hard as i expect it will be to drag myself out of there again.

well, i’d best get going. the bottoms of my feet hurt from being on the concrete in the arena for the past two days. but other than that i’m not as stiff and sore as i feared i might be.

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  Tuesday, Sept.28

It's not that dark in the arena, but apparently my digital camera thinks it is. This is Karen mopping construction dust off bleachers. We started yesterday and boy did I feel it. The tips of my toes complained all night.

Er, did I mention Karen and I are cleaning up after an arena renovation? It will take us all this week and part of next. And we're making good bucks, so that makes the hard labour more palatable. The undersides of benches polka-dotted with chewing gum are almost not terrible to see.

At lunch time we strolled next door to a little park, or Japanese garden. Then we walked onto the little bridge so Karen could watch the fish for a while. She's a fish girl.

At home she has at least two large aquariums and some pretty gorgeous tropical fish. The dolphin fish are my favourites -- they're big enough to look like something, maybe.

I'm the lucky one, I get to bolt at three o'clock to pick up my boychicks at their bus stop. There's a nice little lull in between meeting Everett's bus, and meeting Emil's in the same spot a half hour later. Before Emil arrived we got little errands run at the mall nearby. Tomorrow we'll drive down to the fruit stand at the bottom of the hill.

You weren't expecting tips for what to do if your toes are sore, were you?

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