The one with the projects around the house.

I’ve gone over the deep end, perhaps.

I have never been a physically-inclined person. I’ve always been an introvert, adverse to sunlight and the outdoors, but never willing to do work indoors. Lo and behold, I’ve found myself in my old age changing my old ways. Tired of the same old thing, I’ve been spending less time on my computers at home and more time in the backyard. In fact, ever since I got back from Montreal, things have changed for me, like a disabled switch inside of me had somehow been turned on.

The first thing that happened when I got back was the repair to my car. I got down and dirty under my car to help Dad get a new exhaust system installed. Then came the long hours at work, trying to complete a network restructuring project throughout the plant sites. There was a short lull afterwards where I went to Winnipeg for a weekend to pack up and drag three-quarters of Esmond’s stuff home. Before I left, there was a plant-wide power outage at work, and I almost didn’t get to leave on time.

Once I got back, I managed to fix my scanner and I got all the backlog of my J-Media extracted. Unfortunately, I still haven’t had a chance to start posting anything yet, because I haven’t been on the computer enough. In fact, that’s probably the reason why I haven’t been updating my blog all that often (and the reason why I just posted the details of my Montreal trip – almost a month after the fact).

At work, Wil, my co-worker, was telling me over the course of the week about all the yard work he’d been doing, trying to sweep all the dirt and leaves off his lawn from the previous fall and harsh winter. He also told me about the work he did for his mother’s backyard in Winnipeg, and about the shed he wanted to build this summer. Somehow, when I got home, I found myself walking around the house, inspecting the front lawn and the backyard and comparing them to my neighbor’s. After so many years of living there, I couldn’t help but think that our lawn is probably the most weakest and ugliest lawn on the street. Two weeks ago, after work on Friday, I resolved to do something about it. After scouring the garage with no luck, I went to Canadian Tire, picked up a leaf rake, and spent four hours in the front lawn sweeping off dirt and raking up all the dead leaves and grass. The sun was almost setting by the time I was done, and our lawn was looking clean for once. Saturday and Sunday were spent doing the raking in the side of the house and the backyard. Normally, the average person would have it all done in one day, but I’m hardly average, and I don’t think I did too bad for a first-timer. I’m a very meticulous person, so I made sure that I did a thorough job, in preparation for the next fall, during which the raking should be more effortless. I think.

You’re gonna think I’m such a geek, but that’s okay – I know what I am. Before starting the work two Fridays ago, I had no idea how to rake a lawn. No, really. Wil made a good point to me last week – he’s a geek like me, and when it comes to doing certain things out of our scope, we do research on the web – so I followed that rule and researched lawn care. I’m a DIY-er, and I dislike depending on people when I know I can do it myself. I did the same thing when Eugene couldn’t replace the door clip on his car door. In other words, my resources are limitless, as long as I’m willing to spend the time to find it.

So, while researching lawn care, I came across some neat landscaping ideas for backyards, but what piqued my interest the most was the zen garden. Hmm. Very intriguing. So, that has become one of my projects – making a zen garden in the backyard. The problem with our backyard is that it’s sloped so badly – however, this weakness has now become its strength, because zen gardens utilize the natural flow of the land. I’m excited to start that project, but since I hate bugs, I’ll probably be starting in the fall. I also still have a month to go before actual summer starts, but our town has never followed the calendar year.

So, in order to keep myself occupied and ready to go at anytime, I wanted to keep myself busy in other ways. Dad wants to build a woodshed in the backyard, but that’s also a summer thing. Esmond came back last night, and I was acutely aware of his return all last week, so I thought that it would be better if I gave him back his bedroom – but I’d have nowhere to stay in the interim. That’s when I scoped out the basement – it’s unfinished with concrete walls and floor, with some very minimal framework installed. After doing more research on the internet, I’ve decided that I’m going to renovate the basement. I told Eugene and Dad about it, and they are in complete agreement. I’ll even chip money in for parts and tools, and I have a couple of extra legs to help out. It’s going to be sweet.

Over the weekend, Dad got some quotes for a woodshed from a couple hardware stores in town, and we decided on the one we wanted. When I get home from work today, Dad and I are going to pick it up and (hopefully) get started as soon as possible.

I feel really guilty for this past weekend, though. I got in the first season box set of DragonBall Z on DVD, which I ordered from Amazon, and I watched four of the six discs. Yow. Nothing got done, really, but all the work is pretty much waiting on the woodshed (plus I didn’t need to water the lawn since it rained).

Oh, and Candace is back in town! She’s new and improved (although a bit physically weaker, but that’s to be expected), and some of the insights coming out of her mouth have been music to my ears. I’m so glad that she’s no longer walking around with a veil covering her mind.

Well, back to work. Have I mentioned that I love my job?

以上。。。であります。