Author: greatwallstudios

We have limited TP supplies so everybody is limited to just one wipe with one square of single ply until the supply chain sorts itself out. This IS in fact an effort to curtail you all choosing to drop a deuce during work hours. Shame and intimidation tactics are now in play. Also, you will all have to wear white for everything, and a visual inspection will occur thrice daily until things change for the better, or enough of you get laid off that the CEO gets the bonus she’s been angling for since Q3 of last year. Luxury yachts don’t buy themselves people. If the problem persists then the cafeteria will stop serving anything but bran muffins and black coffee. Should that fail to materialize the results we want, then we will institute the 3:00pm hot sauce gauntlet. Which will consist of a series of tablespoons of several hot sauces for every employee to consume, likely 3 to 5 of them, of increasing scovilles until we meet our desired outcomes. Failing this the C-Suites will begin hunting staff using high vis paint balls, and any employee caught with paint on their whites will be forcefully removed from the premises. Meetings will continue as scheduled without interruption. Those fired whom have institutional knowledge not written down will still be responsible for imparting such information on their own time with zero compensation.

Thx – The Management.

And that’s what it currently feels like to be a small cog in Corporate America right now. Ciao Bella!

My intention was to find a suitable final spot for the two bar stool/chairs I have in the garage. But instead I solved that issue in 30 sec and then decided to fix the overhang on the racks which prevent my ladder from shifting a foot to the left. And then I decided to build a smaller tray to house my slightly larger tap & die set from Canadian Tire, and that freed up room to move my hot stapler, and now my lower drawers have room to rummage around in without having to move things first. Also – wood working! Yeah. Table saw, chop saw, Japanese pull saw, brad nailer, glue, chisels, I mean I had the whole band back together ever so briefly. The tray is nothing to write home about, I’m a few months out of practice, but hell I did something constructive! That counts as a win. I still believe you get good by doing lots of something rather than trying to be exacting right off the bat. Make shoddy things until you learn how to do it better incrementally. Fun fact, I was able to build the tray with stuff I had on hand, no new purchases required. Even better! Did I mention the urn I built is now going in to use by a different uncle? The vacation home is all set for it’s new occupant. Hope he gets put somewhere with a view!

I’ve managed to exercise five days in a row. Is it a habit yet? No, not really. But I know I can find 10 mi utes on a yoga mat to get moving around, so that is hopeful. Best to be active while you can!

Also the Stop Leak fluid we put in the van radiator worked for a few days of very light use, but ruptured yesterday evening. Not great. Gotta find a good fix for that sometime soon.

I had an automated call from the hospital last night about my abdominal MRI. It’s late next week. So maybe I’ll get some news in March or April about those supposed bowel constrictions my gastroenterologist was telling me about. He thought there were two, and only a few centimeters long each. So not major. He said a once in forty years surgery would clear those up if need be. Which I think is good news. Best get my sit ups in now before they poke through my abdominal wall to start cutting and pasting!

It’s sunny right now, and near 8°C. Not too bad for working in a light jacket and toque. No gloves required! I do need to get my daughters single bed frame sorted so she can get up off the floor at the cottage. Needs a few hours of work, and some assembly. It’s pine so not really all that heavy, luckily. Mostly need a light sanding, the feet all cut to match, and to be assembled. No biggy.

This strange warm weather pattern has one good side, I can comfortably putter around in my shop inbetween paid jobs, or while I wait on the review process for larger projects. Last week I broke down the old change table, RIP little friend. Haven’t needed it for four years now, and could not find anyone willing to take it off my hands, even for free. Yesterday I moved some things around to get all of the wood for my projects tucked into one corner. Freed up more floor space in the working area of my garage shop. I have some bar chairs i took for free in the fall to figure out next. I like the idea of having extra seating in the garage for when my kids join me, but i kinda hate the space being taken up by those two bar stools. I want to put them up on the racking, but I’ll have to fetch them each time someone else wants to sit down. It’s rare, so probably not the hindrance i feel it is.

I’m still kinda set on getting another rolling tool box for my chisels and such. I want my tools off the wall. Not a fan of the tippy toes needed to reach for things I want to use. I think a 36″ wide unit would be perfect. Somewhere in the five to seven drawer niche. I’m holding off on buying new, to see if I can land anything close on Facebook Marketplace for half the price. Plus it helps me to know if it’s something I need, or if it’s a flight of fancy, and an item I just ‘want‘. If that makes any sense. Though I will say, as far as my wants go, I tend to be right on the money with needing those items within the next 2 – 3 years after purchase. So not a waste per se, but a silly one off purchase that comes in really handed the rare time I desperately need it. I don’t know if that justifies those purchases or not, but it means I’m usually on the right track, sort of. Ha.

I do have a bunch of broken home electronics which I need to take to the dump. I have been breaking them down to steal their screws, bolts, cord segments, and copper wire off the motors. Then I’m discarding the plastic cases and some wiring only. Not great, I’ll admit, but I’m not tech savvy enough to rewire our broken things. I burned out the motor on a blender, the give away was the melted wire smell. Our old Hepa filter died but never smelled. I couldn’t see any blown resisters on the mother board, or burned wires, or excess wear & tear on the unit. It just died on me. An old radio went, a portable fan died too. Lots to be broken down, and parts retrieved for my jars of random bits.

I could fill another cardboard box with burnable scraps if I felt like it. I have a box in the basement that needs to go north to the cottage full of fire starting materials. Namely old magazines that are way out of date tech wise. No need to learn Adobe CS3 from 2007 anymore. Plus there are some clothes for the kids to go up north and get left there. Ideally we’d have clothes left there for everyone so that we don’t HAVE to pack clothes in order to be comfortable on the lake. I’d love to be able to grab a back pack and a tooth brush to leave instead of packing & unpacking all of our belongings every time we head north. First world problems, I know, I know.

As much as I can clean the shop/house I can’t make them any bigger. The size shall forever remain the same. So I hope by reducing whatever is excessive on the inside I can atleast make it feel bigger. Or provide fewer obstacles to have to work around. Make do with what I’ve got.

These last few days has made for a hell of a month. More visits to various dentists, orthodontists, and Periodontists in the last two weeks than in the previous four years. Insanity. Add in doctors and a death and you’ve got yourself a full calendar. Still waiting to hear about funeral details, though the oak Urn I made last year for a different uncle is now in play as a permanent vacation home for my wife’s uncle. Red oak, white oak, royal blue felt. A touch of plywood for stability. Polished up to 600 grit. Waxed and weather striped to limit dust seepage. Also has non marring rubber feet. If no one else claimed it, I would have been proud to use it myself (hopefully not for many healthy decades to come, think four or five more good decades at that!).

Now today I need to take the youngest on for cleaning, x-rays, and a review of her mouth. Should be about an hour. Pray for no cavities, nor extreme dental machinations ahead. I had all kinds of dental issues as a kid, and I hated every waking hour of it. Fun times.

I’m on day four of exercising a little each day. Not much, just ten mi utes of body weight stuff. Done on a yoga pad in the living room behind the couch. No results, but trying to build it into a habit as part of my day. Should limit DOMS episodes too. Make me more likely to keep going.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella.

Few items to strike off the list. Choosing potential day camp adventures for late August for both kids. Fetching water softener salt for the first time in a couple months. Finally after many call backs, and a few packages of parts we got it up and running.

Finding out details for uncle Fred’s funeral. He passed away on Friday February 2nd, at 6:45pm after a short but difficult battle with: Lung, Liver, Pancreatic, Throat & Tongue cancer. He had no spouse, and leaves behind no children. Any such details as I come to know will be shared here.

Swapping out the last of our car seats for a booster seat. End of an era! Both kids are getting so big. I remember bathing them in the sink, holding them in one arm like a football, heads nestled firmly in the palm of my hand, wash cloth at the ready. Then the tiny minnie the pooh tub with mesh body glove to keep their heads above the water line. It was challenging, but sometimes I miss it. Not for long, but I do get wistful every now & again.

I can’t believe that we need to sort out and plan for the summer in February, but here we are. Late August will see my wife return to work after her year off. A few items got in the way of how she’d hoped it would go, but I do hope she found some degree of rest, or something worthwhile that she got out of the experience. It’s like a chance to test drive retirement. And my come away is, she needs a hobby. Something to focus on, and derive satisfaction from. Give you purpose. Otherwise she’s going to hate being retired in her mid fifties.

Ups, downs and everywhere in between. I’m tired of February already, and we haven’t even made it to Valentine’s Day yet. I had to work really early this morning to make up for the hour I’ll lose at the Orthodontists office today. A consultation to review my eldest daughters x-rays. Sounds like no fun whatsoever. On Wednesday I need to take my other child to the dentist, and we’ll hear all about that I’m sure. This month had a PA Day, as well as a holiday Monday to look forward to. Also not much snow, and bitter icy winds. We’re all over the show right now. Ugh.

Play with the kids while they were home and wanting to be outdoors and active. I took them skating to a friends backyard rink for an hour, and then had a park play date later on in the afternoon. It was cool, breezy, and very wet. Kids loved it. Now I need to work over the weekend to complete the last (but significant) edits to my report, which affects the tables. It’ll be a long repetitive process with lots of fiddly bits to keep track of. I’ve had a brief lie in. I will eat breakfast, and then I’ll get stuck in I suppose.

I get a second try at a Saturday today, which is kind of nice. Best spend it working! I have no wheels as the van is sitting idle. It needs a new radiator part, about $350.00 worth roughly. So as to not further injure the vehicle it shall sit unused until such time as I can get my mechanic to repair it. So no road trips to the store for me this weekend. I can attempt to fix (again) the bathroom door handles, and hinges. Best finish my paid work first though, before I tackle any DIY home repairs.

I feel bad I didn’t go to the cottage but I really do have a lot to get done to reorganize these tables. This is when I wish I had an assistant I could delegate work to. But just me, so I need to remedy the issue. No risk no reward!

From the looks of it we’ll have a sunny Saturday morning atleast. Pretty bright out through the curtains. Take it easy. Hug your loved ones. Ciao Bella!