2009-04-24 - 11:34 a.m.
Two entries in a week. Yep, school must be over.
I left a steadily improving Vancouver climate to come to Alberta, hoping that I would get a taste of a genuine spring. You know, the kind of spring where the devastation that the snow has wrought is still in evidence everywhere, but the new life is pushing through. The kind of spring with hot days that make you want to be outside doing yard work and repairing things after a long dark winter. The kind of spring that feels like an accomplishment. Well, I got a day and a half of it. Monday when I got in was awesome- beautiful and sunny. Tuesday was just as good, and I was making plans for working in my parent's yard, raking and digging and all those spring time activities. I even hung laundry outside to dry! Then Tuesday it snowed an inch and it all stuck. It's snowing again today. It's all turning to slush on the roads, and kind of melting a little underneath and then freezing, so it's slippery. Actually, its like December in Victoria here. About the same temperature even!
So since the yard work thing has had to be postponed, I've turned my attention to plumbing. My dad is on this water conservation kick, mostly because he found out that you can get a tax rebate from the town if you have low flush toilets. That, combined with Home Hardware having a sale on these toilets meant that it's time to give something back to the earth. Of course, Dad has to work this week, so I volunteered to install the two new toilets. This turned out to be a bit of an adventure. Dad has all the necessary tools, but they are all organized according to his system; and his system is not my system. I spent most of yesterday searching for things in the basement and in the garage, generally with no luck. To add to that, when I took one of the old toilets off, the bit that attaches it to the floor was broken, prompting a town wide search of hardware stores for a quick fix. The quick fix was not forthcoming, but I jerry rigged so that the toilet is sufficiently attached. Oh, the skills that you never get to learn at theological college.
It has been a nice change, I have to say. I like school and all that, but doing some home renos is fun, all the more because anything I don't finish I can happily leave for someone else.
