Month: March 2023

Disruption and influencers. Two words I could do without hearing for a very, very long time. Marketing jargon is such a joy kill. Don’t get me started. I digress.

Had high hopes for finishing a bunch of projects by the end of March, but due to weather conditions, and other interruptions such as catching Covid and being sick for thirteen days, has pushed everything back for two weeks. Wasn’t even able to use the down time to read my book. That days long unceasing eye pain, head ache, and brain fog was really a horrible experience. Let us pray it hasn’t done any major lasting damage to my noggin.

So things left unfinished from March: Resin kit internal structure build, Mo Hayder’s “Ritual” only half finished, the Urn still requires a cap, pin head fillers, and hours of sanding, and clear coat finishing. I see the next few weeks might get up into the double digit range, so perhaps I can get more done as the weather changes. One can hope!

I have to step out today for a dermatology appointment for my kid, so I’m not likely to get a tonne of stuff done this afternoon. But hey it’s friday, so hope you all have a great weekend!

Feels as though much of major league sports is grinding to a halt with hyper sensitive referees and umpires and shit. Horrific missed calls, just blatant injection of themselves into the flow of the game, and drawing attention to themselves out of a perverse sense of narcissism. Think Angel Hernandez and MLB. People of that ilk that can blow up a game, or throw it in a teams favour by being outrageously awful. Why do we never hear of these officials getting reprimanded for these egregious outbursts, and blatant contempt for their role in the game. Boggles the mind. Blown calls are everywhere, NBA, MLB, NFL, you name it. Makes watching a rage inducing event. What a mess.

Today is Tuesday. Spent a good portion of yesterday chasing down quotes for my water softner issues. I had quotes from $1,700 all the way up to $4,000.00 plus change. I’m fairly certain I can buy a generic system from Home Depot, or some other big box store for around $1,000.00. I get that labour costs are a real thing, but some of these quotes were outrageous. Right now I have the system shut off, so atleast there should be no more floods for a bit. I can get the salty brine stains cleaned up, and have the dehumidifier pull all that excess moisture out of the sub floor. It never ends.

I think I’m going to do some limb clearing in a moment. Ice storms, and heavy snows broke a whole bunch of branches off my Lilac trees in the back yard. Best go cut that down, and keep the grass cleared of debris. No point having dead patches that last all summer long. Will need to sort out the droop in our back deck this year too. One of the pilings is sinking. Gotta give it a good think. Peace out.

When not fighting with the refrigerator, we seem to like to Duke it out with our hyper active water softner system. The Petwa system has run full tilt for as long as we’ve lived in this house. It uses far too much salt, runs too much, and now it seems it has developed a blockage and likes to dump 10 or more litres of salty brine water onto my basement floor every other day. Much to my displeasure. Was about town today trying to locate an open & reputable repair service that I can get to come in and give it a once over. Might take a few days. Sounds like it’s a popular item to have develope a fault in it. Onwards we go. Now I need to call around to find out what a reasonable price is for service/repair or replacement. So far looks like $1,700 – $2,000 for install, taxes, and a new system. Gah.

The rains, they came and kept us inside while the birds and the squirrels ransacked our stores of bird seed. I had intended for it to attract a wide swathe of colourful birds, but instead the lone grey and black squirrels found the stash first, and some Robins and Starlings cleaned us out quickly thereafter. No cardinals, no finches, budgies or much of anything else came to the supplied feast. Two morning doves made a brief appearance but it was a pretty drab affair. My monster sized black birds didn’t come down for the seeds either. They seem to prefer kitchen scraps from my compost pile. Can’t say I blame them, loading up on seeds seems like hard work.

Let us hope that the sun comes out today, and we get a break from the rain. I guess it almost being April means we’ve got to get used to the rains coming and keeping us all cooped up indoors where it is dry & warm. Hard to get May flowers without the requisite April showers. I know the average restaurant or bar is praying for a warm and sunny, mild April so that they can open their patios asap, and get the warm weather drinking started along with the arrival of baseball season. Opening games start as early as this week. 162 games is a long time. That’s a hefty season. I feel like too much can happen over a season that long. They could cut it into thirds and it would still be a tonne of games. Just make each one important, instead of the last 50 or so. That shortened strike/lock out year was awesome. Fewer games, and each one mattered. But I don’t need to fill an arena, or pay staff and a team of multimillionaires.

Lazy Sunday with a make up Gymnastics day today. Gotta recoup all the missed extra curriculars while we were bed ridden with Covid last week. My internals don’t feel quite right but I feel as though things could have been a lot worse, so I’ll make due, and will try not to over exert myself, or cause undue stress on my body for a few more weeks. Not looking to spontaneously pop my clogs any time soon for the sake of “normalcy”. Running and vigorous physical activity can take a back seat for a little while longer.

May take the kids to a movie today. I thought that Super Mario was out already, but not until April 5th. So we’ll check out Puss n’ boots or Mummies or something along those lines. But that’s this afternoon’s problem. This morning I need to focus on breakfast and gymnastics!

Thought I had it licked yesterday, but the faintest of lines on the test strip says otherwise. So faint! So very very faint. Alas, still visible. Haven’t totally shaken it then. Thought that I had. Perhaps by end of day today! Or by late tomorrow? Who knows! Hard to tell. This is day twelve by the way. Feel far better in comparison to days 1-5! But an extremely wide margin. No less a margin! More a chasm. The gulf between how I feel now versus then could fit an A380 in it! With room to fly around. Woke up with centre chest ache today. Worrisome. Certainly. Could have been from moving all of those bags of water softener salt. I bought the larger! And this heavier ones yesterday! As our tank had gone dry. Carrying them! And lifting them to empty out into the tank was a bit of hard work yesterday. So i hope that is the cause of my discomfort! And not say, new Covid related lung issues.

It is Saturday, and for some reason I awoke by 7:00am. I don’t hear either child running about. Not to say that they aren’t up running amok!, just that I can’t hear them from here. Did they decide to sleep in for a change? Doubtful. Highly doubtful. That’s not how these kids roll. Even when sick they refuse to get more than the absolute minimum their bodies need to function. I heard that freezing rain was possible today! So that should be fun. Gladly the sunshine this week did a lot to clear out the snow and ice around the property, so I think we’ll be ok with rain / freezing rain today.

I’m trying to figure out a way to maximize the space inside my garage. I kinda want to get rid of some superfluous tools! And break down some tables, and carts, to reclaim just the tiniest bit of open floor space. I might need to invest in a lone cabinet to move finishing supplies into, and most of my other consumables, so that I can pull apart some carts to regain wheels and plywood bits. I’m just not sold on the idea yet. What I want is an assembly space for glue ups that doesn’t crowd my bench or work area. But my garage is tiny and I don’t think I can achieve that even with the elimination of a couple carts and atleast one table, nor the removal of two tools. I will get more space, that’s a fact. I just don’t think it’ll be as much as I want/need for as much work or money and time it will cost me. I need to take some measurements, and think it through before I make any kind of a decision. Or I’ll get impatient, act impulsively, and will tear a bunch of stuff apart and will just have to learn to live with it. Easy-peasy.

Not much on the docket today, as far as work is concerned. Had a new logo request come in last night. Not certain I’ll take it though. We will see how the next week pans out and then I will make a decision about it. Have a lovely Saturday. Take care out there. Ciao Bella.

Now I wouldn’t say “going strong”, but rather – still going. Not with a cheer but under a groan. Almost 1/3 of a year extra over and above my writing every day challenge. More of a compulsion now than a desire to leave any type of wisdom with the world at large. I did think that Covid might stop me in my tracks and end this writing streak, but I managed. Even when my brain was screaming in pain, and my eyes felt as though they both went out of round, I persisted. Not for fanfare or acclaim, but to remind myself how terrible it was if I should ever feel the need to want to eat indoors anywhere anytime soon. In red flaming, blazing letters it reads- Covid sucks, don’t fucking do it! A love letter to myself written in pain and neurological anguish & distress. I fear to know the true extent of the internal damage. A five day headache, with eye pain, brain fog and such can not be good for the human brain, especially not this particular humans brain at that. I shiver at the thought of the damage left behind.

Is it any wonder that car accidents, and general behavioural issues are on the rise? Scrambled brains, and repeat infections is doing more than we care to think about with any kind of critical eye. Astounding. But I digress. Eleven days of this, and I’m bored. New topics!!!

Made it to Friday. All in all a fulfilling week with new projects, and a few older ones that resurfaced. It’s all good. I have put some effort into getting my tax details in order. I have it all gathered up, and now I just need to put excel to work, and get those columns filled in – again.

The children have birthday parties to attend this weekend. So will I get some time to putter around outdoors to begin the long process of spring clean up? No. Doubtful. They are calling for freezing rain, so it’ll be me walking the kids to & from these local events to avoid all the crazies on the roads. Would be my guess for how everything is going to go.

Oh right. I managed to pick up my latest Mo Hayder book “Ritual”, and start reading again. Had nearly two full weeks off while my brain was melting. I do enjoy her stuff. Very creepy. Very atmospheric. British too. That will make eleven of twelve completed. And then back to one more Richard Morgan book, called “The steel remains”, and that gives me all twelve, cover to cover, and my reading challenge for the year completed successfully. I will add more once I finish these last two books. I have been eyeing up the newest Don Winslow release, and also a book called “The Terraformers”. They both sounds really enjoyable. For very different reasons at that.

Went to Canadian tire today for water softener salt, and to look around. Saw an ad yesterday saying they had a 26G air compressor for $299.00 but when I got there, all the 26G compressors were $400.00 or more. I want an increased capacity compressor but not for that much. Plus I would need a new 50′ hose, quick connect adapters, and a hose reel, and possibly a spray gun, and before you know it that’s like several additional hundreds of dollars. Perhaps after tax time if I don’t get raked over the coals. Or if I pick up some additional work this summer. Anyway. Take care. All the best out there. Ciao Bella!

Ten (10) days in with the Vid. Now the majority of the worst is over. The cough lingers, and do does the fatigue. Must have some hidden Vid cells in the body fat because if I don’t eat I feel real nasty once that body fat starts to burn up as fuel. That’s going to make weight loss a tad tricky. Also why the sporadic dry heaving spells? What gives? The eye pain has settled right down thankfully, because that was excruciating. Brain fog feels as though it has lifted, but… you know, brain fog so who knows if I’ve just gotten comfortable working around & through it, or if it has lifted partially or in its entirety. Can’t say. Tough call to make at this point so early on. Going to need more tests, as I’ve run through a bunch. Not just me, all four had to test to get cleared for school and work outside of the house. I’m the only one left on isolation, and masked up everywhere outside where I might run into close proximity to someone not of my household.

I fairly sure today is Thursday. I need to wrap some gifts for the kids birthday party activities this weekend. I want to find something fun we can do to make up for the lackluster showing of March Break 2023.

I need to go work on some french translations. So peace out my peoples.

Hard to fight what the test shows to be true. Progress – albeit slow. A solid, but very light pink line. There is still no question about it, Covid Positive, but the gentle crawl away from blaring horns, and klaxon alarms that sound when the two lines are beet red, is happening. At a proverbial snail’s pace. But there is noticeable, trackable forward movement towards ever so slightly better health. Now what this unseen beast has done to my innards, brain, vascular system, and immune system could remain hidden for some time. Three years in, and our first actual, verifiable Covid diagnosis. I pray it is our last, as this was one of the worst things I’ve felt in my lifetime. And in 2015 I had Epstein Barr & pneumonia at once, along with a sinus infection, and a crohns flare up simultaneously because of it. That sucked, this was worse.

The brain pain & mind fog scares me, makes me wonder about neurological damages that I can’t see. Yikes. What has been done, is done. Best try better to remain out of harm’s way.

Today is Wednesday. Hump Day, middle of the week day. It may shape up to be a real busy one at that. If I recall some clients have print deadlines today, and later this week. Going to need to stay on my toes today. Best to rest up, eat, and attack the day with both hands on the steering wheel.

Pretty soon the rains are going to start up, and wash away all of this snow, leaving behind mounds of sand and grit to sweep off the edge of the lawn. Gravel chunks, and plowed up garbage will become uncovered soon. Downed branches, and any hidden dog poops from neighbours whom chose not to clean up after their pets while out on walks. Old leaves, and lots of raking up dead grass. Aerating the lawn, weed & feeding it, will all have to start soon enough. The plowman gouged my lawn up pretty good with his massive blade a week or two ago. I’ll need to find all the sod bits, and tamp that down if I want to try to save that patch of grass that’s about 2ft by 2ft square. Ugh.

Mostly green, and mostly grass is as far as my concern for the lawn goes. I’m ok with dandelions, and wild flowers. I want honey bees to populate my fruit trees and give me all the fruits. It was a good year for cherries and not much else in my yard last summer. I want Apples! Grapes! Raspberries! Pears! And Cherries too! We used to have blueberries and blackberries but the raised bed froze over and killed all but the raspberries and strawberries. So I refused to buy more. It has to be hardy enough, and self sufficient to grow regardless of my neglect. Oh when it’s scorching out I can pass about dome water, but it needs to sort itself out for the other 85% of the season. But that’s a ways off yet. No point getting too far out front. Not even into April yet. Take care out there. Ciao Bella.