OUTER BANKS PAW PATROL

Miya waiting patiently, as my Annie checks out who is on their way to the beach.
TAKEN: OCTOBER 13th, 2022

My hubby, fur-babies n' me, traveled thousands of miles to the Outer Banks of North Carolina the week of Canadian Thanksgiving. 

Of the hundreds of photos I snapped, for so many reasons, the one I am sharing is a favourite.

Extremely candid and a tad dark and stormy, this is us embracing our last morning before heading toward the Chesapeake Bay crossing to Ocean City Maryland on our way back to Canada.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, that I don’t think we are conventional travelers. When neither of our sons could stay with the girls in October, we immediately planned something where the pups could come with, which presented its own challenges. 

Not only is it difficult to find pet friendly hotels along the interstate where you need them, it is very expensive to travel with four legged companions; but in the end, well worth it.

Yes, we rented a large oceanfront house for just us and the girls. It is what we could afford and we loved it. We would return in a heartbeat.

When I listen to some talk of their experiences, it’s always in a tone of how much it cost, or how exclusive it was. We don’t worry about either – simply ask ourselves one question – does it work out best for us without breaking the bank?!

Mid life has taught us both that we are in competition with no one.  We have no desire to play games and lead people to believe we are better than anyone else. Our personal philosophies are simple. We wake up every morning and try to be good people. 

That said, embracing that mindset has had some take advantage of the both of us. 

Though my husband is quick to point out the obvious, I generally choose to help where we can, in turn expecting respect.  For me personally, it took me a lot of years to understand that in order to fully embrace my own self-worth, I needed to let go of those that didn’t value me.

As a hard working goal oriented person, some of those shifts in life have been the most wide awakening journeys of all.

...But that is definitely another post.

SOME GENERAL (LABOUR) HUMOUR

What a great weekend to rebuild a deck. 
(Pleased to report I didn't get yelled at, not even when I told him he was wrong!)
TAKEN: OCTOBER 23, 2022

When we bought the cottage some twenty years ago, we had no idea how much work and expense would accompany the purchase. 

Granted, we didn’t pay a million bucks for the thing, but once you make your payments, keep the heat and lights on, pay the insurance and taxes, there was never thousand dollar bills lying around. 

Though the building is structurally sound, for the last few summers exterior deck boards were replaced when we knew that what we really needed to do was tear down them off, level and rebuild them. We redid our main living area section last spring, and today we tackled the lakeside deck off the kitchen.

Now, the first thing I will say is that neither of us had any ambition for our task at hand, and we admitted that to the other heading into the cottage early yesterday morning. 

As we pulled in the driveway, we acknowledged we'd probably need a wheelchair to get to work Monday morn, and I had only one request of my husband which was simply…. “Please don’t yell at me.” 

That said, I think we work really well together as a team. I feel I am an above average general labourer and can wield a hammer, cordless drill, measuring tape and level as good as the next helper. 

All well and good there, but when we team up, my site foreman tends to have a specific issue with me. 

You see, I am forever questioning his math. Partially because the rule of thumb is that you should measure twice and cut once, and my crew chief tends to measure once and cuss twice; I mean cut twice.

Informed by the boss we had just the right amount of material for this weekends project, double checking measurements began right out of the gate and we never had a single mishap. He never raised his voice or per the norm, never told me to ‘go to hell,’ not even once.

After six hours of layout and levelling yesterday and five hours of hard assembly labour today, all that is left to do is screw nail the top deck boards in place. 

As he naps and I type, I will admit that I always try to learn from every project we do together. 

This weekend I learned that a 4” ardox nail is not your friend if you don’t have a framing hammer, and moving forward, maybe I should be the one that doing the material takeoffs.

Not because I want to - but the boss man was five deck boards short, and we ran out of nails.

Ah, the power of this keyboard as he sleeps.... 

He’s not going to know he is truly entitled to tell me to ‘go to hell’ unless he actually reads this!!

Ya Gotta Laugh About It