It's still hot as the hinges of Hell in Stratford, but relief is on the way: Environment Canada prophesies the arrival of a new front this evening, bringing rain tomorrow and a high of only 25C (!), followed by a sharp drop in temperature to something far more typical for late September. One can only hope.

Himself started work as a Legal Aid duty counsel today, so he set off this morning in his official lawyer's grey suit and shiny black shoes to walk the 2.5 km from home to the courthouse. That's not much of challenge at 0800 hr, but by mid-afternoon the thermometer will be around 31C with humidity to match, and that grey suit will be some wilted by the time he gets home.

In the car the other day on the way to Canadian Tire (this time for toolshed shelving), he remarked that we are now in the final stages of the Moving to Stratford operation, and now it's time to shift the focus to Living in Stratford. To that end, I joined the local concert choir, and attended my first rehearsal last night. It was held in a stifling hot Protestant church in the company of a squadron of stable flies (country town!), and everybody soldiered through stubbornly, swabbing sweat from brows as we sight-read our way through four movements of the Fauré Requiem and a selection of short pieces suitable for Remembrance Day. I think I will fit in just fine.

Meanwhile, some 35 two-cubic-foot boxes of books still sit in the garage along with seven china barrels with the fancy crockery and a couple of cartons of LPs. In the basement, access to the furnace is blocked by a stack of crated pictures that must be moved (and, preferably, unpacked) before the furnace can be cleaned. I would bet serious money that the people who sold us this house did not have the furnace cleaned in the spring -- who does that? Well, I did, back in Ottawa, but then I (ahem) failed to do it the previous fall.

But the china barrels have to stay right where they are until the kitchen project is finished (forecast for late November), and the books are waiting for yet another delivery of IKEA bookcases, due on 3 October. By the time we have finished filling this house with bookcases, we won't have much room on the walls for pictures. So it goes.