The heat and sharing a room

We don't have air conditioning which is really ok 350 days a year, but for those 15 or so really really hot days, like today, it's unbearable! There is no wind, it's 29 degrees INSIDE the house, and we have 10 fans blowing like crazy all at the same time. I don't like it. I know it's only about 15 days, ok maybe 20 in a bad summer. But man it's tough. Then add on being pregnant! We have been talking about getting a Geothermal heating and cooling system, because we have a 180ft well sitting there doing nothing, and even though it would cost a minor fortune, it would have MANY advantages. For one it would include a cooling system, so no more dying in the hot hot summer; and then in the winter, no more heating with oil - which costs an arm and a leg now, so the cost of heating with oil would be transfered to paying for the Geothermal system, and pay itself off in about 6 years at the rate we are paying now for oil; It's environmentally friendly; and would increase the value of our home for resale. So we called the supplier and they will come tomorrow and give us a final quote on the thing, and I think we are going to do it. Not that I want more debt, but this one is worth it in the long run!

So while we all swelter in the heat, we also choose this week to be the week the girls start sharing a room. Not exactly the best time to choose to transition them, but it had to be done. Last night was the first night and let me tell you it did not go so well. We need to refine our system!! putting them both in there awake was a nightmare, because they just giggled, then eventually started running around, then started slamming the door.... etc. Then they cried because we closed the baby gate and started fighting... etc. Yikes. So we pulled Abby out, calmed Gillian down and got her settled, then finally put Abby to bed at 9:45! Needless to say, they were awfully tired and cranky this morning! Gillian was also up at 5:15, as she woke up in a different place and had to get up. Tonight we just put Gillian to bed first, and kept Abby up until 8:00 pm, and that seemed to work out well. Abby is still finding ways to put off sleep by coming out of the room, saying she can't sleep, has a belly ache and so on, basically stalling to no end! But I guess it's normal and as she gets older we can't expect her to go to bed at 7:00 like before... bummer!!

And before I part, here are some photos from today:




I hope for rain and wind tonight... I need to cool off!

It's that time of year

Eric always said that the first trees to change colour are found on Notch road in Chelsea. And he was right. I noticed the one tree, the one that always changes first, was turning red about two weeks ago. Each day I drove past it to go to work, it was turning more and more and then today I noticed the other trees around it following suit. I know it's early, but with the recent cooler temperatures - especially at night, the darker mornings and the trees on Notch... something tells me it's that time of year. The end of summer (I hear gasps and boos coming from the audience). Let us all have a moment...

Ok, as you may know I've stated scanning old slides, photos and film. I just did a batch of old negative films from my Mum dating back to the 1940s. They were in surprisingly good condition considering they've been kept in an envelope for the past 60 years, only having a few scratches and marks. It's been fun to scan the film negative and see what pops up on the screen. They are shots of my Mum, her sister and brother, as well as a few of her Mom and a couple of her Dad. I'll sit down with my Mum this weekend to tag each photo with information on the history and dates. In addition to scanning, I'll have to do a little restoration work, as some of them are over, or under-exposed, they are scratched or have lots of dust.

Here is a sample of the SOOS (Straight out of Scanner):

As you can see it's quite under-exposed, crooked, and what you can't see is that it's got some noise and dust. While I didn't have the time, or patience right now to remove every spec of dust - I still haven't reached that chapter in the book - I did do some global fix it's and came up with this:

It shows that there is a lot of detail not seen in the original scan, and show the potential of what can be done. So don't ever think that a negative or slide is lost... unless it looks something like this:

Unfortunately in this case it was too over-exposed and there wasn't enough "data" in the blown out areas to recover it. It's too bad because it's one of the only photos of my grandmother and grandfather I scanned.

It's been really fun discovering all these old images and I hope to share more with you in the weeks to come! A couple things that I've quickly learned from working through this process which we could all apply now: 1) take more photos of yourself... if you are like me, I'm always behind the camera - like my grandfather was 2) document, document, document. Document the time, place, ages, etc. It's a little easier now because of the metadata included with each digital photo taken, but there is so much more to a photo that the date!