Not having a good one today. I feel exhausted. While it’s fun to zip away for a quick family holiday I now feel more tired than when we left. I feel as though I could sleep an additional twelve hours today and still not feel as though I got ahead of my fatigue. Was up earlier to deal with the recycling, and wouldn’t you know it, the green bin bag ruptured on the front porch, spilling mouldy steaming old food everywhere. Dripped on the tile floors too. Lovely. Nothing quite like shoveling steaming garbage into a fresh bag at 7:00am, when it feels like -13 outside. Fun times.
I may just go back to bed at this point. Still no news regarding our van, so one can only assume it requires more extensive work than originally planned. Can’t wait to hear what the bill will be for more than a week at the mechanics shop. That should lighten the old wallet a fair bit.
Lastly, we have several items to accomplish for the funeral service this week. Photos, and flowers, food, and speeches etc… this will be a long, short week if you know what I mean.
Not going to front, I have zero desire to go outside and do any more skating today. It was warmer yesterday, but extremely windy when we did our first skating session, and that was cold enough. This is lose fingers, and noses cold. No thank you! Even the hot tub would be a bit of a reach in these temps. The water is lovely but getting to & from the hot tub in this weather is a cruel endeavour. Again, I decline. This would be when we should have massive Terry cloth robes to prance about in, or some type of wind blocking privacy screen. But nope! Open to the elements on all four sides, and the wind off the lake is something else.
You guessed it, today is a holiday Monday. Family Day here in Ontario. I think the US has Presidents Day too. We had thoughts of being in Florida right now, but uncle Fred had something to say about that, poor old chap. We have flower arrangements, photos, and all manner of items to sort out for Thursday and Friday. I need a hair cut, and a shave. Will need to sort out some reasonable clothes to wear. Best get to exercising a little more this week, and eating a little less in order to get all the clothes to fit properly.
Hard to believe that month number two for 2024 is almost done now too. My how time flies! March Break is going to be here before you know it. Then Easter, and then Spring.
Now that I have finished my tool cart with drawers build I’m kind of sad about it. Mind you, it was very strange to have such mild early February weather, so normally I would not be able to be out in the shop working. I mean I made a small tray/tool organizer for my newer tap & die set, which gave me the fizzy feelings of wood working again. So then I bit into and then was able to complete the cart build within the same week. I think I put about 10 to 15 hours into it over four days. Plus putting the upgraded wheels on it on Friday.
On the upside we’ll be into March before you know it, and the sunshine will be stronger, and the weather should actually begin to get milder, on purpose. But just you watch, now we’ll have snow and cold right into April instead. Just to spite us all.
Which reminds me, I’ll need to build a new Urn at some point to replace the one uncle Freddy is now occupying. Perhaps I’ll build myself one from my left over Walnut pieces, and I’ll polish it nicely, and can wax it up to a high sheen. Glossy dark Walnut for peak posh-ness. With a nice felt lined tray for photos, watch, and wedding ring. A real nice eternal vacation home, if you will.
I do need to finish the single bed for my youngest, which needs to go up to the cottage sometime this spring. Light sanding, staining, and assembly! Hop to it.
Sun is out but that minus nine looks unappealing. Scattered clouds on these blue skies makes me think it isn’t all that windy, which is a plus. Let us all try to avoid any brushes with Frost Nip this weekend, please and thank you. Luckily last time it was the merest of tickles upon the Frost Bite spectrum, but I don’t want anybody to risk it for a snowmobile ride. Put on a helmet and a weather suitable balaclava to stave off the worst effects of the cold. So if we could all do just the bare minimum to avoid the cold that would be much appreciated.
Doesn’t feel much like a Saturday morning. Not sure what’s making the vibe feel off. Hmm… I’ll have to think on that for a bit to see where things feel different. Perhaps it’s because this is a long weekend, and the extra day off feels weird. Is it the presence of snow and cold after that long warm/dry spell. I don’t know what it is. Could be the looming feeling of Ugh! From next Friday’s funeral and visitation services putting a dark cloud over everything.
On the plus side nobody rushed to call me with the results of my small intestine MRI from Thursday. Which makes me think the news will be mild to good. No news is good news. I’m still worried about having my mask off partially to drink at the hospital, and inside the actual machine. I really hope I haven’t tracked home Covid or anything along those lines. I feel fine thus far. My kids have been coughing and in various stages of gooey for several long weeks now, which I have avoided. Could be the near continuous running of our Hepa filter in the living room. Or my immune system isn’t fighting it and my chest feels a little less than normal, but I’m not oozing like they are with it. Is that a blessing or a curse?
Good news is we can go tobogganing now that we have six or so inches of snow on the ground. We haven’t been able to go for a number of weeks. The town doesn’t even have any outdoor rinks out like during the lock-down periods of 2020-2021. It was pretty awesome, you could go to any number of local parks and skate outside with hardly anyone else around. If I recall a fair few winter birthday parties were held on skates during those years.
In other news I broke down and bought four more substantial caster wheels for my rolling tool cart build. One of the four small ones I had lying around shattered into two halves and would not go back together on the bearing. I went up from a 1 inch wheel to a 3 inch. So it didn’t effect the overall height by too to much. Plus it rolls like a champ now, and all four wheels can be locked, and swivel independently. Very maneuverable. It’s ugly as sin, but suits my needs to a “T”. I even got to repurpose several pieces of our old change table. Now I have memories to keep.
My wheeled cart with shelves, drawers, storage space, and an open top for power tools access. Just what I wanted!
What I thought was going to happen was, I sign in, I fill out a form, I change into a gown, I spend 15-20 minutes in a loud tube, I change back and go home, in and out in one hour tops. What I got was multiple forms, news I should have fasted from 5pm the day before, a need to drink 1.5 litres of sorbitol to inflate my small intestine, an IV for bowel sedation meds, one of which I was ineligible for due to my acute angle glaucoma, and a three hour stay at the hospital, plus some injected dye. I still had to change into a gown/pants combo and put my belongings in a locker. So not awful, but a bigger commitment than I was aware of. My Gastroenterologist told me “You need an MRI. I’ll put in the requisition and the hospital will take care of the rest.” And that was it. No further details provided. I’ve had an MRI before, so I figured this would be much the same. The hospital called to tell me of my appointment only 7 days before it was scheduled, via automated voice message. No details about fasting, length of time, IV drugs etc etc… it didn’t even provide me with an option to speak to a human to ask relevant questions. I walk in there and BAM! My busy day is about to get much more complicate.
The people were lovely, and it was all free, and I only ended up waiting roughly six months for it. I’m not in life threatening condition so it wasn’t a high priority. It was clean, and all the nurses were masked. It’s a building full of high powered magnets, so only the blue surgical masks, but still better than nothing I suppose. I wore my N95 for as long as I was able. Drinking three 500ml drinks was a challenge in a mask. Hopefully I haven’t brought anything home with me. We’ll see.
Trying to drink 1.5L of watered down sorbitol under a timer was no fun. Better than the colonoscopy prep, but that much fluid on an empty stomach makes me feel all slushy, burpy, and nauseated. Trying to burp water while reclined on a gurney makes me gag a bit. Nearly threw up. Oops! Managed not to though. Go me!
Let’s Vogue!
That was a good chunk of my Thursday mid day. The forms do warn you that the bowel sedation meds mixed with the sorbitol can have a nasty effect on you afterwards. So I spent much of the late afternoon and the evening dealing with the fall out of that mixture. Whoosh! Right through you. Unpleasant. Ha.
But, here we are on the morning of another beautiful Friday. The sun is out, I can see some blue in the sky. I finished all of my shoveling for last nights snowfall. It looks like February in Southern Ontario once more. Temperatures are more seasonal as we are back below zero again. We can toboggan if we want to. I now think once more about buying myself cross country skiis. The forecast calls for a few more days of snow. This is also a holiday weekend, with Family Day on Monday to look forward to. Sadly next week are both the visitation and funeral for my wife’s uncle Frederick Pike. Died at age 65, after a brief battle with multiple cancers. Very aggressive. Spread too far & too wide, much too quickly to be combated in any current method that is available. So next Friday will be a somber day to remember the man.
I have paid work to do, so I best be about my business. Ciao Bella!
Going down to the hospital later this morning for my long awaited MRI. Well I say long, but I think it’s about six months, so not totally terrible. I am fasting for it, which sorta sucks, but I usually don’t eat breakfast until close to nine am, so what’s another two to three hours on top of that. No big deal. Time to get in there and figure out if I do in fact have any, one, or multiple bowel constrictions or obstructions. This scan will dictate how we proceed. Do I get to leave things as is because there aren’t any extra issues above and beyond my current Crohn’s diagnosis, and I just live with things and deal. Or are there obstruction(s), how large are they, where exactly are they, and do they need to be removed. If surgery is the option, can it be done laparoscopically with much smaller incisions, or do they need to properly disembowel me like a velociraptor would, spilling my guts in order to search for the offending bits, and do the removal that way. That, I fear, will entail an extraordinarily long recuperation time, pain, bleeding, stitch or staple removal, antibiotics and infection control over a period of months because I, historically speaking, heal very, very slowly. Ugh. Worst case scenario is they find other ‘things’ that lead to the obstructions and I get referred to a whole different set of specialists. Fingers and toes crossed that that option stays well and truly far the fuck away from me. Please and thank you.
I have the details and directions in hand for how I am to proceed this morning at the hospital. Not going to lie, my guts are churning this morning. That’s not all that unusual, but perhaps the presence of the churning will add some insight to my doctors and care givers about my particular case of Crohn’s Disease. I would love for this to help me, but I’d be good if it added some additional understanding that helped others like myself. I know in my younger years my file was used as a case study at medical conferences, and retreats. So, yay! Indirectly helping and getting published in medical journals. Noice! Toit! Without having to write a single sentence at that.
I took a few minutes earlier today to remove my wedding ring just in case that would interfere with the imaging equipment. Took me longer than the 90 sec I thought it would take to unburden myself of my wedding band. Gaining weight has weird knock on effects. Ha. On that note I have worked out a little every day for twelve days now. That’s a good streak for me anyway. Nothing too crazy. Push ups, squats, various leg raises, and sit ups, jumping Jack’s, and the occasional burpee. All body weight for the time being. I’m going to see if I can keep at it myself before I go and add in a monthly gym membership cost. I start strong and fizzle. So best to see if I can make it a habit before dropping even more money on ‘stuff’. I’m trying to be fiscally responsible here folks!
Have a terrific Thursday February 15th, of 2024. Ciao Bella.
As it turns out my spouse has not yet seen Dune Part One, so that’s what we have been doing this morning. Well, besides grocery shopping, dropping off the van at the mechanics, fetching a hot breakfast, and doing the morning school run. Feels like a lot, but isn’t much of anything.
I hold high Hope’s for part two being as good or better than the first movie. I hope to get out to see it on a late Sunday night showing. I did the animated D-Box atmos chairs last time. I might give that a miss this go around. Spilled my drink, and made it go flat pretty early into the nearly 3 hr long movie. Hope my bladder can last through it!
Has a 4 inch deep top shelf for power tools, gloves, and tape measures. Followed by two shallow drawers for chisels, and finer measuring tools. And then a five inch deep drawer for hand saws of all shapes and sizes. This one drawer tried to save the drawer slides but I’ve squished them too much and it catches, so I need to sort out an alternate method to operate that drawer. Too bad. Oh well. The unit has an open shelf for adhesives, paints, and other fluids. Below that is a tray to hold my bag of cloths, two palm Sanders, a multi tool, and long sheets of sand paper, and sanding discs. I put it on wheels, unfortunately one of the four wheels exploded on me, do I either remove the other three, or buy a new wheel, or attempt to epoxy that wheel back together. Hmmm. It was supposed to be build with stuff I had on hand to stop me spending money! The cart I had been swooning over was going to be close to $600.00 after taxes.
Building this four foot tall, three foot wide, and eighteen inch deep monstrosity is supposed to help me clean all my hand tools off the walls, and save floor space between it and my work bench. It also has allowed me to move two lesser used table saw jigs to a better spot above it, opening up the wall space close to the door for my clamping rack solution that I have coming tomorrow. It’s far from perfect, and sort of ugly, all cobbled together with odds and ends I had lying around the garage. A great use of the materials if you ask me.
Still a few moments yet until it’s all taken care of, but I’ve made progress! Forward movement! Yay.
I almost had it my way too, but the closing seconds beat me down with a tying field goal. Losing by a touch down with 3 sec left of the over time quarter was a tough way to finish the season. So close, and yet so far. Bah!
I was there to see all of the commercials and dance along to the Half Time show. When the time came though, I ignored all but a scant few seconds of the Half Time show. I wasn’t feeling the vibe. Didn’t feel like my jam. Glad others enjoyed it though.
Back to Monday. Laundry is done, but not yet put away. I’ll tackle that at some point either today or tomorrow. A bit of loud music and an hour to kill will see all that stuff taken care of. At least it’s all clean! I drove over to pick up my prescription this morning after the school drop off run. Left thirteen dollars lighter as there was a new fee for dispensing my medication. Thanks Weston Family.
Still waiting to book our other vehicle in for a replacement radiator. The Stop Leak fluid didn’t manage to hold the coolant inside the radiator system for long. I’m going to hold off on any birthday purchases until after the van is looked at. I don’t have unlimited funds to spend, and the second vehicle being useful is more important than my buying a new tool cart with storage drawers. I probably should just use the wood scraps, wheels, drawer slides I have lying around and build it myself. I’m just feeling lazy about building all those moving parts. Bah!
I should find the time to go grocery shopping some time soon as well. Domestic Duties wait for no one! Floors, counters, dishes, laundry, groceries, all of these continue to require looking at no matter how many times you complete them. Ugh. Must be what it feels like to work at the post office. Never ending stream of sameness. Bor-ring!
Back in it, with the whole sleeping without feeling rested scenario. I think I know the particular reason for it now though. I need an MRI this week to better assess the presence of my possible bowel constrictions/obstructions. The detail of the scan will dictate if I need surgery to have them removed sometime in the near/not so near future. I know that it is better to know the state of things, but I’m also concerned we may discover more than what is expected. Irrational feelings, I get it. Just had a few extended family members diagnosed with/die from cancer recently, and it’s in the back of my mind. No real point in worrying about it until you hear one way or the other. Nothing good can come from borrowing anxiety before you get any inclination of what the news will be. But, that’s why my last three nights of sleep have been less than restful. Whee!
Today is Superbowl Sunday so the afternoon and evening will be dominated by Foozeball coverage, and heart warming stories of how the players got where they are. I like the commercials myself, but not being State side means we don’t get all of the good ones first hand. I’ll see the best on YouTube tomorrow or next week. We might see the Kick of Destiny, which we missed last year. Or the Puppy Bowl if we can find who is going to broadcast it. Chilli cheese dogs, nachos, pizza and wings are par for the course. Though, truth be told, with four kids in our midst we’ll end up watching Bluey and following the game on our phones, or a separate tv. I look forward to that not being the case. I’d actually like to watch the football game, live on tv, at some point soon.
I think we missed our chance to see the Tampa Bucks play at home in November. That would have been a wild experience for the four of us. I saw the Miami Dolphins play at the Sky Dome decades ago as a child, and really enjoyed it. Those US football stadiums are absolutely monstrous in size. The scale of it can be hard to visualize if you don’t see it in person. With fries, hot dogs, burgers and ice cream I think the kids could have had a fun time too. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Lightning game there either, tickets are $60 each, which is incredible compared to Leafs tickets here at home. All four of us could see Tampa for the price of one terrible seat at the ACC. Or whatever the arena is called now.
Sunday Funday. Homework to be completed, and preparations for the week to be made. Laundry, groceries, and tidying up the house. The weather is supposed to go back down to proper winter levels. Not as cold as minus fifteen, but back below zero at least. We are in this weird limbo where I know (or feel as though we should) get more snow before April rolls around, but as it’s so nice out I’d like to start yard work, but that shouldn’t really happen until late April. So I have to sit on it and wait. It’ll be the strangest winter I’ve ever had if we get no more snow between now and May 1st. Even the El Niño years had snow fall and sub zero temperatures eventually. I recall cutting grass in December that year in a t-shirt and long pants. But I digress.
Book #3 is moving along. Not too mathematical. Still enjoying it a fair bit. I have at least four more books that I plan to read. Plus I have two new books which I ordered to arrive over the next few months. A new series from James S A Corey, and the third installment of the Don Winslow City trilogy. I look forward to each book. Whether that remains the case as I get into them is a different story. Happy Football Day to you all. Ciao Bella.
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 
You must be logged in to post a comment.