Rain Delay

We had extreme flooding in Toronto just the other day (Tues. evening), and it rained on and off on Wed.  The weather forecast called for even more rain on Thurs., and in fact, for thunderstorms around 6 or 7 pm.  I decided to go ahead and bike in, but leave the bike in the locker room and plan to take the TTC back.  (I was sort of hoping that some or all of my cushions would be restuffed, since it has been a real drag not having a couch or love seat.)  Since it hadn't started raining by 5:30, I changed my plans and rushed home.  By the time I arrived, it was dark but didn't really look like rain.  I decided to go again and do the sanding, so I could stain on Friday.  (This seems to be the only 3-4 day window without rain.)  I got all that done and it still hadn't started to rain, so I knocked the railing off, but didn't try to replace it.  I still need to do some sawing on the replacement board.  Still, this put me in a good position to get started on Friday.  (I guess it rained just a bit Thurs. in the very late evening.)

This morning it had cleared up, and I decided it would actually be better to do the staining in the morning, then a second coat Sat. morning.  Then even if it rained on Monday, it would basically have cured and we could use it, certainly by the following weekend, when I am having people over.   I'm still hoping that if it rains Monday, it will be late in the day.  Unfortunately, I didn't guess correctly on the stain.  It isn't the same shade.  Over time, it probably won't matter, and I suspect next summer, I'll stain it all again anyway.  It looks good enough for now, and I have considerably less work for this evening.  I kind of gave up on Summerworks when they scheduled two shows back to back, so I couldn't see them both, which dampened my enthusiasm for the whole project, but I may go see something over the weekend.   Also, I think this is the last week of Dusk Dances in Withrow Park, and I may go off and see that.  But now, it is time to head off to work.