Holidays are almost over...

I've been playing in the sun, the lake, the sand, the garden, etc.. but yesterday I buckled down and got some of my really hard chores done for another year.

Update on the clothesline: Guess who got to climb 17 feet up a ladder with a clothesline in her teeth?
Only to find out that the pulley was stuck: back down the ladder for WD40 lubricant spray. Back UP the ladder (heavy prayer session), spray pulley (hope it doesn't land in my face), thread pulley, back down the ladder.  Whew!  Steady up, shaky knees! Dry off, sweaty brow! Toddle off to friendly lawn chair to recover. Listen to almost-son-in-law proclaim, "It's too short". Doh!  There are no refunds on cut lengths of line... fortunately, I think his mom wants a clothesline too, so I can discount sell her mine, and get some new line for me.  Before she gets the line, however, I am going to invent a way to thread the pulley using the line that is already in there... no more ladders!   (Update: got it threaded, only to have the line jump out of the pulley, so I will still need the ladder.)

So we camped for a week. High temperatures, rain the first night but mostly clear after that.  We had visiting Robin parents and their babies, chipmunks, a raccoon stopped by in the night, but we only saw his tracks on the last morning: very sandy on the picnic table. He ate my bacon grease which I forgot to dispose of... oops. Of which I forgot to dispose. Sorry.

We went to Niagara Falls and rode the Sky Wheel (never again! and after the ladder event... what was I thinking? probably that I'd survived the ladder, so how could a little wheel hurt? 175 feet of wheel...) Then we took the Maid of the Mist into the spray of the Falls.. Lovely! 33 degrees F is the perfect time to get absolutely drenched under the Falls!  What else can you do in Niagara Falls? Lots of stuff, but we bought an ice cream and went shopping at the outlet mall.
Apart from that there have been one or two road trips with the female half of the clan, and a few "coffee" dates (I don't actually drink coffee, but what else do you call a meet up at Timmies?).

Now I am almost ready to go back to work.. wait! Monday is a holiday - no work for me. Too bad, so sad. :D