Month: April 2023

The 19 year drought of never progressing to round two of the playoffs has been reset. Will they play the Florida Panthers or the Boston Bruins? I don’t know. But we’ll find out later on today. I’m a fair weather fan. A band wagoner. My seats tilt back off the wagon at the slightest provocation, I won’t lie. I was watching the game at a buddies place and had a particularly strong beverage to celebrate in stunned shock once they pulled out that second goal in OT. Once I stumbled home it took an hour or two for my couch to stop spinning before I ventured, still stunned, off to bed. But congratulations to the Leafs for resetting the clock after a 19 year stretch. May hockey here we come!

It has come to my attention that I have been writing daily for more than five hundred days in a row now. Five hundred and one to be exact. So I can say this with some clarity, a certainty that I didn’t have before. I no longer write here because I feel the need to express myself, though that is a perk, but rather I write now because it has become a habit. It is more automatic, almost autonomous. I like to see the number of entries, and the length of days increase. How far will I take it? That I don’t know. It was at first, a test to see if I could boost my numbers prior to the new year starting which was a three week panicked stretch, and then it followed that I had a miraculous year of creative writing when work had come screeching to a halt, and now it’s so ingrained as a part of my day I find the ten to fifteen minutes needed to write no matter how chaotic my day is. What I’m saying is… I don’t know how long I’ll go for, or even if it means the same thing to me anymore. I have been so busy since January this year that even though I find a little slice of time to jot down a meandering post, I haven’t had the time, creatively, or mentally, to do any creative writing whatsoever. No shorts. No micro-short stories. Nothing beyond a streak maintaining blurb on the heaviest of days or weeks, and gone again.

Sometimes I get so far removed from creative writing I worry that I have lost the touch, or the sense of how to craft a narrative, characters, or meaningful dialogue. The last few years it came back to me after exploring a few select one off short stories. But now my attention is elsewhere. Increased output of the day job, wood working and refining my shop space, building out the resin kit, which takes so much time and effort & planning. So much, so, so much. To be honest I haven’t done any sculpting either, nor found much time to play guitar, or build miniatures and terrain pieces. I am very excited about the new increase in paid work, but I lament just a little, the tiniest bit, that lost creative personal time. But on the plus side, I can afford home repairs, oil changes, gas and groceries once again. And I’m still working from home, and see my kids in the mornings, do school drop offs and pick up, and horse around with my children instead of having to commute, or be in an office 50-60 hours a week fighting to climb a greased up corporate ladder with missing rungs, and its own internal politics. More invoices sent out is good. Less personal creative time is sad, but not a deal breaker. As the previous few years have shown us, nothing is certain, nor carved in stone. It could all dry up and go away at a moments notice. So I’ll take what I can handle, or slightly more so, and plan for those gaps in work accordingly.

Today is Saturday April 29th, 2023. The rains started yesterday afternoon, and plan to stick around until the end of next week, according to early forecasts. Umbrellas and boots for all for the next seven to ten days. But by the time it stops the world outside should be verdant & green. The heat will begin to turn up, and the shorts will come out, and sun screen will need to be applied once more. Gotta love it. Ciao Bella!

Funny, that. A few weeks ago it seemed miles away. Two crazy busy weeks later and it is just a random Friday at the end of April. Notable because the CRA here in Canada is on strike, and as far as I know, my accountant has not been able to process my taxes yet. Otherwise, not much else going down. I blazed through a hefty report, and busted my guts to complete a laundry list of other projects for other clients, and now I’m a bit frazzled. So much so, that once again, I have not prepared anything of note for this 500 Days of continuous writing challenge milestone that I am currently crossing. Just another empty feeling goal. I applaud my “stick with it-ness”, but on the day it feels empty. It’s only when you take a step back to think about it all, does it even register. Huh. Such is life I suppose. Guess that’s why rich folks are all so sad, or depressed. Gotta enjoy the process more than the end result, as the doing is where all the intrinsic value is, and the struggle. Gotta keep reinforcing that fact. I seem to have to keep relearning it, time and again. I’ll be happy once I, I’ll be happy when, if I can only get to… in the shit is where you need to be happy. Hard lesson to have to take to heart. Now, on a parallel note here; one would assume that winning a huge sum of money might prove a bit different, and could be just as much fun as it looks. But I think those that grind for their empire, trying to reach their first million, those types are the ones still miserable even when counting the zeros before the decimal point in their bank account. Not all of them, but you gotta sacrifice, and grind, and step over people to get those dollar bills, and it can leave you lonely at the top. I would assume.

So – Friday. End of a crazy week. So very busy. Wrist made it out still functional. Oh! I almost forgot. I finally stuck to my guns and did a full tear down of the table I had left in the garage. Which allowed me to move my mitre stands orientation, and open up another wide open path through my garage shop. It feels so light and airy in there now! I am rethinking the new chop saw. May stick with my old & trusty 10″ Skil miter saw for a while longer. I am now looking at a mobile work station with full length drawers, and a 52″ work top, to replace my old smaller Craftsman work table. I will cannibalize it to steal the peg board, light, and power strip. But will get rid of everything else. I now need full drawers to be able to properly organize my hand tools, and still be able to do wood working projects. A full tool chest would inhibit that I think. Not that I’m going to rush out to buy the mobile work bench any time soon, but it’s what is on my mind right now. The new fixation. It’s fun to scour the web looking for deals. Though, if I could find a reasonably priced 1.5, or 1.75hp motor bandsaw for my resawing needs I’d swoop in and grab that first. I gotta find a way to process all this Ash without having to run it through my planer 10,000 times. Just a total waste of materials to do it that way. Yeah, so I’m fixating on a mobile work station now. I’m finding it annoying to rummage for tools in over packed drawers. Plus I’d like to get rid of all the plastic injection moulded carrying cases i have accumulated. Organized, flat, and readily accessible in larger, wider, deeper, drawers is my new jam. For how long? No idea! Whee!

I still occasionally think about my children’s book. I didn’t dream it! Still have all of the working files for it. Work is not done being crazy. I have a website reskin project that starts on Monday. I put a few hours in so I don’t have to start from the very beginning. I’m nearly half way in, or a little more than that. A good place to be. Or so it feels. All the best to you out there. Ciao Bella!

No mention (that I’ve heard) of a filing deadline extension, so I guess a bunch of Canadians will get that delay of payment percentage fine to look forward to. I packaged my details up and sent it to the accountant weeks ago, but haven’t heard anything back, am I worried? Yeah – sorta. But I can’t do anything about it. I’ll just pay it when I know what that amount is. I’ve been holding off on a home repair until I know what I owe, so that I can budget for a new water softener plus installation costs. Might – might have to buy it before I know my tax bill as this hard water, and old faulty leaky softener are not doing this family any favours whatsoever. But that’s my two sense. One more stress to add to the pile I suppose.

These cold damp rainy days are really starting to wear on me right about now. The forecast shows another five or six days of overcast skies and rain. Gah! That one weird week was such a tease. Would have been better to just add a degree or two of heat for every other day in the month, than to have that one spontaneous summer like stretch. I get that the grass, and trees, and the water table etc need the recharge because before you know it the rains will stop and we’ll be in drought conditions. But – sweet cheese, I’m getting sick of the cold.

Also, can you believe it’s gonna be May! In just a few more days. The speed at which this year is moving along feels kind of alarming. No more months of click, click, clicking up the coaster, we’re up & over the precipice whizzing through the year at break neck speeds. That – or I’m just getting older and time has started to move at a greater pace because I have been so busy this year all ready. So far I’ve had no 9-11 week breaks with no work. It’s pretty incredible. I have been steady going since January 2nd of 2023. Pretty much unheard of since I started my business in 2006. Peaks and rush periods – well yeah! Duh!, but nothing like this constant stream. Truly is wild. Glad for it too. Like my old InDesign instructor used to say, “The reward for good work, is more work!” A truth more certain has never been uttered in my presence. I took that statement to heart, let me tell you.

One positive about all this rain is that the fertilizer I put on the front lawn yesterday afternoon should soak in. Birds were trying to eat it, but I can’t imagine that’s good for their insides, like, at all. The bag has a poison control number on it. So we tried to shue the birds away. Will I have more lawn than weeds this year? No idea! But I’ve made the slightest of efforts this time around. Bathe me with your admiration! Bask in the glow of my minor glory! The most modest of attempts! I’ll take a cookie & the medal please.

Lots of kids laundry to sort and put away today. Perhaps some loud music will ease my troubled mind. Hey get rythm! When you get the blues, come on get rythm…

That’s the sound of this latest report kicking my ass. But I have sent it off for review, and my arm/wrist is just a throbbing! Best fetch the Voltaren yet again and slather that shit on good & thick. It wasn’t the only work I had this week either. Which would have been tough enough on it’s own, but I had several, nearly ten if I think about it, multi-part projects to do on top of the report both yesterday and today, combined. A real brow beater of a few days. I’d like to spend tomorrow doing sweet F/A if I could, but that seems unlikely. No matter. I’ll do some grocery shopping tomorrow to finish off the week for lunches for the kids. I did at least three loads of laundry, not yet sorted or put away, but washed & dried nonetheless. A win in the Domestic Duties column! I did some tree pruning to remove as many dead branches as I could on Friday, don’t need any serious injury from those widow maker storm snapped branches on my conscience. Got a good jump on the legs for the resin kit last week, even after realizing I had to pull the old legs apart to add in the previously unmentioned swap out parts. So that was fun. I could potentially wash, prime and paint those leg pieces, if I were so inclined. I’m not. I’m too tired and sore right now, but the option is there if I want it. Good to know, good to know.

I’m fairly certain today is Tuesday. Feels a bit off, because I worked through the weekend to meet a very tight deadline. I’m a little discombobulated at the moment. I need to check the schools lost and found for my daughters gloves. Had a notice that the L&F is getting removed come Friday so it’s now or never if I’m going to have a look for them. Do it now, or forever hold your peace type deal.

I even have the dishwasher running. Almost managed to stay on top of my home duties while working hard. Not 100%, but I’m giving it a try in my off moments. Meal times, and when I need to pee. Dash off to load the washer/dryer, fill & start the dishwasher, move the garbage and blue bins. It ain’t much but I got’er done.

Ciao Bella!

This project is fairly large. After putting in around 16 hours over the weekend, and finishing prepped pages this morning, I’m down to the last 30 subsections. Some subsections equal one page, others can be five or six pages, depending on various factors. It’s a long haul, and I’ll be leaning heavily on my Voltaren to keep my wrist mobile for the rest of this week. Frequent breaks, eating, and stretching should keep me going during these stressful weeks! All the best out there. Ciao Bella!

And the kids have gone to the Zoo with my wife so that I can work on this massive report without distraction. Thus far, moving along smoothly. How long that will last is up in the air. Right now I’m taking the path of least resistance approach and doing whatever seems easiest to garner some positive early wins. That will keep my spirits up so that I want to come back and try to squeeze in more completed pages. It’s a weird affectation I have, but it seems to work when I’m under lots of pressure, and a difficult time line. So ciao!

Fighting the urge to sleep in and not get out of bed until you really, really excruciatingly need to pee. But alas, ringette calls and the kids are up, dressed and on the ice before 8:00am. Such is life.

The foreign language instructions you followed precisely to build your inner frame, the structure upon which every other element rests, is wrong. Well not wrong precisely, it just omits to tell you that various body parts you were instructed to add on with epoxy, metal pins, or glue need to be swapped out once you move on to the second stage of the build which is adding all the armor panels and dress up bits (think photo etched metal fins, and metal bearings, things of that nature) that no longer work because the internal frame you meticulously build doesn’t fit those parts anymore. As you are expected to swap out integral frame segments, heretofore never mentioned, like ever, not even hinted at. So I had to take a fine kerf blade to it and saw my resin model kit apart. Pull parts off that would give. And then use a dremel to reopen tenon and mortise points because the old tabs snapped off and stayed behind inside those needed voids. Not impressed. But I suppose with new pins, epoxy & putty I can dress up my errors – again. Would have preferred to know about the swap in parts from the very beginning. But the two sets of instructions are sealed in two separate pouches. Had multiple separate baggies with their own listed parts. I can all ready tell I need to swap the hips, and possibly even the shoulders. I don’t know how I’m going to do that, as the arms are glued up rock solid. Damn.

Oh well, on the bright side I’m going to be too busy next week to care, so I will calm down by the time I come back to it. I forsee then next two weeks, possibly three being very busy for me. I have a big report coming, a web site reskin project, also gathering up materials for a third company’s archives, and any smaller items that pop up in between. So atleast 2 weeks of heavier than usual work flow. Perhaps the weather will have turned a corner by then. Do need to remember to visit the bank next Friday to pay my income tax. That’s a biggie. A key element to next week!

Today is Friday. Another week down. Will also have invoices to send out next week. So that’s always good! No big plans 9n the horizon, so hopefully a quiet weekend spent chipping away at this big report that’s coming my way. All the best to you out there. Ciao Bella!