Record player and painting

 My turntable is causing problems again with only one channel playing. Audio Warehouse has a good repair place but disconnecting it from the amp is very cumbersome as the ground wire is screwed to it and the whole system has too many wires and not enough space. Anyway, this painting of a blue variant of the four lens camera (borrowed from Darryl Kesslar) started off so ugly and continued to be very ugly for two hours until somehow it came together. 

Driving with dad while Mike records with William

Mike in town. Went to lunch at Ngoc Van (who are closing for next two weeks). I left William and Mike to record the radio show while I visited dad. I ended up taking him outside and eventually for a drive around downtown. 

 

360 degree camera

 Painted this unique 360 35mm camera from Darryl Kesslar. Pull the ring and let go and the camera spins in a circle, capturing a long image on a negative using a slot shutter. I loaded it and keep forgetting to take pictures with it. Will return in when we go to Saskatoon for Shakespeare. 

First fire of summer

 Sparked up some logs. William had a friend over. Allan and Sandra also over. Sandra very enthusiastic about some developments into Bird family of filmmakers. 

Party at Jessie and Tomas's

 Delightful afternoon party a few blocks away with Tomas and Jessie. I ended up talking with Mike Burns and William with Elizabeth for a while. Mike's brother was there, and Rania,  Carmen Robertson, and many others. 

Cribbage

Played some cribbage with Margaret. Very close game. My last hand was my best of the night, with the cut changing it form 4 points to 16 for a narrow win. 
 

Painting

 Started this painting over a week ago at Lori's and finally finished it.

Finish tearing down garage

While we did take a break to visit briefly with dad, most of the day was spent turning the four walls (no longer with roof) of the garage into a dumpster full of charred wood. Cedar shingles have been separated for kindling and the metal is all put aside for recycling, but the fire damage and old paint prevent me from using the rest of the material for anything useful. William swept up and we were back inside with a clear pad by 9 pm. 
 

Day in Saskatoon

Lots of fun stuff in Saskatoon today. Went to Lee Valley for some door glides and a random collection of other stuff. Went to the Craft Council and saw the group show with works by Gerri Ann and Deb Potter and many others. Went to a store called "Glitch" which combined many other stores and sold weird things, strange candy, odd toys, patches, stickers, masks, and other things. We went because Steve Patterson mentioned in last night during the Debaters as having a museum of oddities which it did. Two headed calf, various cool and believable (and not believable) artifacts around Bigfoot and the occult. Before heading home we went to the Remai for the group show and the Adrian Stimson retrospective. Whirlwind trip but a coke with vanilla coffee helped me navigate home without blinking. 

Debaters in Saskatoon

Drove up to Saskatoon. First stop was to see Darryl and borrow some cameras. Coincidentally, he was having shingles redone on his roof so tiptoeing through nails made me feel right at home. 

We got tickets for the radio recording of the CBC comedy show "The Debaters" which happened live at the Broadway Theatre. Super evening, laughed a lot. Afterwards we had a desert (which I wasn't fond of) with Mike. 

Roof off garage

 Long day of working on garage. Tougher than I thought it would be, but I feel pretty satisfied to have the roof off, to not have a big mess (yet), to have the metal parts separated from wood for recycling, to have the cedar shingles separated off for kindling, and to have the dumpster in position to deposit the rest. 

Father's Day

 

I visited dad in the nursing home today. He was apparently up late last night and early this morning so was quite tired. We nibbled on some mixed nuts and watched a bit of tv. 

View from roof

 Stitched photo of torn up roof of the garage, looking into the hole. 

Garage demolition begins, time capsule found

 I began tearing up the roof of the garage. At the edge of the rafters, right were the fire entered the building, the original "insulation" somehow survived (albeit very dry and crumbling when touched). It is newspapers from 1937. 

Painting with Lori

 I went for coffee at my sister's and we did a bit of painting. However, I needed to cut the session short since I had afternoon meetings and didn't finish this particular camera. I'll post it when it is done. 

Sock-Vile official game

 William is creating a GB Studio game for a class. Due today. It is based on Sock-Vile, which is almost ready for music to be composed for it. 

Tetanus shot

 Given that I've not had one in 20 years, and given that I'm planning on tearing down my 90 year old garage this week, I got a tetanus shot today. My doctor is on vacation but another doctor in the office did it. 

Nicole at the house

We had Nicole over for much of the afternoon. Gertrud got a short visit in. After lots of  time with the cat and combing through photo albums, she recorded an episode of William's radio show for the weekend. 
 

Joe Caron retires

 Had lunch with the department to bid farewell to Joe, 27 years running the "cage" or equipment depot. Lots of stories shared today. 

Nicole and dad

 

Nicole is in town for a few days. We spent a few hours visiting dad. She was great with him. Furthermore, her work experiences (especially in the shelter) has given her the confidence and wherewithal to interact meaningfully with the nurses and staff. 

Cards with dad

 Played one hand of cards with dad. He claims to understand discarding, but never does it. Regardless, he seemed remember the rudimentary parts of the game and played quicker than last time (but after four rounds had four extra cards). He was gathering up his possessions today to get ready to leave. 

Couple of paintings

 

Convocation

Convocation this year was on campus (in a gym!) rather than the Centre of the Arts. Much less seating and they asked people to watch via live FB stream. Three of my (co-supervised) MFA students convocated, although only Sandra was there on stage. 
 

Wood

Last painting class until fall. 

Tired of bringing home small batches of wood from the farm so Margaret bought a half cord and we loaded it onto the relocated racks in the yard. William's hair filled with detritus in the process.  Ready for summer now, I hope. 

 

After an early meeting on campus, I had coffee with Geremy  at the new coffee shop in the research building (they do their own baking). Later in the afternoon, Margaret and I went for groceries and saved over $150 when we scratched a 50% saving at the till. 

 

Almost like summer vacation

The only thing not like summer vacation today was the lack of heat. I put on some records and painted  and then finished reading a book. An actual book! David and Angie's fourth in this series. Fun. 

The camera on the other hand wasn't an actual camera, it was a dummy camera with a light but no camera qualities.