Most of the tree is gone, now. There are just some logs left, too big for the city to take from here. I think I'll just shove them to the back and let them rot with the rest of the logs that Hydro cut down, trimming away trees from the power lines. The next time I do this I'll spend the time loading up the trailer and driving it to the composting site, since bundling it up took too long, in spite of saving me two or three long trips across town and back. Hmmm. It just occurred to me that I could probably gather up all the logs and dispose of them that way, resulting in a tidier back yard and a breath of fresh air. I'll have to think about it. There's still the stump to contend with, too. Maybe I can deal with that on Saturday.

The boys brought home their report cards on Tuesday. Peter did reasonably well, with his highest mark in Music. Johnny, not so much. His average is passable, but only because his mark in computer engineering dragged up the other three. He blew it away, and it seems to be almost effortless for him to do so. What can I do to inspire him to take on bigger challenges outside of school? He seems too intelligent for the meagre education he's getting now. He told me they learned to solder today. They had to solder a wire triangle together, and his was the best. Later they have to make a robot face. They're wasting his time! Teach him to solder electronic components because that's what it's for. Teach him to make a robot, not just a face!

From what I hear, Peter is doing well in the church band, and he plays his guitar religiously (pun intended)! I'm finding it hard to work on music recording, though, because the house is always full of electric guitar sound. Guess who is likely to get a pair of headphones for Christmas!

Congratulations to the guys at LASA (Lanark Space Agency). They are now on the board for the world's second highest amateur balloon altitude record, with a height of 122,899' or about 37.4km. Go to www.greatballoonchase.ca for a look at some pictures from near space. (I know some of these people, and was peripherally involved with their first launch. Search Google for "Owen Lawrence balloon" to see my name up in lights.)

Yesterday was another busy day. I spent half of it rebundling tree limbs, and the other half cleaning and reorganizing the workshop, and editing music on the computer. Around eight or nine o'clock I went downstairs to check on the hockey game, and found nobody interested in it. Mary had already changed for bed and was heading that way when I suggested we go to Pearl of India for samosas. The boys climbed all over that suggestion, but it took a little coaxing to get Mary to change her mind. Just a little, though, and soon we were there eating our order. Or, I should say, our six orders! Peter and Johnny have good appetites. Even though Mary cooked a roast for supper with potatoes, vegetables, and gravy, and there were only a couple of small slices left, after their extra orders of samosas the boys were almost demanding we go to Dairy Queen and McDonalds. There was no way I was going to taint the taste of Mohammed's samosas with large-chain fast food, but I couldn't get away scott free, either. Our next stop was the movie store since they have free popcorn.

We soon had in hand the new Hulk movie, and an old James Bond movie. I enjoyed both of them, and I must say, watching the Hulk on a whim with my boys after a spontaneous trip to the restaurant was a lot of fun. I'd love to do it more often, but maybe I should feed them an extra meal before heading out for more expensive food or we'll go broke pretty fast.

This morning Peter brought his new guitar to church and played in the band for one of the songs. I think it's the first time he's played guitar in a performance. It won't be long before he gets enough practice to play every week with every song, as long as he manages to show up for practice each Tuesday. I'll do my best to get him there.

I'm looking forward to the Ottawa Wood Show in a couple of weeks. I hope to take that Friday afternoon off work, spend it at the wood show, and then meet Mary and Peter and a friend for the Ottawa 67's game that evening. Today I spent more time rebundling limbs, but I interrupted that project to make the pizza. It was starting to snow anyway. I think I've got only two large bundles left to redo, so I should easily finish by Wednesday morning, when we can dispose of them. I still have the trunk to deal with, but letting it rot in the woods behind the house is not a bad option.

Yesterday morning Mary phoned me at work and the only thing she said was, "They took everything! Everything! They took everything!" I sat in stunned silence while she repeated herself several times. My mind raced ahead. What did they take? The computers? The furniture? The tools in the workshop? Implausible. And who are "they"? Maybe she meant the bank; they took all our money. I thought our money was supposed to be safe in the bank and that's why we keep it there.

Getting nowhere this way, I took action, and asked, "What are you talking about?" She said, "The trees. They took it all." I demanded more details, and learned that they left the garbage cans, and the other half of the tree that's still in the back yard. They didn't really take everything, but they took what I had hoped they'd take.

It was awhile before I could accept that this was good news.

I must have mentioned that we had one of our trees cut down last week. Now I face the job of disposing of it. Sunday afternoon I raked up a lot of the sawdust and twigs that were on the lawn (and thousands of seeds!), and deposited them like mulch at the edge of the forest. I filled two tall garbage cans with branches, stacked the logs on the patio, and deliberated what to do with the large bundles that remained.

The city should be willing to dispose of everything except the logs, but I'm obligated to make bundles not longer than four feet and not heavier than fifteen kilograms. That's easier said than done! The bundles Louis left were way beyond those dimensions, so at lunch time today I started redoing them. I didn't get very far. I went at it again after supper, and after several hours I'm over half done and most of the front edge of our property is stacked with new, smaller bundles. The thing is, some of those branches weigh several kilos on their own, so it hardly makes sense to bundle them. But I did, knowing full well that they are over the weight limit, but hopefully not by much. Perhaps the city knows that if they don't restrict it really far, people will just make one big impossible bundle.

We'll see what happens tomorrow. The only concern I have now is that the twine I used isn't bio-degradable. I hope they don't complain about that! If they do, I'll just load them up into my own trailer and make the trip to the composting site myself, and bring the twine home with me.

Last night Glenn came over and I showed him the tree. When I answered his question about how much it cost, he said, "You got off lucky." I know I did. But I'm still working on it. My conclusion is that bottom feeding takes time and effort. Either I pay the price by doing the work myself, or I work for money and pay someone else. Either way I work, but this way I get to work at different things, which helps me keep my balance.

I've been trying hard to find time to work on recording music. I've scrounged together a few hours this week, and I'm encouraged that I'm making progress. I'll try not to think about the overwhelming big picture and just keep doing what I know how to do.

One reason I had some time to do all this is that I talked Mary into taking Peter to the church this evening. I would gladly have gone myself, but bundling branches just wasn't something I could do from there, and she wasn't willing to spell me. Peter took his guitar and worked hard on learning some of the new music to be played in church. I'm hopeful that we'll see him up in front of the congregation really soon.

Bengals lose by thirteen points, with six on the board.

One of Peter's coaches ran up to him as we were walking off the field, told Peter he was one of his star players, and tried to convince him to play on his team again next year. Peter was being his usual overly candid self when he said he thinks he'll play varsity next year. But he told me that he's struggling a bit with the decision, because he wants to win the 'A' cup at least once before shifting leagues. That's the spirit!

Peter brought his guitar to church this morning and had a little jam session with Mike after the service. I think we may be adding a Tuesday evening trek to the church each week so Peter can attend band practice. I hope it works out.

At the last minute I was able to pull it together. I finally solved one problem I couldn't even reproduce earlier in the week, and I got some good news from a customer that other changes I had made were working well for him. I managed to fix another bug, too, so I left work with a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately the sanctuary was in use last evening, so I wasn't able to get any significant practice time in. I arranged my books for Sunday, but there's still a lot of preparation to do. We seem to be shaking up the order of service quite a bit, and it's putting a strain on the musicians, trying to keep things organized. I put the extra time away from the piano to good use by coming home and adding the missing verses to a hymn arrangement. Hopefully the choir will be able to use it on Sunday to bolster the congregational singing a bit.

For the last several days I've been on the lookout for a chemical stump remover. I went to three hardware stores, and gave up when the lady at Ritchie Feed and Seed informed me that they haven't carried it in about six years. I knew why, too. The main ingredient in that stuff can be used to make explosives, so it's now a controlled substance. This morning I got the idea that I might use a woodcarving bit to hack the stump down, but it's really not the right tool for the job. Then I realized that I can rent a stump grinder from the same place that rented me the rototiller. It's more expensive than waiting years for the stump to rot on its own, but it shouldn't take long nor break the budget. I'd be doing it now if it wasn't raining.

I also had the presence of mind to ask if they had any copper sulfate at Ritchie's. Yes they do, but they sell it in 50lb bags. The price is good, but it's way more than I wanted. I had been thinking of electroplating the copper back on those cast iron bench ends, but I painted them with tremclad awhile back after deciding the copper was too much trouble. (They look really nice, deep black!) If I change my mind I can always get them sandblasted, but I don't think I will. In the meantime, copper sulfate is easy for making nice big crystals. I was told they also sell it in smaller quantities at pool supply stores, so that might be another option.

We're hoping the rain stops according to forecast later this afternoon, since Peter will be playing football this evening. It's the 'B' Cup finals (just like last year), and they've got as good a shot as any team of winning. That's our big event this weekend, and maybe things will return to some semblance of normal.

Johnny's teacher is turning out to be a bit of a flake. After I forced Johnny to hand in an assignment the teacher awarded him really high marks on it, and it almost doubled his average for the term. So Mary has let Johnny go back to playing computer games again, though I'll do my best to get in there and keep him occupied with something more wholesome. Johnny can be very engaging when he isn't mentally wrapped up in the world of warcraft.

Wednesday I took Peter to work with me. It was "Take Your Kid to Work Day". My boss set up him and one other boy with a pair of computers, and I handed over the goto telescope (the one I carted to Saskatchewan and back) and a camera, and set them to work figuring out how to control it and take pictures. Little by little they worked through the process, and by the end of the day they actually had it working. Peter wrote down the settings so I can actually use his results for my own work later on; it was a valuable accomplishment.

My boss was very generous, too. He bought pizza for the whole company (a big hit with the boys), and they were fed candy all day, and rewarded with a hardcover book and a really nice astronomy magazine. They also got a tour of Ceravolo Optical Systems (the company below us) where they make telescopes and other optical stuff, and it was fantastic!

I've been promising myself that I'd go to the workshop and make some sawdust today, other responsibilities to be put aside until that happens. That's where I'm going now.

I'm not happy with the progress I've been making at work. well, I've made some progress, but it seems to be taking way too long. I'm not sure what to do, but I want to recapture some intensity. Somehow. It's starting to stress me out a bit.

Tomorrow will be a busy day at work because two boys, my son and one other, are accompanying their parents to work. I'm assuming responsibility to keep them busy, but others will be involved, too. I've prepared a list of tasks that I hope they find interesting but not so challenging that they don't experience some success. Peter and I will have to rush off at the end of the day, though, because thanks to last weekend's win he's still got a football practice to attend.

Today was pleasant right up to the end. Louis arrived to cut down the tree in the back yard, and sure enough, it was a big job. He handled it like a master, though. It was very impressive to see him way up there, cutting off limbs so they'd miss the wires below. There wasn't a lot of room to fell this tree, but it went without incident until the very last cut. Unfortunately he misjudged by a couple of inches and the last chunk of trunk snagged the cable TV line and snapped it right off the house. That line was just a few inches below the telephone cable; I told him, of the two that he had to choose from, he picked the right one! We don't use our cable TV line for anything right now. It's just one more thing to put back in order before we sell the house someday. I found it amusing.

Louis also bundled up most of the limbs for us, so that is a big help. Now I've got to figure out where the city composting site is and take a few trailer loads of tree there. Unfortunately it's not the kind of tree you can actually use for firewood or anything (because it would gum up the chimney). Maybe if I had a sawmill I might have made a few beams out of it, but it really wasn't worth the effort.

I returned his welder to him. I'm still on the lookout for one of my own, but I'm not in a rush, and frankly I'm glad to have a tiny bit more space in the workshop. It was fun to dream about welding things while it was in my possession, and with that new perspective I may approach some future projects a little differently.

We got an unfortunate phone call from Johnny's teacher this evening. Apparently he's fallen so far behind that his teacher used the term "academic suicide" on him. Effectively immediately he's been cut off from computer games. It's a consequence that has been coming for a long time, and though he's had many chances to redeem himself (and save his privileges), he never took them. I wonder if this is one of those pleas for quality attention that you hear about on TV. You know, the kid just wants the parent to care enough about them to actually take disciplinary action, blah blah blah. Well, given that his three other friends are also in the same hot water, I don't think Johnny quite fits that bill. I figure it'll take about two weeks for the computer game to dissipate from his head, and another four after that to develop the good schoolwork habits he'll need to survive. I know he can do it; he has already whipped up an assignment in just a few minutes that he's been avoiding for weeks.

And he printed it on our new last printer, which now can be accessed from any computer in the house. Finally, something works!

Looks like I've got some music transposing to do for Sunday. But first, time to watch some election coverage.

Mary and I raked leaves from the tree in our front yard for the first time since I planted it, nine or ten years ago. I admire it at least once a week; I believe it's turning into a fine tree and will be the best one on the block for decades to come. There was just enough time to mow the front lawn and make some sandwiches before heading out to Gatineau for Peter's football game.

The Bengals conceded an early touchdown, but answered back with their own not long after. They failed to convert it, though, so they were down by one for quite awhile. They outplayed the other team, but their field goal attempt was blocked in the last few seconds of the first half. The other team scored seven more points before the Bengals could answer with their own touchdown and another failed conversion. Near the tail end of the game they were within field goal range again. I didn't tell you about all the times the ball went back and forth between teams, but in the end Peter's team scored one more touchdown and won the game. They're still alive, and play the final game for the 'B' cup next weekend.

We came straight home since I was expecting our friend and real estate agent to show up. Meanwhile I got started preparing quesadillas, and just before I turned on the stove she arrived. She showed me some comparison property listings, and then had a look around the house. We definitely have to make some changes, but she said it's a good house and the changes would be minor. Lots of paint, refinish the floors, replace or remove carpets, deal with the bathroom (easier than I expected, too), and the biggest item, move out almost all our stuff. The good news is that we can hire someone else for each of these things, and we can be confident that we'll get any money back that we spend on this work. Plus, the house has gone up in value quite a bit since we bought it. It's just a matter of matching up the house with a buyer who values what this house has to offer.

I got our new printer working. The very first page jammed. Maybe I stacked the pages too high. Awhile later another one jammed, but neither one of these was the kind where the page got all crumpled. I think some of the sliders are just adjusted a bit too close to one another. We managed to print off several copies of Peter's homework without any more problems, and the print quality looks good. I think I might have plugged it into one of the UPS sockets, though, because its fan turns on briefly and the lights dim momentarily when it starts up. Just how much current does this thing draw when it prints, anyway?