Our dining room chairs have forever been a bodged together collection of scavenged chairs that forever seem on the verge of collapse. Having spent a week living with IKEA IVAR chairs while on vacation, I ordered four while we were on our way home; they arrived Friday.

I wasn’t content to leave them entirely in their unfinished pine state, so Oliver and I went paint shopping at Home Depot yesterday. To my delight, I found that we could buy sample pots of paint for $5.00 each, and these proved more than enough paint for the job. The orange is “tart orange” and the blue is “beta fish,” both from Behr.

I painted two coats yesterday and am set to assemble everything this morning.

The IVAR chairs are $45.00 each; gone are the days of $150 delivery charges to Charlottetown from IKEA: delivery was $29 for four chairs, four chair pads (and, because IKEA, two towels).

We’ll move the sketchy chairs into the basement, ready should a time come when the world allows us a dinner party.

I made a lentil soup for supper tonight with Paul Offer’s carrots, onions, peppers, leeks and potatoes, kale from Cranbush Farms, lentils from Riverview Country Market, and Purity Dairy sour cream. Three minutes in the Instant Pot. Smoked paprika, cumin, garlic and pepper to spice.

I feel like I’ve levelled up on life. At the very least I’m ready for autumn.

Mandy Patinkin:

I’m so nervous about this election I’m making my own damn campaign videos. Please get involved! Join one of these orgs and commit to volunteering. Get friends involved. Don’t have any friends? That’s ok, you can get involved twice as much! JUST GET OUT THE VOTE! 

www.swingleft.org 
www.moveon.org
www.indivisible.org
www.thelastweekends.org

The Stakes his his first video.

Remember O’Keefe Lake Provincial Park: The Park That Never Was?

Well, I was able to make it disappear, at least from Apple Maps and Google Maps, simply by using their respective “report an issue” tools.

I was able to affect its removal from OpenStreetMap all on my own, so it will gradually fade from view from OSM-derived map tiles too.

While making a place that never was disappear from the Internet is a small feat, it’s satisfying nonetheless.

I received word this morning that Ron Gaskin died in August.

This tribute to him by Rebecca Campbell makes it clear that my fondness for Ron was not something unique to me. ”Ron approached everything with resolute principle, unconditional love, and a DIY ethic,” she writes;  we should all aspire to live like that.

Nearer My God to Thee, Ron.

In case you missed it, Borgen, the well-received Danish political drama, is now streaming on Netflix. Think The West Wing but with more political parties and more Denmark. Highly recommended.

A prototype for a paper construction that’s been rambling around my head for the last couple of days. Inspired by Oliver, who had us listen to a meditation about “moving beyond grief” on the ferry sailing home on Monday, which got me thinking about focusing backward versus focusing forward.

The swooshing sound, which was accidental, is perhaps my favourite part of the mockup.

Kathleen Edwards, live from Stittsville, released her album Total Freedom in August.

She’s a big deal. And yet it seems like we used to hang out.

Three boxes of the 2021 edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac landed at The Bookmark in Charlottetown today, and I encourage you to stop by and pick up your copy while there are still copies available.

When you buy The Old Farmer’s Almanac, not only are you getting a companion that’s “useful with a pleasant degree of humour,” but you’re also helping put food on the table of we at 100 Prince Street, as I enter my 25th year helping to maintain Almanac.com.

As a special bonus this year, you’ll also find an article by Charlottetown author (and my longtime friend) Ann Thurlow in the Canadian edition, so you’re really helping keep food in the pots of two Island households.

(Those of you from away are also encouraged to buy the 2021 edition: find retailers here).

The PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation has a podcast, the hidden island. There’s nary a fiddle nor old-timer-with-railway-story to behold.