Good morning, friendo. It is awfully nice to run into you this Sunday morning.
You brought your own own mug? Bold, but I love it. Tea tastes better in your favourite mug.
There’s a pot on the table. Help yourself. Let’s catch up.
The dishes
I describe this newsletter as a “journal of the mundane”. I find I connect with with other people through stories of the things we do every day, which is why I want to chat with you this morning about doing the dishes.
I love doing the dishes. I love filling our wash bowl with warm, soapy water. I love the cozy corner of our kitchen where our sink is. I love the colourful mosaic of tiles one of the previous occupants of this house created in the back-splash area on the wall behind the sink.
Sometimes when I do dishes, I listen to a podcast. Sometimes I quietly work without a soundtrack. There was a period of about a year where I listened to Amelia Curran every time I did the dishes.
We have a dishwasher, but we haven’t used it in years. I assume it still works. Removing the dishwasher to add a bit more cupboard space to the kitchen is on my long list of jobs I’ll eventually get to.
We have a couple dish soap options beside the sink to match the tastes of the particular washer. Erin likes to use greener products. She is currently experimenting with a bar of soap which has a brush to get the suds going. I’m a Blue Dawn man, myself. One drop does the entire load of supper dishes. I also think the baby duck on the label is cute.
My mum is a knitter, and she long ago realized my most prized knitted items are her dishcloths. They are not the kind of dishcloth you are thinking of, though I like those too. My mum makes a higher tier of dishcloth. I also have a more abrasive scrubbing cloth from the dollar store for the hard-to-clean crusty bits.
Anyway. I do the dishes every day, and I don’t think I’ve ever told you how much I enjoy it. This omission has been rectified.
Rain barrel 2
I told you last week about the new rain barrel I made and installed at the front of the house. Yesterday, I installed one at the back of the house, too. It took a bit of fiddling to shorten the drain pipe and level the ground, but it wasn’t a big job. I can now proudly say not a drop of water can fall on my roof without passing through one of my rain barrels.
We had a flash thunderstorm Friday. It whooshed through in about 20 minutes and dropped an impossible amount of rain in a very short amount of time. This was the first real test of the barrel at the front, and it passed with flying colours. All the seams and valves held tight, and the overflow hose worked just as I’d hoped. In fact, so much water was coming down, the overflow hose sprayed water with such force it could almost have been attached to the faucet at the side of the house. It was incredible.
(The photo above was taken just now from out my back window. The cat crawling under the steps is Bubs. I’m not sure what he’s doing, but we can assume it’s something a little bit stupid.)
“That’s the Quack.”
Erin just walked past as I was writing.
“How’s the writing going? I hear words being typed.”
“Oh,” I said, “I’m just kind a writing about nothing.”
“That’s the Quack,” she said as she walked away.
Bread and spikes
These are the housekeeping items of the Quack these days. Behold, a loaf of sourdough rye that came out of my oven this week. Behold the pair of nails I picked up off the ground on a walk around the block.
Internet Roadtrip
I can’t remember who first pointed me towards the Internet Roadtrip, but it is a rare corner of the internet not consumed by conflict and rage.
The creators started this voyage in Boston and yielded all control of the virtual vehicle to the visitors of the site. People vote to drive wherever their hearts desire. They can honk the horn. They can listen to the local radio stations.
The vehicle meandered along the Maine coast before crossing the border into New Brunswick. It’s currently taking its time exploring rural Nova Scotia.
Anywho. It’s a rare little delight which reminds us people are still OK. Go take a look.
Time to wrap up, my little golden doodle. We’ve got a big day ahead of us. I’ve got pizza crust and bagels to make. I’ll tell you all about ‘em next Sunday.
Have a great week.