Author: greatwallstudios

Since we last met up on this topic I have gone climbing twice, been swimming twice, put in 20,000 steps at Canada’s Wonderland, and walked the dog one extra time per day in the evenings at least three times. It’s not much, but the target is at least in front of me and I am aiming the correct direction. The next big step is to eliminate boredom snacking after dinner. I have various projects on the go that I should pick up once again to give me something to focus on in place of snacking and scrolling on my phone. I have one painting started and halted. I have fifteen Warhammer 40K models primed and sat waiting for paint. I have an armature bulked out in foil awaiting clay for sculpting, then baking, then painting. I have guitars, I have wood & a woodshop. I have books to read and stories to write, but I find myself on the couch snacking instead. I should stop doing that.

On the brightside I’ve been moving around more, so that’s a net positive, if only by a small margin. Progress! I’ll take it. Ha! I have managed to work drinking more water into my day to day life over the last eighteen months, so I do have fewer headaches. Now it’s mainly from tension, and a change in barometric pressure due to incoming storms. Not much I can do there. Short of building my own static pressure chamber to hide in to avoid the fluctuations that hurt my head, I’ll have to learn to deal with it. Fine, I guess. I will figure out a way to muddle through the storm related headaches.

On a positive note we are entertaining a guest today, Soni need to do another round of tidying up, vacuuming, and closing bedroom doors to hide the kids messes! Have a lovely lazy Sunday. All the best to you out there. Oh and thanks for downloading my free books! I get a kick out of knowing somebody else might have read them, and potentially enjoyed them too. Maybe. Possibly. I digress.

I liked it, hell even my eleven year old daughter liked it, my wife even sat down to watch about an hour of it with us. It was bright, colourful and fun. Silly at times, but generally didn’t take itself too seriously. Skeleton was great, you would never know it was Jared Leto, the hate there was unwarranted I feel. He was an over proud, show off, cowardly scenery chewing, ham fisted loon, just what the cartoons required. It was fun. I had fun. I could easily watch two more provided they don’t turn grim and gritty with a new director or screen writer. Sad we missed it in theaters but glad to catch it on streaming. Streaming is now the new dvd release. Missed it on the first run, and now it’s a cult classic on an alternate format. Sounds about right. Also, bring back physical media! Made me want to dig out my most favourite He-Man figures from my office closet to display on my desk alongside my Ninja Turtles, Gundam and Spawn figures. Ha. I’m very happy I got to share some childhood silliness with my daughter(s), as the youngest flitted into and out of the room while making paper dragons.

So here we are on Saturday morning. My wife’s car has not started in more than a week now. I fear the starter has gone, because the battery was brand new only a handful of months ago. It’s rusted all to hell, and is falling apart. Might very well be time to tow it in and be rid of it. One more major expense. Or we go to one vehicle and drastically rearrange the afterschool schedule, and all appointments moving forward. Tough, unpleasant but doable. That’s called belt tightening!

Oh well. Hope your weekend is good.

Sadly I do not believe we will see any October Blue Jays baseball this year. I have little faith that they can win 44 of their next sixty odd games to move into a wild card spot.

Yes here we are it is Friday morning and the sun is up and we are all still alive — for the moment. Let us take in a big breath and exhale through our noses and realize how close to the end of things we have all managed to find ourselves. May cooler heads prevail out there in the wider world, because I don’t wish to perish at the whims of an octogenarian who is pretty close to their own finish line as it is. Not cool.

So I for one look to the skies above, see the blue, and the white underbelly of some clouds and try to put that all out of my mind. I have work to do, kids to feed, and a life to lead as long as I have it. So I’ll look to my fruit trees, and my flowers, and children to help get me through my existential dread today.

With any luck today will be both productive and fun for all involved. I also hope that we have a blissful weekend full of family and friends, and that we are all met with pleasantries and hearty laughs. Be the change you wish to see! Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

It is now not uncommon to have a comment reach 5 or 6 thousand hearts on Threads or Instagram, so is that considered to be viral, or does that require at least one million to be considered as such? You know what, I’m going to go look that up because I’d actually like to know. Ok so for an account such as mine (on Threads and IG) with fewer than 100 followers I’d need a post or comment to generate 10,000 – 50,000 interactions or views to be considered viral (for me) a 100 to 500X increase over my own micro viewership is what is generally accepted to fulfill the title of viral. So I’ve gotten close, but not yet hit the mark. Cool, cool, cool. Not bad for a nobody saying silly things on the internet. And, this is more to the point, now I know! And knowing is half the battle as they say.

And a happy Thursday to you all today. Given how active my phone notifications have been as of late I could not imagine actually going viral for something. It would be cool if my two free books of collected short stories went viral, but since at least 200 people have downloaded them so far, I’m actually pretty happy with their performance as is. No notes!

The weather is summer like without being unbearable, so we’ve had windows and doors open, and it’s been a fresh air breezy kind of a week. I’m so happy I made the kitchen window a bug screen, as it allows for far more cross breeze in the main living space of our home. It’s not often I can gloat about an old wood working project, so I’ll take the points when I can get them.

I’ve been told He-Man is on Amazon Prime so I might take some time this evening to sit down and watch it. I missed it in theaters. Stuff doesn’t stick around for months at a time anymore, two, maybe three weeks tops now in the big stadium style theaters anyway. The tiny local guys might get it in a few months, but I’m not certain if that’s still a thing anymore.

Today is the anniversary of my friend’s passing, along with her daughter. A sombre day. One we continue to remember. What could have been if things had gone differently for them. Cheers!

It’s not a difficult game, as some shots take some skill, and you need other players to help remove some of the protector fish that surround the really big prize winners in order to get a brief but clear shot at said prize fish. It can be high octane, adrenaline fueled fun, or you can just sort of take pot shots and take it easy. I like when we all fire at different things and then occasionally come together to take down a killer whale, or a great white, or take a single pot shot at the central treasure chest to win the largest prize available. The graphics aren’t crazy, there’s no story, no cut scenes, and yet we will gather around and play it for a really, really long time. Tonnes of fun. Great if you get competitive and want to compare scores. There are no boosts, no power ups, no siding your harpoon aim, it’s a very level playing field. Like I said, love it!

Last night we went to go see Toy Story 5 in Markham. It was very of the times in regards to technology stealing our kids sense of play, imagination, and ability to be present with one another in the physical world. While it didn’t feel as strong as other previous films, it was perfectly fine. I’d give it a seven or a seven point five out of ten. It probably could have been 10 minutes shorter, but it wasn’t bloated by any means. I was just starting to feel a little restless, and some of the youngest in our group didn’t last the entire run time sitting down. Three of the nine of us had to get up and move around, those being the 4, 7 & 9 year old. With bathroom breaks and a need to just move about.

My kids are currently on a dragon hand puppet kick, which is great. Colouring, drawing, and three dimensional structure building. Glue sticks, scissors and paper and markers. They’re off the tablets and VR so I’m thrilled about it. They’ve made three or four each, and look to keep on going. Crafting is a great way to spend the summer break. I am all for it. Maybe some of it can go into the Markham Fair this fall.

Have a wondrous Wednesday. Ciao Bella!

Not my first choice of place to visit in the open season for fun that is summer holidays, but when the kids gotta go, she’s gotta go. I booked this visit back in May because it was the earliest opening they had. Not my best work, but we’re going to work with what we’ve got. The youngest isn’t a fan of having strangers poking about in her mouth, and I don’t blame her. But, she needs to be seen, and have X-rays done, so we bite the bullet and we go. My only rule is no braces until they hit their teen years. I’m not doing baby teeth braces, that’s just not going to happen.

Also it’s Tuesday, which makes it refuse collection day. I woke up before the sun to wheel the 306L recycling bin to the curb, and also empty the green bin and send that curbside too. Even in the summer we have to stay on top of this sort of stuff. It never ends! Just like laundry, and house cleaning. It’s never really done, just waiting for a new mess to appear.

I for one hope that it rains for the whole day today. I don’t need the thunder or lightning, but a good twenty four hour soaking if the grass, trees, and garden beds would be very helpful. My rain barrel should be full to the brim again by now (I hope), ready to carry these new fruit trees into August and then come September they’ll begin to shed their leaves and I can stop babying them so much. With any luck next year or two they will flower and begin to hear fruit. My apple trees are good to go, same as my grapes. We had a heavy cherry growing season this year, and an underperforming raspberry bush. Can’t win them all! Some is better than none.

Just like it says on the tin we spent four hours on Sunday down on the east side of one of the near fields pulling up around 6,500 garlic bulbs. When the singular purpose built plough worked, it was the best thing ever, but when the heavily impacted earth took the plough to wandering and we had to dig the missed bulbs with spades and forks, it was a hot, sweaty mess of an operation. Luckily the plough worked roughly 85-90% of the time.

Unseat the garlic from the cement choke hold the ground has on it, then you gather the bulbs, break off the clinging dirt, lay them in piles facing the bulbs all one way, gather those piles in the bed of a side by side, then load them out onto wagons to dry off, but also not roll away or get picked over by racoons and such. Rinse and repeat row after row until completed.

My inlaws don’t primarily do garlic, this is a hobby crop, because they mainly do cattle corn and soya beans. We also have a pumpkin patch and orchards and various berries too. But the “farming” is for corn and beans mainly. Everything else works because they have the gear all ready for the two main income crops.

It isn’t glamourous by any means, but at least 8 know we have garlic available to season what we eat this year! Ha. Small comfort. All of our clothes, gloves, and shoes smell heavily of garlic at the moment. The van smells like a garlic bread factory. It’s rather pungent and invasive! Phew!

So back to Monday and I have my edits in hand to get to early today. My back and legs are sore from all the bending and leaning in the full sun yesterday. Luckily it topped out at 21°C, and the air quality was sitting at a 2. We had the best possible conditions for getting the whole patch done in one concerted effort. It took just about all of us, minus most of the children, but we got it done. Thank God! You absolutely could not count on the weather staying this reasonable for much longer.

On the plus side, I was outdoors and active for four full hours yesterday. Had a lovely swim afterwards, and then visited with friends in the evening to enjoy their new hot tub that worked wonders on my sore back, and the aching in my legs. Turned out better than I could have hoped for.

Took the kids climbing for the first time in three weeks, that’s six missed sessions, and I’m still eating the same without the total body work-out so I’m back up about 10 lbs once again. Not my proudest moment to be back up close to the heaviest I have ever been. Not my finest moment. And no I didn’t substitute my lack of climbing for using weights, calisthenics or bike riding, or swimming while I wasn’t roped in at the climbing gym. My bad. I’m being lazy. In my defense the temps were up into the forties, we went to the cottage to get it opened up, and we travelled west for a week, and then the northern forest fires have made the air damn near toxic, so I haven’t gotten outside to do anything physical in a hot minute. Still my own short coming, but I had a myriad of reasons to not get outside.

It is now Sunday and the heat is turned down about ten or so degrees, the air quality is better, so I bet we’ll go pull up garlic for a few hours today. Can only out run our farming obligations for so long. Best find the widest brimmed hat that I own to keep the sun off my neck and face. Don’t want to add a sunburn to my overall bloated heaviness.

The traveling has also stopped our daily dog walks too, so that has only added to my sedentary weight gain. At the cottage the dog is free to roam the acreage and chase things to his heart’s content, so I don’t actively walk him all that much, and he didn’t come out west with us. Then my spouse took him back to the cottage for the week while I was working on a report, and the aforementioned heat and air quality kept me inside the house, seated, and working at my desk for large portions of the day.

I was living life in a veal stall, just getting fat. Ha! Doesn’t take long for those hard lost pounds to slide back into place and then some. Back to drinking more water, and being more persistent with free weights, squats, push-ups, sit ups and being active out of doors. It’s a struggle. One I’m not all that fond of truth be told. But it’s one I’m stuck with until I get it sorted, and manage to keep it that way.

Looks like I need to build out a new habit like I did with daily writing here on the blog. I may need to do some thinking, testing and experimenting in order to find something that works without being too over the top, all consuming, or expensive. Follow along as I waste everybody’s time doing a bunch of stupid shit as I try to lose weight — again. Nah!

Simple fix really. Whilst I had spent a week across the country, once I returned home I immediately began work on a new large project where I sat at my desk, stationary for hours on end, and the air quality was so poor I never stepped foot outdoors. This I was not tired at a reasonable bed time, and was not rested enough come morning. Rinse and repeat. That is until the air quality got better, down to a 2 from an 11, and I could freely exert myself pushing the mower for the better part of an hour in modest temps. Bam! Sleepy by eleven, and wide awake before eight thirty in the morning. Back to my regular schedule. Funny how that is.

Back to looking a little orange/amber again today. Air quality is sitting at a four. Must have a low pressure cell moving in because I have a wicked head ache, even though I drank a number of pints of water yesterday throughout the day. Storms, the bane of my brain’s existence. Pounding headaches, nausea, dizziness, and stuff neck, and strained shoulder muscles. It’s a treat!

Glad to know all I needed was some physical activity to set myself back to rights. If I’m lucky maybe I can even do some climbing today too. I’m sure my firearms and shoulders have grown weak with lack of use. Belly fat has made a resurgence in the last three weeks believe you me. A beach ready body I do not possess. Ha!

Looks like it should storm all weekend so maybe we’ll take the kids to the movies or something else indoors to get active, and kill time away from the VR headset, or the near constant tablet usage.

I cleaned the house up nice and tidy while they were all at the cottage together. I was working so it made sense to stay here and do some domestic Duties without them coming along behind me to dirty it all up immediately. I got a week alone in a clean home. I’ll have to wait for school to start up again before I get anywhere close to that anytime soon. And even then that’s only in seven hour spurts.

Happy Saturday to you all. I for one am pleased by the sight of rain. I had been watering my flowers and fruit trees as well as my inlaws potted plants, tomatoes and their citrus trees. An inch of rain over a whole day should soak in and do them all a world of good.

It was 218 ppm here in southern Ontario which is unsafe, but places like northern Michigan it was 1150 ppm, and you can’t escape that by staying indoors and running the AC. You’d have to wear a respirator full time until that number falls bellow 50 ppm. That’s a long drop to be waiting for when pressed right up against the source of the smoke, but only separated by open lakes, creating a wind tunnel driving all that smoke towards you. Yikes. Bad juju all around with this year’s forest fire season. Entire towns wiped out – again. This looks to become an every single year from here on out occurrence now. Tragic.

I think it’s Friday today. I’m still discombobulated by the west coast travel. I can’t fall asleep at 10:30/11:00 pm anymore, I find myself awake until 2:00 am now, and I’m just not feeling the 8:45am alarm, nor my 9:25 am back up. I need to get my old time regulated self back in focus because there’s far too much of summer left to start creeping towards staying up until 3 or 4 am, and wanting to sleep the whole day away. I have work, and responsibilities, obligations to perform, I can’t regress like a teenager because of time zones and jet lag. Maybe if I’m just far more physical today that will help switch me back?

I’m on the last day of my big project before I hand in my first draft. I have a handful of pages left to go, and then soft proofing, and fixing items I know will come up during the style review. Best to get out in front of them now, head it off at the pass. It’s a long one though, I’d estimate it being between 85-90 pages long for this go around. The trick is to pace yourself for the long haul. I start with about 21 pages, next day 33 days, third day once we’re really rolling along (provided the data you have allows for it) you aim for another 30 or so pages, then on day four you do the last ten or so, and begin soft proofing on my end. Export it, hand it off, then wait for any edits or changes. It’s a mighty fine system. Works well and saves my wrists from RSI’s.

Gave myself a carpal tunnel injury nearly twenty years ago and that was really unpleasant. To the point where I couldn’t use my dominant hand to eat, drink, get dressed, or even brush my teeth without severe pain. Sounds like wringing out a leather glove whenever I used any tendons in that hand, and it lasted for weeks. This was before I had children. Could only imagine trying to change diapers with only one good hand. I know people can do it, but by golly that seems tough.

Luckily the temperature is cool this morning, and the air quality back down to a 7 from yesterday’s 11, and I took forty minutes to cut the front lawn. Now it doesn’t look quite so bad. Oh yeah Markham Mower still has my Echo SRM-230 weed eater, that’s gotta be eight full weeks by now. I guess they’ll keep it for 12 to 13 weeks, I’ll get it back in September I think. Ha. So stupid.