Adventures in building

The days are planned for the week and it only took the morning. Let's hope there aren't a lot of extras that spring up.

It was a beautiful, summer-like day so Ken was outside settling the gardens for winter, turning soil and tarring the roof of the garage. Now, how he did that from the ground, since he was expressly forbidden to climb up a ladder and march around a roof, is beyond me. We'll give that some thought. Chantelle was at work in Windsor and Lee had to go to Truro for Shelagh supplies. Winter clothes will now fill her closet.

And then there were the shingles. Ken sent Lee to Kent - error number one, Lee agreed to go. Thinking it might be a good thing to just drive to the lumber yard rather than go to the order desk, the little blue car pulled up to the guard house and Murray came out with "What can I do for you?", giving Lee hope that this would go smoothly. "I need shingles" seemed a perfectly normal thing to say at this point. "What size?" responded Murray. "They come in sizes?!" was the shocked utterance and Murray's hands landed on his hips. "Well, we don't have every size in every colour so we can narrow it down - what colour do you need?" "They come in colours?!" responded Lee thinking furiously "Do you have pink?" Murray came off of the step and put his hand on the windowsill. "Who sent you?" "My husband and he forgot to mention size or colour" "Humph" - that most telling of male responses when they are not amused. "But he sent a picture" Lee quickly offered, hauling the flyer out of her purse. "Did he call these shingles? These aren't shingles, they're shakes and they don't come in sizes or colours, but if he doesn't know the difference between shingles and shakes he should be picking up his own supplies so he can learn." Murray responded with some force. He indicated where to park and said someone would come, get the bundles and load them in Betsey for me. There didn't seem to be anyone in the indicated area so when a fellow with a Kent sweater came out, the fullback pose was in evidence so he couldn't breeze by. Pointing, because while Murray appeared to be certain of their nomenclature, Ken had been pretty certain, too, and loyalty is important, after all, the fellow looked at the pointing finger and said "You want shingles, just a minute, Joe will get them for you". Ken was validated. This guy chatted as Joe loaded, (seems he is the manager/owner) he didn't think he would lift the shingles but was happy to entertain our Lee while they watched Joe work. Bundles loaded, it was back to Murray whose parting shot was that "Customer service is their motto and some customers need a lot more service than others." Lee has educated Ken on the difference between shingles and shakes.

The kennel said good bye to Savannah last night. She left admonishing Bear to remember all she had taught him, noting several times to all who would listen that Bear is in charge. Willie yawned. The circus is the circus.

The house dogs supervised Ken and Tom. Patti enjoyed that and kept good order all day. Piper continues on and is happy to be getting lots of attention.

Lamb resurfaced for dinner with the wine sauce and roasted vegetables. The end of the birthday cake was seen, polished off by all in attendance. Tomorrow will bring more Christmas and some planning for Woodstock, since Ken and Lee will be off to Ottawa and will see her Dad on the way. Allan Thoren is looking forward to the visit.