And on the Seventh Day I Rested

After a few weeks straight of working at it every day, there are a few more doors to be painted for my room, and I can wash my hands of this renovation project. But we're finally getting some proper summer weather, and in time for a long weekend for once, so its time to kick back and take a few days off, and instead of sinking money into tools and trim and pain, carefully invest in beer for the weekend.

I say carefully because I got a call this morning from Steve letting me know the details for meeting up with him and his wife at Algonquin in a couple weeks, and am not going to have a whole bunch of money to play with for that excursion. Not working for a calendar year is starting to hurt. So long as I don't go ahead and fuck myself over like last time around when I forgot, among other things, a sleeping bag, and spent a night shivering, an exorbitant amount of money on a blanket, and the rest of my trip feeling slightly jaded with the experience.

Not all of my money lately has gone to the renovation though. The latest White Stripes album is fantastically written, and complete with the typical catchy beats and riffs that they rock out so well. My favourites from it are Rag and Bone, which has a great fun energy, and Cause and Effect which can be interpreted any number of ways and to me is a great closing track for the album.

And of course, a legitimate candidate for album of the year so far, Matthew Good's latest, which I managed to score a signed copy of 5 minutes before selling out. Hospital Music, knowing the story leading up to the writing of the album, is one of the most open and honest collections of music you could ever expect to hear, with some excellent covers of Daniel Johnston's True Love Will Find You in the End (which was also covered by Beck on one of his recent albums) and Moon Over Marin by The Dead Kennedys. I honestly hadn't heard the Dead Kennedys version until after hearing Matt's version, so I'm likely biased in describing it as a much better put together rendition, but I'm saying it anyways. That's something that can't be said for most cover versions of songs ever done, with the Jimi Hendrix version of Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower and Pearl Jam's take on Last Kiss being other cases that come to mind.

I'm sure now I'll think of a number more though while I kick back with a few beers on the balcony for the weekend and attempt not to sweat it out as fast as I drink it. Dunno what this whole 'Civic Holiday' is about anyways, but I'll take it!

Poker in the Back

I need to stop drinking so much when I play poker. Sure I may still play well enough to win occasionally, but most often all I have to show for my efforts the next morning is a hangover. This morning was no exception, although we did split the fairly large pot from last night's big game between the final 3, covering some of my losses.

And my being out of action all morning really means nothing to my renovation progress as I've had to cake the drywall mud on extra thick and wait for it to dry in an attempt to mask the shoddy construction around the window and door casings. Its true what they say about old houses being a lot of work, but if nothing else, I know at least that its built solid, if not always square and even.

Speaking of solid construction, the new Smashing Pumpkins album holds up alright. Its not quite as epic as the Mellon Collie album was, but then to expect anything like that album would be setting yourself up for disappointment right from the start. That said, it rocks hard, and despite the loss of James Iha on guitar, the songs certainly aren't lacking. I think I'll be buying this one, along with the new MG when it comes out, and the Traveling Wilburys set will likely find its way on to this month's mastercard bill as well.

A job needs to find its way to me soon too, or those mastercard bills are really going to start becoming more of an issue.

Steady as She Goes

I've been semi-busy making steady progress on the renovations, while dropping more money than I'd initially expected. In the end it will be worth it though for having insulation in some of the walls, setting it in a class nearly of its own compared with the rest of the house. The rest of the walls in time too will need to be torn down and insulation put in. With the old plaster walls it'd be too difficult to simply cut holes and have a company blow in loose fill insulation and patch up the walls so that they looked like the original again, which is both a pain in the ass, and an expensive proposition.

But with the closet already lined with cedar, and drywall hung from the ceiling, and the walls to go tomorrow, I can see the daylight. Some mudding, sanding, and trimming this week, and then with any luck painting next weekend, and I can move back into some normalcy.

In more relevant news, 6 more Canadians were killed this week, with another 4 injured this morning, in continuing the mission that we were never sent in the first place to do, but coerced into by the Bush administration's own 'sweet' talking. And of all the most ridiculous things I've seen written, Harper has the audacity to say that 'now is not the time to politicize the mission'. On the contrary, it is the absolutely most critical time to politicize the mission and have the opposition make an actual assertive move to bring Canadians home from a war that never truly was about keeping the peace. Instead of sitting on their hands, passing motions of 'desire' to have troops moved out in 2009 or beyond, some action needs to be taken. The deaths of more soldiers shouldn't be cause for us to hush up and unquestioningly accept the bullshit that's fed to the people, and in particular the soldiers of this country, it should be cause for outcry. Or, we could just don our favourite cowboy hats and boots and head on down to the Calgary Stampede for some boot-scootin', and forget that whole 'Afghanistan' thing. Yee-haw!

Financial Crisis Averted

After taking a look at some $1000 SLR camera options, I'm glad to have my old camera back. It turns out I really can't hold my liquor as well as in days passed, and I simply left my camera at the bar. Yes the camera has certainly seen better days, and it seems to take grainier shots every time I turn it on, but I can't really ask much more for all the times I've dropped it while pushing cars, or stumbling around bonfires.

I will have to sink some of the money saved in not having to buy a new camera into building up my tolerance again though; an insurance policy against leaving my camera, or any other valuables behind at the bar in the future.

Getting the camera back also allowed me to take some shots of my room before I begin the reconstruction. After disturbing at least one family of mice in my attic last week moving insulation aside to knock down the plaster ceiling, I found that there was already strapping in place for the drop-ceiling that was up. So I've decided that instead of moving around a bunch more insulation, and sweating my balls off in the 40+ degree attic, I'll just hang drywall from the strapping and be done with it.

Of course all that doesn't really interest you, but the pencil sketch of Adolf on the inside of the wall sheathing from the 1940's might? If not that, you can trace the history of colours in the room on the back side of the radiator.

Dusty Springcleaning

When I undertook the notion of renovating my room, I neglected the lack of space elsewhere in the house for my crap. Two days later I think I've cleared out all that is going to find a temporary home elsewhere, without moving bulky furniture up or down stairs.

In cleaning up the attic so that I can clear the wool insulation (with a high proportion of high R factor mouse droppings) away from my ceiling to rip it down, I am across a bunch of old crap my parents had stored away and time forgot. My dad was a notorious packrat, and so amongst the crap he left behind I found a yellowed copy of a newspaper from the first day of the 1990 Gulf War, and a box of 24 empty Coca Cola World Series commemorative cans with the scores from the games in the Jays 1992 title over the Braves.

Amongst the other random boxes, I found a box of my mom's old dolls, all of them staring up to greet me as I removed the lid, and a number of old beer coasters from brews that likely are no longer available to add to my bottle collection.

But a trip to the LCBO to feed the thirst of inhaling two days of dust and spiderwebs provided me with four new flavours to explore during poker tonight. Two germans, a french, and finally a true aussie. Maybe a review with their names pending.