Is just me after shoveling even more snow. On the plus side it’s only about minus one outside, so I didn’t freeze my ass off, though with the increased temperature the snow felt heavier, and was compacting under the shovel. So a toss up as to whether that is a win or a loss. I’m grossly sweaty now either way. Going to need to jump back through the shower. Although with more snow coming all day today I will have to go out for at least a round two, and later on possibly a third time. So I’ll hold off on rinsing off for right this second.
It’s times like this that I kick myself – again – for not having a snowblower, or having outdoor speakers to play music while I shovel. Music makes just about all things better. Especially tedious or repetitious jobs. I love to clean and work to my personal music collection. Not all music is good working music. I worked at this one distribution centre that played elevator muzak over the phone lines, and atleast eight times a day Copacabana played on repeat. I also had a severe case of micromanaging immediate supervisor. I was the one and only member of her team, and she sat at my elbow and pointed on my screen for eight hours a day. I was forever washing finger print smudges off my PC screen. Yes, the art department – consisting of us two people, operated on PC. Had to relearn all my quick keys and everything. Veering off topic here. Fat older and sweaty from shoveling snow. There all caught up for Tuesday February 28th, 2023. Best start gathering up your tax info, as the season of misery is set to begin.
I’m going to sit and enjoy some breakfast before I clock in for work today. I’m hot and irritable right this second. Not a good combo for precision work on food quality labels. I need to chill out for a few, and get some waffles in me. Mmm waffles. Chock full of fat man inducing calories, but by god are they delicious! Quick to get up to temperature aswell. Oh goody! And on that note of pure gluttony, I will bid you adieu. Ciao Bella!
Starting to feel a little claustrophobic with all of the winters accumulated junk hanging around as of late. Did a deep dive clean up of my office, which resulted in me hanging two framed posters I’ve had for at least a decade, possibly only eight years or so. Opening some packages of pens and pencils, and throwing away twenty one year old paints that had gone rock solid. It was my very pricey high viscosity, high pigment white and black paints. No way to revitalize them at this point. The cheapo plastic containers they came in had poorly fitting lids, and my aluminum foil cap/insert didn’t hold up over all that time. Oh well. No point holding on to twenty one year old spoilt paint. More room on the shelf for my Murphy’s Oil, and Windex bottles. Get those off of my work surface. I also need to take some wood working supplies out to the shop, but as I don’t want it to warp, I have to keep it inside for now. I just want it gone! Damnit, but not ruined. That shit was expensive. I also took the time to build a second alligator clip tree to house my new 4.5″ high clips. Get them out of their wrappers and onto the desk in a useable fashion. I added my sanding sticks into the mix too. Still waiting on my decal setter solution, and panel line ink. Not to mention the Tamiya paste I ordered to clean up seam lines. Lots going on in there this weekend. If I had my way, I would buy a metallic peg board for my office to hang over my model building station, but I need to move some larger purchased sculptures before I could do that. I would also like to build a utensils holding station to get more of my work surface back. Fling all that gear up on a wall, or cubby system, and reclaim the desk for working. Right now I only have 1/3 of the desk for working on, the rest is covered in tools, and consumables. I really, really need to attack all of the drawers and closets in this house. We have so much extra stuff that should be donated, or put into rotation to get used up. I’m terrible myself for saving things until later, or for a suitable occasion, only for the thing to have gone off by the time you feel you should actually use it. I hate that. Money wasted. What a rip-off! Argh!
Not for nothing but we had a homework blitz this weekend to get my eldest ready for their next book talk. Book read, report worked out orally, then dictation typed up fixing any chronological errors, and then six or seven run throughs to practice all the words and get comfortable with the material. I think the kid’s going to be ok. Then after gymnastics we need to practice for tomorrow’s Yellow Belt testing. Fingers crossed! We’ve been doing a fair amount of prep for it, so I think we are in a good place.
No matter. We are back to Domestic Duties Monday. Laundry is underway. I will vacuum at some point today. I have some new projects that came in on Friday evening, and this morning to attend to, so I best be off soon.
What on earth is going on with the writers of all these cartoons? Why is absurdist nonsense the soup of the day right now? Did they all grow up on Spongebob and think “Hold my acid tabs”? What a bunch of odd, weirdly all over the place, rapidly paced, fast cut, gibberish. One or two shows of this nature makes sense, you know, corner that market, but now it seems like everything is talking cupcakes, wishing upon farts, dopey unicorns, leprechauns, and manic squirrels, or inanimate objects come to life, like a stick with a leaf for a pal, and a talking strawberry. There’s far more weirdness out there than I could recount, but so much of it is “just” weirdness. Don’t get me wrong, I was a huge fan of Ren & Stimpy, and Spongebob too, but this just seems like excess. As though they put words into a salad bowl, pulled out several and then thought this is good enough.
Not a fan of the current animation style either. But that’s more of an aesthetic taste, than anything to do about quality. I’m sure they are all ridiculously time consuming to produce, and reuse portions to cut down on costs. Run cycles, and character transformation breaks (think Sailor Moon transformation sequence) draw it once and reuse it in every subsequent episode. Looks like a lot of the shows use a similar animation program from 2d drawings. They have a sameness to them, in line work, line weights, colour palettes, and fluidity of motion. I think the days of flipping through frames over a light board are long gone. Do they still do inbetweens and key frames with the current software? Or is it filled in by the software? No idea. I’ll have to ask the animators I know from Sheridan College. I’m sure they’ll love that line of questioning.
Not that any of this matters mind you, just an observation. Perhaps it all stems from the television channels that we frequently watch. If we were more adventurous maybe we’d find new, more linear shows with alternative animation styles. I think that because I grew up in the 80’s with G I Joe, He-Man, Transformers, Thundercats and then TMNT, and other classics along those lines, that that is the animation style that I respond positively to. Or, those early 2000’s CGI movies that went hard in the paint for texture and movement. Not that feature film animation bugs me, we’re talking some of the made for tv stuff. Then I think back to the 90’s with X-Men and get all nostalgic again. But that could be due to how they drew Rogue, and how often Jean Grey moaned on that show. Ha.
Funny how the posts that garner the most views and/or attention tend towards being combative, or having a harsher tone. Not sure what that says about myself, or casual readers. Not that my rant about being a better parent to our over zealous little ones deserves as much traffic as it got. Could have been the use of the term *shitty kids*, or perhaps my going on about being an active parent and dealing healthily with said children, by engaging with them, steering that energy into something fun elsewhere, or taking ownership of your kids habits and working within them with love and affection to create a pathway towards self regulation that doesn’t feel like a punishment. Not going to lie, I was angry. Not about the kids, they’re kids. I was mad at the parents whom abdicated their responsibility and just let whatever shit was happening go down unchecked. That is what set me off. Not really the child’s fault when they aren’t even five yet. If your folks check out, and you can run about freely, shouting and carrying on, that tells me, mum & dad just sat down, pulled out their phones and have lost interest in you entirely. Which sucks. Sorry to see it. I’m guilty of it too. It wasn’t until I put the phone away at practice that I noticed just how much time my child spends looking over at me when working through the move sets, kicks and punches.
Welcome to Saturday morning. Another blisteringly cold morning late in February. Almost March, can you believe it. Two months down, as we slow march towards springtime, and the last few months of the school year. Time marches on. Ha. Enjoy your down time, while it lasts.
Incidentally it is also Friday, so yay! And brr that’s cold AF. Anyone from up north might scoff at that lowly -23, but for here, that’s a tit nipply. Make the thighs go numb even while you are walking around. I’m very glad that I was gifted a longer coat for Christmas. As up until now all of my winter coats would stop at my hips, and any wind whatsoever would bleed through my clothes and freeze my groin. Now, not so much. That extra eight to ten inches of insulated fabric stops me from having an ice cold groin. Love it. Five stars. Do reccomend! I knew it was bitterly cold when the kids were able to just walk right into the school at morning drop off, instead of having to wait for the bell. Good thing too, as I didn’t wear any additional layers, and was starting to numb up a bit. Although to be honest, the top of my thighs frequently go numb, even when sitting or lounging around, so that’s not a very high quality tell for anything substantial.
I expect this afternoon to be busier than most. A couple clients have print deadlines for today, though one set has been really quiet this week. Must be playing catch up due to all the conferences coming up in March. That would be my guess anyway.
Plans for the weekend? Nope. Nada. None. Nothing that I can think of. We are elbow deep into a cold snap so no wood working this weekend either. Had to put that on hold – again, after dropping below zero. I can partially heat a very small portion of my shop, but only if it hovers around zero or slightly higher. Get this low and it’s a lost cause, a losing battle. A cast iron fireplace would heat it no problem, but you need permits, a stove, holes for vent pipes, and then enough room around the stove to not immediately set everything on fire. So that will be a no from me dawg! Other option is to use a rigid foam to insulate the walls, and cover over it with plywood. Also expensive and time consuming. But probably better in the long run. To retain heat created within, and block out external hot/cold temperatures. We’ll see what shakes out over the coming years.
Recently finished book two of the N.k. Jemison trilogy, and am 1/3 of the way through book three. Nearly all three books done in February. Not bad. Not bad at all. If you recall I was worried it might take me months to read them all. And here we are heading into month three of the year with almost 10 books read. Nine from cover to cover, and one that I might (not) go back to after some more time has passed. I’m looking at new releases that are to come out in late March and mid April to add to the list. Just might do the twelve this year. Possibly add one or two more if I play my cards right. And on that bomb shell, I’ll call it. Ciao Bella!
As predicted it isn’t a Thursday unless we get snow, freezing rain and canceled buses for the kids school. It was pretty windy last night, so rather than straight accumulation, we got knee high drifts on our side of the street. Filling the driveway, back patio, front walk way, and against the door itself. Then, of course, as I near the end of the driveway, the plow comes by and packs in an additional three foot high wall of heavy snow. My biceps are a singing. My back howls the melody. And to top it off we have freezing rain which began before I had even managed to finish. This winter is weird. Thursdays. What a weird succession of coincidences for most of this winter’s storms to have hit on a Thursday. Is it a delusion? Misremembered? Nope, just an odd series of snowstorms that affected us on Thursdays. Weird right? Yeah…
The cable was out almost all day yesterday, which was pretty weird. Phone and internet were still good though. Odd. Had some excitement on our street yesterday, with three fire trucks, two red support SUVs, an ambulance, five police cars, a rapid response EMS team vehicle, and a special response unit EMS vehicle, and more fire fighters than I could count. The street smelled faintly of smoke, but no flames were visible. I saw the fire fighters grab hooks & ladders in a mad rush. Hoses unfurled and everything. No one was brought out or taken to the ambulance, so hopefully everything is fine. Later on the electrical people, and gas company came by, so I assume that something had happened.
Early on in the morning.About 15 minutes later.
I didn’t use the panorama function so I don’t have a shot with every single vehicle in it. They lined up beyond my house up the street, as well as well below down towards the affected home. For about 90 minutes or so it was a very alive little street.
But at least I am responsible for having written two books of collected short stories by my own hands. Nearly 200,000 words of interconnected amateur hour sci-fi nonsense that I am proud to have put pen to paper to create. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work. I can strike it from my bucket list. No short cuts taken. No AI to do the lengthy leg work in my stead. Brain fog, fugue states after writing 3,500/day for a couple days in a row. I did that. Me. I don’t care if it comes across as dog shit, glib, or derivative. I did it myself. And sold a copy, not to myself. So nyah! Eat it.
I love the word bleak. I like how it rolls off my tongue. How it feels in the mouth. The wretchedness it evokes. A very vivid word, bleak. I feel as though it gets used just enough about town to still feel special and evocative. There’s a newness, no, a freshness about words that don’t get thrown around willy-nilly all the time. As though it still has that “new car smell” to it. Or the cellophane still on it. I like that. Bleak. Just love it. What a word!
Not bleak.
So, here we are. Wednesday. Hump-day. Middle of the week, day. Again. Seems as though we were just here. I wonder what day is most peoples point of reference. Do you look at your week from Sunday to Saturday, or Monday to Sunday? Friday to whenever the hell you like? I don’t know. I guess it would depend on a whole host of factors. Do you work alternating shifts? Nights, weekends, evenings, or a 9 to 5? All of those could alter what day of the week you use as a reference point. Lots of people have those Sunday night blues about going back to work on Monday. So are you always refocused on your life come Sunday, or is it the awful trek to work on Monday that orients your week? Are you working for the weekend to get blotto on Friday through Sunday afternoon, just to make it to next Friday at 5pm? Lots to unpack here. I have a fairly introspective hobby, with this blog, so I constantly evaluate my week, and each day within it. Domestic Duties Monday slash bleed into Tuesday, is a common refrain here. Same with Hump-day, thinking Thursday was Friday, Thank god it’s Friday, and then the rush to go do as much of nothing as we can for the weekend. Which is a conundrum. Do too little and it feels wasted. Do too much and it feels draining as you head back into the work week, with all of the evenings responsibilities. It’s a whole thing. Finding the right balance of something fun, but not overwhelming, and a whole bunch of nothing to book end it, to make the weekend seem restful. A balancing act for certain.
Also… ugh. I hate to say this, as my kids are a handful, and we try desperately to rein them in when out and about. But exert some semblance of control over your shitty kids please. How often do we have to see and hear them all run amok at every god damn second of the evening when out at township programming. Take your unruly kids elsewhere. Take them for a walk. Go look at cool rocks outside. Show some parenting and calm them down. Get your face out of your fucking phones and be a parent for a second. Jesus christ. Look I get it. Watching 7, 8, 9 year olds fumble their way through patterns is less than appealing to most, but why make it worse with your little shit heads screaming, and shouting, and running about on the side lines making things worse. The kids can’t hear their instructors, who then need to shout, and then the meek kids check out because of the angry tone, and then other kids start to chatter, and it becomes this cascading failure. I’m not asking people to beat their children. But rein that shit in. If you know they’re hyper, go DO something with them, instead of hoping that THIS time they’ll sit still and be quiet. Act accordingly. They are your children. You should know if they can or can’t sit and watch others do stuff for an hour without needing a break, or skipping it entirely to run around in the park for that hour like a maniac. Be their fucking parent. Not their buddy. You have to make hard choices. Know their limits. Work within them. Jesus. It isn’t rocket science. I’m not asking for perfection here, god knows we aren’t able to attain it ourselves. I’m not asking for you to physically restrain your child(ren), but to *NOTICE* how out of tune they are with the surrounding environment, and act on it, within reason. You can wander the hall with your child, go look at the display cases, talk to them outside the training area, play tag with them elsewhere. Just don’t have them act like shitty kids infront of thirty others who paid to be there, and are actively trying to learn what is being taught. I’m sure your little ones would love it if others chose to run a jack hammer outside their classroom as they are trying to learn a skill they are fond of. Treat others with the respect you would like to receive yourself. Again, I’m not asking for a muzzle, or straight jacket, or wee automatons that are seen but not heard, this isn’t the 80’s. No hitting, no screaming, no anger. Just ACT. Do something about it. Remove the child if they are over stimulated, if that is something they respond positively to, so that they can calm down and come back. Not asking for them to be hidden away. But perhaps 30 seconds to run the hall or play a game might bring them back down to a calmer level. Just don’t sit there, face in your phone letting them disrupt every body else because it’s too much like hard work to parent for a bit after you sat down, or zoned out. Yeah, it’s tough, and thankless. I get it. I don’t like having to miss out because my child chose that moment to go apeshit. But you do it. Calmly. And with love and affection. Eventually they’ll figure out self regulation and can do it in a calming peaceful nurturing fashion. But you gotta be willing to lead them in that learning. It’s not a punishment. It’s a loving, and positive correction of behaviour. But man oh man, do I hate it when parents abdicate that responsibility. Grinds on my nerves.
Looks like the snow is here. Gotta be Thursday tomorrow if the snow storm is here today. 2022/2023 the years of the Thursday snowmageddon. The mid week snow shovel break that nobody asked for. Glorious. And on that note, I will bid you adieu. Ciao Bella!
There is no other underlying reason for it. No deeper meaning. No unlockable symbolism to glean from the text. Just blue. I like blue, so it’s blue. Blue. Just plain old blue. Maybe a periwinkle, or a wedgewood, but still blue. Don’t over think it.
Back already from the long weekend, and the Family Day holiday Monday. Didn’t get home in time to do all the things that I wanted to. So today, on top of lots of paid work (I’m sure of it, print deadlines in a day or two), I need to do loads of laundry, vacuum and mop, clean the bathrooms, sort and put away all that laundry I washed & dried, and potentially get groceries. But I think the food & supply run will have to happen tomorrow. Just a hunch. Lots of businesses have conferences coming up for the first time in a few years, and need lots of things. Branded things. Paper product things. Banners and back drops and table runners, and podium cap type things. So it has been a busy February to match a very busy January.
March break is looming large on the horizon, and the arrival of spring. So I’m certain we’ll get several more dumplings of snow and ice well into April. But will have little to no snow for March break. I’d wager on it, if I weren’t so cheap. Didn’t get a chance to do much beyond cottage stuff. Took the kids skating, and they did some snowmobile trail riding, and we wound up in the hot tub a few times. I spent my time splitting wood, moving chunks around, and filling the Bobcat bucket with split wood. Then napping to recuperate afterwards. Three plus hours of that on Sunday was enough to cool my jets. Another two hours on Monday just about did it for me. Next up is the syrup situation. Weather depending I guess. I need to go Voltaren my back, and forearms. Have a great Tuesday back to reality.
Managed to step away for a spell yesterday to run the wood splitter for a few hours. Together we split nearly two Cord of wood, with another two left to go. Not going to lie, my hands, forearms, back, hips and thighs felt every second of that work afterwards. Some of it just popped apart cleanly, and others (only a few) were that stringy fibrous mess that doesn’t entirely want to come apart. The reason, you may ask, why are you splitting so much wood? Well March break approaches, and with it comes syrup season. Which means keeping the sap in the evaporator running 24/7 for nearly a full week. Gotta have lots of firewood on hand to keep a three by six foot pan full of watery sap boiling for six or seven days straight. I do enjoy spending some time each year tending the fire, stirring the ice out of the sap buckets, filtering the watery sap, and keeping the levels up in the pan of the evaporator. It can either be windy and bitterly cold, or sunny and almost hot out. Either way the exposed parts of the face are likely to suffer a sun burn, even this late into winter. Hats, sunglasses, and covered clothing won’t help. The sun will find a way to bop your nose, chin, or cheek tops. Kissed by the UV rays from the sun. Unless it’s early morning, most can be done with a beer in hand. Just be mindful of the smoke, and heat & ash from the fire underneath it all.
Not only that but the buckets and spials have to go out into all the Maple trees, and teams will need to trudge through the forest to empty the tree pails into larger sealed buckets to transport back to the evaporator. Where we let the cold weather freeze off the water, and eliminate some hours of boiling, but pulling large chunks of ice out of the larger sealed collection buckets. Then you need to filter out things like bark, bugs, twigs, leaves and such, by straining through a massive cheese cloth sieve. Then into the large pan over the open flames it goes. Gotta keep the flames even under the whole pan. Don’t want a hot spot, and cold areas. Gotta rearrange the coals underneath constantly, and add new fuel spread evenly to keep the fire going. So much fun.
We have benches set up, and lights, and a massive stockpile of wood all within arms reach of the evaporator. If only the wifi could stretch that far, you could watch movies on your phone while working away. I’ve had the pleasure of starting the fire after a quiet night of letting the sap cool off. When it starts to get close you have to slow down, as it can kick off, and go from done to burnt in the flash of an eye. My extended family then drains off the pan into sealed buckets, where they filter it again, and finalize the boil at home in much smaller batches, on propane stoves in industrial sized cauldrons. Still smaller than the pan, but gigantic compared to anything in an average home kitchen.
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