Month: January 2026

Oh don’t get me wrong, it is blisteringly cold outside this morning, a very tepid minus seventeen before the wind chill factor even gets considered, so don’t wax too lyrical about the sun, because balmy it isn’t. But the precious vitamin D from what little sun shine we do have is a great mood enhancer regardless of exterior temperatures. I’ll take a moment to bask in the orange glow of the sun through all of this grey dinginess. Take what I can get at this point. The saddest day of the year approaches, Blue Monday, where we’ve gone so long without sunshine, warmth, and heat, so it makes us all a little depressed.

But, the days are getting ever so slightly longer with the sun up now until almost five thirty, soon to extend beyond until almost six, and then BAM! Spring will hit, and the grass will turn green, buds will appear on trees, and the birds that haven’t died from bird flu will come back, and we will all get outdoors far more often. And the lawn care cycle begins anew. Awesome.

For now, we enjoy each individual day that has any sun shine to it, or a wide open blue sky, because with winters here being so cold, and having returned to snowy form, full of shoveling, it’s best to take your moment of joy/peace whenever you can find it. I found out my Balaklava from storage so that I can shovel without my neck, cheeks, and mouth getting cold. A god send! Thank you to whomever designed that article of clothing. That and long johns and snow pants! All must have around here.

I have work to get to so I should be about my business. I understand Australia is battling bush fires in the height of their summer. I wish them well. While I like hot more than cold, those 50°C temps are just too much! You are a more hardy folk than I. Take care out there.

Welcome to Wednesday and I’ve still got more of this report left to do! Big work jobs require lots of focus, and attention to detail. Best to go slowly and be as precise as can be.

It really smacks you in the face like a slap! POW! Right in the kisser. Makes the nostrils stick together, and freezes ice right on your eye balls. It’s unpleasant to uncovered skin. Wrap up, stay warm, and stay inside if you can manage it. Polar vortex is making itself known this year!

While we did not get the full 40 cm they were warning of, we did get about 25 cm or so depending on the winds, and snow drifts that were up over my knees in certain spots that wind catches. Took me a full 90 minutes to dig out the front walk, drive way, both cars, walk way to the shed, and the entire back patio. I’ve skipped the deck because it’s cold, blowy, and I have paid work to get to at some point today.  The kids were told to sleep in since the schools were cancelled as of last evening. We knew they were to be home, same with my wife.

I’m now tired, sweaty, and thirsty. Feel a little like overheating from the strain of moving all that damn snow – again. With more on the way over the course of the next two months easily. This is the type of winter I remember from my youth, but I wasn’t by myself shoveling then, I have three older brothers, and we’d all have to help out. Now I’d like to get my kids more involved, or… Now hear me out here, I go buy a snowblower because this shit sucks. It’ll still take a while to clear, but it should save my back, arms, and heart if I can help it!

The trouble with continuous large dumps of snow is that you run out of places to put it, so it begins to encroach on your driveway width, and the piles get so high you either have to shovel the tops flat afterward, or wheel barrow your excess over to some other spot just to get rid of it. It’s a cold, wet, nightmare. At least with a blower you can atomize it, and throw it in a whisky stream out over your lawn. Beats having to raise your shovel higher and higher each consecutive snow storm until you’re placing snow gently at shoulder height to stop it from tumbling off the pile to settle back where you grabbed it from in the first place. Think digging very dry powdery sand out of a hole on a beach. The loose stuff wants to fall back down no matter what you do.

I need to eat some breakfast, then try and work. I’m waiting for my heart beat to normalize after that digging session. I’m still hot & sweaty too. Blargh. Ugh!

Welcome to Monday, I guess!?!

Not that we are expected to get anything like what the states are about to undertake, but it’s blowing around like crazy right now. Dog walk at the farm is cancelled while the snow squalls warning is still in place. I don’t fancy getting stuck at the farm, or somewhere on the road between there, and here. Not a good look to know a storm is coming, and still manage to get caught out in it.

In other news I finished one entire section of my first large report for the year, and even got a few pages into the report proper. I’d love to say it’ll be a simple thing to finish in a day, but it could take the better part of the week. These large reports are dense, and can get complicated if you lose track of where you are on the spreadsheet. Go up or down one space and you can ruin hours worth of work by being inattentive. Detailed work requires focus. So in this instance slow & steady is fast. If you never have to back track to fix a slipped digit, or space you are ahead of the game by a mile. It’s not glamorous, but it’ll save my brain. So that’s my approach! Like it or lump it.

I ended up spending about six hours on the first, and much, much, much smaller section that requires colour coding, and italicized data portions for each, and every comment. Glad it’s done. Looks good all lined up, and set out on paper. I feel good that I utilized my weekend to complete that section. With any luck I will get another few pages done of the data driven side today, all in preparation for hitting the ground running on Monday morning.

The girls are due back from Camp later on today, so my wife will be in desperate need of some alone time to unwind, and/or tackle some work of her own. I won’t be able to remove the kids from the house, but I can try to occupy them with shoveling duty, cleaning, chores, or quietly reading alone in their rooms, or a movie fort with popcorn, snacks, and an unbothered mum!

Which reminds me, I have laundry of my own to do. I should try to get a few things going while my day is still wide open. In other news, I had eighty off people swing by the blog yesterday, which is kind of high numbers, but because the new benchmark is somewhere between two hundred, and fifteen hundred views in a single day, I no longer receive those “Hey go get ’em!” Prompts from WordPress for anything less. I remember when forty three views on a single day was my all time high, and that score stayed there for years! I still take note even if the site itself doesn’t. I appreciate you all coming to my blog, and looking around for a little while. Cheers!

Oh my! New work, nice. Brand new year with returning clientele is a terrific thing to have. I for one embrace it! Plus with my wife & kids gone to Guiding Camp all weekend I don’t feel bad about logging double digit hours on the old laptop in between dog walks, and cold/flu medication top ups. At this pace I’m not exactly grinding, more of a slow mortar and pestle — Ha! If I didn’t do it now I’d just have to be thrice as active come Monday morning and who needs that kind of pressure, and grief in their lives. This portion I’m working on isn’t as detail driven, so my cold medicated mind can follow what I’m doing without causing myself major issues down the road. And that’s working, smart & hard. Keep the ball rolling while I eventually recuperate.

Plus it’s bitterly cold outside, and I’m not much for the cold, even with long johns, and snow pants this sort of chill will take the breath right out of your lungs, and seal your nostrils shut. It’ll attach itself to your eye lids, lips, tongue, and skin, and not want to let go. Dangerously low temps this weekend is what I’m getting at.

Likely no climbing this weekend either, so I had best use my hours today, and tomorrow morning to great effect, so I can at least get this section completed before I turn my eyes towards the data driven portion on Monday morning. At least I know what I’m doing this week coming.

Oh, thank you to everybody overseas who are downloading my books in the new year. I hope you enjoy them, or parts of them anyway. Ciao Bella!

What a weird week it has been with the flu/cold/cough thing going on. I missed a couple of days being in this weird, sickly sleep state. I’m not exactly on the mend as of yet, but I don’t consistently feel as bad as I did on Tuesday, and Wednesday. That’s something positive. I’ll take it.

The weather today is to take a frightening dip. Northern Ontario could see Polar Vortex lows of up to -58 °C. Which is insane, those are proper acrylic temps right there. Gas lines freeze when it gets that cold. I don’t much care for the mid minus twenties, let alone going that much further down. Yikes!

My eldest daughter’s choir was scheduled to sing the national anthem at the Ojhl hockey game last night. I initially got the arena wrong, so we needed to drive elsewhere to go to the correct spot. We were still a full hour early for the game. We watched the first period only, our town was up 5 – 0, by the end of the first period, so we went home. They did not provide a microphone for the choir, and less than half of them showed up to perform. My daughter’s new core friend group was there, so she had a blast. A few of my friends were there with kids to support the school food drive initiative. Had a good chat. Tried to keep my distance though — illness and all that.

The family is gearing up for a bitterly cold weekend at Girl Guides Camp. Just the dog and I at home while I recuperate from this random flu/cold situation. I envision dog walks, sleeping in, movie marathons, and eating a whole bunch of pizza. I don’t need much to keep me satisfied.

Had some new work in early this morning too, so that’s pretty great too. Ciao Bella!

No longer does my head feel like it will explode with a blinding headache, and the chills/fever are subsiding, however, now we welcome a runny nose, and a chest cough into the mix. I can at least eat a bit, and walk around without immediately wanting to lie down for a couple of hours. I took a good dose of NyQuill last night, so you know that I slept. I just had weird reoccurring dreams the whole time. Which is another good sign to show that I am in fact unwell. Glory days.

Luckily it has been a very quiet work week so my illness has not impacted anyone but myself, and my immediate family. Nice.

However, it is now in fact Thursday and the weekend rapidly approaches. I do not feel confident that I can host people here for a movie night, not attend any familial gatherings outside of the house. I just tried a brunch with my wife, and we maybe should have waited for Monday. What’s done, is done.

May you all feel better than I for the remainder of this horrible Canadian winter. Ciao Bella!

An unceasing head ache, dizziness, chills, and an off and on fever. I had both my flu shot, and a Covid shot in mid December, but boy oh boy do I feel rotten right now. All I want to do is lie down and sleep this away. Fun times.

Now sick to my stomach, with rotten guts to boot. Not impressed. I was supposed to have the weekend to myself to watch movies, and walk the dog. Now I feel ill and want nothing more than to sleep the day(s) away. My hips and ankles hurt too. So does my rib cage. I can’t seem to get warm, and my temperature is only slightly elevated. Let us hope this course corrects quickly. This sucks.