The basement bedroom is finished and Jack and I were able to sleep down there last night, on the bed, and not on the mattress on a floor.  It was very nice and comfortable.  I love the new flooring and there is no more mold.  We even have new windows downstairs as they were installed finally, after a three month wait.  Please ignore all of the black squiggly lines in the photos.  Apparently it comes from the invisible flickering of artificial indoor lights, although previous phones have never had this problem.  I'm just happy to have my basement, mostly, back together.  There is still a few more things that have to be properly put away in the utility room and I'm working on that.

Now I can turn my attention to the yard which greatly needs some attention.  

I've been reading "Leaving Home" by Mark Haddon, the author of  "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time".  It is a difficult to read book because of the neglect both he and his sister suffered at the hands of his parents, and the casual acceptance of both physical and sexual abuse by his parents. He and I are the same age and I remember the things that were just not talked about (anything difficult).

My mum was English.  After my son was born I was living at home with my parents, and within days of being discharged from the hospital, I got sicker and sicker.  I ended up back in hospital with an infected episiotomy.  I was in a lot of pain and in emergency the nurses had given me something for pain (so I was uninhibited) and the nurse had to get a sample of the pus coming from my incision.  My poor mum, even with drugs on board I could tell how uncomfortable she was being in the room with me and I said, "Oh mum, it's so hard being English."  Even as an old lady she could only say, down there, which made diagnosis difficult when she was an old lady.  There are many bits and pieces, down there:)

The book also brought back a lot of memories of trying to arrange care for mum and dad.  I only lived 150km away but I also had three kids.  When dad was dying he was very confused due to hepatic encephalopathy and mum would call me every night, crying because he was so hard to take care of.  I would listen to her for an hour while she cried and complained.  She also wouldn't move any furniture or area rugs (tripping hazards for my dad) to make it easier for dad to get around the house with his walker.  Dad wouldn't allow caregivers in the house because mum could do it he said.  In the night when he fell, mum would call the ambulance and the paramedics would come to the house, pick him up, assess him, and put him back in bed.  Neither one of them would allow things to be easier, for things to change, and now maybe I can see that they didn't want to admit to themselves how dire things were.  Dad was obviously dying and denial had always worked in the past, which is how they probably coped with the deaths of five babies/fetuses and the traumatic brain injury of my sister, but denial only works so long and death will not be denied.

Dad spent the last nine weeks of his life in hospital and when he was told that he would be transferred to a nursing home 65 km away from mum (who couldn't drive), he developed pneumonia the next day and died five days after that.  I think it was a relief for everyone when he died.  There was no more suffering.  I suppose that is the purpose of death too, an end to suffering.  

On that cheerful note, I'm off to paint the doors in the basement.

Jack was so excited to go back to school this morning.  He kept asking me what time it was and when the bus was coming.  He was pumped and he got on the bus with the two kids from across the street. 

The young woman across the street is a lovely young woman who has been struggling with some neurological problems for months now, numbness in her arm, hypersensitivity, double vision, migraines, gait problems, to name a few.  Sometimes she can't drive, so the kids are taking the bus now.  She and I chatted for probably half an hour and then I made her go inside as her teeth were chattering.  There was a cold wind this morning.

I also talked to the neighbors next door to us as well.  Their son is starting high school today and he had such a huge smile on his face.  Both of their children are good kids, they've done a good job, and been lucky.

I came inside and sat down at the computer, an entire day to myself for the first time in two weeks.  There are lots of things that need doing and nothing I feel like doing.  I have vacuumed though, the dog hair piles up so quickly in the hallway that I can't stand looking at it.  The dogs need their walks, I have errands to run, and painting to be done but I feel like doing nothing.  The horror! I stole that from Urspo.

I took the dogs for a walk.  While I was out with Charlie, an old couple with a large brown lab walked past me.  I've seen that dog charge people, even while on leash, and the man has very little control over it.  On the second encounter with them, we were both walking in circles apparently, I gave the dog a wide berth which brought me close to a fence line.  Charlie and the dog on the other side of the fence starting arguing and I tried to pull Charlie away from the fence when the other dog pushed a loose piece of the fence out of the way and attacked Charlie.  I got Charlie away but he had a gash on his nose which was bleeding a fair bit.  I yelled to tell the lady that she had a loose board on her fence and that her dog attacked my dog.  She said, your dog fault.  I took a photo of the house and will either talk to her or call bylaw enforcement.  My dogs have been attacked three times while they've been on leash in the neighbourhood.

And then I cried a little.  I think my biggest problem throughout my life has been my inability to regulate my emotions.  Yay, a new hobby.  How to learn emotional regulation as an adult.

Today is finally cooler and the dog walk was not brutally hot.  The trees are turning colour and the sky is a beautiful blue.

Our fridge arrived on Wednesday and I love it.  It's smaller and takes up less room in the kitchen.  The old one made it difficult for one person to walk past the other when one was at the sink (that would be me).  The best part, I have my ice cold fridge water again which I missed so much.  There is an ice maker in the freezer but it's not hooked up for now.  I just made ice cubes and filled the container.  Heaven.  My kitchen is back to normal and next week I hope to have the basement back to normal.

Last night we went to Jack's school to meet the teacher and drop off his school supplies.  I ran into a lot of neighbors and friends which was nice, people I wouldn't even know if I didn't have a 7 year old in elementary school.  On the drive home Jack said he wanted to started school right now and I said, "Me too."  He asks each day how many days left until school starts again.

I made it through the last two weeks of summer holidays, the two weeks without any camps to go to.  We did pretty good, ran a lot of errands and spent a fair bit of time at the spray park.  I did pretty good but last night I was worn out and couldn't handle even one more question.  I told him that but that didn't stop him.  That child opens his eyes at 6am and starts talking.  He doesn't stop until I tell him that he needs to stop talking so that he can fall asleep.  That's hard, for me:)

I remember last year feeling sad that I would be locked into school routines for the next twelve years but this year I'm glad to be locked into school routines.  

I stole this from Debby at "Life's Funny Like That".  On a completely unrelated note, does anyone know where I can find a feral raccoon?

Amur maple shrub which are common around here.  I love the colour of the seed heads and the leaves turn a beautiful red as well.

Our garage door died on Sunday.  I'm not that superstitious but that's three now, we should be done:)  Jack had a small hissy fit because he couldn't get his electric scooter out of the garage, but everyone survived.  Fortunately a very nice man came on Sunday evening and replaced both springs and the door is working again.  

The countdown to back to school has begun.  We meet the teacher on Thursday evening and Jack starts back to school on Monday morning.  I may be very excited about this, a return to the very same schedule that seemed so onerous in June, I now desire once again.  Who knew?

I've given up my membership to the pottery studio in Fort Saskatchewan.  I just wasn't getting out there enough to make it worthwhile and the drive was 30 minutes each way.  Yesterday morning Jack and I went there so I could finish up my glazing and he painted a piece of bisqueware with underglaze.  He got upset a couple of times because he didn't like how he painted it and nana showed him that you can just wash the underglaze off and try again.  When my stuff comes out of the kiln I'll share it here.  I call it my sweary pottery collection and it gave me so much satisfaction to do.  I do love a good swear.

I have signed up for more pottery classes though and they start in a few weeks.  I also want to take a wheel class in the new year.

I worked in the yard for awhile yesterday.  It's been a shitty summer with lots of rain, intense heat when it wasn't raining, and then millions of swarming mosquitos.  The weather is milder now, the lawn has dried out finally, and the mosquito numbers have gone way down.  We can sit on the back deck again and relax, but the annuals are starting to die.  Sigh.

My raspberry canes are about 7 feet tall and I just did some reading about them.  They need pruning apparently so I'll get to that next month and redo the trellis supports I made for them which aren't working all that great.  I'll try again as I told Jack.

And then I came across this man a few days ago, Dr. B.J. Miller.  He inspired me.

One of my favorite photos of Lucy.

Another busy week.  Our fridge died on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.  It's been dying for awhile but it gave up the ghost completely.  I went to put something in the freezer and the tomato sauce that was sitting in a bag was liquid.  Much stress followed.  We have another freezer in the mud room so that things that were expensive (meat) or from the garden (tomatoes and raspberries) and still not thawed out were moved there.  That night my husband brought in the travel cooler that we have and plugged that in and I bought a small fridge from Canadian Tire for milk and eggs, and most importantly, my iced tea:)  Both the cooler and tiny fridge are jam packed.

Two mornings of throwing things out either into the compost, or down the sink.  Most of the condiments are gone.  It's amazing how many condiments slowly take over the fridge but I did save the mayo.  We made a trip to the eco centre to get rid of all the empty glass containers because they no longer pick up glass.  

I ordered a new fridge online from Home Depot, but first I watched some videos about the best fridge to buy.  The fewer the bells and whistles, the more likely the fridge will last.  The worst offender is in door ice makers, which I don't like anyway so not a problem.  Less fancy=less components to break, which could be part of the problem with newer fridges and their short lifespan.  That and planned obsolescence.

I took Jack to the Fringe Festival yesterday afternoon and we had a nice time.  His favorite part was the children's section where he made a couple of crafts and put on a puppet show which reminded me a little of a Punch and Judy show.  He also got to see a juggler who juggled machetes and fire.  Surprisingly, he did not ask to buy a machete on the way home:)

I saw a lovely podiatrist yesterday who fixed up my sore foot in literally minutes and he then refused to charge me because it took so little time.  Very kind man.

I'm in the process of writing a letter to someone I love very much which has made me think, a lot, and cry, a little.  I have discovered I only have so much bandwidth to deal with highly emotional or stressful things at one time, and I'm learning to accept that about myself.  Probably most people are like that, but what do I know?  It's taken awhile to get to the point of writing this letter, longer than I would have liked, but I also have a stressful life which I am learning to accept.  

A private off leash dog park that Charlie could run in, without me having to worry about other dogs.  Unfortunately it also had a small slough which meant Charlie was covered in mud and smelly water, but he loved it.

Proof of a wet summer.

I took a break from social media for a bit.  It was getting me down and raising my blood pressure, literally.  My blood pressure is now under control and well managed.  I'm staying off instagram because my algorithm brings me all kinds of crap about the provincial government which leaves me feeling outraged.  I'm tired of feeling outraged.  It's not a good feeling.

We finally seem to have the right medication combination for Jack.  He's eating better and is able to stay focused when he needs to be.  He doesn't have any camps this week or next week, it's just the two of us and so far it's going well.  I have also been making hard boiled egg chocolate pudding for him which he loves and his weight is going up now.

The basement is almost finished which is nice.  The final two windows from our May new window installation have finally been installed in the basement, windows which would probably have prevented the flooding that we had.  Sigh.  The utility room is tidy and organized, and the bedroom has new flooring which looks very nice.  I only have some more painting to do in the bedroom and then it's finished.

I took a break from Katie this past weekend.  Jack went to the lake with his grandma and mother for one night, so I also took a break from Katie on the Sunday.  She's hard work that girl and I think I need to step back more, for her sake and mine.  When I die it's her caregivers who will be doing all of the stuff I do now.  I'm aging and finding it harder to deal with her mentally and physically, so stepping back, ever so slowly makes sense.

I'm finally feeling less overwhelmed now that the basement has been renovated.  I don't think I realized how much mental energy it took for me to deal with it.  Katie's ovarian cyst is shrinking and bothering her less and less it seems.  My son is doing well.  He just started a new job yesterday and in October he's going back to school to become a carpenter.  He seems happier and more settled, but even more importantly he's staying sober.  I'm thankful.

Me driving home with the new flooring from Home Depot:)

Summer is coming to an end.  Some of the leaves have started turning yellow.  The tansy, asters, and goldenrod are all blooming.  Basically all the weeds and grasses are blooming.

Canada Thistle.

Perennial sow thistle.

That's it.  That's all I got:)