Nuisance calls aplenty, and if anything they're becoming more frequent. Calls from scam artists purporting to call about your credit card, to others claiming they're calling from Canada Revenue Agency, and with all of them there's a frantic note of urgency ... do this now! And of course there are the others, like constant calls from call centres that are legitimate but nuisances nonetheless. We can hardly remember how often we've said, 'no, we don't want our ducts cleaned'. 

 

They call at all hours, but the worst times of course are before we've risen for the day, waking us out of a sound sleep, or calling at dinnertime. At one time many years ago, the CRTC invited people to sign on to a program they were proposing that would protect against these calls, but nothing ever really came of it. It's open season on the gullible. And it's why we often don't bother answering the telephone.

 

Of these are life's little irritations made. As long as they remain little irritants we're doing just fine. I had an unexpected surprise today during house-cleaning. I was at the finishing point; washing the floors is the last step in Monday house-cleaning. A bathroom and a powder room floor, a laundry room floor, a foyer floor, a hallway, a kitchen floor and a breakfast room floor. But it's quick and easy work for me. Much faster than the dusting.

 

I had washed the bathroom floors, the foyer and was headed with my pail to the breakfast room when suddenly I was left holding the bale handle and nothing else. A two-gallon pail that I've used since forever suddenly gave up the ghost, the handle broke at either end simultaneously. What are the odds the pail would land right-side-up with a thud and just a relatively small portion of the hot soapy water slopped over onto the floor? Mind, puddles on ceramic tile floors are resistant to being sponged up. 

I was also in danger of sliding on the little sea that had resulted, soapy and slippery. I had bare feet because it's a nuisance wearing slippers when you're on all fours washing floors. Took some delicate maneuvering. And some choice verbiage, enough for Irving, resting after vacuuming the house to call out from the family room, did I need any help? Nope!

 

Finally finished, it was four o'clock, and we needed to get Jackie and Jillie out for a circuit in the ravine. ON with our coats, on with theirs and their little boots. The temperature was at freezing, a heavily overcast sky, light wind, so pleasant enough, but dusk had begun to fall, so that meant the puppies would have to be on leash for our hike. Not that they mind, but it's a nuisance in the dark when their leashes get entangled.

But so what? We had a good, refreshing hike and we all relaxed about it. It's just so amazing to us how quickly dark descents once dusk has entered. 

Before we left the house I had put a corned beef on to simmer for dinner tonight. Also I pre-boiled beets so they could cool and on our return to be peeled and sliced for sweet-and-sour beets, one of Irving's favourite vegetables. I planned to saute in herbed olive oil halved tiny potatoes to serve with the corned beef. When Irving was a teen he had worked summers at a Shopsy's bar at the Canadian National Exhibition, and the smell and taste of corned beef brings back memories for him.