Hanging out in Canada

One quintessential Ontario summer activity is "going up to the cottage"--lots of families seem to have a summer house/lake house up in the more empty/rural parts of Ontario. I spent this weekend hanging out with Chief Grad Student at his family's cottage--about five hours away, in Sharbot Lake. As usual, a construction project was involved--repairing a skylight leak. Of course, skylights are typically installed in roofs--and this one was at an 8.5:12 pitch, which is relatively steep--about the point where you don't want to just trust traction of your shoes.

This was, of course, an opportunity to break out the climbing gear that I insisted work buy me after too many hours gripping roof trusses while trying to splice sensor wire connections. Especially considering how little I enjoy heights. Hey--I consider it a pretty rational phobia. Quick quiz: which is going to cause the most damage: (a) speaking in public (b) wide open spaces (c) enclosed spaces, or (d) 9.8 meters per second squared?

We tied off to a tree on the opposite side of the roof, running the rope over the ridge of the roof. The slightly scary part was getting the rope over the ridge (involved my tying off to a bunk bed, running the rope out through the skylight, crawling out through the skylight, and shimmying up the roof to toss the second rope over). Basically, I was a fair height above the tie-off point while doing this. Given the slack in the rope and its springiness, if I fell, I think I might have gone off the roof and done a Wile E. Coyote-style "splat-bounce-sproing-splat-bounce-sproing".

Of course, after getting work done, it was time to play--tie off the rope to a high branch, climb up an extension ladder, and rappel down the line. That was cool stuff.

The view from the roof was gorgeous. Autumn in Ontario. Oh yeah.


Anybody want to chip in to buy a lake house in western Mass or New Hampshire someday after I'm back stateside?