Author: greatwallstudios

Still having those same dreams I had in university. Like walking into a new class only to realize you were supposed to have read the whole textbook prior to day one of classes. Or walking into a test you didn’t know was coming. A wild sense of panic, followed by furiously scribbled notes on what I know, or can recall, if anything at all about the random subject I have mistakenly been put in charge of presenting. My plan is to then put all of our heads together to find out what the others know, then leaning into the emcee role and introducing the topic, with a vague introduction to the audience, gathered from information gathered from a quick chat with the assembled group. Encouraging the other folks in the team to speak up, because as it turns out, I was just walking by at an inopportune time and was mistakenly corralled in with a group of people that knows alot about the subject in my dream. My worst nightmare! Among other possible horrible things. So my solution is to get them to all talk about their individual areas of expertise, rather than trying to bs my way out. It’s a weird dream to have, and one I’ve had many times over the years. Not sure why, but there we are. A fun little lead in to a random Thursday during week eight of summer holidays. August ends next week, so we’re deep in the weeds of summer time in Canada. The dog days of summer. We could potentially still see a heat wave or two pass through making summer last into November. Remember the year of el niño? I ended up cutting grass in shorts and a t-shirt until mid December. Then one day it snows, and the whole plot changed over night. It was weird! Very random experience. Strange even.

Hey look, Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe is back on tv. I thought he had managed to do every single dirty job in north America, and then some. I’ll have to read up, as to why he stopped the show in the first place. I hope it’s not due to scandal, but you never do know these days.

Today is the 37th anniversary of my immediate family moving to Canada from England. Always sneaks up on me. To think, we could have gone to Australia instead. Or moved to the US. What a strange life that would have been. Funny how things work out.

This is the best time to get that stuff done. We’ve been saving up household items for construction materials, and the fair book was officially released a week or so ago. Now the kids can sit at the table and build for as long as the materials, and their attention spans can hold out. Painting, building, drawing and crafting all manner of imaginative things. Good times. From what I recall the Markham Fair runs at the end of September and the first few days of October. I will need to double check those dates. But usually the weekend before Canadian Thanksgiving is a safe bet for planning your fair visit. Food trucks, agricultural exhibits, midway with rides, beer tent, tutorials, and vendors selling just about everything. Blooming onions, Tiny Tom donuts and cotton candy smells wafting on the fall breeze. Hard to beat, free parking and nightly fireworks.

It’s Wednesday my dudes! You know what that means. Hump day! Half way through the week, and getting ever closer to the weekend. Funny how each individual day can be broken down into having time both standing still, and making mammoth leaps forward in the blink of an eye. The days are long, but the weeks and months fly by somehow.

Also the town programming schedule got released the other day at 6:00pm, so we had to scramble to get the kids into something they would like. I’m still not sold on indoor programs being back full swing. Seems like we should show Covid/Monkey Pox a bit more caution. Did you know that with Mnkypx you need to isolate for 3 to 4 weeks, WEEKS!, Good God man. Fomites, aerosols, contact with sores, exchange of fluids… going to get everywhere in the next six to twelve months. Especially if people treat isolation with as little respect as they do Covid. Yikes. Man I hope this stays out of schools. But we’ve seen what that type of sheltered view about schools can do. That York Region high water mark for Covid related absences was from our kids school. April was a Ghost town. Somewhere over 40% absenteeism due to illness. Top of the charts for us. Not a real solid morale boost.

And have no such luck with any of it! Ha. Ain’t that a bitch. No matter. I think doing a fair amount of relaxing and unwinding counts as a thing in and of itself. But it being Monday, I am very aware of just how much house work I have to get done as soon as the kids go back to school again. I have a massive broken toy purge planned, and I plan to recycle 95% of all the school work that came home last year. Valentine’s Day cards can be sorted or jettisoned as well. Dolls and toys will get separated by child and stored away accordingly. Cabinets need a once over. We gently gave the closets and wardrobes a once over, so clothes wise we are set for September. Even after pulling out tonnes of clothes they still have more than enough to wear something new every day for nearly a month. Yeesh.

Given the weather we’ve had I’ll be out picking up leaves before you know it. And I’ll need to rewash the windows and drive way and get back in to weeding all of the neglected garden beds. Pruning hedges and shrubs prior to winter and first frosts. Lots to do, and that doesn’t even cover paid work. Last years newly refinished deck will need a washing to keep up the fresh colour of the stain I used last September.

Will need to have a think about projects for the house. I know we want some storage shelves beside the fireplace for the girls to keep toys, and be a playable surface, so I’ll sketch up some drawings after I take some measurements. I have lots of pine, 12 x 1 x 16ft in length. So that’s not going to be an issue. Utility, and function will play heavily into its design. I will paint it white, and can leave it at that as far as finishing it is concerned. I’ll need to come in under the window sills, and not cover any outlets either. Perhaps a cord pass through will be required for the upper most portion. A single two inch hole, or half hole against the wall for plugs to still be useable. Not a fan of holes in solid wood surfaces, but I also don’t want to render the socket useless as it’s closest to the tv, and we need it when charging the kids Chromebook and/or tablet for e-learning sessions and homework.

Anyway, if you can’t tell, I’m excited for the Fall, and I have lots planned, and lots to do. May the last two weeks of summer holidays be sunny and bright, or bring the rains you so desperately need, and you get to make some lasting pleasant memories with friends and family. Ciao Bella!

Anyone who lives with, or is married to a teacher will know the significance of the end of week seven. In certain school boards they are due back into the classroom before August ends, and so a mad rush to accomplish tasks that have been left undone will commence. Although, I will say the whole point of the break was to actually get her to rest and unwind, do I find the whole struggle around doing tasks strange. Yes getting projects and tasks done is good, but that isn’t resting or relaxing. While reading on the boat at the lake is relaxing, but it doesn’t feel as though you’re doing much. I get that. I really do. But take the chance to disconnect and relax and be happy about it.

So here it is, day 250. Only 115 more days needed to fulfill a whole year long streak. I am sad to say that my work out streak took a three week hiatus as we went up to the lake, and did a whole bunch of day trips that interrupted my schedule. Plus I didn’t bring any free weights with me. But I promised to make an investment in myself once all of that traveling was done, so I have picked up a 30lb and a 35lb dumbbell for exercising different muscle groups at slightly increased resistance. If we had the space, and I had the money just burning a hole in my pocket, I’d love a squat rack and bars, and a whole set of free weights to be able to do olympic lifts at home. But I don’t have the room, or the ceiling height for it, so no point getting too attached to the idea. Any overhead lifting I do has to be done from my knees so I don’t put a hole in the ceiling. It’s uncomfortable but it works for the moment. My main goal once Covid is under wraps is to join a gym that has free weights. I don’t care much for machines. I want to do: front squats, back squats, shoulder press, push press & cleans, hanging cleans, clean & jerks, dead lifts, bench press, kettle bell swings. All crossfit related work outs, but I don’t want to go back to crossfit again. I just want to lift at my own pace, carefully. Wah-wah-wah. Yeah I know. I hear it as I write it.

Looks like three days of rain in the forecast. Will any of it reach the farm though? I have my doubts.

The last two or three times that I have gone to see Joe Satriani live in concert I wore ear plugs, because that dude turns his gear up to eleven, and then some. I remember buying two very expensive front row, centre seats to see Joe, in which I took one of my brothers with me. They played for three hours and it was deafening, even with the foam inserts pushed so far into our ear canals they nearly touched our brains. I got a set of Bass guitar strings directly from Stu Hamm. He had signed the Earnie Ball package and everything. Still have them too, if I can figure out where I’veput them for safe keeping. It was pretty incredible to sit four feet from the man himself playing all the greats, including but not limited to : Surfing with the Alien, Ice Nine, Satch Boogie etc… I think it was for the Engines of Creation tour. Or somewhere in that era. I saw his Super Colossal tour in Toronto too. Fell off the wagon of Satch grooves shortly thereafter. I think Soundgarden edged him out, and I turned on a grunge, alt rock kick for a while. Now it’s Wolfmother and the Blue Stones sort of a vibe. Life is funny that way.

I took my wife to see Joe Satriani at Massey Hall, we were way up high in the stands that time, and we still wore ear plugs. You could hear them playing from the street, clear as day. It was insanely loud. Thornley & Big Wreck get pretty loud, same with Big Sugar. Those folks are not afraid to blow out a speaker, nor an ear drum. Good times. Oddly enough Steve Vai at the Government was note reasonably eq’d. Smaller venue too. He’s another guitar virtuoso I hold in high regard. Fallen off his wagon too. Huh.

I think the last concert I attended was a free one in Richmond Hill, as a part of Cosmofest, with Big Wreck playing for about an hour or so. My first child was very little, so that’s gotta be almost eight years ago by now. I miss live shows. But I don’t miss the late nights, and other people. I took my wife to go see a Doug Stanhope comedy show at a club downtown and the drunken crowd kinda ruined it by interrupting constantly with free shots, and shouting drunkenly from the within the crowd. Put him off his game. Which sucked. But, that’s a live show for you with an edgy comedian. I know we didn’t have any kids at that point. Bought a t-shirt and haven’t gone to a comedy performance since.

Which reminds me, I have seen several stand up specials lately where I have not laughed at all. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t find any of the material funny. Bill Burr lost his steam, Ricky Gervais’ last just didn’t have “it”, Whitney Cummings was just kinda off. I think the only really semi recent thing I saw was by Ali Wong who was on fire, and that was the last thing I saw that actually evinced a spontaneous heartfelt belly laugh. Maybe I haven’t turned entirely to stone yet. Sebastian Maniscalco had a real funny bit about small kids, but that was pre pandemic, so I won’t count it here. Am I now a Woke prude, or what!?! I just didn’t find them funny. I tried Norm Macdonald’s last Netflix self tape monologue and gave up fifteen minutes in. Jo Koi has had some pretty decent showings in the last 3-5 years. Outside the bounds of ‘recently’ but still firing on all cylinders. Whatever.

I have once again picked up my shelved Ninja Turtle sculpture, and begun the process of smoothing out the torso, legs and arms. He still needs hands, feet and a head. Those I will tackle some point soonish. Then I’ll need to start adding skin texture and details to the underbody, and skin. I have a tin foil base set aside for the shell portion. I have a lot of fitment challenges going on with the shell that will need some looking after. I suppose that once I get the shell in a good state I can begin to add the layers of clothing, pads and armor the Turtles are known for. If I don’t muck it up, it could be one of my better turtle sculpts. At least this one will get painted, so that’s an added bonus, at least to me it is.

I picked up The Grapes of Wrath a month or two ago, and finally started to read that. Which is interesting. I’m only three chapters in, so I don’t have much of an opinion either way about it. I also bought a Carl Sagan book, the haunted something or other. I look forward to that book too. I think I might attempt to read some other older classics, if I can muscle it. Like Moby Dick, and War & Peace. That sort of thing. I shied away from tougher reading in my youth, and now I wonder if I missed out on something deeper in literature. Hard to tell. It could just be a long depressing slog that I’ll give up after forty pages. Don’t know until I try.

Haven’t had a chance to grab any raw materials for furniture projects. But I do have a line on one or two less expensive bass guitars. I play a six string guitar, and have always wanted to tool around on a bass. So enough waiting on dreaming, I’m going to get an inexpensive one, so that I can learn new parts to favourite songs. I’m not concerned with being good, but enjoying the doing of it. I’m no piano virtuoso, but I like to play snippets, and learn new riffs. To hell with being good! I like to do things for the fun of it! I kinds want to get a scaled down drum kit, but that could be a leap too far, you know what I mean. Loud, large and kind of annoying when the kids have at it. But should they choose to take up an instrument in their teens because of the exposure to how great live music is, then that’s a huge win for intrinsic value added to their lives. Might have to take the family on an extra vacation funded by my reports to sweet talk them all into letting me bring a full drum kit into the house. I do have a lot of hobbies already. We’ll see how the bass guitar goes over first huh? Yeah.

I definitely have my childrens book on my mind as of late. It’s all written, no issue there. It’s coming down to my lack of illustration chops after years of sitting unused. My pencil skills have diminished greatly. No duh! Use it or lose it! So, I’m trying something a little different with digital painting for my book. Rough going. But I’ve gotta be 70% done the project as a whole. I may need to put a hold on it until I can no longer work outdoors. Seems a shame to put furniture building down to paint on my computer when furniture building has a hard cut off date in early December. Decisions decisions….

In the next two weeks I’ll have to start a massive clean up effort for our poor neglected house. It will cheer me up, and make me feel less anxious in the space. Back to my regular domestic duties Monday/Tuesday schedule. Oh boy! Ciao Bella!