Month: July 2023

Here we go again. Time to empty the fridge once more, defrost and drain off all of the moisture build up, towel dry clean, and start all over yet again. So. Much. Fun. Especially since the last time I drained the water line into the fridge, empty the machine of all moisture, and disabled the ice machine to avoid this all happening. I got nearly five or six months of trouble free refrigerating for my troubles. My only thought is, there is no ice build up around the door seal, so no leaks there, but it has been very, very humid, and when grocery shopping lots of items go in with condensation, and add in lots of additional air moisture, and it kicked off over the air vents. That was a long sentence. Air vents strike again. With it being freezy season that door opens several times daily, and I don’t trust that it gets shut exactly as tight as it should. Now I have to wait nearly 24 hours for it to defrost. Again, again, again, again, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know….

How is your friday going so far? Yesterday we all toddled off to the farm to pull up garlic in the blazing heat for a few hours. Oh my. So if my back aches today, we’ll all know why. Pulling up hundreds of bulbs, in a patch that contained a couple thousand. Last ditch attempt to get it all up before the few days of storms roll over top of us. All hands on deck. Thistles, thorns, mosquitoes, uneven ground, hard packed soil, and garlic. Endless rows of garlic to dig up and clean & dry off.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is a production farm, just not for the produce we are pulling. The farm runs beans & corn. Us, we do apple orchard, peach tree orchard, veggies and pumpkins, watermelons, tomatoes, peppers and onions in bulk, but not at a production scale. More of an oversized hobby farm outfit for everything other than cattle corn and soy beans. So while I play at being a farm hand, there are folks on the grounds whom making a living doing it for real. I am not one of them.

After we finished sweating in the sun for a few hours we went swimming where I was promptly stung/bitten by something right smack dab centre of my shoulder blades, which both hurt & burned like a hot poker for a number of hours. The water was lovely though. Can’t complain about that.

Yeah – so, the fridge. I have it emptied of all the important stuff, and now the freezer trays will get a rinse & wash, and the doors will sit open until all of that water comes pouring out of the bottom all over my tile floors – again. Using that word a lot today. Also the spare parts for water softener are due to arrive today between noon and four pm. So lots going on here.

Ugh. I need to cut the grass once more. Last nights rain seems to have juiced the lawn back into lushness. Hard to believe that by now, usually the grass is a yellowed pile of thatch without a roof to cover. But I’d bet the shaded parts well under the tree canopies are well over six to eight inches tall. Glad for the rain fall every few days. Keeping my fruit trees top notch this year, and far less stressed. Might even get cherries, apples, raspberries and grapes this year, if the animals don’t strip them bare first. Later. Ciao Bella.

Drank beer in the full sunshine of day yesterday, for the first time in I don’t know how many years. Followed that up with a three finger pour of rye late in the evening (to empty a bottle), and not going to lie, had a bit of a spinny dream last night. Not quite nauseous, but not quite right either. Had a good time though. We had our children’s friends over to my inlaws house for a swim. Seven kids for a three plus hour swim, followed by pizza, Tim Bits, juice boxes, and in my case day beer(s).

I hope everyone elses children were more tired and less worked up than ours were. I’m sure my kids weren’t in bed asleep until 9:00pm or later. We have a razor thin line between making the kids tired, and pushing them into second wind territory full of angsty attitude, and a refusal to sleep. The line is a few scant molecules thick at best  at best I say! Like playing that rolling bowling ball over a hump game at the fair. Slightest tough too much and your evening plans are shot. I am not starting a movie – at home – after 9pm. 8:00 o’clock is last call for a full movie, unless we agree before hand to only watch half and see the rest the next day. Either way my wife will fall asleep in the opening moments anyway. Ha.

I do not miss sleeping with the spins, nor being hungover, nor being drunk for that matter. Did a whole lot of that in college, university, and while working for a number of breweries in my twenties and thirties. Drifting blissfully in the peace of my own home with an edible is about as adventurous as I’ll get nowadays. No burning my throat & nose with hot smoke. Eat it, mellow out, and have a good nights sleep. Lovely.

Today is Thursday! Late into July, almost three full weeks into the month now. Not going to be a big earnings month. Those jets cooled a fair bit come the end of June. I think all the vacation days, and not much fall planning are the cause of the slow downs. I did one small brewers entire instore retail catalogue last year, so they don’t have any products for me to update this year. The other micro brewery is probably reusing the summer/fall/winter labels we’ve made in previous years. Win some – lose some. Did have a fairly good list of sell sheets that we did this year, and the Markham Fair will pick up again soon, so a slow down might actually help now that my volunteer duties will kick back in. Plus my largest client hasn’t finalized any audits yet, and those should start coming in late August through until late November. There is always a late in the year push to complete projects. Which is great! Get those numbers up, and fill my account prior to tax time.

I have some packaging revisions to attend to today, so I’m not off entirely. I can run my kids around for a bit before I need to knuckle down and get work done. I started some edits last night, so I’m on track even if I occupy my kids early this morning. Take care all. Ciao Bella!

Once again feels like I’m losing my anchor point, my reference for any given week. I need to look at a calendar to know what day of the week it is, and also what the numerical date is too.

The 19th!?! Seriously. Wowzers. This month is zooming Bruv! Faaaaaaaaacts! Bet. Picking up speed as we near the middle of week three for Summer Break 2023. Almost nearing the halfway point, which is wild. We have undertaken quite a few day trips to keep things interesting. My wife has lead the bulk of those trips as I’m still working on paid projects. But I have joined in on one or two here and there. I had to give the bulk of the Zoo trips a miss. Which is a shame, I enjoy the Zoo mobile, and going for an aimless wander under the cover of tall trees.

Swimming lessons begin anew on Monday of this coming week, so we’ll have that to occupy the kids for 30-60 minutes each morning for around three weeks or so. I am supposed to have family fly into town next weekend, but I’m waiting to hear if that is still a go due to the fainting/passing out during a parachute jump which resulted in a limp body tree canopy landing forty or so feet in the air. Glad he was still able to pull the chute and not plummet like a lead weight straight into the ground, dive bomb style. Last I heard he was still in the cardiac unit undergoing tests, and waiting on more information.

So yeah – feeling adrift in the hot days of summer. When there is little to no differentiation between week day and weekend I start to feel unmoored. As much as I feel restricted by a schedule, they help to keep me oriented in any given week. No wonder my kids flail about once September rolls around as we go from free floating hippies to rigidly controlled ushering them from activity to activity, where once we rested and did whatever. Looks like two to three weeks of tantrums and freak outs until they get onboard with the new program. Whee! Such fun. Next year will be even worse, as my wife will be returning to work once more after her year long sabbatical, so I’ll have three testy ladies upset about their return to school. But that’s late 2024 me’s problem. My thing today is locating long sleeved bathing suits for the kids, and a promised trip to a book store for new reading material for my eldest. We will get them to read for fun this summer! I can feel it in my bones. Even the youngest one. Ciao Bella.

Spending the day doing family oriented errands, appointments and such. Wishing my oldest brother well after a heart episode during a parachute jump the other day. Blood proteins indicate a possible heart attack, but searching for potential blockages or other factors besides the adrenaline pump from freefall that might have caused the episode. Wishing him well on a speedy recovery. Otherwise – peace out folks.

Had a miserable nights sleep in an uncomfortable bed, as my wife was away doing her sleep apnea testing atca facility in Scraborough. Kids are out of sorts this morning, and I’m tired as all get out. Kids have a play date scheduled out in the full sun this morning, so I intend to find shade, and then spend the armrest of my day working on some packaging that came in after hours on Friday evening.

We all worked on some laundry and cleaning yesterday, so Domrstic Duties Monday will be a little half hearted today. Also I think the fridge is on the blink due to the humidity. Excess water is freezing on the vents again. Oh joy.

Took my oldest to go see across the Spider-Verse. Thought it was pretty good, glad I finally went to see it on the big screen. Could have done without the four heavily armed police officers turning on all the house lights, and stopping the movie with 8 minutes left to go to apprehend somebody, but otherwise it was rich in emotional energy, and had a lot of heart. Looking forward to seeing the third one in a few years time. How was your Sunday afternoon?

Speaking of which, I’m currently eating a bowl of mouth slicing Captain Crunch. Those sticky yellow hay bales of corn puffed shrapnel. Problem is there were three varieties on sale, as in buy 3 pay $10, which is an ok price for cereal around these parts, but was only available with the Captain. So I had the Crunch Berry, Original, and a Peanut Butter version to naw my way through this summer. Berries went first. Tasted like the flat dried red ‘fruits’ from those adult Special K mixed boxes. Not sure if it is meant to be a strawberry, Cherry, Raspberry, or Cranberry flavour. A mishmash generic red berry flavour is as best as I can describe it. Then I moved on to the Original. Bland, tooth sticking to, soft palate thagomizer of a cereal. I’m not entirely sure if kids would even really enjoy this cereal. I dread the Peanut Butter one. That may go to feed the birds and squirrels if it is truly vile. We’ll see.

Welcome to Saturday! Week two mostly completed. I have a good idea of what projects I’ll be undertaking next week. I have a retail tray I’m waiting to hear back on. Potential minor tweaks to be made. I’ll have to make sure all of the logos are actually one colour, so that means cut outs, and not using white to make it look that way. Depending on the complexity of the logo that can take some doing. Have to order the operations correctly to get the correct reversals of one colour art, and white substrate negative space. Thumbnails and a paint by numbers scheme helps alot. Nothing like getting 90% done and realizing you’ve missed some intricate detail. But I digress.

Off to plant some bulbs at the farm to keep them alive until next year.

Summer break is off to a fine start. Lots of adventures to be had. Certainly a fair amount of driving going on. I can only imagine what our total spending on gas will be if we keep up this pace all summer long. Going to cool things off for week three and try to remain a wee bit more local. Though I won’t lie, I’d like to slip a fourth Wonderland trip in next week because we have the passes and parking taken care of all ready. So a twenty minute drive isn’t out of the question. Same with the Zoo, we’re all paid up there too, for a whole other year. Gotta make the best of it while we can. I do worry that now we are fully into summer time the parks will all be lined up like crazy by the time the doors open. Such is life during summer break. If I’m being truthful, I’d prefer to avoid large crowds at all costs, even outdoors. I may be the only one in my family still concerned about this, at this point. We haven’t tried day glow mini putt, or rock climbing, or laser tag yet either. But that’s all indoors, and with other gooey, gross, snotty, sniffly, sore throated children. Give that a pass! Next!

Good morning, it’s Wednesday,  Hump-Day, Middle of the Week Day, the sun is shining, the birds are loud, and there’s nary a cloud in the sky. The wind is still, the air crisp, and I’ve got a fist full of dollars and a hankerin’ to smash rocks! So what’s the plan Action Man!

First, breakfast. Perhaps an untoasted everything bagel. Followed by watered down juice. Living on the edge here folks. Wild man! Perhaps a high fiber brownie aswell to round off the meal. Nothing too crazy.

Quiet day ahead as far as I am concerned. Let us see if the universe brings us anything different. Ciao Bella!