Basement

We cleaned the carpet we had in the living room after replacing it with a different one a few weeks ago. Now we've laid it in the basement to make our art retreat room more cozy. 

Grapes

I hung an old metal frame from a futon for my grapes to grow on. Three grape plants are in the ground. Just water and cross fingers now. 

Step fixed

Yesterday, before I heard about Rob, I'd spent most of the day fixing stuff around the yard including this step. It had been assembled with a metal part protruding out of the middle of the top step and last week I put a huge gash on heal from it. I'm still limping and don't like to put shoes on until it gets better. Anyway, I figured out a way to remove the middle support and move it so that there is still support, the steps are all still the same depth, but there is no longer this hazard. Today I was going to do more yard work but it was raining. Wish I had some physical work to take my mind off Rob. Difficult day overall. 

Rob Edin

I just got word that my friend Rob Edin passed away two days ago. He's been in Calgary for years now but I've known him 25 years and we were gaming online until a few months ago. We were at his wedding when William was little and his twins' first birthday bash some time later. We've exchanged a few emails recently and he was worried about his health, but he also seemed confident that his doctors would find the right balance of stuff to fix him up. I don't what happened but his sister says it looks like a heart attack. He's at least six or seven years younger than me and loved peanuts but couldn't eat them at home so indulged at Five Guys when he visited Regina. Photo above is from a Five Guys in Regina in September 2018. Rob loved history and brought a wealth of knowledge and passion to his games. He was also a really caring person. He always talked about his kids and put them first. Rob visited me when I was it the hospital in Calgary 19 years ago and this meant a lot to me. I'll really miss him. 

Grapes

It seems like everything is in short supply these days. We drove around looking for grape plants to put into the place I designed in the back yard (pictures at a later date). I was looking for Valiant but found some Beta at Canadian Tire and one of these "Prairie Star" varieties at another place. Shopped for lumber to re-build the back gate and was told that cedar and pressure treated wood are almost sold out. Got enough for a gate. Lucky we aren't building a fence or deck this  year. 

In you can paint it once....

I'm trying to abide by the adage that if you can do something once, you can do it again. I was listening to K-tel records (after hearing a history of K-Tel earlier in the day on CBC) and didn't get the lens on this camera painting right. I blotted it out. Still didn't get it right the next time, but it's closer. Made more adjustments in future. 

Around the yard today

I put together a list of projects (outside of the annual maintenance, organizing, cleaning etc) that I want to accomplish in the next few days to prepare the yard for summer. Margaret was painting the swing that we moved to the front of the house while Nick found a new place to sleep. He wasn't helping, but at least he wasn't in the way. 

More back yard visitors

Allan, Kevin, and later Ang came over and visited in back yard this evening. Earlier today we did some rearranging in the front yard to create some conversation spaces there and also generally tidied up. No bugs yet. 

Lori visit

Nice visit with my sister in my gazebo this afternoon. Talked about painting and accounting and stuff. The wind finally seems to be stopping and we can do some back yard stuff. 

Father's Day

As Father's Day falls on solstice this year, William and I revisited my old tradition of staying up through the shortest night. After Mike left last night, we watched some movies (Roman Polanski's "Knife in the Water" and Sam Fuller's "Underworld, USA") then the final couple episodes of the current season of "F is for Family" which always leaves me feeling like I am in trouble, and then we went outside to greet the new day. 

Slept in, ate biscotti for breakfast around noon, and did some gardening and bbq later in the day. 

Mike at the fire

Mike came to town for the weekend, I think for a father's day visit. We had a socially distanced visit at the fire. Again, the weather is still cold. By the time Mike left, the temperature had dropped to 4 degrees with a frost warning. Great first day of summer!

Mom and Dad visit

Claude Saul

My parents came over for a visit in the back yard. The weather continues to be too cool, so the visit was short. Dad was in great spirits. I cleaned up the yard a bit so mom could take some photos, but overall I'm pretty happy with how the grass is growing and the landscape has tied things together. 

Layers

Was talking with Jeff N recently about layers, which is what he feels is the core to his paintings. I concurred that this was vital to my after effects work. I feel that the paintings and the video are integrally tied. 

Working at home to much...?

William's hair. 

Our obsessions with our work might have a cost in our personal grooming these days. Perhaps having some social life has some value after all. 

Anyway, here are some Sock-Vile stills. I've exported the film and given it to Geremy to look at. William and I actually drove a USB to him, rather than the much more time consuming process of uploading the 7 gigabytes of it. 

Street cleaned

With so many people at home, I thought that there would be too many cars on the street when the cleaning trucks came. To the contrary, everyone moved cars and this is the cleanest our street has been since we moved here. In addition, kids (and some adults) were out on their respective sidewalks sweeping and making it even cleaner. I followed suit and cleared up much of my walkway. 

Last camera from Barb

Barb lent me a few cameras a couple of weeks ago. This is the last of them. William will take them back for me and hang with Emma in the process. Love getting these sorts of "toy" cameras as they really emphasize the issues I'm thinking about with cameras. Not only must a camera be a camera (take a photograph), but they must also feel right in the users' hands and they must look inviting, creating a desire to be picked up and used. These latter aspects of the camera are not essential to it being a camera, but they are important for it being a "favorite" camera. 

Painting

I've not been painting as much as I thought I would. This is mostly due to working on Sock-Vile. This weekend I dove back into it. I've been rendering scenes, which gives me blocks of down time from my computer. 

Slate Gallery

Slate art gallery on 13th Avenue has been open for a few days, albeit to a limited number of people. We walked over there to see the final day of their fabric exhibition. 

Visit Gertrud

We dropped off some heavy stuff from Costco for Gertrud and had a little visit. Fred was watching old curling in side when I put the cat litter away. William donned his new suit and visited on the front step. 

Nick gets a shave

Took Nick (our cat) to the vet for a shaving of his matts. I was allowed to come in with a mask on, but not to help. Regardless, Nick was extremely compliant and the shaving looks much nicer than last year.