Month: April 2025

If you’re wondering where all those coughing, and phlegm removal noises are emanating from, it’s my house. It’s all from within these four walls apparently. That and many small mounds of dirty tissues, and sneeze spray “cones of goo” all over every surface. My house is a breeding ground for nasal bacteria, and lung buttery wakefulness at night. If you hate sleep, and love children’s tears, then you need a helpful scoopful of this grotesque misery. I’m sure it’ll get inside to infect me at some point in the next week or two. I have that to look forward to.

So now it’s Thursday and all of my plans are in a blender while I watch my youngest at home – again. This week has seen both kids home at least once, and the youngest home again with a fever, headache, cough and a runny gooey nose. She seems fine-(ish) to me now. More lovely than I would have thought given her appearance first thing this morning. Live and learn. I would prefer to not have post nasal drip make this last for the better part of three months.

I had intentions of returning some skates to a friend, then dropping off our now too small snowboards, with boots & helmets to the care and share, as well as donating a number of pairs of girls figure skates, the white leather ones with toe picks, if that gives you a clearer visual. Then I was going to take a rain jacket over to my nephew, then walk at the farm. Now I’ll just need to do it tomorrow, provided both children go to school, and don’t stay home where I have to stay to watch them the entire time. Can’t just head out and leave my seven year old unattended for hours on end. Being in the garage or basement office is one thing, hopping in my car and driving all over town is another.

The way things are going it doesn’t look like tomorrow’s Girl Guide camp is going to have too many kids at it, as all the grade two kids I know all have this same snotty cough. Not only that but they are sleeping terribly, so the leaders are in terrible shape too. Should make for an unpleasant experience. No thank you!

I started to look through my kids closets yesterday to begin the Spring Cleaning Purge, but I had to halt that today as the little one is around. Removing stuff from the kids closets is best done in stealth mode I have found. The fewer eyes that notice items disappearing the better off we’ll all be. So that’s on hold until tomorrow now too. I almost have the garage entirely junk free. I need to throw away a few items from a storage bin, one floor mat for office chairs, and our last remaining car seat that a rodent has all ready chewed into and ruined. I’m keeping one umbrella stroller in case I should ever need one for any reason. Otherwise, I have an old cctv monitor that could go, and an ancient computer tower that could go out too. But besides that the space is as optimized as I can get it without getting rid of tool boxes, or tearing down one of the few remaining work benches. Which I don’t fancy doing right now.

You know I thought I was going to end up doing more wood turning on my lathe than I have done. I’m at a stand still with my four jawed chuck, as it doesn’t close equally on all the jaws, so loads are off centre, and gyrate wildly at high speeds. I don’t fancy taking a log to the head even with a face shield on. I do have one chuck that can be bolted right into the wood, but that leaves pretty lasting damage if I don’t have enough material to use as waste on either end. No matter. I have it on hand for when I get the itch once again. I have a lot of stuff like that. Leather/textile crafting materials. Felt for lining boxes, trunks, and drawers. Arc welding stuff (helmet, gloves, sleeves), along with a grinder, various grinding wheels, and hammers, magnets, and welding sticks. All ready to go once I have another project that requires it. I have a die grinder for holes in metal, deburring and for wood carving. All waiting for another project that requires it after I bought them to complete one, or a series of things with them.

I’m going to be on Kleenex dispensing duty today. That and measuring out Tylenol, naps, snacks and activities. Let us hope this cough & cold goes away fairly quickly. Fingers crossed.

That’s the lowest I’ve seen in quite some time. Of course I had only just filled up the day before when it was still $1.53 per litre, so I didn’t get to reap those particular rewards, but I did get gas today at $1.25 so I’ll take that as a win. I’m sure they will manufacture some off hand reason to take the price back up to where it was, and not drop it down to $.90 cents a litre of course. There’s always a storm, a fire, a plant shut down, or some other reason for the price to not drop out too far. Price of the barrel goes up, price goes up, price of a barrel drops, price goes up as there were extenuating circumstances (obviously! D’uh).

Another cold one today here in southern Ontario. Ground is pretty frozen. Yesterday and today had morning temperatures around minus sixteen or colder. Unpleasant to say the least. We still made the time for our farm dog walk though. Glad I haven’t packed away the long johns or snow pants just yet. I will need to wash all of the gloves, hats, mitts and snow gear for storage purposes in the next couple of weeks though. So I have that to look forward to. Same with purging shoes and other such types of gear. Maybe I’ll take the dog’s crate down since we don’t really ever use it except as a place to store his bones, and toys so I don’t trip on them in the dark at night.

We have a plethora of helmets, skates, and stuff that I need to find a place for since our kids have grown out of much of it. Same with our snowboards, and the associated boots. Not to mention cans of paint from under the basement stairs, and all manner of other crap we somehow continue to accumulate. I could likely fill a small trailer with excess clothing and other such junk.

I did the majority of my Domestic Duties yesterday while the family was home sick with a respiratory illness. Vacuum, mop, dishes, and laundry all had their turn to get done. I made us all lunch, and dinner yesterday too. For two kids whom woke up looking like death, they perked up real quick once they knew they didn’t have to go to school. It’s a miracle. But those jacking coughs made a cone back at bedtime, and all throughout the night, and into this morning. So no such luck that a solid rest day would help them at all.

Today is Wednesday. Hump Day. Middle of the week day. Hope you are having a better week than most. Ciao Bella!

Both children have wet hacking smokers coughs, so that’s cool. Runny noses, and coughs for everyone! Not to mention intermittent bouts of tears from the more sensitive older child whom can’t handle being sick right now, and having to miss classes, and handing in assignments. Very sad. She is very studious. I appreciate the effort. The second child is feral, but also sick with the same illness. She is less concerned with missing school due to her current state. It’s freezing cold, and is actually snowing hard enough to collect on the ground as a solid blanket, so I’m cool with my two sickos staying home in bed, heavily medicated to attempt to alleviate their coughing, and the damage it does to their throats, and appetites. Fluids, rest, and meds.

Holy cow it’s only Tuesday! What a week that Monday was. Felt like a lifetime in just twenty four hours. Work has slowed to a crawl so I was out in my garage making small wooden projects. Now those are done, and I’m thinking of what other smaller items I could produce to scratch that itch.  Low profile book shelves, a Knick-knack cubby, a wheelie cart for my guitar amps & pedals? I don’t know. I do know that once the girls outgrow their massive doll collection I will likely need to make some classier storage for upstairs. We have thought about a whole bank of lower, and upper cabinets along the far wall, with a proper counter top to “extend the kitchen” without interfering with the dining room table. But we have an antique side table that is mostly useless there now, and an equally over sized antique table that eats up all of that floor space. I don’t think we can keep both items, and build those cabinets. Now however, is not that time to worry about that sort of project. I need stuff I can start and finish in two or three days when the weather cooperates. It was a bit too cold so my glue ups set kinda funny on my last two projects, which is a shame. More of an annoyance really.

The Odie’s Oil is a champ though. Solid wipe on, buff off finish. I like the smell of it too. Funny that.

The riser for my battery back-up APC Unit was recently finished and installed. I tried the varathane diamond coat, but it didn’t really do much of anything, so I sanded that down and added a paste wax to attempt to protect it, ever so slightly from moisture from the basement floor. It’s there to act as the smallest safety margin against a flood. 3.25 inches of height should give me time to react to any minor flooding issues.

The second item was a three by nine inch long utensils organizer for beside the stove. The giant beer stein we had been using was too full to function properly. So now we have every tool out in the open, ready to use at a moments notice. I finished that off with Odie’s Oil. I like the smell, and it rubs on, and off easily enough. A nice grain pop too. Love it. I didn’t add rubber feet to it, but I can if I do choose. Might still do so.

Here we are, back to Monday. I took my youngest to go see the Minecraft movie, and she loved it. She’s not quite eight years old yet, so it was right up her alley. The Minecraft movie, along with the Dogman movie were horrendous films. One of which I slept through almost entirely, the other I tried to make heads or tails of, and gave up, and tried to enjoy the visual gags, and all of the nonsense.

But the kids are gone but so for it, so I guess it was a successful opening weekend. I’m still sad I missed out on Mickey 17, but I’ll pick up the Blu-ray soon enough if I can find it. Meanwhile I do have a stack of books to read, so I should get on those now that I have suitable reading glasses.

Hope your Monday is not a train wreck. Ciao Bella!

Gotta take my mother in-law to Pearson for her flight out to Miami this morning. Traffic was pretty mild for Sunday before seven am, so that was pleasant enough driving conditions. Only the departures section at Terminal three was chaos, so by that point we were there on time, and I no longer needed to worry. All pre-checked in yesterday, so provided security isn’t sat at a stand still she’ll be just fine. Now I’m home having pancakes for breakfast. Nice.

I think we are heading out to go see the Minecraft movie later this morning. My eldest went Friday night and liked it, so I have high hopes that my youngest will enjoy it too. I don’t imagine that I will care much for it, but oh well, I’m not the target demographic.

In other news it is Sunday and they are once again calling for snow tomorrow. The brine trucks are out dousing the roads in salty solutions to try to prevent black ice, and slick accumulations on the main roads. That tells me the snow is imminent. Fun times. But in about seven to ten days the temperatures will be up into the teens for multiple days in a row, and might signal the actual switch over to spring.

Reminds me, I need to power wash the deck, and the cars before I start to unpack out patio furniture, and kids toys.

That was bought up by another company would now like us backers to pay an additional sum, plus shipping fees for items we have been waiting for since 2020. It was $75.00 USD back then, with no shipping paid yet, and will now be an extra $50.00 plus whatever the new cost is to deliver it. I think I’m cool letting this go, and moving on to other minis for my war gaming table. GameFound has this new PostHaven set up that looks decent by Dungeons and Lasers, whom deliver on their promises. But maybe I’ll just let it all slide, and focus on painting all my boardgame minis instead. I do have a whole lot of them that I could do up nicely if I took the time to do it.

Welcome to Saturday. I’ll be out climbing for a bit today, and tomorrow I have an early morning airport run, and a daddy daughter date to go see the Minecraft movie with my girls. That should be fun. We don’t go to the movies very often anymore. I meant to go see Mickey 17, but we traveled to Florida and it wasn’t really on my radar once we returned, and now I fear it is gone. So waiting for the Blu-ray it is then!

These don’t really do the room justice, but for now I think it depicts a more open space, with cleaner organization, and clear paths around the work benches, table saw, and shelving unit.

The glare off of my vehicle windscreen makes it look a bit funny, but the new red shelves are easily identifiable, along with how much more open the space is around my work bench. My upgraded mitre saw and air compressor make a subtle appearance here too. Nice!

Today I started working on my APC Unit stand, made of Walnut, of course. I have the spray on diamond varathane finish drying over night. I’d like it to not smell too strong once I bring it into my office to get the APC up off the floor. If it’s important get it up off the floor is my philosophy. Next up will be my kitchen utensils organizer to go beside the stove. For that project I have some Odie’s Oil on the way. It’s 35% off right now so I snagged myself a jar full. I am debating doing some joinery for that, but we will have to see. I do have climbing tomorrow, so I can’t spend all day cutting tenons and mortises.

The space is shaping up nicely, even if I do say so myself. Ciao Bella!

Took my eldest daughter out for dinner while we waited on my youngest to finish her Girl Guides session at a school across town. The food was terrific, but the service was lacklustre. However, being a brand new spot in a small town means it was most likely artificially busy, just from newness, and likely understaffed for a Thursday evening. In a couple of weeks it will settle into its own pace. And the staffing levels will feel more appropriate. But like I said, food was great, and the staff very pleasant. I think we just got lost in the shuffle of the steady flow of people coming into the restaurant. It doesn’t have a tone of seating, and I think that they will want to differentiate the meal eaters, from the bar patrons better to free up space for those whom would like a meal, versus those having beers with whatever game is on. Lots of TV’s in the place. Was clean enough from what I could see. My daughter used the washroom and said it was real nice in there. I’d go back because the prices were very reasonable. I think they could probably do with an additional 4 – 6 tables right now, and four more wait staff, but I’m not a restauranteur, so what do I know? Just an inkling I had. A designated host/hostess to seat people, and a proper busboy to clear tables, and servers that only bring food & take orders would likely help them out immensely these first couple of weeks while they are the “New Big Thing”.

Yesterday’s weather was pretty great, at least once the early morning fog burned off. I got rid of even more waste from the garage. I swear that cleaning up has become my new hobby for the space. But I can’t be blamed for doing some much needed spring cleaning somewhere! Have to start, might as well be the garage/shop space. We did send two jam packed full garbage bags worth of clothes out the door with the Diabetes people. Given a solid day of prep we could have made that four or five I’m sure. I’m happy with the two that we got. There is always more though. I have clothes for the kids in my closet, and stuffed in bins in the basement, as well as in all of our closets. Shoes, coats and more that could go too. It’s all a bit much.

Once it warms up a little more I might start my utensils holder project. Glue won’t set until it’s at least 8-10°C I find. So I’m waiting for that to happen. My guess is that by 11 am I should be good to start cutting and prepping for glue. Whee! Let’s go.

Rain, sleet, freezing rain, flurries, snow, bitterly cold, winds, and now fog & humid hot air. We’ve got it all down in southern Ontario. Come one, come all to see the sideshow that is early spring weather in Canada. Waterproof boots are a must, so make sure they are comfortable because you are going to wear them for about six weeks straight! Plus a warm, but not too hot, rain coat because between days you could have a temperature fluctuation of about 23°C from cold to warm. Plan your days around that!

The freezing rain clogged my eaves troughs so most of last night’s heavy rains poured over the side directly onto the deck and back of the house. So far, no penetration from all that excess water. I checked the gutters after we officially made it into spring, but the sleet, and freezing rains collected on the north side and froze solid. Thanks weather!

Others that I know we’re not so fortunate, as they did have water ingress into their basement living spaces. Which sucks. I offered towels, my wet/dry shop vac, and a dehumidifier. About as much as I can do at this point. Our air blowers are all at the cottage anyway, so I couldn’t offer a high CFM solution to his clean up problems.

I need to break down some garbage sheet goods and get them to the farm burn barrel and then walk the dog. Of course when I needed gas today the price has jumped by 16 cents per litre. If it hadn’t been so nasty out yesterday I would have got it then, at an historically low $1.23,9 cents per litre instead of paying $1.39,9 like I did today. D’oh!

So the carbon tax relief lasted all of a day before they jacked the prices back up anyway, regardless. Fun.

Yikes, and ouch! The CRA wants it’s portion and they are going to get by hell or high water. So best be prepared.

In other news today is Wednesday. I had more errands to run this morning. A very errands running heavy week so far. I went out to do a bunch of things every morning this week, and I still have a wood pile to drop off at the farm burn barrel. So not entirely done yet either. Fun.

I did set up my two new shop upgrades earlier in the week, so that has been sorted out at least. Yippee! Glad to have that done, and wrapped up. Now if only it would get a little warmer. I have two small projects I would like to start sooner rather than later. One for my office APC unit, and the other to organize kitchen utensils. Neither of which are particularly glamorous but would help out immensely.

I suppose I could load up the wood, and take my taxes over to the accountant, and swing by the farm on my way back to unload it, and get one outside chore completely entirely. Maybe I’ll go do that. Use my time more wisely. Yes. Yes I think I will.

**And… Now that’s done. Taxes dropped off to the accountant ‘s assistant and the cedar wood pile from my old potato box is resting in the burn barrel awaiting a warmer, and less windy day to taste the fresh kiss from flames lips. Burn baby burn. Once it dries out a little more those rails will go up fast, bright, and very, very hot. If only briefly.

It looks as though I will need to power wash the back deck before I can put any patio furniture out in it. So I need the general temperature to be above zero or else I run the risk of that outdoor tape and pipe rupturing with the fluctuations. That’s no good. Also the back hedge will require a pretty serious hair cut along the sides, front & back, as well as a long the top once more. Two or so summers ago I knocked between 6 – 8 ft off the top to make the hedge less unruly, but it has taken off once again. That’s a good solid days worth of arm, and shoulder punishing work. I think I nearly tore a bicep last time wrenching on my loppers to cut the top of the trees off. Good Lord that hurt, and then ached for weeks afterward. I couldn’t even lift my kids during that period. Wowsers, don’t want to be doing that again. Does tidy the space up a lot though. Makes it easier to sit around the table when the hedge isn’t pushing itself over the patio stones quite so far. Down-boy!

Nothing to do now but wait for questions from the accountant, and see how much I owe compared to my best guesstimate. How close did I get? Will have to wait and see.