Month: October 2025

Costumes, candies, decorations and so much more…big yeah! Game six of the World Series where the Blue Jays could (potentially) take the whole damn thing! Best of luck carving pumpkins and navigating around town with so many additional pedestrians afoot.

Naturally all of the extended families junk was piled both on top of, and in front of the only object I needed to grab. Not going to lie I did swear a bit when the snowblower that only rolls backwards in neutral was facing the wrong direction to be easily moved. Trapped in place by a boat on a trailer, three rabbit hutches, a planter, and two wheel barrows and a buggy of some sort. All heavy. Not to mention the doors to the barn were a bitch to open with all of the frost, rain, debris and overgrown grasses. I was displeased. But! I did uncover the wheelchair, and get it to fit inside our van. So first problems solved. Chair was found, cleaned, and brought back to our neighbours for future use. It is now pouring with rain so I have the chair stashed in our garage. Not ideal, but should be fine for at least one day. Any longer and you risk the pests burrowing into the seat and ruining the foam.

Not going to lie, it was hard on my back, and it made my fingers go numb, but we did finish a new full row, plus plant a second half row to finish off the garlic for the year. Well, at least the hard neck stuff. Soft neck has to go in slightly differently, so I’m told, so we didn’t do any of that — yet.

I took the dog for a quick walk about after we finished with the planting. Which is always fun. I checked on my wood piles to see if any logs had dried up over the last four or five days. I had to turn some rounds to get them to drain, and hopefully dry out a bit better so that I can split them more easily. Wet wood is far too spongy. It absorbs the blows from the axe, and then the wood gets all chewed up, but doesn’t really come apart. So I took a few moments to turn a couple logs, make my life a bit easier.

The dog and I also walked the fields to pull up more stones, rocks and such. I got more than a handful of eight to ten pounders this morning. I have six or seven good piles to removed if I can locate a sturdy bucket, and a side by side with which to transport them all. Might take a number of trips to get all the piles relocated. Better in a culvert than in the fields banging up the farm equipment. I’d love to have a few hours to go through the whole field, but I’m ok walking a few strips on foot, and carrying out armfuls or rocks manually. I’m just trying to be nice. If nobody else wants to do it, I can leave it be, farm equipment be damned. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

I do believe it is Wednesday today. We took four days to go to Niagara Falls for a short family vacation. Did all of the things we wanted too. Had lovely (if cool) weather for it. No noticeable rain while we were out and about. That’s all one can hope for these days. Couldn’t go south to the US, as the weather in the Keys looks like it might dissolve into a category five hurricane. No thank you. I feel bad for the Caribbean, and Jamaica who’ve been hit hard by **Melissa already. Just ugly. (**Name edited from previously mentioned Marie, which was incorrect.)

But now I’m all washed, dried, and have had breakfast. I need to do some household chores, and return some items back to the garage. Happy Wednesday. Go Blue Jays!

It was a nice brief and quiet portion to our otherwise raucous vacation spent in Ontario. The girls loved the gift shop (as per usual) and we got a great family photo as well.

Opted not to go to Tampa Bay, Clearwater, or Key Largo for the week and instead have done some exploring within Ontario for a change. Niagara Falls to be exact. Yesterday we did just about everything. Visited the falls, arcade, brunch at Rain forest café, Sky Wheel, Dinosaur mini putt, carnival chaos interactive ride, Zombie Attack ride, Skyway go karts, Boo blasters, and the wax museum, looking around a few stores, then the zipline over the falls, and dinner at Shoeless Joe’s. All before heading back to our room for baths, a little tv, and then bed. Woow I’m pooped. That was a lot of walking around outdoors. Now my hips ache, Ha-ha!

Going on a walk about to go look at stuff, so I’ll keep this short. Had a nice visit with extended family, which resulted in a wonderful dinner, and watching the first few innings of the Jays Game from the comfort of their living room. Not as fabulous as the first game, but that Yamamoto fella had our number. Dust it off and get back at it on Monday night! Short memories!

Wow what a game that was to watch. I saw the first five innings with friends and then returned home to watch the single greatest sixth inning 8 can remember. Nine runs in during that whale of a sixth. Plus a Barger Grand Slam, a few singles, a walk brought in during loaded bases. It had everything, including Addison Barger’s first ever recorded pinch hitter world series grand slam in baseball history.

With any luck they will continue to perform admirably throughout the entire series. Win or lose that was a hell of a return to world series baseball. No clean sweep for us! Dodgers might be the best on paper, but the Toronto Blue Jays have heart, passion, and know how to dig deep to eek out a win. I do not know how this tale ends, but if they can stay in the fight without deflating, then we are all in for a wild ride. Go Jays!

A solid mix of small ball base grinding, followed up with long bombs, and a bullpen that kept us in the game by limiting runs by the Dodgers. Trey Yesavage did a commendable job even if he was unable to bring his 100% to the mound. He is young, full of fire, and I think he’ll do wonders for the organization over the next couple of years. Worth keeping an eye on I think.

Geménez, Springer, Kirk, and Bobichette,Varsho, Straw, and a whole mess of others played like a well oiled machine. Team work made that dream of a game work. No slackers present. I do love to see them gel like this, feed off of one another, and bring something special to the table. I like how egalitarian the team feels right now. Oh what a feelin’.

I enjoyed two Twisted Teas with the game for a change instead of my usual zero sugar Gatorade. Still had a great deal of fun. Extra bathroom breaks required though, once the seal was broken. Ha.

Have a terrific Saturday, as the lads will be back at it again tonight. Same Bat time, same Bat channel. Ciao Bella!

I have only a couple of things loosely planned for today, so it may not be the smoothest ride ever. Extended family at the farm in the early afternoon. Oldest daughter doing a group costume building session at a friend’s house for eleven. A family dog walk this morning. Very loose, very informal, very much a patch work of half heard suggestions, requests, and answers. I get it. Not my best work, of that I am aware.

To the best of my knowledge I do not know what I did with myself when we had PA Days back when I was a Child. I have no recollection of doing anything out of the ordinary. No additional programming. No babysitters turning up. Must have been like an extra Saturday, so no cause for celebration, or alarm. In my teen years I would have gone to work for extra hours. That I do know. But childhood me? You could say that anybody’s guess is as good as mine. I genuinely have no idea. We certainly didn’t do day trips as a family, or go to do some out of home programming with the library, or town, or some other educational institution.

It’s funny because I have been watching these two guys on Facebook reels that talk about retro gaming, clothes, and music from the late 80’s, and the 90’s, and they were waxing poetic about shoes (most recently). And I honest to goodness could not tell you what brand of shoes I had ever worn, until I met my wife (back in 2002) because I only now remember the White & Green Adidas she bought me, and prior to that I don’t know what I would have had on my feet. I remember a reddish brown pair of faux leather New Balance shoes with a squared off toe, but again I think I got those after 2002. So for my first 22 years of life I do not know what brands of shoes I owned or wore. Desiring foot ware was not one of my concerns as an adolescent.

I don’t really remember my coats all that much either. I do recall a UNLV red and black hooded sweater, button up jersey thing I used to love back in grades 7 & 8. I remember the half zip pull over mostly black ski jacket I had. I’ve never been much for fashion. I do remember certain t-shirts that had patterns on them, or Bart Simpson apparel. Clothes just weren’t that big a deal to me. I remember getting overalls, which were “cool” at the time, and immediately hating them. I know I wore track pants for far too long before ever wearing jeans. I had a couple cable knit sweaters I loved in high school (the purple one was the shit). So that era is not totally lost to me, but I have some significant gaps in my day to day memory.  Weird how that works huh? Crazy.

I do still have most of the video games, and systems I’ve ever owned. My Sega Master System & games, my PS 1, and games, and my Xbox, and Xbox 360. Problem is with those 2000’s gaming consoles I would have bought & traded in games to get new ones all the time, so the full roster of games I’ve ever owned is unknown to me. I didn’t keep a master list of owned titles. Now that would be interesting to see and know. I just never thought of it at the time. Shame. I did try out some dog shit games back in the day. Would be funny to know exactly what they were, so I could mock them mercilessly with confidence & as authority. Oh well, what could have been.

Welp… I’m pretty sure it’s Friday. I need to get up and go walk the mutt. Have a day to remember. Ciao Bella!

Need to make another run to the post office later on today because more passport documents have arrived, which I need to sign for. Since I was out yesterday morning splitting wood I missed the at home delivery, so now I have to go there — again. This time I hope it is a completed, newly updated passport and not a return of my application with details circled that I have missed. My deadline is fast approaching, and I don’t want to have to do a brand new passport application from step one, as the renewal is so much easier to do. Maybe six weeks out wasn’t early enough on my part. Fingers crossed for a passport in this package I am receiving. Let us hope!

But not unlike any other day of the week where it wasn’t pouring with rain, I was in fact back at the farm walking the dog, and splitting more rounds for firewood. Mostly for exercise, but helping keep us all heated for the winter months is a bonus too. I am down to the point where I am picking and choosing my rounds to split. Some have sat face up for too long and are now water logged. Which makes them spongy, and unlikely to split without a Herculean effort on my part. I skip those whenever possible. But I’ve turned them on their sides, so I hope that they now drain, and dry out for next year. I am also moving undesirable logs into neater piles that can be dumped in the woods, or bucked into useable slices for me to split. I could take my chainsaw down, it’s a tiny little one. I think I might have pooched it using premixed gas out of a store bought canister. More like lighter fluid than gasoline. I don’t think my Stihl liked it much. I will need to drain it, and put proper hand mixed fuel in it, and see if I can get it going again. I could likely then buck a few rounds myself with my teenie tiny chainsaw. I’m not there yet.

If I examine the absolutely massive Pile Three and find nothing ready to go, then I might reconsider my chainsaw situation. Unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

In other news the Grade Six Trip downtown was a resounding success, they had sunshine (if slightly below seasonal temperatures) and a good time on the observation deck of the CN Tower, they got to pet a Sting Ray at Ripley’s Aquarium, and the food was ok at the Spaghetti place, except that all the boys sat in her table group tried to finish the table Parmesan cheese which lead to terrible flatulence on the bus ride home. Also, the bus ride downtown was more pleasant this go round than the ride to the Cross Country Meet a few weeks ago. She brought gum to help with ears popping on the ride up & down the CN Tower, so that was a win. And she bought herself an axolotl stuffy at Ripley’s so she was pleased as punch about that. Did my daughter go to bed any earlier because of her busy day, you might ask? No. No she did not. And this morning she was all the more grumpy because of it. At least tomorrow is a PA Day. Sleep in for the three of us! Wife still has to work though. Then she’s off for nine days, so I don’t feel too bad.

Tomorrow night is game one of the Blue Jays vs. Dodgers World Series, so that should be a hoot! I have my fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed for a positive first outing for the Jays! Let us pray.

**Editor’s Note: It came, it finally came! My brand spanking new updated passport has arrived. Too late for any kind of overseas trip any time soon, but the point is I now have it in hand, and I don’t have to think about mine again until the mid 2030’s. Which, if I do say so myself, is pretty fucking great news. I’m so glad. Although with Las Vegas and Florida potentially off the table for the foreseeable future I’m guessing we travel to Europe or the Caribbean if we go anywhere noteworthy.  Shame, I really wanted to visit Universal Studios to ride their giant roller coasters. We will have to see how the trade deal shakes out of the next few months/years. Either way, I now have my deets ready for dooting.

Ask me how I know. I’d be willing to wager if every middle school, and high school teacher turned up for class dressed as a sick Seven for the next week they could pretty much suck all of the cool out of the “6-7” rallying cries that echo through the halls & classrooms each and every day. Make it lame, and something is adults do, and the kids will lose interest as fast as you can say demure, lit, fam, slay, bodied, pwned, noob, and as many other rizz type things as you can muster. You aura points farming mother fucker you! Giv’er!

Wish I’d have thought enough about it to take a photo. But I’m so not a morning person, I wasn’t thinking much beyond packing the kids lunches into their bags, and returning the borrowed cables back to the principal. I’m kicking myself now, but I did see it on an Instagram reel, so it’s not like we came up with it. Just thought it was funny, and easy to accomplish with stuff we had on hand.

It’s Wednesday today which means Grade Six Class Trip downtown for ten hours today. My eldest is not due to return until 8:30 pm tonight. If I recall they are going up the top of the CN Tower, visiting Ripley’s Aquarium, and having dinner at an Italian place for spaghetti. I don’t know in what order, or when they move from one site to another. My wife read, and signed that particular permission slip. I’ve heard all about it for the last month straight, but that’s pretty standard with anything mildly exciting goes on involving my children.

Like the Halloween costumes. Oh boy. First they were acolytes from 99 Nights in the Forest, so I had to buy plastic weapons, namely an axe, and a crossbow. No crossbows available, so a bow & arrow was a suitable replacement. Then my youngest wanted to be Kraken Kid because they can’t have weapons (fake ones) at school, but she can be a squid headed child in light blue pants, and a white T-shirt. But then they wanted to be T-Rexes with inflatable costumes, and it took a few days to come to a consensus on colours. So once they choose Orange of all things, it was a non stop litany of “won’t it be cool when…” Statements about the T-Rex outfits for a week straight.

I’m back from splitting more wood, and I’m tired, and achy. New Estwing 4 lbs mini sledge hammer is working a real treat. No vibration dampening on it, so tough on the wrist, but offers a substantial impact, which is what I need it for. Cool beans. Two thumbs up. I might even spring for the Estwing nine inch wedge that they make to go along with it. I’m running low on viable wood to split easily in Pile One, so either I move on to Pile Three soon, or I slow the pace down to a crawl and tackle the excruciatingly hard to split stuff with the wedge and mallet. I don’t know if I’m there yet. If Pile Three proves futile with wood that is too new, and too wet, I just might have to consider it. This sort of thing makes me wish I had a portable saw mill too. I’d love to process some wood to make furniture with in the future. Oh to dream!

Spent an hour or so last night at the inlaws covering the pool for the winter. Always proves to be a challenge because we never remember to mark the tarp properly to a point on the stones so that we can lay it in once, and have it exactly where it needs to be. There are few things more maddening that realizing all the liners have to come back out so that you can shift the cover 2-3 inches one way or another because you were ever so slightly off, but don’t know until the last section of the liner goes in. And it either fits or you realize you are off one side or the other. So hard on the back, knees, and shoulders. We never seem to start early enough and wind up finishing in the pitch black of night, with bugs in your ears, eyes, and mouth. It’s a treat. Gotta be done though, if you want to access the pool during late Spring, summer, and early fall.

Have a lovely Wednesday in late October of 2025.