Author: greatwallstudios

We are set to trade in our van when we pick up the new car this weekend so I have spent more than two hours cleaning it. First pass was to pull out all of the physical items, like toys, and garbage. Pens, pencils, crayons, beads, paper and beach items. Plus a whole lot more, just know that we kept the van well stocked with useless crap. Next I climbed into the van on my hands and knees and vacuumed every square inch that I could fit the nozzle. Inside the chairs, the stow and go bays, the trunk, and any side compartments we have. I let that sit for a few says, then went at it with the vacuum again. Today I took out the car seat, and the shopping bags, jumper cables, 407 transponder, and whatever was left behind from my kids since Tuesday/Wednesday cleaning sessions. Today I climbed aboard armed with various wet wipes, and a plastic bag. I nearly filled the bag with soiled wet wipes. Just black, brown, grey and all around nasty. My kids are grimy little toads. And it still isn’t  “clean”. Just less violently disgusting to the senses. So I’ve probably spent nearly 3 hours tidying it up, and I bet they junk it almost immediately. It requires an extensive detailing job, body work, and some type of wheel bearing or joint up in the front end.

Our old dog had hair like porcupine quills, and they are deeply, deeply embedded into the fabric, and textiles contained inside the van. Just a nightmare to remove. I could only do it by picking them one by one, and I gave that up real quick. I thought our fine toothed dog brush would work, but it did not! So – yeah. Unless they strip it for parts, I don’t see this van having much of a life beyond the 167,000 Km that we gave it. We also bought it second hand in 2015 with 60,000 Km on it already, so we didn’t go hog wild with it over the course of the ten or so years we had it. 107,000 Km in a decade is not a tonne of driving if you ask me. Once it stopped being our go to for cottage, or Ottawa runs it really stopped getting a lot of wear and tear on it. I used it to drop the kids off at school, grocery shop, and run the kids to programming, and various appointments. I n the last few years I didn’t want to drive more than 20-30 minutes away because it wasn’t as reliable as one would like from a family vehicle.

While this is the cleanest the van has been since early September when I did all this the last time, it isn’t exactly a show stopper. Still a bit embarrassing to put other people in it. The new puppy whom puts dirty paw prints on everything doesn’t help. I’d love to say that we’ll contain him once we get the new car, and that they kids will be less messy, I can promise neither of those things becoming a reality.

What I can promise is an air freshener in the new van from day two onwards, and a garbage bag/bin so that I don’t find juice box straw wrappers stuffed into the seats, and mouldy kleenex tucked down inside the cup holders. That sort of nonsense I can do without now that both kids are nolonger toddlers, or really small little kids. They know better than to do that now.

Anyway, this cold drizzle filled Friday is full of surprises. Last night my eldest child had a performance to fundraise for their new play. We are going to get to see a version of Newsies come late spring, early summer 2025. The kids all sounded good. I have high hopes for it.

Was grocery shopping and though Eh! What the hell, I’ll get my stocking stuffers now, and alleviate some Christmas time stress. And wouldn’t you know it, BAM! Including groceries it was over $400.00. That’s crazy talk. Scaling back for Christmas is proving difficult when shampoo bottles, and Conditioner are $8.00 or more, each! Yikes. So three shampoos, three conditioners, three chocolate M&M bags, two Terry’s chocolate oranges, lip chap, tooth brushes, tooth paste, two bubble baths, four adult tooth pastes, a 2 pack of deodorant, and one Axe body spray, plus some dog toys, and treats added more than $150.00 to my usual bill. Insanity.

Holy hell November is passing quickly. I just realized that today is the 21st! Even when we aren’t away on vacation for most of the month this November atleast is just whizzing by. Milust have been those two very busy weeks I had previously. I need to eat. Take care.

Not that it really requires it, but I did leave a patch left untouched back when I did it in October that seemed a bit squirrely. All taken care of now. Mulched down the last remaining leaves while I was at it, so two birds, and all that. Had to keep my wits about me, and not go into autopilot, as I have several extension cords for the Christmas lights strewn across the front yard. Not to mention the guide wires for the inflatable, and several metal pins to hold down the gecko, and caroling mouse. Not safe to be out there mowing by that stuff absent mindedly at all. But I managed it. Ha.

Got some gas for the power tools, 93 octane jet fuel to winterize the new mower, and keep my 18 year old Echo weed eater strumming along for another season or five. I’ll likely need to run the mower dry, and then add all new, fresh 93 octane gasoline to it, then close it up for the winter. I’ve broken down my Simoniz power washer, so no fear of the hose or gun exploding. Fingers crossed!

I took some time yesterday to put all of our patio furniture away because the rain had held off for several days, and the rug was dry. Dirty, but dry. Needs a good power washing come spring time, and to get slung over a fence or railing to dry properly. I meant to power wash the deck, but never seemed to find the time, nor the inclination to do so. I think it was because the hose nozzle had welded itself on to the end of the hose with sediment, and different metals corroding together to form a super-duper bond that I couldn’t break. Not even with the help of a vise, pipe wrench, jigaloo spray, and various vise grips. I resorted to cutting the nozzle off the end of the hose with my dremel, and a hacksaw. Did the job, and left the hose end unscathed. Took me a while to get to that point. So, no I didn’t get around to power washing the back deck, nor the driveway for that matter. Hell last years red bloody hand prints are still on the brick because I didn’t use it on the bricks. I washed all of the exterior windows, got soaked, tore it all down and put it away, then noticed the hand prints once again, and just waved them off. Gives the house some character!

I’m about to go and send some articles away, so I’ll chat again soon. Ciao Bella!

By god was our van filthy inside, holy-cow! What a mess. Beads, beads, beads, toys, and trash galore. A fair bit of mud, dust, and bits of pumpkin vine thrown in for good measure. Plus a mixture of spent kleenex, rock shards, and wrappers off of bite sized candy bars. A veritable trash heap of gross stickiness. Yuck!. Found some empty cups, a marking flag from the farm, and all manners of grotesque things.

Turns out my wife has gone ahead and bought our new vehicle, which we are to pick up on Friday. So I took an early swing at removing the most atrocious build up of crud from the van. It has near zero trade in value, but I couldn’t leave it as it was. Oh, don’t you worry, it’s still gross, but it has less physical lumps of grime in it. Still full of dog hair quills, and sticky messes in every single cup holder. Kids – gotta love them.

I also took the early morning to put all of our patio furniture away. The rains have managed to hold off, so while everything was dry I got it all squared away. Come the spring I have several items I’ll want to toss. A see-saw, tiny plastic toddler chairs, a pirate ship water table, and various tiny bicycles that both kids have grown out of. I have gotten rid of 2 of our three car seats. One went to extended family, and the other to the landfill. Mice got the green one, so it had to get dumped as trash. I have one more folding umbrella stroller I want gotten rid of, but it’s slim, and not bothering me at the moment. Out of sight, out of mind. Now if I could only get someone to take our old busted brine tank, and water softener unit, I’d be just a smidge happier. Take my wood cut offs too, whilst your at it, and I’d be even happier still.

Making room in the shed isn’t really a high priority, but it doesn’t need to become the new dumping grounds, now that I am trying to tame the basement, cold storage room, laundry / furnace room,  and all of the basement closets, and the garage too. I do realize I have to keep some space for random overflow junk, but I’d like to keep that to a minimum, as it grows, spreads, and encroaches on all of our living spaces, once I do start to make allowances for things like that. One garbage bag of clothes becomes seven, and a small box becomes a refrigerator box full of stuff, on and on it grows, and morphs! Suddenly old broken toys get stacked up on a shelf, or on the floor by the shelves, and then the next birthday comes, and Christmas,  and my kids want to keep ALL of the Amazon/toy boxes, and wrappers, ribbons, cards, and bags. Then I’m right back where I started, feeling closed in on by the house. Dreaming about the spring time purge, and driving around town dropping off donation boxes worth of stuff here, there and everywhere that will accept it. It never ends.

Having the Christmas tree up in the house brings into stark relief just how little room we have for even one extra bit of furniture, or oversized toy, or random “thing” inside the house. The dogs kennel sits in the front hall as we have nowhere else to put it. That has a significant footprint. We could go a size or two smaller, but I like that the doggo can turn around, lie down, and stretch out comfortably inside it as he gets closer to full size. He’s 10 months old, plus a few weeks, so he will be homing in on a final form soon enough.

I should start to see a few Christmas presents arrive in the next week or two. Gift cards, and experiences are the name of the game this year. I’ll have to hide items from prying eyes. I have a snooper or two here in the house constantly eavesdropping, and hunting for clues. Whilst I love the Christmas spirit, I could do without the subterfuge.

I’m still in shock that my wife went and bought the new car, after we only chatted about it once or twice. I thought we were getting quotes, and finding out numbers based on down payments, financing versus leasing, and all that kind of thing. I’m glad for a new working vehicle as the van is in rough shape. I’m just kinda shocked is all. C’est la vie! Needed a good cleaning out anyway. Trading it in is as good a reason as any. Happy pre-Black Friday Tuesday to you. I think next Wednesday is American Thanksgiving, so that could potentially be a quieter work week. Maybe. Ciao Bella!

These PA Day induced long weekends put everything out of joint afterward. Friday felt like Saturday, Saturday felt like the Deja vu version of Saturday, Sunday felt like the longest Sunday ever, and here we are back in to the swing of things on an early Monday morning. Very strange indeed. I was fairly busy with work this weekend, so that makes things feel even weirder for the kids. My day job is cyclical, but not to the standard work/school week, and not always to standard operating hours, and my kids find that confusing. A part of being self employed, and a freelancer I tell them.

I have the flexibility to drop them off, and pick them up, and be here for their mandated days off from school, and when sick or injured, because I can also work well into the evening, and all weekend long, and occasionally through holidays too. Not vacations, mind you, but holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, New Years Eve & Day. I’ve done that numerous times without issue. But I don’t work on vacation.

And because my work ebbs and flows week to week, month to month, year to year, sometimes I can get a whole lot of random stuff done around the house, as in DIY projects, and other times it’s just laundry, groceries, and a light tidying up when I’m swamped. So if I am building you a bookcase, or a bed odds are I’m in a lull, but if the vacuum cleaner has dust on it, I’ve been busier than usual for several days/weeks straight.

The rock climbing we do on Saturdays is really a lot of fun, but my hands, forearms, and abdomen aren’t feeling so hot right now. Then going and bending over to do two more days of leaves at the in-laws didn’t help much either. The front yard there is just about done. So we’ll have to do the back yard sometime soon. That’s like 10-15 tarp loads, or 40 plus garbage cans full, like just stuffed down to over flowing. It’s a lot of work. My back is not a fan. Neither are my legs.

In slightly more positive news I’m down to 196lbs, from 213lbs. That’s almost twenty pounds this fall season. Losing more would make the rock climbing ever so slightly easier on my hands, knees, and joints. I climbed for nearly 90 minutes, and by the end my thumbs were nearly numb, and my hands felt oddly delayed between intention, and action. Strange sensation that is.

I need to go jump back on my latest report, so I’ll sign off on this wRmish, sun filled Monday. Ciao Bella!

With birthday, and Christmas right around the corner I need to start gathering presents for both occasions. My wife has purchased tickets for some Leafs games, and I picked up a Jersey for my daughter for her birthday. Now that we are quickly approaching double digits we’ve decided to go more in the direction of experiences, and events, than stuff. We are all good for clothes, toys, art supplies, and stuffies. Now it’s time for live theater shows, concerts, hockey games, and trips to do something new. Go make some memories! And hoard fewer items in this teenie tiny house.

Same goes for our younger child, though not as rigorously. She is still very much in a toy oriented childhood stage. But, I say that, yet she is very fond of playing Minecraft, and loves video games. So if she continues on with her tutoring, doing her readings, and trying hard to bridge the gap she can get a Switch by her next birthday without too much concern. She’ll have earned it by then. That’ll be eight months of steady work to acquire the Nintendo Switch. I won’t begrudge her that. But still, fewer things to clutter her room, and the rest of the house would be a good move too.

That’s not to say there will be nothing to open on Christmas day. They will have a few small items to open, and play with, but the bulk will be spent on an experience. Like pottery wheel lessons, rock climbing sessions, going to see a game/show of some sort. It’s been a quiet year, so I shan’t go all out this holiday season. I fear I have set a bad precedent by going a little loopy with gifts. My fault. I’m well aware of that. Mounds of Lego, baskets full of dolls, play sets, houses, castles, planes, and cars for all types of dolls. Mind you, we got a huge chunk of that stuff second hand, or on clearance, or from family whose kids had grown out of it. I’m not rich! But I have spoiled the kids, and that’s on me.

Also, with the new puppy we can’t have wrapped gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve night, or else the wee little bugger will ruin my wrapping job. So that might help the kids adjust to fewer “things” under the tree this year. Anyway,  before you know it they’ll be after make-up, clothes, or tools, and equipment for their own specific hobbies. The little one likes to paint, so I can see her needing a good set of brushes to keep, and look after. Or a second hand pottery wheel if she takes to the lessons, like I suspect she will. Or a harness, shoes, and chalk bag for the rock climbing she loves so much. I think we will have to be more targeted towards hobbies, and activities, rather than straight up toys from here on out. Decent gear is always appreciated, especially if it’s a hobby you really, really care about.

It is taking time, but slowly they are developing interests that extend beyond YouTube and toys. Taekwondo, hockey games, specific artistic endeavours beyond “crafts” of the generic sort. Think water colour painting, more so than splashing glitter glue on recyclables. Rock climbing is a big one right now. So is an interest in making pottery. If they take up reading, or an instrument we have loads of options there too. Lessons, books, music stand, metronome, an instrument of their own to noodle about with. Music, and being able to make it is a massive boon for the soul. I love being able to bash out music on the guitar, bass, and just a little on piano. I played the trombone for five or six years, and playing in an orchestra filled me with so much joy. Making music with others, is really good fun. I miss it dearly.

But enough about me. I’ve got lots to do with the holidays, and a birthday coming up soon. I should have been ordering things in October to make sure it all gets here in time to be wrapped, and accounted for. I need to have some conversations with a few folks. Happy lazy Sunday to you all.

But Netflix kept cutting out and buffering, and then it wouldn’t turn back on, so all I saw were some under card fights, and that was cool. If it was anything like the Floyd Merriweather fight then it will be poorly choreographed with 100% pulled punches, and zero blood lust from the former boxing champ floating about in the ring. Why they get themselves into this charade I’ll never know. All this build up to a phoney dance number and a useless win with an asterix beside it. Good for you. I guess the pay out was worth it all.

Yesterday was a busy end to a busy week. The PA Day was pretty quiet. More quiet than most. I got to spend 2 hours with my kids, walking the dog at the farm, and having a hot sit down lunch, but otherwise I was engaged in my office, and we didn’t go out shopping, or watch a movie, or do much of anything that would have made a day off from school worthwhile. Glad for the paid work though. So no real complaints.

We have rock climbing coming up in the next hour or two, so I need to get the kids ready to scale some walls in style. The youngest lost a wiggly tooth last night, so that was a blood soaked fun time. Tooth fairy made an unscheduled appearance. If we could just get the top two front teeth to come loose then her mouth would be less crowded for the adult sets pushing through her gums. I see lots of dentist, and orthodontist visits in my youngest child’s future, sadly enough. Ouch! My wallet.

This whole “boxing” debacle happens because these are unsanctioned fights, with shorter rounds, heavier gloves with more padding in them (a whopping 2 oz) for all that’s worth, no 3 knock down rule, no saved by the bell either. I have a hard time believing Iron Mike Tyson was bested by the “no real fights had” Jake Paul. Youth be damned. I think they clipped Tyson’s wings, and danced about for 8 rounds. But that’s just my gut feeling. I’ll watch it on Netflix, and I’ll see how close my prediction comes to reality.

Must have been a big draw because my Netflix usually works without any hiccups. But it was loaded to the gills last night, and buffering like crazy. Shame. I wonder how many other viewers dropped off like I did because the app was floundering under the increased traffic. I bet it was a few. Ha.

In other news I received another large project yesterday, a new agricultural report to do. This one isn’t comparative, so that should make it ever so slightly easier to produce. Fewer pie charts! Nice. I got started on it yesterday, so I hope to put another couple of hours into it both today, and tomorrow, so that I can spend more time early next week finessing the report, to make it as sharp as possible.

I’m going to have to start Christmas shopping soon. I need to get my oldest daughter a present for her birthday that’s coming soonish too. Maybe a Maple Leafs jersey of good quality will suffice? I bought her a t-shirt when the NHL season began, so I’m not too far off base here. Now I’m rambling on, so I’ll sign off. Until tomorrow! Ciao Bella.

At the most random times my kids will just shout this statement out loud while playing any game that comes to mind. My guess is they are both watching a lot of twitch stream reaction videos, as “Click the heart, share, to help out the channel” pops up almost as often when their dialogues really get going. Is it sort of adorable? Yeah – a bit. But my feeling is those statements come up on EVERY SINGLE VIDEO, and it is now a mantra they both parrot endlessly. Oh to grow up in the age of YouTube, Twitch Streamers, Reaction videos, and having access to such niche things at your finger tips 24/7. Well, not 24/7 because the tablets go on the charger, and get put away between 9:00pm, and 7:00am. But if they were adults then they could have round the clock content delivery of whatever brand of thing they like.

Friday is here, which means PA Day antics are coming! Did the children, whom hate waking up for school choose to sleep in? Oh no they did not. Yesterday they would have had tears about waking up at this time for class, and yet today they are both up, awake, and hyper as ever. I’m going to wait for the day to get further along before we walk the dog at the farm. I don’t imagine it will get much warmer, but if it goes up by two or three more degrees I’ll be happier about it. My route has grown considerably more muddy as we get deeper into November, and the cold rains sweep across the province.

My paid work is calling out to me, so I best get the kids squared away for a bit while I go and work before we head out to run the dog. May your PA Day activities pan out, and not cost you an arm, and a leg. Ciao Bella.

And… now my house smells like dog. Great. Old dry dog food to be exact. Not the lovely odorlessness of pre-puppy days. The air cleaner is working hard but feels unsuccessful at this point in time. Not a fan of it, the smell that is. I will gather up the dog bed, and any soft chewable toys and will wash those in the next day or two. Will that help? Couldn’t hurt, but I’d be very surprised it is cleared everything up. Also dirty doggy footprints at the back of the house from all of his digging in my garden beds, is making me mad. Silly dirty puppets.

That’s ok. Kids are home tomorrow with the PA Day, so we can all do leaves, walk the dog, and do family stuff for a change. I’m sure they will want to play soccer, or ball hockey if it isn’t raining, or absolutely horrendous outside. Hard to plan ahead when November tends to be so volatile these days. Rain, sleet, heavy winds, warm spell, sun shine, grey & dreary, all in a 48 hour span. Crazy town.

It’s Thursday now, and I’m waiting to hear back about several projects. So I best stay alert, and close by my office. Ciao Bella.

Sure it’s a chance to learn something about yourself, and a skill set you have, but coming to a crossroads where you don’t know how to make a project work beyond that point, is troubling to say the least. Especially if you’ve worked hard to get a project 95% of the way there, but are now stuck on a subjective obstacle that somebody (read paying client) doesn’t feel is where they’d ultimately like it. Tough spot to be in. Uncomfortable. A bit of a bug bear if you will.

Usually I can ram my head & hands against a problem to wrestle it into a useable form, but I’m coming up a bit short. And I don’t know what to do to find that last 5%. Is it ambient light. Bounced light. Texture. Shading, or shadows. The soft focus, or a slight addition of a blur effect. Saturation of the colours… I just don’t know. With the deadline closing I’m not able to test every single permutation to find what gets us to 100. Fun times.

Anyway, it’s Wednesday today, and the kids have yet another PA Day this Friday for me to contend with. Plus the new rock climbing program on Saturday mid day across town in Markham. I guess we could have waited for Friday to put up our Christmas tree. I could have made hot chocolate. Played our holiday playlists. Dressed up in santa hats, you know, the whole nine yards. In all honesty it still would have only taken up 90 minutes of our time, and the kids still got to spend a full hour obsessing over ornament placement on the tree, so it’s not like I robbed them of anything really significant.

We can take the dog for a walk as a family to kill an hour or so. Once we make lunch, watch a movie, and run around outdoors, or rake the last of the leaves the day will mostly be through anyway. I imagine that I’ll have paid work to do, so I can’t be totally absent from my office all day long.

Who knows maybe by some stroke of luck, or inspiration I will tumble across the final 5% that makes everything click into place, and I won’t have to think about this issue any longer this week. Waiting on feedback for the last round of edits. Fingers, and toes crossed for good vibes!