I was planning on a diatribe about raising my kids but I seem to have pulled a muscle in my thigh while skating for the first time in nearly a decade, on ice skate two sizes too small. Not to mention it is currently minus 22 today, plus whatever the windchill is. The ice rink we spent a few hours uncovering is now covered in last nights snow, once again. Ugh! My back! My back – my ass and my crack.
I seem to recall car travel being a lot quieter in my youth, whereas my kids use it as a time to narrate their whole lives, second by second on any car ride, no matter the length. It is …. trying. To say the least. Not that I don’t love the sound of laughter and giggles. Or the occasional hilarious story from either kid, but it always descends into cackles and shrill squawking. The kids – they never know when to quit while they are ahead.
On the up & up side, it will soon be March, which means Maple Syruping time! I do love to run the boiler out in the sunshine. Keeping the sap burning for 24 hrs a day for a week or two. Not a fan of hauling in the buckets from the forest, but I can pour sap, and keep a fire burning for hours on end. The crackle of the flames, the soft hiss and pop of the sap boiling, the steam and smoke. It can be very relaxing provided it isn’t insanely windy, or obscenely cold. If it’s too cold you get no sap, and it’ll be a short lived experience. If it hovers just over freezing in the sunshine – whoo boy! Giddy up.
Had some time on my hands to explore more of the Ghost of the Dirty Starling story line last night. I hope to be able to do a bit more this week. I feel like one really long chapter is coming on. I have been able to hang comfortably in the one thousand word range, with occasional dips to seven hundred words. I like the length changes personally. If I had to pad out each chapter to be an arbitrary ten pages some would feel drawn out, where they don’t need to be. Flaunt the rules. Make your own way. Do it how you want to see it done.
In other news, the Olympics started? Really? How did I miss that? Oh right. Human rights abuses, and boycotts and such. Shame for the athletes who have worked for four years to reach their peak over these two weeks. This will be the only time I care about Alpine skiing, down hill slalom, bobsled, luge and figure skating.
Crazy how a million dollars in our town will get you a run down back split of bungalow that needs work. That’s fucking wild. Who the hell wants a million dollar plus mortgage hanging over their heads for twenty five years. Gives me anxiety to think about it. Surely not all of these people can possibly make six figure incomes do they? Maybe they do. I don’t know. But six zeros slowly counting down on an ever looming mortgage would make me want to vomit. More power to you if you can stomach that kind of stress in your life/marriage for decades at a time. Yeesh.
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 