Prairie Dog Blog

Did you know that Marie Curie was a Humanist? I did not know that. I spent all day Wednesday at the University of Manitoba at an information table for the Humanist Association of Manitoba. (What an acronym - our Jewish friends think we should change it)It was a fun day. I and some of my fellow Humanists spoke to about 45 people who stopped and looked at our display and some took pamphlets and some put their e-mail addresses on a list for inclusion in our newsletter mailing list. And, best of all- I took some pictures with my (Dennis') digital camera. I have successfully loaded the pictures onto my computer. Wow, so easy, you'd think it was magic. Ain't technology grand? That hollow sound you hear is me patting myself on the back. The first picture shows Stef taking a picture of me taking a picture of him. Har de har. And here is a picture of Stef eating his lunch while Jeff and LeeAnn work on the display.

Well, that's the good news of the week. The bad news is: my foundation is cracked and leaking! On Thursday I noticed some water on the floor in the basement under the stairs where I keep my freezer. I put down some towels and started to transfer frozen items up to the freezer on the top of my fridge. I thought my freezer was on the fritz! But, no, it was much worse. When I went back down to check on it later in the day, there was more water on the floor. It was not coming from my freezer. It was coming from a crack in the cement wall. Panic button time.

I called three companies that repair foundations and left voice mails. I fell asleep to the rhythm of rain falling and wondering if my house was going to float away overnight. By morning the rain had stopped and one estimator came out this morning to see it. The estimate is $4000.00. They will dig out the soil along the wall, repair and seal the crack, re-apply the weeping tiles and put down small rocks instead of that good old Manitoba gumbo that creates pressure and cracks basement walls. Then they will put a layer of topsoil so I can replant my flower bed. They will also apply braces on the inside of the wall to strengthen it. Abbra cadabra, just like magic, my wall will be repaired. All I have to do is call the services companies(gas, hydro, etc.) to mark where the conduits and wires are and I have to find someone who will take down the cedar wall in the den so they can apply braces on that wall. This is not really the kind of renovation I was planning, but it has to be done. It'll take four or five days and I am hoping they can get started as soon as the ground is all thawed out. In the meantime, if it rains again......more towels, please!

Well, it's good night from Suzie and it's good night from me.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke
HAM Tabling, Foundation Cracks, A Little Magic