Month: January 2024

Came to the rink to start clearing it of snow, but yesterday was -19 before the wind chill, and today it is snowing rather heavily. I do not know if it is worth it to begin clearing the snow off the ice if once I complete a pass just as much will have newly settled upon it in my wake. Seems futile if you ask me. Or is that defeatist of me to say? I’d rather wait for it to stop and get all of it once. I hate having to do the same things over & over again.

In other news I’m in need of ordering a new tool for Monday so that I can repair the bumper on the van. I damn near tore the whole front end off on the ice at the end of my driveway. Well, I think I bumped it pulling in tight to one side, and then scrapped it pulling hack out, and POP! Off she came. I am hoping with some wire mesh, and metal pins I can plastic weld the two brackets back together, and reseam along one side. It doesn’t need to be pretty, just hold together around town. I have it lashed down fairly well as it is. But if I can repair it a bit more I will feel better about it. Idiotic thing for me to have done. With the freezing temperatures we’ve had I should have known that wasn’t just snow, but an 800lb block of ice/wall. Totally my fault. God damn. If the repairs I have been eyeing up don’t work, then I need to fund the replacement of the entire front bumper. Foolish. Finger, arms, legs & toes crossed the planned repairs do what I hope they can for my particular predicament. I’d rather spend $75 and spend two to three hours fixing it, than dump $1,500.00 or more just on parts, I then have to pay someone to put it on the vehicle, and dispose of the old one. What a mess I’ve single handedly created.

And you chose to go to school with no gloves, ok great, got it, thanks. So unless they maintain an indoor recess policy today, against the wishes of our terrible minister of education, Lecce, her poor little fingaloos with freeze painfully. Wonderful. At least she still has blue cloth mitts in her back back, but that was a terrible mistake to make on a day like today. Silly little toad. The one aspect of their gear that is their responsibility and she spaced on it entirely. Today, of all days. Minus twenty five with the wind chill. Ugh. I can’t even or odd with this kid today.

Love that the gas prices dropped ten cents AFTER I bought gas yesterday morning. Gotta love that barb to the wallet. Serves me right for being efficient and doing so while I ran errands yesterday morning. If I’d have held out until 5:00pm I could have got it for closer to a dollar thirty per liter.

I guess I should head out and get some groceries, since we are low on just about everything I can think of, except juice boxes. Those we have in spades. Ok, well enjoy your Wednesday in the bitter cold.

Ciao Bella!

Starting off with a once over by the dentist. Followed by a visit in a few says with the optometrist. We all saw the doctor for much needed needles of various sorts for items we were missing. I myself had a Tetanus shot because I could not, for the life of me remember when I’d last had one. So hopefully we’ll get good news as Covid put a pretty major hiatus on all but our most vital appointments. Which reminds me, I need to make a few calls of my own.

Tuesday, ooh! What a week it’s been. Feels like ten days worth from just the one we’ve done. I think the bitter cold added extra layers of complication and complexity to a busy enough day. Lots more where that came from coming this week. The flip finally switched and we jumped neck first into the deep cold of Canadian winter. Not as bad as western canada, prairie winter temperatures, but cold enough to freeze doors shut, and seize electric windows. That kind of fun.

I’m just sort of floating today as I needed to gas up the cars, and take my eldest to her dentist appointment later this morning. Can’t get too caught up in anything or else I’ll forget about the appointment. I’m waiting on some watch batteries to get delivered so that I can repair my first nice watch that I’ve ever owned. It’s a Timex Expedition, so nothing crazy, but nice enough for me. I watched a clip about how to swap the battery myself, instead of paying $100+ for a jewellers to do it. I look forward to crossing it off the list. I also look forward to wearing it and being able to tell time in the evenings.

The watch is a part of my plan to use/stare at my phone less during the day. Not turning to my phone for the time might curb my use of the phone. Small incremental behavioural changes make the most impact over time. It isn’t a cold turkey type of problem, but less screen time is still going to bet for the better. I think so, anyway. So I’ll give it a whirl.

Which is: not documenting in its entirety the plan for all of the parts in the bins I have. Thinking that because at the time I WAS working on it, every element was seared into my brain, and it all made sense.

Now that I am several months out from that, I am drawing a blank. I know the high notes, such as it is. Two shades of red, yellow, white, gloss black and gun metal silver. Grey or white primer underneath depending on final colours. But beyond that I look at the parts and don’t see which ones go where anymore. D’oh! Idiot! Luckily I have some photos with a good chunk of the parts laid out, but not all of them. I do still have the manual so I’ll just have to go over them one by one and resort them into silo’d groups of colours for priming and painting. Live and learn. Always document stuff like it’s going to be brand new to you later on. I thought I was inured to it that those details would never leave me. But woosh! They up and left me. High and dry. Take more pictures, make more notes. Classic mistake. Rookie mistake. I did think I was going to get it done by Christmas, but that was a lofty goal. If my kids were sullen teens I probably could have, but being two under nine years of age they still require near constant supervision or engagement, or both.

Aaand I’ve lost interest – again. I was watching sculpting videos, and wood working videos, and miniature painting videos all weekend long, and I wish to do these things, but then I also wanted to read, and play my guitar, so instead I watched more videos and did it all vicariously through other people. No satisfaction that way. No pay off to it. And, I might add, being minus twenty two today means I will most definitely not go out to the shop to try to do anything there. Tools would freeze to my exposed skin. Yuck. Let us just say that my piecemeal patch job of partial insulation leaves a lot to be desired. If it hovers just above zero degrees Celsius, I can get it warmer in there, but not when it’s this cold.

This whole week looks to be more classic southern Ontario weather. Teeth rattling cold, and gale force winds that cut right through all fabrics. I wore snowpants to drop the kids off at school today. If it stays this icy, I will do so again at pick-up too. No shame in bundling up for the winter. A much better alternative than itching until I bleed. Ugh.

So where are we now, back to Monday, middle of the month of January. Two weeks in, and how are we all feeling? I have yet to lift a single weight. Beyond those heavy wet snow shovel fulls that tweaked my bicep. Still snacking at night when bored, but trying to cut it back when I remember I’m not actually hungry. I’ve put less pressure on myself to read a certain number of books. I’m making reading purely for pleasure by only reading when I want to (not including materials for work related stuff). I am almost done the Adrian Tchaikovsky book I started in 2023. Turns out the action really kicks into gear around page 200, so now it’s flying along. I have just over 100 pages left to read. I also pre-ordered some books for later in the year by two authors I really enjoy. Looking forward to those. Plus I rediscovered a bunch of novels when I cleaned up my collection, so I will read a few already in my possession. Depends on whether i want robots, dragons, war or spaceships and existential dread. I have lots to choose from. Will need to make a choice at some point in the next few weeks, or possibly days.

I also need to tackle a mammoth mound of laundry at some point today. Got it all washed & dried, but now it needs to be sorted and hung up. Such fun! Ciao Bella.

Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday mornings, these are now known as prime play date times moving forward. Hop on board with it or else face social ostracism. Oh to be in Grade Four and Grade One. Loud shrieking voices in the house for the next 120 minutes. Yelling from one room to the next? Check. Running up & down the hallway? Check. Screams, yelps, shrieks of glee? Check, check & check! Everything is coming up aces, and we’re only ten minutes in.

Pretty soon we’ll have to bust out juice boxes and goldfish crackers, and apple slices for a mid morning snack. Where did I leave my ear plugs? Can I sneak out to the shop without raising suspicion? Probably not.

The temperature has dropped so significantly since Saturday morning that all that slush has turned to jagged tire popping ice. We now enter the period where the van doors will freeze shut at every imaginable turn. Do you like to enter your van via the rear lift gate? Yes. Well then winter time door freezing season is right for you!

Fifteen minutes in and they’ve settled down ever so slightly. The tablet has come out, and now mine are playing electronic games and the friend is elbow deep in LOL’S, Shadow/Rainbow high, and Barbie dolls. Of which we have hundreds, plus accessories, vehicles, homes, cabins and houses. Ludicrous. My wife bought boxes and totes full of these things for pennies on the dollar. We just have to find room for it all. Oh, some went to bedrooms, basement, front room bins and toy boxes. Others went to the cottage play room, cottage bed rooms, and cousins houses too. We have enough to launch a well stocked bricks & mortar store. Would my kids let any doubles or triples go to a good home you ask? No. No they would not.

Almost halfway into January. Man time has been just flying by the last few months.

Did it immediately rain after the massive snow storm last night? Yes! Yes it did. And my back, shoulders, arms and heart are not going to be terribly happy about it for quite some time. Blah! Hated it.

Welcome to Saturday morning to you too. I desperately want to upgrade my bandsaw, but I think that money will eventually have to go to the purchase of a snow blower of some shape or size. Not suffering a heart attack out in the snow is key. It’s a real concern as I get out into my forties, not being a terribly in shape human being that I am. I wonder if I should chew some Aspirin 81mg in preparation for the shoveling. I hope not. May be rushing down to Canadian Tire for a snow blower faster than you think.

Two more weeks and the front half of the school year is in the books, cooked, and done for. Five months in with only five months left to go before summer vacation. The life I live is cyclical, and I have the same or similar thoughts each year. I though Deja vu was for more immediate feelings of sameness and not because I have the same reoccurring thoughts year after year! So odd.

Sometimes when I’m reading a physical book I get a sense of out of place deva ju on how the pages feel in my hands. The weight of the book on my elbows, and the kink in my neck from looking down. I think that physical memory comes from university, and not childhood.

I don’t remember all that much about childhood, beyond being sick in my teens, and a few fights where I got beat up by older brothers. I remember a Christmas when my brother Steve got the GI Joe snow truck I desperately wanted, and I got the Sargeant Slaughter tank he wanted, but he wouldn’t trade as it turned out the truck was the far superior toy (as I most certainly knew it was when asking for said truck!). That I recall clear as day. I recall getting pushed down the stairs, on several occasions (top set, and basement set) not on the same day mind you, but by the same brother. Ha. Kids. I remember proms, school dances, school plays, the band practice where the school knob end bashed in the rear tire of my Eddie Bauer street racing bike. But I don’t really remember much about just being a kid. A few baseball games on the driveway, walking about town during day camp, one visit to the beach during a heavy wind storm where the waves were the largest I’d ever seen in person. Some snippets of theme parks, like a giant indoor vertical slide made of wood, with a rope ladder used to climb up, and massive padded bags at the bottom to stop you after the descent. I remember being scared to death of my uncle’s german Shepherd Carla, who would growl at me when I needed to walk passed it in the front hall to use the toilet. Is the lack of memory a trauma response? Probably.

Makes me wonder what my kids will remember for childhood as they grow older. Hard to interpret what will become a core memory in the end, and what is just fluff to be discarded by the brain.

It’s Friday today. I sent off my first big report for the year last night, so hopefully that will be free and clear of mistakes and I can shoot off an invoice, the first for 2024! I think I might watch The Creator today as a reward. I finally sat down the other day to watch Oppenheimer with my wife. It was good, I liked it. Brought the book to life. Glad I watched it at home, I had the subtitles on, and loads of bathroom breaks. I even rewatched TMNT Mutant Mayhem the other day just for shits & giggles. Still as good as ever. I do like where Sony Animation has been able to go recently, especially when you think about Spider-Verse as well. Truly great stuff. I’m pumped for their third and final installment, probably sometime around 2026.