Month: August 2025

Not that I haven’t devoted a considerable amount of time emptying closets, and refining wardrobes this summer, but we are now going to bring home four suitcases of clothes, and countless bags of towels, bathing suits, cover ups and such. Those closets that were tidied up will be back to overflowing by this afternoon. I foresee many loads of laundry coming my way. Drawers that could shut properly being overstuffed and left open for weeks on end. It felt like too much when I was sending old clothes out for donation, but now we will quickly realize we weren’t thorough enough!

Shorts, pants, sweaters will once again need to be stuffed into those manicured closets. It’s too much stuff back in the house again. Not to mention my closet holds all the empty luggage so my space will diminish a fair bit too. I knew this was coming so I was far more cutting with my own gear. I was not very conservative about what I kept, and what I set free. I have some cruddy old luggage I should have thrown away last garbage day to make room. But I forgot about it once the time came. Silly man.

Now the children will head back to school and I’ll be left to take care of all these returning outfits. Wash them, dry them, sort them, and find a way to put them all away. We don’t typically separate our summer gear from the other three seasons clothes. I don’t have anywhere to put bins of summer clothes for all four of us in order to thin out our closets during any one particular season. Hence the constant struggle to donate clothes or move them along as hand me downs to the next child in line. We no longer keep double digit vacuum bags worth of  extra clothes in the house, which is great. Now it’s just two large garbage bags worth. One per kid.

I bet if we audited the clothes they actually wear versus what they have access to, you’d find only 35-40% of what we are holding gets worn. God forbid they should be able to see walks or drawer bottoms when rummaging through closets though. Besides underpants and socks (which we need 100 pairs of) they don’t wear every single t-shirt, sweater, dress, pants, or outfit that they have been given. I’m in favour of having fewer items, but which are of a higher quality. But then again my youngest plays in the school yard mud puddles on her knees, so fewer pants doesn’t really work as I have to soak, rinse, pre-wash, and do stain removal constantly, and I need a heavy rotation at my finger tips to be able to do that. Hand scrubbed, spot stain removal takes time and effort. I can’t do it if she only had four pairs of pants. I need at least 14, so I can get through a week while I fix the previous week’s grass stains. It’s a process!

We have lots of fancy rocks to bring home from this summer too. The Gemboree strikes again! Not only that but our visits to the Princess Sodalite mine were eventful as well. Bags of shinny mineral goodness needs to get washed, and sorted. Potentially displayed if it looks good enough after being washed.

I brought a lot up here for the summer, but my intention is to leave 98% of it there. I wasn’t ready to donate it, but if I can have clothes here so I no longer need to pack clothes for the trip, all the better. Pants, sweaters, old boxers you name it, I have left them up north. I just don’t have many socks up north for one reason or another. Mine wear out quickly, and I don’t keep socks with holes in the heels or toes. Feels weird. Don’t like it. I’m actually looking at cheap wire closet organizers so that I can get items hung up, aired out, and arranged how I like them. I’d love to outfit my room with a chair, floor lamp, a rug, and either a simple desk, or an organizing side table/coffee table type thing. But as work is slow this year, it might be a few years before I can make that happen. But until then I like to migrate my stuff to up north rather than throw it away. I could do that with my books too! Oh. Brain wave…

Feels like a while since I was here last. That must have been at some point in 2023 or very early 2024 before I fixed an old error and had to start over from the beginning. But not until after I threw an epic tantrum and got all morose about it. Yet, here we are slowly making our way back up towards Day 831, and hopefully beyond.

This whole daily writing thing has become a bit of a habit now, for good or bad. I’m pretty much stuck with it as I have been doing it for the better part of 1,400 days give or take, with only a brief respite somewhere in the middle. On that note of making new habits I have been very steady and consistent with my grip strength trainers, those I have used in combinations every single day since June. I have moved up from struggling with the 50 lbs, to now struggling with the 175 lb weights. Feels good to see some forward momentum. I will see if it offers me any additional help once I go back to climbing next week.

I haven’t been as consistent, but I am still doing push ups to try to keep my shoulders, and arms engaged in activity with my body weight every day. I missed a few days, but have done more of it than I thought I would. One small action repeated daily, and increased a little over time, is how I begin a new habit. Though I do find it easy to just forget about this new stuff because it isn’t as deeply ingrained yet. I am pretty easy going with myself about it. I’m not going to beat myself up if I forget. So at this point if I do it more often than not in a week, that’s a good thing. I can work with that. I can build on that.

Helps if you aren’t plagued by old injuries that flare up once you get active. My knees hate getting real jumpy & runny so I limit that type of athleticism. More calisthenics and body weight movements. I can walk a fair distance still, without causing myself harm. Ride a bike, skateboard on real clean fresh asphalt. Long bike paths around town are good for that.

I have eaten two salads in two days as replacement meals. That much lettuce still feels like broken glass in my guts, followed by bloating and gas, so that may be a bit more difficult to implement as a part of my (yet again, another attempt) weight loss journey. Life style changes, or edits, as opposed to rash decisions are my go to, along with things like; Be more active, drink more water, use discretion over portion size, cut way back on snacks, and try to do away with soda. Do not eat after eight pm at night. This last one helps with my acid reflux quite a bit. I’m not a big drinker so I have no booze to give up to immediately save 5 lbs of bloated water weight. I also do not want to have to skip meals in order to move the needle on the scales. I need to be more active. Longer dog walks, more climbing, and spend some time in a gym moving heavy weights around. Good for the bones if I can keep from hurting my back or knees again. I do enjoy Olympic lifts, but that can get loud, and is frowned upon at some gyms. I’ll have to play it by ear.

But here we are, Day 500. I feel good. Feels like building something. Feels like having some sort of purpose to my day. A tad self serving and introspective at times, but what is writing if not a great way to organize your own thoughts, and come face to face with just how scattered your own train of thoughts are? A mirror held up to your own head, wielded by your own hands. Glorious. A few stars, do recommend. A little bit of introspection is good for you. Too much seems like self indulgent masturbation, for the sake of dwelling on yourself. But I digress. I’m no psychologist nor any sort of therapist.

It is Saturday today. The children start school on Tuesday morning. Everything goes back to day one then. Early wake ups. Packed school lunches. Drop offs and pick ups. Dog walks and farm runs. Drive all about town for the kids programming. It  makes for a busy week, all school year long. Lean in, or out I don’t much care, I’m not your guru I’m just a near middle aged dad. Ciao Bella!

These things are good things, you just need to know how.

One.) I have exceeded the best viewership numbers on this blog that I had previously held back in 2021. And with several months left in the year to go I should hope to surpass 3,000. Which is a nice round number. I owe this in part to about 1,800 views that randomly came out of Germany. I still do not know what spurred that drive to my blog, and a serious spike in views, but it happened, and I’m good with it.

Two.) in another two days my streak will be 500 once more. I am on my way to 831, which would tie my previous long streak before I had an editing issue which fixed a post months after it was posted, which severed my streak on WordPress. I got discouraged and took some time off during a vacation, and then decided to just start from the start and meet or beat my previous high score.

Three.) downloads of both books, and single audio chapter are still climbing upwards slowly. I might break one hundred downloads for each this year. Which is kind of amazing to me. It’s pretty cool. I like knowing my stuff got out there all over the world. It is in English which is a limiting factor I know, but still I’m good with it.

Well that was three items, but that’s life. I’m waiting on an oil change, so I have things to do. Ha. Ciao Bella!

I actually had plans to be outdoors for much of today doing the lawn, garden beds, and pruning our large maple trees, but since we are experiencing rain, and from what the radar says, a fair bit of it throughout the day, those plans now seem highly unlikely. We are in desperate need of rain to bring the water table back up to where it should be – no doubt. The grass does need to be cut for the first time in weeks. There was rain here while we were up north getting none whatsoever. So less of a tinderbox here, and the grass is actually mostly green, and from the looks of it, thriving. Can not say the same for the lake. No sir. Dry as a bone. Scorched even. It’s very sandy and rocky up there, so not conducive to growing anything too fancy.

So now I will turn my eyes inward, and tackle more decluttering in the basement. I went through my stockpile of things and found a whole slew of stuff I could toss out. I have decided to reduce the number of Gundam kits I keep on my desk. The ones I like the least will be given away or thrown out. I also went through my office closet and took a fair bit out of there too. Cables, and plus, and adapters for long gone tech. Boxes and wrappers that I no longer need.

I have this storage bin I’ve had since forever, and I went through that for the first time in about ten years. I recall going through it when our first child was born and I threw out a fair bit of adult entertainment magazines, because who wants their child to stumble upon such things when snooping around the house. Plus that stuff is all free, and on-line now. I kept the Ginger Spice one because it was from my 19th birthday, and has sentimental value. Otherwise binned it! I also got rid of all university & college papers, tests, essay, time tables, class lists, syllabuses from my time in university, and both colleges. I’m a pack rat in the process of reforming myself.

I have even gone through my books again to pull out another 41* (updated) that can go to the Care & Share. I am going to give more graphic design textbooks away because why do I need info on CS3, when that program is more than a decade out of date now.

In the shed we have children’s bicycles the Care & Share can have next spring, and some winter sports gear they can have this October.  That will pretty much empty out the garage of stuff we aren’t currently using. I am even toying with the idea of building out a tool box with essential tools for my kids to have from my current hoard of items. Hammers, screw drivers, bits, pliers, and drill bits, perhaps even my old Ryobi drill and driver pair. I have the old batteries and the appropriate charger. Good enough for hanging pictures in their first apartment(s). A handful of screws, wall anchors, and dowels should round it out nicely. Nothing fancy, but utilitarian and can get the job done. Plus I get some space on my wall and in my tool boxes, and they get a helping hand. Nice!

All to make room for more bags of clothes we get from neighbours, friends, and family. Luckily there are a lot of girls in our surrounding family, so my two kids can wear it all, plus a few cousins, and my niece too. It’s not just a straight line to the dump, or textile recycling drop off.

All summer long we would have danced in the rain had it of ever come we were so desperate for it. And now I’m kinda bummed because I had plans for outdoor work. Especially since it hasn’t been 30°C plus for a few days, I could have gotten a whole lot done, without feeling woozy, or dehydrating in the first 10 minutes. C’est la vie! Such is life. The lawn can wait until tomorrow.

Maybe I will take and bag all of the fallen apples under my two trees. Might be nice to keep the wasps away if the apples are gone from off the ground. Or maybe it’ll make them more angry? I don’t really know. I need to fetch some garbage bags, and my box cutter, and start breaking down garbage to go out. I best be about my business. Happy Thursday.

I realize it is early Wednesday morning, but the idea of my minions getting up and heading back to school on Tuesday seems strange to me. I have started to receive transmissions from the school about the first week of classes, so it must be true. We should have notifications regarding our classroom placement on Friday at 3:00 pm, so that will make the transition very real. A name and a classroom, and an entrance location for the morning drop off run. Soon I will have forms to fill out, documents to sign, and waivers to file for both kids.

Homework and packed lunches, early morning wake ups, hair brushing fights over tangles & messy bed head. The school year brings much drama with it. Who else is in their class, and did they get separated from their core friend group. Where is the best friend located. How is recess playing out. Are they eating what they asked for for lunch. How quickly do we have to leave to get across town to practice, tutoring, lessons, and such once the school day ends.

The summer is a really easy breezy time for us because we don’t typically put the children in a tonne of additional programming. Though we did do flag foot ball, and a library reading program, along side the usual daily swimming lessons, so that felt a bit more hectic than normal. Also the intense heat and dryness this year made us want to do absolutely nothing, like ever. But the kids did their things, so everybody should be happy.

We made memories! 7 Wonderland trips, farm runs, partial weeks off & on at the cottage, headed to the mines, Gemboree, town festivals, fireworks, meteor showers, Kpop demon hunter watch parties, sleep overs with friends and extended family. Family visits at the cottage. Tubing with the intent to flip and crash out. Wake boarding, paddle boarding, canoeing on the lake. Beach runs, and swamp crawls looking for frogs and toads. We tried to pack a bunch of stuff into the kids break.

I did ride my longboard on two occasions. But failed to get out on my bike. Nor did I use my roller blades for yet another summer. I swam a fair bit in both the lake, and at the inlaws pool. But, I still put 10 lbs back on because I wasn’t as active as I had been leading up to the break. Back to square one to break 200 lbs again, and get down to 194, and try to keep on going to 180/175 lbs if I can. I found my wife’s bike at the farm, and am in the process of cleaning it, and oiling the chain, and making it suitable to ride. If I want to lose weight I need to get active. Which means making time on weekends to climb, ride a bike, long board and/or roller blade until the weather turns.

The children had playdates of their own and got to see a good number of their friends this summer. It gets difficult to line up folks when everybody splits for cottage country, international travel, or become hermits in the intense heat. It was so much hotter this summer than years previous. We hit well into the 40°C’s this year for a sustained period. You might get one day there before, but we had close to two weeks in that range, with the Humidex. No rain. No major storms to disrupt the heat and humidity build up. It was like living in the tropics. I fear what will become of the crop yields this year with so little rain, and such intense heat. I’d expect food prices to go up yet again.

In July the bugs were pretty horrendous and then by the August long weekend it’s like they packed up and left town overnight. I guess the dryness killed off the larvae by removing the swampy standing pools where they breed. The lake was down nearly 2 feet, so the shaded pools in the forests must have evaporated with no rain to refill them, and the surrounding trees desperate to absorb any water nearby. One bonus of the dry summer.

We did encounter forest fires up near us in the Kawarthas, so that was a bit nerve wracking. Gladly it was wrestled under control — eventually. Did not seem to affect the overall air quality like the major fires from much further north.

From last weekends to forest fires, how do I ever keep my train of thought. I bet if you read my posts both pre & post Covid19 you’ll notice some changes in both the quality of writing, and ability to maintain a dedication to a topic. These are the last six days to really make a splash for Summer Break 2025. I wish you well. Have a safe Labour Day weekend whenever you choose to begin it! Ciao Bella!

It’s a bit of a pass time for me, as I have written quite a few of them over the years. My Amazon review views used to be up over 100K, but went down to 60K during Covid & the prolonged shut downs. And now my Google Maps reviews are starting to kick in, which is kind of funny. I’m no connoisseur of fine things, or crap things for that matter, but I’ll spill some tea if it means somebody else has a better expectation going in, than what I had. Manage your expectations of reality and you will be far less dissatisfied with the things in your life. So yeah, is it clean, bright & open, certainly is, but expect to pay a premium on everything because it’s in a remote location and it’s the only shop around for 45 minutes in any direction. Expectations managed. Hot food is tasty, but don’t go if you are in a rush because the service wait times are terrible. Take the good with the bad, manage what you expect to happen, and you will be far less irritated by things.

You’ll still get annoyed by unexpected stuff, but if an outcome was to be expected, and you wanted it not to be so, then you’re the dum-dum who thought the world would be different “just for you”. How entitled!

Found a good deal, I’ll pass that on. Find a did, I’ll let everybody know that too. Something isn’t as advertised, or they tried the bait & switch, then I’ll warn you of it and you can act accordingly. It’s not about review bombing, or chasing clout (clout? What clout? I warn folks about lengthy wait times, or price increases, or shady sales tactics, I’m not getting famous, or extras just because I’ll spill some tea). Just because an experience didn’t go as planned for me, and my group doesn’t mean that every other group should suffer the same way. A tip here can help temper expectations of what reality will actually produce.

Now there are other factors to consider too. What I might consider to be ho-hum may very well blow another person’s socks off. What they find full or tedious might just be the deep dive of a topic I hold near and dear. For example; I absolutely love behind the scenes content on Bluerays & DVD’s, especially from things that were pre-internet/YouTube. It used to be really hard to know what was going on with movies if you weren’t directly in the know, or have an insider feeding you gossip/rumor etc… now they play all of that up as an extension of marketing, but having 3 hours of pre & post production interviews about the art for sci-fi films, the music, the sets, the costumes is my jam! My wife hates that stuff. I eat it up. Janty Yates talking about helmets for The Martian!?! Yes please, tell me more. I don’t think you could bore my wife more than to pepper her with those details. Watching folks build sets for films, seeing their painting techniques — ooh ooh ohh oh yes! But not under my wife’s watch though please, she would rather not. But I would. I’d take notes too, and use it on my next miniature terrain building exercise for war gaming.

Hell I love watching a fair few machinists on YouTube build stuff, but 8 know my wife & kids don’t care for it at all. I like watching metal fabrication, and wood working videos too. Shop infrastructure builds and organization? Sign me up. I love to see a space get cleaned up, organized, and optimized for use. Gives me ideas on how to make my space more functional. I can dig it.

Is Hans Zimmer going to talk at length about music for Dune or Bladerunner 2049? I’ll listen in on that. Extraordinary! Show me how you think of things like that. How does a musical brain work? I find it all so very interesting to see. Probably why I also love watching people paint stuff. Objects like miniatures, or busts, or water colours, oils and acrylics. Landscapes, seascapes and all manner of other things. I can’t paint worth a damn. I don’t do it very often. Maybe once a year on canvas, if that. I doom scroll instead of doing stuff. It’s a weakness.

On the other hand 8 have three sculpts on the go right now, so that’s kinda cool (I think). My Aves epoxy Hellboy, a chavant clay Goblin king which is just an early torso work up right now, and a foil covered armature for a potential fair entry made of Super Sculpey that needs to get built, baked, and painted before October. Failing that I have a ninja turtle I made that just needs to get painted. We will see how things shake out once the kids go back to school in September.

So go ahead write a review. It might just save somebody a melt down or a very long (but to be expected) line up. We might thank you for it later, or not.

That’s a considerable chunk of my life spent here as a naturalized citizen. Gotta say baller move on my parents behalf. I have no idea how things would have played out if we had stayed put in England. Same, better or worse? I could never say for certain, but here I met my lovely wife, and now have two funny little children and a dog. I was pretty small when we left everything, and everyone behind to come here in the middle of the night, amongst the largest electrical storm I had ever seen, from out of a 15th story window with no coverings. Our first night was restless, and a real doozy. I have no idea if those two things were a part of the same day, but besides walking into this old green & white burger joint with my mum, those are the only memories I have of the first apartment we lived in upon landing here. We moved a lot. I have a terrible memory, and am bad with dates. It all runs together for me.

Still — Canada, a pretty great country. Could have been someplace in the US, or even farther away into Australia for that matter. But my folks split the difference and here we came. Ontario Canada. It’s a big province, and we moved around inside it a fair bit. Never up north to Thunder Bay or Timmins, however we did criss cross Scarborough, Rouge Hill, Centennial, Guelph, Erin, among other such places. I think that we determined my parents have moved something like 18 or 19 times while living in Canada. Across the country at that! From British Columbia to Ontario, and back — again.

All of us have moved around, far more than many of our lifelong friends whose parents still reside in the homes that they were born into. To have roots that deep in a place feels foreign to me. My kids are the same, all they’ve ever known is this one house. Never needed to change schools, or bedrooms, share a bedroom, undergo construction inside the home while they live there. If we can help it we just might stay in this house until we retire! Imagine that, no need for me to move again! What a blessing. I have a hoard of tote boxes just for such an occasion. Now I’ll save them for my kids going off to college / university / trades school.

Which reminds me I am putting together a spare tool box full of essential items for my oldest because she’ll be out of the house, and off to some type of post secondary education before I know it. A sturdy tool box with a hammer, screw driver set, a pair of pliers, and some hardware for hanging/fastening things. Not a major expense but it should at least be helpful while she is away from home.

Forty years in Canada, which reminds me I need to remember to renew my passport before 2026. So many things to remember! Feel that cool pre-autumn chill in the morning air. Love it!

Trying to get out and do some fun family time before work starts up again tomorrow, and for a family of four it was a full sixty dollars to do eighteen holes of Ship Wrecked theme outdoor mini putt. The greens were pretty rough, torn up & thread bare in a number of places too. Place was busy too. So I know at least one place that’s making some money these days. Almost all of the driving range slots were taken too. I don’t recall what a large bucket of balls goes for these days, but I’ll bet that pays pretty well after a sunny day around here.

Sunday-Funday is here and we are making the most of the time we have left with Mum here at our finger tips. Come tomorrow morning it’s just Daddy dearest and both kids, plus the dog. We ordered in breakfast, had a bit of a lie in, did some (expensive) mini putt, and then we will all head to the farm to walk the dog, and pull weeds in the strawberry patch. The new one that is. They let the old one go to thistles and then tilled it under because the weeds strangled out the strawberries so they could not produce any fruit. I’ve put hours over several weeks into upkeep on the older strawberry patch, but planting new is easier than maintaining what you’ve got, I guess.

But I digress. My wife’s family are big on farming, planting new stuff, just not weeding or maintaining fields in any appreciable way. By now the thistles in the pumpkins are over five feet tall. You can no longer use a weed eater on them. Far too fiberous for that. No trim line, wired or not, would stand up to the thickness of these “Day of the Triffids” like weeds. Pruning shears, loppers, an electric saw would suffice now. Hours of bending low and cutting them out might make pumpkin picking a bit more attractive come October. Seven foot tall weeds are not very picturesque during the golden hour of sunset.

Every fall, and early spring before planting they should go out there with a propane torch and blast the soil to kill the weeds, and their dormant seeds on the surface. Till it all then torch again. Then plant the pumpkins. I’m not talking about flame torching 1,400 acres, just the 4-6 they use for pumpkins. A near little wagon to hold your tank and a good long hose, and whoosh, off you go roasting weeds, weed seeds, and other such pests. Should give it a go at least once to see if it makes any difference for the harvest time, and all the folks whom come by for photos with pumpkins, sun flowers, and the colours of the turning leaves.

School starts in eight more days, so the kids are starting to get their back packs, pencil cases, and lunch bags sorted for a fresh new school year. Onwards & upwards! Looking for their glue sticks, rulers, pencils, crayons, markers, scissors and the like. They put a lot of effort into decorating their bags too. Individual key chains, and bits of flair which they adorn their zippers with. Puff balls, stuffies, sparkling things etc…

Which reminds me I need to go grocery shopping and start gearing up for packed lunches again. I’ve had nine weeks off of having to wake up & pack them / prepare them. Best to have a sit down and figure out what exactly it is they intend to eat for lunch. I get frustrated if they ask for things which are time consuming for me to produce, but they then don’t eat, and I have to throw out the next morning because it traveled to and from school and wasn’t even looked at. We have well traveled lunches around here. I’m feeding the green bin bags, and the dump as opposed to my kids. Not cool.

I bought a 64° wedge last summer, and today I have a 52° showing up in the mail, along with a 15′ ball retrieval extension do-hickey thing. I have neon coloured balls coming tomorrow, because I have been donating balls to courses at what I feel is a heightened rate, because white is too plain to see. I think a neon pink would be far easier to spot. I hope! But, back to the original question, is two too many, or do people actually use all of the degree options available between the two extremes that I have now purchased? I suppose if you play weekly it might make sense to have a wide array of wedges, irons, woods, hybrids and the like. I have played twice, and I could very well squeeze in two 9 hole rounds or one 18 back at Lyndhurst again, since all four of us got rained out in a (much needed) heavy downpour. Now I have rain cheques to use as I see fit.

I held off on fairway woods because I was pretty happy with my 9 iron most of the time, but I found a used one that was a hybrid (I guess?) and also picked up a smaller headed driver that also works as a wood too. I wanted options to have. Not so many I’d be paralyzed by choice, but something in nearly every category that I could draw from when needed.

My golf clubs were bought off Facebook Marketplace and they have a 3, 5, 7, and 9 iron only. Which I think is ok, because for the longest time the only club I could hit correctly was the 9 iron. I have used my 3 once, and I am not aware of having used either of the other two. I downloaded a few pages of cheat sheets that tells me when is a good time to use each type of club, and for irons, which number, but I failed to even remember I had such data at my finger tips when we played on Tuesday afternoon. Oh well!

I see you can have irons that run from 1 through 9. I have a tough time imagining anybody but a pro, or Pro-Am player needing that many options. Terms like too much club, or too little club are meaningless to me. I’m not sure if I’ll drive for 225 yards, or 25 after bouncing off a tree, or scorching the grass with a worm burner. And if I do make contact it’s a one in three chance I go hard right, hard left, or straight down the middle. A clear swing path is something I do not have defined.

I have not spent enough time building up muscle memory in order to have a set swing path. Am I wide, shallow, too open, too flat, drop an elbow too soon, twisting, have no follow through. I do not know. I’m just glad when I hear that pure clack sound and the ball takes off. Now I’ve read that the driving range doesn’t translate to the course. What helps on the course is playing on the course. I will say I’m getting tired of three putts. I had some fantastic near misses with one putt chances, but I tend more towards three putts to go well into double par territory (at best).

So rather than pay money to blast balls at the driving range, which was my go to for a fun, short, mostly inexpensive outing, I am now opting to just go play somewhere inexpensive in the surrounding area of York Region. Lots to choose from (golf courses that is, maybe not inexpensive ones).

But before I get carried away with golf I do have to be available for my paid day job (though that has become slower as of late than usual). I also need to complete some wood working tasks that I have gotten started but still need to assemble, sand, and apply finish. I could also take some time to build myself some bedroom furniture for the cottage. My room is still just a bed, and a tiny side table. I need a dresser (of sorts) to place things on, and in. Doesn’t necessarily need drawers, but separate cubbies would work as well. Not too big, and not too heavy either.

So how many wedges do most of you have. I think I’m good now with two. Steep and steeper still. I find it not to bad to flop and roll with the one I have now if I’m not standing too strangely on an angle when I swing. I do have trouble guessing at how hard or soft I should be. I don’t encounter these situations enough to know anything like that yet. I also don’t know how to induce a top spin, or back spin for not launching a ball across a green once I get within 80 yards of it. Seems like I’m just swinging for the fences, or moving forward ten feet at a time. I get loft when I don’t want it, and send balls screaming across the grass tips when I wanted to go high. I have lost all control over my body when a golf ball & club enters the mix. It is frustrating.

Either way I have an inexpensive second wedge coming today in the mail. It is out for delivery as we speak, so it could arrive at any moment! Exciting. Then I need to sit down at my computer and put a few more pages of my report together. Anything I can get done today, and tomorrow is something I don’t have to do come Monday when I’m home alone with the kids after my wife returns to work.

Everyday now my youngest asks me how many days are left of Summer Break before school starts up again. Each time followed by a long “Awwwwwwww”, and a series of high pitched whines. It’s kind of amazing. Though she is looking forward to seeing all of her friends each day for recesses and lunch, she isn’t too fond of going back to sitting still for hours at a time, facing front, doing work sheets, reading, and math. Can’t say I blame her, the summer is way more fun. Games, swimming, farming, being at home, the farm, Grandma’s house or the cottage is far more free than sat in a classroom. Plus you get to read whatever you want at home! Dog-man, Captain Underpants, Dr Seuss you name it, all more fun than a math work sheet. I can see her point. Still gotta learn though. Back to class with you!

My eldest is keen to get back into the classroom. She has thoughts on teachers and potential classmates. She isn’t real big on the disruptive types being lumped into her classes all the time. But given the temperament of most eleven year old boys I suppose they would all likely fall into that category unless they are extremely introverted, shy, quiet, or just as studious as my child. That is saying a lot. Regardless, the older one is excited for school.

Before you know it we will be neck deep in the Markham Fair, Thanksgiving, and then Halloween and pumpkin stand season. Everything picks up speed between September and November. So much going on once the school year kicks in. Dance, Girl Guides, Tutoring, Climbing, Taekwondo, plus PTA activities surrounding the school. Work typically picks up in a headlong rush to Christmas break. Somewhere in there is my wife’s break week for her school, which means travel of some sort, or local day trips & activities.

We will have to pick & wash pumpkins, gourds, squash, and sweet corn. In November we will be planting garlic for next year, and adding all of our newly acquired tulip bulbs to the garden beds. Plus all of the leaf bagging, mulching, and yard clean up. Not to forget decorating for Halloween which covers a large percentage of our front lawn, and trees, and porch for some of September, and all of October. We like the spooky season. Oh! And Halloween Haunt visits to Wonderland in the evenings for lights, atmosphere, smoke machines, and characters in costume scaring passers by. It’s a hoot!

Life really does kick into high gear once September rolls around. I forgot to fill out the preferred classroom placement form for the kids in regards to friends they’d like to move forward with. I had done it every year and in most cases our wishes were ignored, so I put it on the back burner, and promptly forgot about it. My fault. I should have done it the day I saw it in my inbox like every other school requirement email. But I did not, so it was left blank, for both kids. D’oh!

We have working back packs, and I cleaned the lunch bags on the last day of school which was a half day. We have pencils, erasers, rulers, scissors, pencil crayons, markers, glue sticks all on hand. They have working pencil cases in their possession so I don’t see much need to go shopping for that stuff right now. We donate lined paper, notebooks, Kleenex, and what not to each class our children are in, so everything is mostly covered at this point. Luckily they do not need laptops for school just yet. That might be a high school thing, or a hand mobility thing, I’m not sure. For now pens, paper and pencils are the gold standard. I’m good with that.

Next Friday at 3:00 pm we will receive our child placement emails from the school. The school shuts immediately thereafter in order to brook no arguments about child placement. I can dig it. Nothing is set in stone until early October anyway, as kids come, go, and get shuffled from teacher to teacher across classrooms right up until then. No point getting angry or excited until you see how it all officially shakes out, in my opinion. Our hope is that they end up with a teacher they can relate to, and one or two good friends to commiserate with during the day outside of recess/lunch breaks.

Happy Friday morning to you all.