Day: August 18, 2025

If I recall correctly I bought my Rawlings baseball glove at some point when I was in university between 2002 and 2005. Which puts my glove at twenty years old, on the conservative side of the count. I used a break in oil, wraps, and a ball form for many of those years, and the tough leather never did give much over that time. I still find myself bending, punching, mashing, and twisting the glove to make it more nimble in my hand. It wasn’t until last year that I noticed the top most layer of the leather was crumbling, and chipping off. So I bought some glove butter to try and restore the leather a little. I’m well aware of how far gone it is, and I wasn’t looking for a cure all, just something to make what was left a little softer, and more supple. And you know what? After slathering the stuff on, and scrubbing it into the leather with a nylon bristle brush it seems to have worked out. I did attempt to wipe off the excess afterwards, but there really wasn’t much that didn’t get pushed directly into the battered hide. Maybe I’ll remind my daughters to take better care of their gloves than I did, and offer them the chance to condition their leather way before it gets to the stage mine was at. Still is at unfortunately. No saving mine at this point. It still works, but she’s ugly as sin.

I have dye in my leather working tool kit so maybe I will take a chance and darken the deeply battered portion of my old glove to hide my neglect. Or not. No point making it worse right?

Showing its wear and tear very honestly. Wish I could say it was from lots of use, and not from the chemical I used to work in the leather left far too long, and allowed to eat away at the hides surface. Silly me.

Hard to see but it actually looks better to the naked eye now after a good waxing than I did earlier this morning. The nylon brush bristles took a great deal of the chips & flakes off the surface. Hopefully now when I play catch I won’t have tiny orange speckles all over my hand when I’m done with it for the day, like I used to get before. Time will tell.

Oddly enough the back side looks so much better. I do not know if it has better leather, or if I just didn’t bathe that section in the chemicals I was using to break in the netting / palm portion. Oh well. Live and learn.

To start off with, first.) I am seven episodes into Department Q on Netflix, and while it has gotten better, albeit a tad convoluted, and suffers from some pacing issues (in my opinion anyway) it is an ok show. I might venture to say I like it? I suppose. Now I just want to know how it ends.

Second.) I did get a foursome for golf booked for early this week, though now my ankle has decided to be a bit shit, so I don’t have much hope for it not being a mess tomorrow. I am however excited to get out with my wife, and a few friends for some childless outdoor fun. We are going to a course which my wife frequents for work/staff events, so by all means should be a good time. She is a fan of the cart paths. Sounds like fun.

Third.) Dog has his vet visit today so that’s is likely going to cost me a bundle for needles, pills, check-up, and any blood work they deem required. A very quick way to add a few hundred bucks to my visa bill for August no doubt. His regular gal is away with a family matter so our Graham has to see somebody else today. Luckily we did his big surgery elsewhere, so as far as I know he doesn’t have any big misgivings about this particular office.

Four.) Still no progress on the illustrated children’s book. I’m sorry to say that even with all the indoor days we took due to extreme heat, and high UV, I did not manage to pull it together to paint the pages I need done to post the document here. Sad, I know. I will get it done!

Five.) We had a very busy week last week seeing cousins on both sides, and close family, as well as friends from Sunday evening right up until Saturday afternoon. It was a wild one. Lots and lots of tubing, wake boarding, swimming, and BBQ meals. I’m about 4 lbs heavier still, and I was up before the week started as well! Gah. Summer body is a marshmallow!

Six.) We did not go to see Superman, or any other film out in the theaters this summer, but I have Sat down to watch parts of Kpop Demon Hunters no less than four times, so Netflix has the cheese to squeeze this summer. I also saw Happy Gilmore 2 twice this summer, so that’s probably doing ok numbers on Netflix as well.

Seven.) We had the chance to ride the new extreme coaster Alpen Fury at Canada’s Wonderland a couple of weeks ago, and it was great. I won’t do another three hour line to ride it ever again, but it was fast, turbulent, and also very smooth riding. It was the only thing besides eating a meal, and downing several beverages in the intense heat that we did while there. Good ride but the line needs work. More fans, more misters, more shaded areas, and definitely more chances to buy cold drinks when in line. Two young women fainted in that line while my daughter and I were there. Took the EMT’s a while to show up too. It was so hot, and the air so thick yet still. Awful conditions. Fun ride though.

Eight.) downloads of both books and the audio version of one chapter are still going pretty strong. I might even break 100 downloads of each by Christmas if things keep up this way. Not sure what caused it but there was an enormous jump in views from out of Germany specifically. Like nearly 1,600 in a single day. It was wild. Kept up for more than a week at that. Not to the same four digit extent, but like 60+ for a week or more. Loved it! Let me earn my 15th cent in advertising partial dollars. Ha. My guess was right, the new low for getting paid out was raised from fifteen cents to a higher number. I did not bother to go see what the new minimum payout requirement is. If nearly 2,000 people came here to look at something and I got .01$ for it, I can only imagine how long it will take to reach the new minimum. I don’t bring it out of people like that!

So — yeah! Summer break 2025 has been fun filled, extremely hot, and extraordinarily dry. Drought since early July means the lake is down nearly 2 ft in depth, which is wild for July, and early August. Forecast calls for no rain up north over the next 15 days either. First year for forest fire up near my inlaws place. Bit spooky. We need a solid week of rain to take us out of total burn ban range. Not safe to have any sparks fluttering around up there.

Happy Monday!