I had thought about taking the kids to the Beaches (and possibly hearing a bit of jazz, since the outdoor Beaches International Jazz Festival was running), but in the end, I decided I would go to the Ryerson Image Museum and on to work for a bit. Then if there was still time, I would take the kids swimming at Greenwood Pool.
I stumbled across a Falun Gong parade on Yonge. That was a bit unexpected.
The main draw at Ryerson was the Angela Grauerholz exhibit. I mostly was interested in her Privation series, which featured a number of damaged books. Several had been in a fire and a few others might have been fire- or water-damaged, but it wasn't clear. I certainly hope that these were books she stumbled across serendipitously (rather than damaging the books herself!). The first one reminds me a bit of toast, while the Tintin book looks an awful lot like a Roy Lichtenstein print that went through the washing machine.
It was actually hotter when I got home than when I had left, and I kind of autocratically decided it was too hot to walk to the park.
Sunday, after grocery shopping, laundry, lunch and then a short digestion period, I set out for Greenwood Park with my daughter. It was strange, since it got quite cloudy and was really rather cool. It would have been nicer had it been just a bit warmer. I tried to work on swimming lessons with her. I'm trying to get her comfortable enough so that I can take her canoeing before the summer is over, but no guarantees this will happen. (Based on the weather report, it looks like I should plan on taking the kids to the Beaches Aug. 1.)
We got back and I decided I really ought to tackle the lower deck, given that the heat wave was (temporarily) over. It looks like the best approach is to do a medium sanding of the whole thing, put on the cleaning solution and rinse it down, let it dry, do a finer sanding and then put on the 2 coats of stain. That's still a lot of work, but it isn't anywhere near as hard as the upper deck.
Unfortunately, I kept hitting protruding nails, and I actually ruined my 3 remaining medium grit sanding belts. I probably was less than 1 hour away from finishing off the medium sanding, and I probably would have pushed through with the cleaner tonight. Instead, I went over to Home Depot to buy more belts and stain, and called it a night. (This is how it looked when I left off.)
I should be able to wrap up the sanding and the cleaning and the sanding in the middle of the week. They are currently projecting at least some rain Sat. and Sun. (so that might be a good time to check out the AGO again). But Aug. 1, I might combine the trip to the Beaches and the staining in one super productive day. We'll see. I don't want this to drag on forever and ever like the upper deck, however. Ideally, all this messing about with the deck will flush the raccoons out before the workmen come to seal up the bottom deck. That's the plan at any rate.
Update (7/29): On Tues. I finished 85% of the sanding before it got too late to be working with power tools. Wed. I only just beat the rain home -- 10 minutes after I got inside and was cooling down from the bike ride home, it just poured buckets of rain. Thurs. I finally was able to finish the sanding and then pushed on, putting down the wood cleaner and hosing off the deck. The current plan is to do one last sanding with the finer grain belts. If the weather holds, I should be able to do that Sunday morning, and then put down one coat in the early afternoon. Ideally, I would put down the second coat Sunday in the early evening, but Monday morning is more realistic. There would still be plenty of time to go to the Beaches in the afternoon.
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