Month: February 2024

I almost had it my way too, but the closing seconds beat me down with a tying field goal. Losing by a touch down with 3 sec left of the over time quarter was a tough way to finish the season. So close, and yet so far. Bah!

I was there to see all of the commercials and dance along to the Half Time show. When the time came though, I ignored all but a scant few seconds of the Half Time show. I wasn’t feeling the vibe. Didn’t feel like my jam. Glad others enjoyed it though.

Back to Monday. Laundry is done, but not yet put away. I’ll tackle that at some point either today or tomorrow. A bit of loud music and an hour to kill will see all that stuff taken care of. At least it’s all clean! I drove over to pick up my prescription this morning after the school drop off run. Left thirteen dollars lighter as there was a new fee for dispensing my medication. Thanks Weston Family.

Still waiting to book our other vehicle in for a replacement radiator. The Stop Leak fluid didn’t manage to hold the coolant inside the radiator system for long. I’m going to hold off on any birthday purchases until after the van is looked at. I don’t have unlimited funds to spend, and the second vehicle being useful is more important than my buying a new tool cart with storage drawers. I probably should just use the wood scraps, wheels, drawer slides I have lying around and build it myself. I’m just feeling lazy about building all those moving parts. Bah!

I should find the time to go grocery shopping some time soon as well. Domestic Duties wait for no one! Floors, counters, dishes, laundry, groceries, all of these continue to require looking at no matter how many times you complete them. Ugh. Must be what it feels like to work at the post office. Never ending stream of sameness. Bor-ring!

Back in it, with the whole sleeping without feeling rested scenario. I think I know the particular reason for it now though. I need an MRI this week to better assess the presence of my possible bowel constrictions/obstructions. The detail of the scan will dictate if I need surgery to have them removed sometime in the near/not so near future. I know that it is better to know the state of things, but I’m also concerned we may discover more than what is expected. Irrational feelings, I get it. Just had a few extended family members diagnosed with/die from cancer recently, and it’s in the back of my mind. No real point in worrying about it until you hear one way or the other. Nothing good can come from borrowing anxiety before you get any inclination of what the news will be. But, that’s why my last three nights of sleep have been less than restful. Whee!

Today is Superbowl Sunday so the afternoon and evening will be dominated by Foozeball coverage, and heart warming stories of how the players got where they are. I like the commercials myself, but not being State side means we don’t get all of the good ones first hand. I’ll see the best on YouTube tomorrow or next week. We might see the Kick of Destiny, which we missed last year. Or the Puppy Bowl if we can find who is going to broadcast it. Chilli cheese dogs, nachos, pizza and wings are par for the course. Though, truth be told, with four kids in our midst we’ll end up watching Bluey and following the game on our phones, or a separate tv. I look forward to that not being the case. I’d actually like to watch the football game, live on tv, at some point soon.

I think we missed our chance to see the Tampa Bucks play at home in November. That would have been a wild experience for the four of us. I saw the Miami Dolphins play at the Sky Dome decades ago as a child, and really enjoyed it. Those US football stadiums are absolutely monstrous in size. The scale of it can be hard to visualize if you don’t see it in person. With fries, hot dogs, burgers and ice cream I think the kids could have had a fun time too. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Lightning game there either, tickets are $60 each, which is incredible compared to Leafs tickets here at home. All four of us could see Tampa for the price of one terrible seat at the ACC. Or whatever the arena is called now.

Sunday Funday. Homework to be completed, and preparations for the week to be made. Laundry, groceries, and tidying up the house. The weather is supposed to go back down to proper winter levels. Not as cold as minus fifteen, but back below zero at least. We are in this weird limbo where I know (or feel as though we should) get more snow before April rolls around, but as it’s so nice out I’d  like to start yard work, but that shouldn’t really happen until late April. So I have to sit on it and wait. It’ll be the strangest winter I’ve ever had if we get no more snow between now and May 1st. Even the El Niño years had snow fall and sub zero temperatures eventually. I recall cutting grass in December that year in a t-shirt and long pants. But I digress.

Book #3 is moving along. Not too mathematical. Still enjoying it a fair bit. I have at least four more books that I plan to read. Plus I have two new books which I ordered to arrive over the next few months. A new series from James S A Corey, and the third installment of the Don Winslow City trilogy. I look forward to each book. Whether that remains the case as I get into them is a different story. Happy Football Day to you all. Ciao Bella.

We have limited TP supplies so everybody is limited to just one wipe with one square of single ply until the supply chain sorts itself out. This IS in fact an effort to curtail you all choosing to drop a deuce during work hours. Shame and intimidation tactics are now in play. Also, you will all have to wear white for everything, and a visual inspection will occur thrice daily until things change for the better, or enough of you get laid off that the CEO gets the bonus she’s been angling for since Q3 of last year. Luxury yachts don’t buy themselves people. If the problem persists then the cafeteria will stop serving anything but bran muffins and black coffee. Should that fail to materialize the results we want, then we will institute the 3:00pm hot sauce gauntlet. Which will consist of a series of tablespoons of several hot sauces for every employee to consume, likely 3 to 5 of them, of increasing scovilles until we meet our desired outcomes. Failing this the C-Suites will begin hunting staff using high vis paint balls, and any employee caught with paint on their whites will be forcefully removed from the premises. Meetings will continue as scheduled without interruption. Those fired whom have institutional knowledge not written down will still be responsible for imparting such information on their own time with zero compensation.

Thx – The Management.

And that’s what it currently feels like to be a small cog in Corporate America right now. Ciao Bella!

My intention was to find a suitable final spot for the two bar stool/chairs I have in the garage. But instead I solved that issue in 30 sec and then decided to fix the overhang on the racks which prevent my ladder from shifting a foot to the left. And then I decided to build a smaller tray to house my slightly larger tap & die set from Canadian Tire, and that freed up room to move my hot stapler, and now my lower drawers have room to rummage around in without having to move things first. Also – wood working! Yeah. Table saw, chop saw, Japanese pull saw, brad nailer, glue, chisels, I mean I had the whole band back together ever so briefly. The tray is nothing to write home about, I’m a few months out of practice, but hell I did something constructive! That counts as a win. I still believe you get good by doing lots of something rather than trying to be exacting right off the bat. Make shoddy things until you learn how to do it better incrementally. Fun fact, I was able to build the tray with stuff I had on hand, no new purchases required. Even better! Did I mention the urn I built is now going in to use by a different uncle? The vacation home is all set for it’s new occupant. Hope he gets put somewhere with a view!

I’ve managed to exercise five days in a row. Is it a habit yet? No, not really. But I know I can find 10 mi utes on a yoga mat to get moving around, so that is hopeful. Best to be active while you can!

Also the Stop Leak fluid we put in the van radiator worked for a few days of very light use, but ruptured yesterday evening. Not great. Gotta find a good fix for that sometime soon.

I had an automated call from the hospital last night about my abdominal MRI. It’s late next week. So maybe I’ll get some news in March or April about those supposed bowel constrictions my gastroenterologist was telling me about. He thought there were two, and only a few centimeters long each. So not major. He said a once in forty years surgery would clear those up if need be. Which I think is good news. Best get my sit ups in now before they poke through my abdominal wall to start cutting and pasting!

It’s sunny right now, and near 8°C. Not too bad for working in a light jacket and toque. No gloves required! I do need to get my daughters single bed frame sorted so she can get up off the floor at the cottage. Needs a few hours of work, and some assembly. It’s pine so not really all that heavy, luckily. Mostly need a light sanding, the feet all cut to match, and to be assembled. No biggy.

This strange warm weather pattern has one good side, I can comfortably putter around in my shop inbetween paid jobs, or while I wait on the review process for larger projects. Last week I broke down the old change table, RIP little friend. Haven’t needed it for four years now, and could not find anyone willing to take it off my hands, even for free. Yesterday I moved some things around to get all of the wood for my projects tucked into one corner. Freed up more floor space in the working area of my garage shop. I have some bar chairs i took for free in the fall to figure out next. I like the idea of having extra seating in the garage for when my kids join me, but i kinda hate the space being taken up by those two bar stools. I want to put them up on the racking, but I’ll have to fetch them each time someone else wants to sit down. It’s rare, so probably not the hindrance i feel it is.

I’m still kinda set on getting another rolling tool box for my chisels and such. I want my tools off the wall. Not a fan of the tippy toes needed to reach for things I want to use. I think a 36″ wide unit would be perfect. Somewhere in the five to seven drawer niche. I’m holding off on buying new, to see if I can land anything close on Facebook Marketplace for half the price. Plus it helps me to know if it’s something I need, or if it’s a flight of fancy, and an item I just ‘want‘. If that makes any sense. Though I will say, as far as my wants go, I tend to be right on the money with needing those items within the next 2 – 3 years after purchase. So not a waste per se, but a silly one off purchase that comes in really handed the rare time I desperately need it. I don’t know if that justifies those purchases or not, but it means I’m usually on the right track, sort of. Ha.

I do have a bunch of broken home electronics which I need to take to the dump. I have been breaking them down to steal their screws, bolts, cord segments, and copper wire off the motors. Then I’m discarding the plastic cases and some wiring only. Not great, I’ll admit, but I’m not tech savvy enough to rewire our broken things. I burned out the motor on a blender, the give away was the melted wire smell. Our old Hepa filter died but never smelled. I couldn’t see any blown resisters on the mother board, or burned wires, or excess wear & tear on the unit. It just died on me. An old radio went, a portable fan died too. Lots to be broken down, and parts retrieved for my jars of random bits.

I could fill another cardboard box with burnable scraps if I felt like it. I have a box in the basement that needs to go north to the cottage full of fire starting materials. Namely old magazines that are way out of date tech wise. No need to learn Adobe CS3 from 2007 anymore. Plus there are some clothes for the kids to go up north and get left there. Ideally we’d have clothes left there for everyone so that we don’t HAVE to pack clothes in order to be comfortable on the lake. I’d love to be able to grab a back pack and a tooth brush to leave instead of packing & unpacking all of our belongings every time we head north. First world problems, I know, I know.

As much as I can clean the shop/house I can’t make them any bigger. The size shall forever remain the same. So I hope by reducing whatever is excessive on the inside I can atleast make it feel bigger. Or provide fewer obstacles to have to work around. Make do with what I’ve got.

These last few days has made for a hell of a month. More visits to various dentists, orthodontists, and Periodontists in the last two weeks than in the previous four years. Insanity. Add in doctors and a death and you’ve got yourself a full calendar. Still waiting to hear about funeral details, though the oak Urn I made last year for a different uncle is now in play as a permanent vacation home for my wife’s uncle. Red oak, white oak, royal blue felt. A touch of plywood for stability. Polished up to 600 grit. Waxed and weather striped to limit dust seepage. Also has non marring rubber feet. If no one else claimed it, I would have been proud to use it myself (hopefully not for many healthy decades to come, think four or five more good decades at that!).

Now today I need to take the youngest on for cleaning, x-rays, and a review of her mouth. Should be about an hour. Pray for no cavities, nor extreme dental machinations ahead. I had all kinds of dental issues as a kid, and I hated every waking hour of it. Fun times.

I’m on day four of exercising a little each day. Not much, just ten mi utes of body weight stuff. Done on a yoga pad in the living room behind the couch. No results, but trying to build it into a habit as part of my day. Should limit DOMS episodes too. Make me more likely to keep going.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella.

Few items to strike off the list. Choosing potential day camp adventures for late August for both kids. Fetching water softener salt for the first time in a couple months. Finally after many call backs, and a few packages of parts we got it up and running.

Finding out details for uncle Fred’s funeral. He passed away on Friday February 2nd, at 6:45pm after a short but difficult battle with: Lung, Liver, Pancreatic, Throat & Tongue cancer. He had no spouse, and leaves behind no children. Any such details as I come to know will be shared here.

Swapping out the last of our car seats for a booster seat. End of an era! Both kids are getting so big. I remember bathing them in the sink, holding them in one arm like a football, heads nestled firmly in the palm of my hand, wash cloth at the ready. Then the tiny minnie the pooh tub with mesh body glove to keep their heads above the water line. It was challenging, but sometimes I miss it. Not for long, but I do get wistful every now & again.

I can’t believe that we need to sort out and plan for the summer in February, but here we are. Late August will see my wife return to work after her year off. A few items got in the way of how she’d hoped it would go, but I do hope she found some degree of rest, or something worthwhile that she got out of the experience. It’s like a chance to test drive retirement. And my come away is, she needs a hobby. Something to focus on, and derive satisfaction from. Give you purpose. Otherwise she’s going to hate being retired in her mid fifties.

Ups, downs and everywhere in between. I’m tired of February already, and we haven’t even made it to Valentine’s Day yet. I had to work really early this morning to make up for the hour I’ll lose at the Orthodontists office today. A consultation to review my eldest daughters x-rays. Sounds like no fun whatsoever. On Wednesday I need to take my other child to the dentist, and we’ll hear all about that I’m sure. This month had a PA Day, as well as a holiday Monday to look forward to. Also not much snow, and bitter icy winds. We’re all over the show right now. Ugh.