Month: October 2023

That’s quite the unusual hobby you’ve picked up. Oh, you’re an arsonist are you? Name five great fires! Rome doesn’t count. I knew you were just a poser. Fake fan, fake fan! Do you even have any third degree burns, huh? Didn’t think so. Go play with fire crackers and come back once you’ve felt a thing or two, ok, bud? Right. Oh! You wanna go? Giv’er bud. Take ‘er for a rip!

In other news today is Thursday, just in case you thought it was Friday like my kids did. It’s a short week, but not that short. Also – next Friday is yet another PA Day, and short week. That makes three or four all ready, this first semester alone. Maybe breaks in the second half of the school year are few & far between. No matter. Wife’s off this year, so it doesn’t all fall into my lap this go-around. Going to be hard to see it return next school year though. House will feel empty again with just me working here.

I think we are closing the inlaws pool today. So that’s always good for hurting my knees and lower back. Just what I always wanted! More aches and pains. Take a ticket and wait in line. I’m still reeling from the cottage clean up last weekend. Composite planks are good for not rotting away, but they weigh nearly three or four times as much as a regular hard wood board. Screw some of those together and you have some fairly hefty chunks to haul around twice a year. Setting them out in the late spring, and putting them away come early fall. My two least favourite activities.

Cottages are fun but the upkeep, maintenance, and setting up, tearing down really sort of suck. I think we should pare a bunch of it back, but I’d be in the minority on that point. Although getting voted down by those who don’t help to set up or take down doesn’t sit right with me either. But, eh! What are you gonna do. If you want to play with the toys you have to clean them, store them, and take care of them in the off season. Once these kids get older you better believe they’ll be out there with their strong vibrant back muscles lifting & moving stuff around in my stead. Count on it. Bet. Happy Thursday. Ciao Bella.

The number of the beast! What a momentous day! Probably why I was able to work like a man possessed earlier this week. Might also explain the back pain! Ha. No. I know exactly why my back hurts, it’s from heavy lifting at the cottage, and stacking cords of wood. That part isn’t a mystery. Get old, get sore doing physical labour. Duh! Just had to call out and mark the date! Six hundred sixty six days of unbroken writing streak. Take it all in. That’s it, breathe it in. Take a lap. Now carry on. Bon soir!

If I thought the work I had lined up was going to carry me through until the Christmas break, I was mistaken. Greatly. Turns out, the more you do something, the better at it you get. Pre planning, working smarter, batch processing. All of these things meant I did Q4’s work in about three very dedicated weeks. Not too shabby. Glad I’m paid by the project and not by the hour on some instances. I’m not free and clear entirely, but in Nother day or so I should have the fifth of six reports off of my desk. The last one will take some time coming to me, which is to be expected.

Means I can turn to the leaves, and Halloween decorations. Possibly the purchase of a new fridge, as ours is so temperamental of late, it has lost all amusement. Fighting with it was funny, at first. But do that every five weeks or less and it becomes entirely aggravating. Oh well.

I imagine the invoices will get paid closer to the holidays, so no worries in spending all of those Q4 proceeds ahead of schedule. I do hope there are a couple more projects, but I’m ok if there aren’t. As we get closer to Christmas and another birthday I’ll have lots to occupy my time regardless of paid work.

You ever get the sense that you are losing time? Or did way more than you thought possible in a brief, but narrowly focused period? Hm. Maybe it’s just me. Had a power focus session monday evening, followed by a hard day and poof! Got through a bunch of pages. Very strange. Hope I didn’t just forget a bunch of stuff you know? Weird. Ciao Bella.

Tables by Design, pies by Design, curtains by Design, I do not know who By Design is, or what it wants, but it must be an enormous conglomerate trying to take over the world, one niche item at a time. Insanity.

Happy Tuesday October 10th, 2023.

Ah… smell that? That’s the smell of not having to work today. That’s the smell of the kids being home too. We had a large, wonderful family dinner yesterday after completing a solid number of winter prep chores around the property. My back is feeling the strain of the physical exertion, but better to have more things done, than not. I have my work set out for me for tomorrow morning after school drop off, so I have a game plan ready.

With tomorrow’s big report in hand that will put me in place to have finalized three reports, be waiting on final edits for the fourth, and starting the fifth. Report number six isn’t due to come in for a few weeks. Which means leaves, patio furniture, deck washing, covering & oiling the AC unit. Taking all of our tree clippings to the farm, and pulling up plant bulbs to be saved for next spring. Lots to do at home.

Possibly look for a new refrigerator. But will have to measure out the space properly. Could require taking doors off of hinges to get the new one in & the old one out. So that can run us anywhere from $800-$2,700 dollars depending on size, number of doors, cubic feet, electronic add-ons, water functionality (dispensers, ice machines, front door pouring spouts). Top or bottom freezer, warming tray, you name it. Not sure why you would ever need a wi-fi enabled fridge, but they have that option too. So there is that to look forward to. Fun.

Happy holiday monday. Gobble – gobble. Ciao Bella!

That’s where you’ll find Schneider, thrown there by the dynamic duo of Atkins (already) and Shapiro (forthcoming on Thursday, just you watch). I’m sure we’ll find out the decision to pull Berriois was Schneider’s call, and had sweet FA to do with the front office, analytics et al. Beeps beeps, thump. The only question is will they reverse course in order to drive over the guy a second, and third time, given how poorly the Jay’s offense was as well. As a Manager how can you possibly stay on after the SLT throws you to the wolves in such a viscious market as the likes of major sports in Toronto? Show some spine my boy, contest that bs in public. How do you go to work knowing the higher ups are ready to put you on the firing line whenever they cock something up. He didn’t HAVE to swap out the pitchers, but behind the scenes we’ve made it known that it absolutely HAS to be done, but totally his call on the day, for sure, wink wink. Such baloney. Bah!

I think it’s Sunday. We have a short while before the rains start up again, so I gotta get some leaves done outside. Ciao Bella!

We are well into October and the trees are showing all of their vibrant, beautiful colours. Hard not to stare when you catch a face full of colours with a brilliant blue sky behind it. Last evening the clouds were lit by the setting sun, and all of that pillowy softness looked like a painting. Those brief moments where you see something that makes you feel really good about things, is hard to beat. Like the first sip of coffee for some in the morning. The cool crispness of an ice cold beer on a hot day. The startling rush of cool lake water when you first jump in. Brief. Exhilarating. Makes all the other shit float away for a moment. Hard to beat.

One of my hardest life lessons was realizing that those were the moments, few that they can be at times, that really make everything else worthwhile. Having career wins, family life wins, hobby wins mixed in means you can get more of the good stuff, if you know where to look, and what to place a priority on. But I’m getting sentimental.

Saturday is here. The rain has stopped. The sun is peeking out through the clouds a tiny bit. I see a whole lot of leaves I’m going to need to get to. I’m glad we finally had all that rain recently, as it knocked a bunch of the leaves down. If I had my way I’d make all of our leaves fall over a single week so that I just had to do one full day of leaf mulching, bagging, and spreading onto the gardens. Instead of every few says over a months time. Bah! Plus I need dry leaves for my mulcher vacuum to work properly. So the rain means I have to wait. Oh well.

I will have to dig up the Dahlias and Glads before too much longer. Dry those off and store them in the basement for next spring. That’s when we will get a true sense of just how many the squirrels and chipmunks have dug up and eaten over the course of the year. Bastards.

You have to figure that 20 plus days of no rain in September will affect the quality of colours in the leaves. But, miraculously enough, I’m still seeing all of the usual colours out in the wild. I was sure we’d get mostly browns this year. But a very rainy June, July, August seems to have solved that for us this year. So what do I know. The grass looks how I thought the trees would be. Crunchy. Brown. Ugly. Anybody’s guess at this point.

Heard some good things about both minions last night, so with only 20 or so days under review they are on track, as far as they could tell. I think a more genuine review will come at the end of January as the entire first term ends. My youngest is in a class of 20. So good chance to do well if she applied herself. A quick learner, or so I’m told. Happy to hear that she isn’t disruptive and is actually engaged with the lessons. Noice! The elder one is still going strong. Reading is where it should be. An avid student, and well liked by classmates & teachers alike. Most pleasing to hear.

I took a swelteringly hot half hour to peruse the Scholadtic Book Fair and pick up a couple books off of both child’s list as a reward for being good during class time. Not that I should have to buy good grades and a joy for learning, but I’m not opposed to rewarding achievement and effort that I didn’t personally have to drag out of them.

Getting close to finishing my first pass on report project #4. That puts me 2/3rds of the way through our initial list of projects for Q4 of 2023. Will there be more? Hard to say. Last year Q4 exploded with activity and I was pumping our reports every week even into December. Could have been a fluke. I’m not privy to the bidding/request portion of the outfit, so I have no idea what to expect beyond what’s currently listed on my project to-do list. Do I hope for an extra one or two that run into early December? Yeah, sure. Load me up. But would I want an extra ten of them? Woah buddy. Kinda?, but that puts a hell of a lot of strain on my wrist, so like maybe not 10 extra. There’s only so many working hours I can operate safely, and not risk injury. Best not to get greedy! Be happy with the work available and budget accordingly. Has worked for me thus far. Mostly.

Looking outside I think after Thanksgiving I’m definitely going to need to do some yard work, and clean up leaves etc… these shrubs could do with a hair cut! I don’t remember the last time I did any weeding in the flower beds. But going on 20+ days with no rain, the weeds aren’t much of a problem for me this year. I’m sure we’ll have a damp & dreary mid October just because I’ve gone and said that. The lawn now looks how it should have done in July! Crispy. Crunchy underfoot. Not much fun to play on in bare feet that’s for certain.

I think today is Thursday. Ciao Bella!

It has been a busy couple weeks and I’m getting through a tonne of work, which means no time for much of anything else. I have parent teacher night tonight, and a book fair to wander through aswell. Kids and their extracurriculars are taking up a significant portion of our evenings, so that just about rounds out my day. Lots of work (tiring but great!) Kids programming, and running errands is about all there is time for right now. Could be worse. In fact it could be a lot worse. So I’ll take it as is, thanks.

What I do need to do is curb spending, and continue to grow my business at a reasonable pace so as not to burn out, or aggravate my RSI for my wrist. On the upside now the kids are in school I have a full seven hours to work. I’m not trying to plug away during naps, or after bedtimes. I can focus and attack my work with vigor! Way better this way. Far fewer mistakes when I can focus without interruptions.

Have to remember to rest up, and exercise my wrists every so often. Work smart by planning ahead and batching similar processes. Trying to limit hyper repetitive actions. There is a method to the madness, and having done many projects, over 10,000 in the last 17 years, I can effectively plan ahead, and work in a healthy manner. Takes care and effort to do so, but it’s my body & health on the line, so I’ll make the effort. Pre-planning to make the project as smooth as possible isn’t much fun, but pays off when you’re in the thick of it.