Corner of Bourbon & Division

*falls over*

I made a heroic attempt to shorten my planned amount of sleep to two hours, and failed miserably. I just could not physically drag myself out of bed. So I ended up sleeping the full four hours I'd originally given myself, but the net result was that I felt like I was in a mad rush the entire time I was in Ottawa.

I realised while I was there that, because I had my tires in the car, I wouldn't have enough room to fit 60 square feet of paving slabs in the trunk of my car. My Yaris might well be nicknamed the TARDIS, but even she can't hold four tires and 60 s.f. of concrete. If I had a pickup truck, it would be a different story. So I reluctantly abandoned my plan to pick up the paving slabs while I was still in Ottawa, ran the rest of my errands, and headed back toward L'Ile Perrot.

I arrived with half an hour to spare before my appointment to get my tires changed. This worked out in my favour, since they happily took me in early. I spoke with Otto from the Auto Service department—I know!—who was cheerful, polite and helpful the entire time. I was overdue for an oil change, so he offered to have that done at the same time, and I jumped at the chance. The fewer stops I have to make running errands, the happier I am.

I got a few more errands done while I was there. I bought a new hose, since our old one is full of kinks and has been limping along for years now, aided by duct tape. It's more duct tape than hose at this point, and the last time I used it I saw that it had sprung several new leaks in the interim. I had been planning on getting a nozzle for it anyway, but I was utterly fed up with trying to make the hose function properly, so I found one on sale today, along with a brand new nozzle, and am quite pleased with my newest acquisitions.

I stopped for a hot chocolate at a nearby coffee shop (I am still trying to be caffeine-free), and while I was there pdaughter texted me to let me know that Réno Dépot had called about my online request for an estimate to build a fence. I must say, I was quite impressed. The guy was courteous and professional and gave me a ballpark quote right over the phone, with the caveat that someone would have to come out and see the lay of the land before a final estimate was done. He'll be sending it to me in writing via email over the weekend, and I'm supposed to go in on Monday to discuss specifics. Home Depot, on the other hand, has yet to get back to me after two requests for a quote (one online, one in person last week), and they insist that they'll only install a minimum of 70 feet of fence, whereas Réno didn't bat an eye when I said I only needed about 50 feet of fence. Clearly, Home Depot doesn't want my business.

After my call was done I returned to fetch the car, only to be met with semi-bad news. Apparently the poor GSVCO is in need of a new shaft and some TLC for the brakes. No big emergencies, but things I'll want to get seen to within a few weeks lest they become actual emergencies. *sigh* I kind of feel like I'm haemorrhaging money these days. Still, I got my tires and my oil changed, and the car is purring along beautifully in the interim.

I got home and unpacked the milk and tissues I'd bought (we were pretty much out of both), stacked the winter tires in the basement, and hopped in the shower. I was hoping to be done by the time pdaughter and Bean came home, but that wasn't the case, alas. I was still abluting by the time they came in, but was done shortly thereafter. I'd aimed for a short shower, and managed one in about ten minutes. Not quite the 3-minute shower I'd been managing in January, but I've found that the new baking soda thing I've been doing with my hair instead of shampoo requires me to rinse more, lest I end up with baking soda in awkward places. I haven't been able to go completely free of anything but water, but I figure washing my hair once a week with baking soda instead of with shampoo every couple of days is still way better for the environment. My hair is still looking the same as it did when I was using regular shampoo, so overall I'm pretty pleased with this experiment.

We had a lovely dinner of homemade pizza, and as it was bucketing rain I gave up on the notion of going out to do yard work tonight. I'm hoping it will dry up a little bit tomorrow so I can get out there for a while in-between the vet visit and a trip to Réno for paving slabs. We're not having the garage sale after all, because it's simply too wet out there. We'd be up to our ears in mud, which is fine for yard work but not great for a garage sale. pdaughter and her father will be trying to have the sale on Sunday, instead, if the weather holds, as we're meant to have a higher dance of rain on Monday.

Silly weather, interfering with my gardening plans.

Had a great night with sultrysong yesterday, even though we both ended up going to bed much later than intended. By the time I turned out my lights it was nearly 1:00, and I didn't manage to sleep past 9:00 this morning. So, yeah, eight hours of sleep, but that's going to translate to 4 hours of sleep per day when spread out over the course of last night and tonight. *sigh*

Still, it was worth every minute. We ordered pizza, had a beer (only one, in spite of what my icon might imply!), and since she's on a business trip we got to claim it as an expense. The only thing better than beer is free beer, am I right? We spent the entire time chatting and catching up on our lives, and had a grand time.

I am not looking forward to the next few days, though. I have an appointment to get my tires changed on Friday, which means I'll only get about three hours of sleep then, and then I have to drive back to Ottawa on Saturday evening for an overtime shift on Sunday. Don't get me wrong, the extra money will be great, but there's going to be very little sleep for me in the foreseeable future.

I haven't heard back from Home Depot yet about getting an estimate for the new fence, so if there's nothing by tomorrow I'm going to call them and hassle them a bit. I really want to get that fence up ASAP. I'm hoping to get the yard completely cleared this weekend. I don't know how long the tire change will take on Friday (I'm guessing about an hour and a half to two hours), which will put me at home around 17:00. If I play my cards right I'll still have some daylight hours after dinner, and there should also be some time on Saturday for that sort of work. Of course, we're having a garage sale on Saturday if the weather permits, so I'm going to have to juggle that at the same time. At least this year Bean is unlikely to need to be brought to the ER during the garage sale. :P

I'm quite sure I had more to say than this, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. So I guess I'll leave this entry as it is. I can always come back and update again later, right?