2012 Blog: the real story on June 9

A good day goes something like this:

first sun streams in through the 6 am window and you don't have to leap up and start a fire before circulation returns to acceptable levels. No problem getting up because I've been in bed 10 hours trying to recover from the fatigue of 8-hour days. And the book I'm reading (Anne Enright, The Gathering) is Irish, brilliant and bitter. Can only be taken in small doses...

Second, you are able to sit at the computer and compose a really cool column for next week's West Island Gazette about doing door-to-door and meeting a world-class Italian tenor who is also fund-raising for the Lakeshore Hospital.

Third, the Master Builder, who will again be referred to in 2012 as the MB, is in a great mood and you can chat with him about our electrical requirements knowing a bit more about the process, then he plunges into a 6-hour stint of drilling, pulling wires, stapling, scratching his head as he tries to read the labels he left on all the other wires, and I am able get him a couple of tools before I vacuum the chalet for 4 hours so that we can see what we're doing.

Fourth, you get a garbage bucket full of dry firewood back to Cabin 2 which you don't need because it's too warm, and you still have the energy to wander over to Cabin 3 (Janet and Wayne) to nibble some of Janet's cheese and make up another 5-gallons of beer, Pilsner this time. It's so easy to make these new kits... Pity it takes a month before you are shamelessly swilling it with family and friends.

Fifth, you eat a great meal of barbecued chicken and okra cooked in a delicious sauce.

That's a good day, and there are variations almost as good. A day in Sydney in the rain buying toilets and gathering electrical wisdom from an old lineman who's back working in Home Depot because he couldn't stand being with his wife all day long. She was probably delighted too when he went back to work!

And by the end of a four-day week, the chalet is nearly wired. The wiring should be essentially finished by the time Gianfranco gets here next week.