The Big Pause - Day 79 - May 29 - A Visit from Uncle Mitchel

A bit of excitement today. Kerry's parents were talking to some friends and one of them needed a ride down to Surrey. They volunteered to drive them with plans to stop by our house for a physically distant lunch before heading back home. We weren't especially strict about staying apart but there weren't any hugs with the exception of the puppies on both sides of the families. Oliver was excited to see his Uncle Mitchel who is a Labradoodle. He doesn't have access to grass at his house and he and Oliver had a great time running around in the back yard. Mitchell is a bit skittish so I decided to chase him around. I think it actually helped. We ordered McDelivery for lunch and Carter made a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. It was quite delicious. Kerry came home for lunch but then she didn't get home until after 7:30 pm. They are spending a lot of time getting ready for kids to go back next week. There seems to be a big discrepancy in the amount of planning each school is doing. Should be interesting next week.

The Big Pause - Day 78 - May 28 - Carcasses Ready for Paint

Slow progress on the shelves. I've now got the cases done and they just need a sanding and a coat of paint before I install them. On the weekend I'll start on the doors. I'm using a mix of materials and techniques. The plywood is all pre-finished birch which is very nice to work with and I like that I get a good quality finish for the inside areas. It does mean I have to use different techniques to build them because I can't sand any of the inside areas. I've been using mostly pocket holes, dadoes and a bit of glue and with the right techniques I end up with something that is very sturdy.

The Big Pause - Day 77 - May 27 - Down by the Crick

When I was younger I lived in a relatively new subdivision that was on the edge of town. This meant there were fairly extensive forested areas  and there were two ponds that were about a 10 minute walk from our house. Some friends and I would often go to the ponds and catch frogs and explore the streams and wetland areas. I've always felt it was a shame that my kids didn't have that same opportunity. We are living in the lower mainland of BC and there aren't a lot of unspoiled forested areas that aren't official parks.

Recently I've been riding my bike in random directions and I came across an area that I've never been to. It is an official park but it's also on a right of way and it's separated from the main park area so it's quite secluded. I knew that there was a creek running through the area and after a bit of investigation I managed to find some trails that took me down to it. You can tell that this has been a local destination for people for a while. It's very clean but there is also evidence of kids with trees partially chopped down. There are probably more unruly things happening but at least they cleaned up after themselves.

I had recently told Carter about this in a mysterious ways and today he wanted to go check it out. It's about 2.3k from our house so I biked and he took his scooter. We found the creek and he had great fun exploring the area. I suspect when he gets a bit older him and his friends will probably come down here. Being in the city we don't seem to let kids explore. Covid isn't helping that. 

The Big Pause - Day 76 - May 26 - Around the World

Carter and I had a great game of 'Around the World' today. Carter has a competitive streak but he also doesn't like to lose. I've been beating him at 21 lately so rather than having him be discouraged we've adopted an approach to 'Around the World' that only sort of has a winner. We both have our own ball and start on the closest spot. We each play on our own trying to get to all five spots and starting over each time we miss. This means there are times when he's ahead of me and times when I'm ahead. Today he managed to get to the fourth spot and I managed to do all five. I think he enjoyed himself.

The Big Pause - Day 75 - May 25 - Mondays

Mondays tend to be days that I put in more hours at work and then I slowly do fewer hours as the week progresses. My role at work typically has me kicking things off and then waiting for people to do their part so getting things out the door on Monday is important. We had a meeting with our CIO this week and he indicated he finds working from home exhausting. Days start early and go later then you expect. This is definitely my Mondays. I did manage to find a bit of time after work to spend some time on the shelves for the family room. I'm using poplar and I like to cut them rough to size before milling a few days later to reduce wood movement.

The Big Pause - Day 74 - May 24 - Hike Up a Mountain

We started the morning with a hike up Burnaby Mountain. Carter found a great trail called the Velodrome Trail that starts at the velodrome on the far side of Burnaby mountain. When we arrived the gate to the velodrome was closed but we were able to drive to the next parking lot and then hike back to it. It was only 2.5 km but with 500 steps up the side of the mountain it was still a rewarding hike. The top has some sort of conservation area with some Japanese totem poles. There is a restaurant that was closed. We'll go back post Covid.

In the afternoon we had our first physically distant visit with the Dukes. The plan was to meet in the Gazebo but it was nice out and it would have been a bit cramped so we met on the back lawn. Was good to finally interact with other people in person. Harvey came as well and both families swapped dogs for a bit. Hopefully they don't carry Covid. Harvey seemed quite out of sorts and at one point ended up behind the bench on the deck. I think he was looking for shade. We'll probably start arranging more of these with people through the summer. Meeting outdoors is safe and easy.

The Big Pause - Day 73 - May 23 - Hair Cut Day

It's hair cut day! I realize that in the middle of a pandemic, getting a haircut isn't the most important thing but it's been 2 1/2 months and the hair studio near us has finally opened for business. As much as I think that everyone should be minimizing their contact with people, this disease will be with us for a while so we need to find a way to get back to some semblance of normal. The hair dresser also needs an income. The process wasn't too bad. We use Great Clips and they have an app for signing in so we drove there at opening and waited in the parking lot until the online signing opened up and we ended up with only a 20 minute wait. Some of the people in line were quite disappointed so even though they showed up before opening, they weren't able to or didn't know how to sign in and ended up having to leave. We had missed a full hair cut cycle so we left that as a tip. In my view, that money was theirs and we just had to suffer through long hair for a while.

In the afternoon I went to Windsor plywood for some plywood and thick wood for shelves in the family room. You could now move around Windsor plywood with physical distancing measures in place. I got lucky with the 2 inch stock. They happened to have 40 inch pieces of some hardwood that are the perfect size which meant much less waste if I had to buy 8 foot stock.