Month: December 2022

The current state of the windstorm is… holy shit! Listen to that whistle & moan. I’m going to need to check for downed limbs once the air current subsides. The icy wet snow from the other day snapped a couple old growth Lilac branches, so I can only imagine what a sustained 100km plus wind has wrought around the neighbourhood. Fingers crossed we can actually get out and leave the house for a bit today or tomorrow. Cabin fever on Christmas day isn’t going to go over well! At last glance the snow was blowing heavily, but not much of it was falling. Just moving around what was already here. It was not accumulating like that time we got sixteen inches or more in one fell swoop. That was a back buster. My shoulders were singing after that, let me tell you. It is still fairly dim outside, so I can’t tell what the damage is, if any, yet. The wind should die down around 11:00am this morning. Can’t say much from my iced over window right this moment.

Otherwise a happy Christmas Eve to you all. I pray your travel plans aren’t too heavily impacted by the current Polar Vortex, or air bubble burst, or whatever they are calling this thing. My weather app tells me it is currently minus fourteen, so an icy fresh morning we’re having today! I don’t imagine there will be any mail or package deliveries in this mess. Snow drifts are going to be a nuisance around here for a few days due to the excess winds. That and I don’t think any farmers put up their snow fences yet. Going to have a hell of a time setting the posts in entirely frozen earth after this little ditty. I don’t envy the farm hands who’ll have to brave the elements to set up miles of the stuff in the coming days, and weeks.

I wonder if my fence stayed up. I had to build a brace for it during the fall because the builders of our fence didn’t set the posts correctly. I’d wager that the posts are set into the mud, too shallow, and with little to no concrete used to keep them in place. The panels were friction fit with one screw used, which I went through and added about 400 more. But after this storm, I will not be surprised to find more panels off their support posts, or laying on the ground. Something to look for after the wind Peter’s out a bit. Wee! Home ownership. A fun game the whole family can play.

Best of luck to you all. Ciao Bella!

The winds have begun, the rain is clinging to my already bent trees, and the snow storm is gathering overhead. The hour is early, and much of the day still stretches out before us. Tantrums, fights, and screaming matches abound. I am sad to report that I had in fact left some personal tasks to be completed today that will now need to be pushed into the new year once the kids are back in school. Now is the time to focus on the task at hand. Surviving the Christmas holidays with hyper, over excited children at home. There is not enough snow, as of yet, to suit them up, and tire them out with an hour of shoveling in the icy cold wind. Time outs, and tears stand at the ready. Food is plentiful, and so is drink (alcoholic and otherwise). Worse comes to worst, and  late this evening I can go up in a puff of aromatic blue smoke from the local Tokyo Smoke shop. I’m a good person, I’m a good person. I love my kids, I love my kids.

So much for a Christmas movie marathon today. The tv is now occupied by the tiny terrorists in jammies, and I no longer have a second Bluray/DVD player in the house. It went to the cottage for the summer to watch Netflix on the lake. I think my Xbox 360 can play DVDs in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Better than nothing at all at this point.

I believe I got all of my 2022 invoices out before today, thankfully. So now I can sit back until January 9th, and wait to be paid. I have two large scale projects coming in the winter, so for the foreseeable future I won’t have any breaks longer than 2 to 3 weeks this winter. Makes me wish I could heat my shop at all, so that I could start on a new wood working project sooner, rather than later. But numb hands from icy hand tools is not how I roll. Let us hope that 2023 is as productive, if not 5%-10% more so than 2022! That would be pretty great for me. More wood working, more sculpting, more music and the same or slightly more paid work.

To good health, and personal satisfaction in what you spend your time doing! I have no resolutions. I will keep on writing, and working in my exercise regimen to my weekly life. And that just about covers it. I’d like to get out on my bike, long board skate board, roller blades, and possibly cross country skiis if I can in 2023. That and swim in the sunshine some more. That’s always a great day maker. I love a good private swim in the sunshine with a cold beverage waiting in the wings.

Ciao Bella

Not only mechanically inclined family whom live near by, and can come to my aid in only a few minutes! But that I spent so much of my mental energy and focus working on my last big report for the year, and cleared forty of the forty seven pages yesterday. As today, well just this very morning, my vehicle battery drained down to absolute zero – again. But while I was out grocery shopping after doing school drop off, and not while the vehicle was sat idle in our own driveway. No warning lights, no prompts, no buzzers, sounds alarms or fading dashboard symbols to tell me it was going to go dead. So off I strode confidently into Walmart for essentials, without having eaten mind you. Just a quick trip. There and back in thirty minutes! But no. Finally after some much needed running about we got the car to the shop, the newest battery onto a charger, retrieved the old battery, got gas and some tools, dropped off and stowed the perishable groceries, and I am now comfortably seated on my couch eating a sandwich.

So I came home, completed my final seven pages, did some soft proofing for any major errors, and got the file off for review. Man am I glad I stuck with it and did so much of it yesterday. This pickle would have left me fuming had I still had twenty five pages left to go. I realize I taxed myself quite hard yesterday, but you never do know what’s going to happen next. I have a spare vehicle on loan to get the kids to & from school for the next few days, which is a big help. Sheesh. I thought the whole new battery just a mere four days ago was the answer, but it’s either the alternator or an even bigger electrical issue which could be a nightmare to discover & fix. Oh well. C’est la vie! That is life.

I might just pick up on the Domestic Duties from Monday, or I will chill out, eat more of this lovely toasted sandwich, and think warm, happy, non stressed thoughts for a spell. Next time I make this sandwich I’ll add some bacon, tomato, lettuce and a dash of salt & pepper, plus a smear of butter. It’s not a bad sandwich mind you. It has smoked ham, turkey, salami, swiss cheese and provolone cheese, mustard and miracle whip, on thinly sliced toasted white bread. But I think I could take it up a notch on the flavour scale with those minor edits. Bam! Now we’re talking taste bud city. Stay frosty out there. Be as prepared as you are able! Ciao Bella

Good morning Vietnam! Back, once again to Monday morning, the air is fresh and crisp with a distinct bite to it today. I have a new project on the docket today. Managed to start it last night, so I had a few early wins associated with it. Feeling good moving into the morning. Coming off of my NyQuil stupor, so let us hope everything looks as good as it felt when I was working on it last night.

Domestic Duties will be bumped to Wednesday this week, to allow me some time to work through this year’s last big report. Have a great day to you all. Ciao Bella!

So last we met it was battle number four or five. We are on to seven, eight or nine by now. This damn fridge. The very last time, last week, I shut off all water to/from the fridge, and emptied out the lines as best I could, and today we had to thaw it again, to let another 2L of water out the bottom. I only just cleaned off all the exterior intakes from the underneath portion I could reach with a long brush and a vacuum extension hose. But to no avail. At this point I have to wonder if we have a sleep Walker who is dumping pint glasses of water into the fucking thing. I don’t understand how a mostly empty freezer, with no water feed can accumulate nearly 3 Liters of water in its vents every week or so. Where is it all coming from? Is there a holding tank inside the machine I’m not aware off that is leaking, or slowly expressing vapour into the freezer chamber? I don’t get it. I just can’t figure out where all this excess water is coming from, or how a freezer set to 6° is kicking off and freezing over constantly. I will get to the bottom of this at some point. But God Damn. What a son of a bitch! I hate this machine so much right now. All the seals have been cleaned. The latch catches, the vents are never blocked off, the inlets are clean, the air flow path inside the fridge is not blocked. Next step is the $100.00 diagnostic call to the repairman. Or buying a whole new fridge in 2023. Bah! Humbug.

More of an annoyance than anything else. Still has me sneezing and blowing my nose multiple times hourly though. Feel a little more tired than usual, but seeing as I live with chronic fatigue that doesn’t tell me much. But, what I believe will be the last major project I’ll get this year, has just come in, so at least I know what I am going to work on this week.

I could, if need be, push it off until the new year, but I find it hard to sleep when I know I have paid work left laying around untouched. Why put off until tomorrow what I can do today. I may not put eight hours into it today, but I’d be surprised if I go to bed tonight without doing at least an hours worth of work on it. Will make me feel better, and I’ll be able to sleep knowing I don’t have the whole thing still out in front of me.

Hard to believe we are already up to the 18th of December. This whole month is whizzing by just as fast as November. If you haven’t had the chance yet, heed my warning, and go do some Holiday gift retrieval for your loved ones. The longer you leave it the worse the traffic, parking, line ups and crowds will get. Not only that but the shelves will look most decidedly picked over. On the positive side, perhaps your made them something from the heart in which case you don’t need to brave the cold and the masses. In that case, a tip of the hat to you! Otherwise, get cracking, times a wasting! All the best. Ciao Bella!

After the first 24 hours I’d say that at least two thirds of the brushes were back to within working order tolerances. The bulk of the grime had come off, and the bristles themselves were pliable and soft. Score! The other third had a more tenacious level of grunge penetrating their bristles. So those had a cleaning and a once over along with those I deemed suitable to be returned back into my tool kit. After a thorough inspection these last five brushes will sit in the concentrated soap until Monday. I figure an additional 72 hour soak should be about as much as anything could ever need, on top of the first 24 hour soak. At which point I will wash and examine them all – again. My hope was to salvage every single last expensive brush, but if I end up with one straggler that can’t be fixed, I’ll be mostly ok with that one getting tossed, or repurposed to smoothing clay/sculpey instead. So for the low low cost of $7.00 CND, I am most definitely happy with the Murphy Oil Soap as brush cleaner. Can reccomend it. Worth a try. I do wonder if the old formula was more tenacious? But seeing as I don’t have any of the old stuff I can not say one way or the other.

Today is Saturday Dec 17th, 2022. Christmas is looming large on the horizon. Luckily there is a school field trip to occupy the kids attention, and a rescheduled winter fair for children set for Wednesday that should also act as an attention buffer to block the Christmas Present Jitters in both kids. I still have not put a single item under the tree. And thus far – knock on wood – no fist fights regarding gifts. Not exactly a hack. More an effect of out of sight out of mind. Just means I need to lug a fair amount of gear up & down the stairs on Christmas Eve after the kids skip off to bed. Might have to slip some excedrin pm into their night time drinks to make sure all my banging & swearing doesn’t wake them up. I kid – of course. No amount of pharmaceuticals could ever keep my kids asleep on the biggest night of the year for children. I’m sure they’ll be up with nightmares about sleeping through Christmas,  or having their gifts get opened by someone else. Or that Santa forgot about them, orca million other reasons for them to be do wired that they can’t fall asleep, or stay asleep the whole night through.

I feel a runny nose coming on myself. So let us hope that clears up without testing positive on a RAT, or leading to a hacking cough that lasts for eight or nine weeks, and continues to travel from nose, to sinuses, to throat to lungs and then back again. Time will tell I suppose. Ciao Bella

Goodness, I’ve had to shovel snow four times in little more than 30 hours due to this freezing rain, wet snow combo. Perfect packing snow though. Great for snowmen and forts, and snowballs. Not so good for an old ticker, or an injured back! That wet stuff weighs a tonne. Luckily at one point I had both kids to help me shovel the walk ways, deck and back patio. They were too interested in talking to their grandma to help me out much with the driveway, but at this point, any help is welcome! That’s additional kilograms of snow that I don’t have to move myself. And what’s more, it’s still coming down! Mind you not at the rate it was last evening, but enough to dust over the entirety of what has been cleared. It’s so heavy it bent my cedar hedges nearly 90°. I’ve shaken them off, but they still harbour a good lean. Snapped two over large Lilac branches as well. Old growth limbs that have just given out.

I best get back to answering e-mails and see if the charger fixed the van battery at all. Best of luck on your commutes out there today! Ciao Bella!