Is what we were met with as of 7:01 am this morning, and it has lasted nearly two hours before any kind of appreciable gap in the noise. Neighbours are having their crab apple tree removed from their front yard. Shame, it has such beautiful pink flowers in the spring time, but if it’s sick & dying or dropping hundreds of apples every single year I can understand doing away with it. Now we should start to hear chainsaws for an hour and then a peaceful return to silence. How is your Monday morning starting off?
Got home around 1:30 am this morning from my friends patio party, and couldn’t fall asleep until nearly three o’clock. It was a terrific night, and my spouse joined us for nearly the entire time (which rarely happens) and we are, and spoke animatedly about everything you can think of, then finished the night sitting around the fire pit sipping drinks in the cool night air. Saw an old friend I hadn’t run into in almost two years, so that was an unexpected boon. Nice!
I don’t typically drink, but I had two Rye and cokes and that was enough for me. The hosts are heavier pourers than myself, so those two were likely more of four to five of my own make if I’m being honest. Luckily spread out over five hours so it didn’t hit me like a Mack truck, but I could feel it whilst seated around the fire pit that’s for sure. I would normally have a 10 my edible and not drink because I don’t like feeling as though I need to pee ten times in one evening, but that wasn’t a problem with having just the two beverages this go around.
My headache is from poor sleep and staying up too late, not so much from the drinks. No spins in the bed, no nausea either, so ultimately no guy rot to follow on from the night. Also a plus! I did a lot of outdoor activity in the sun yesterday so I was likely dehydrated, and thus now sport a headache for my neglectful ways. Fun-fun-fun.
So now it is Sunday, the house has been tended to, and I am angling to take one or both children climbing today, so I need to find socks, a clean water bottle, and gather up our climbing gear ready to hit the road in the next ten, fifteen minutes or so. Luckily I have some new tunes loaded onto the playlist that we can enjoy on the drive over.
We inadvertently kept the dog up until 2:00 am last night so he wasn’t all that ready to get out of bed much before nine. Small graces, eh?
Grass shrapnel from the Echo SRM-230 weed eater back in action. (Fig 1.)
It’s finally fixed, and paid for, and returned home to my possession where I have gassed it up and run it around the property cutting down (now let me count on a proper calendar) 12 weeks worth of growth since May 21st. And it runs like a champ now. So yes whilst I’m angry it took twelve weeks to get done, I’m happy it cost me less than $200.00, and it worked on the second pull, so that’s great news!
Cutting the grass took a little longer than usual because we had many sticks down, a full rotten branch, and thick grass & weeds about fourteen inches tall in the front yard, and closer to eighteen in the back. Had to cut slower, and at higher rpms, so I burned more fuel than normal. Not a huge deal given I neglected the lawn for the better part of three weeks.
I did have to clean up the fish tank. We’d had a power cut that stopped the water pump/filter combo, and the house sitter added far too much fish food, so I had to fully pull out all the bits and flush the gunk and go out of it. I’m sure by Monday I’ll need to do it again because the renewed strength of suction should pull more of the gunk out of the water. It’s a process. I’d like to get a water vacuum for the tank, but we have volatile fish that don’t last all that long. So I don’t think I can justify the cost. Could be worse.
I ran several errands today too. Picked up the weed eater, grabbed water softener salt, picked up some office supplies too while I was at it. Now I can focus on the house and resting up for tonight’s festivities. Looking forward to getting out to visit with friends.
He’s not dead, just bathed in sunlight and having a midday snooze. (Fig 1.)
We’ve made it to another Friday, and this particular Friday marks the end of our longest stay at the cottage for the entire year. From here on out, it’ll just be four day weekend blocks that my wife comes up here with the girls because she returns to work a full week and a half earlier than the kids do. So now it’ll be a push to get as many lake side chill days under their belts before the fall schedule kicks back into gear. I’m self employed so I don’t stop working for the summer by any means, I just arrange my day so that I can be with my kids for portions of every day for fun activities, but still reliably complete my paid day job. It’s very beneficial. I like it.
This won’t stop until early November, when the lift is out, and the docks get tied up in the next bay. (Fig 2.)
We will continue to enjoy the cottage until it gets miserably rainy in November, as we’ll have leaves to do around here in the fall. Although that might have to take a back seat to farming & harvesting again this year. We will have to wait and see if the combines and their associated power heads work all harvest season long, or if they break down a bunch. We didn’t have enough covered bins to store stuff ourselves, so I don’t really know if they sorted that out after last year’s set backs. Might come up against it again and suffer the same delays.
I have my new day planner on order since August is here and my Brown Line day planner goes August to July. I’m never around a big enough town to replace it when summer rolls around. Plus I tend to forget about it.
No matter. Have a nice Friday and a really great weekend.
We did not see anything here, but the kids did some fishing, and after ten o’clock we gathered on the far dock to watch the stars, meteors and far off lightning. It was a very pleasant way to spend an hour in the company of my kids, spouse and dog. I could have done without the mosquitoes, but you win some you lose some. I did in fact see at least one shooting star, whilst my family saw multiple. I just have the bad luck to be scanning a different quadrant of the night sky when something blasts across the top of the atmosphere it would seem. Luckily we’ve been out to see the stars two or three times this week, and everyone was able to witness something extraordinary. Nobody was left out of the spectacle which isn’t always the case.
That run I did on Sunday morning is still causing me to hobble on stairs a full five days in. I am not good at healing from muscle strains it would seem. I had plans to run multiple days this week and I likely won’t run again for several more days. Massage and rollering my calves can only do so much! I am in a shambles I say, a shambles! Trying to raise my foot with heel planted firmly on the ground is a painful endeavour even now. All this means is I absolutely have to spend more time on my cooling down stretches as I spent on my warming up stretches, because what the hell kind of existence is this? Hobbled from a run that didn’t involve a fall, spill, rupture or calamitous ruin during the event. Paying for it now though ain’t I!?!
The girls caught three different kinds of fish yesterday, none of them were any bigger than what we caught last week while we were alone on the dock. The sun sets are creeping into the earlier part of the evenings now. Doesn’t take long. Seems like the longest day is wasted being at the very beginning of summer before anything has even kicked off yet. With three full weeks of summer break left it’s of no surprise that the temperatures are cooling slightly, especially at night where the damp cool is making a comeback. We’ll have sweater weather before you can blink an eye.
Two more days of swim lessons left to go! Hope you are having a terrific summer break 2026! Autumn is on its way.
It’s almost mandatory now that I include a photograph with these blog posts. A picture is worth a thousand words they say. (Fig 1.)
The island off the far dock finally sold for $350K (Fig 1.)Looking into the nearest small bay. (Fig 2.)Those dead cedars sure do burn brightly and with a whole lot of intensity. (Fig 3.)
Summer time in southern Ontario means going to a cottage, lake, Beach or field to enjoy the great outdoors, and fire marshal willing, buying a burn permit and having some fire side s’mores and laughs. We’ve had nearly five inches of rain over the last two or three weeks so the burn van was lifted for evenings. Buckets of sand and water at the ready! The dog joined us, though he isn’t a fan of the sound of those cedar boughs going WHOOSH! as they burst into highly kinetic flames releasing intense heat and an inordinate amount of light. Last fall I managed a fire here to clean up a building site and those flames reached 22 ft into the air, and the heat was intense from 40 ft away. I had two hoses, and six 16L buckets of water at the ready, and it was raining right after I got the trusses to take light. It was very exciting!
Welcome to Wednesday. Today is also my parents 54th wedding anniversary. That’s a considerable length of time. An accomplishment worth a raised drink towards.
Luckily no broken bones, just a bruised ego. Caught the tip of my shoe on a hop up onto a side by side and fell into the gap between the seats and the dash. Skinned my knee. Feel a pretty good throbbing in my palm and outer calf on the same side. Not my finest moment. To top it all off I breathed in a mosquito whilst backing up through the brush after dropping off all of the bags of water softener salt. Ego is deflated, naturally. And yet I persist! I go on. What else is new? Oh yeah it’s Tuesday and we never did get that big electrical storm we were promised. But we’ve had a decent quantity of rainfall that’s for sure.
So I’m now going to gently hop my way to a comfortable chair, wherein I will work my day job, and keep off my feet. I put my calves through a rigorous stretching this morning (which I did not enjoy) and used a jagged roller on my right calf which is by far the worst of the two. I could have screamed very easily when I found the knotted bunch of muscles with my full weight paid upon the roller. It works to break down the knots, but it is excruciatingly focused on being painful in one singular area. Not a fan of the discomfort, but being able to traverse stairs without limping is a plus I can’t look beyond.
Swimming comes to an end this Friday, so I’ll need to find a new activity to occupy the kids until school starts. I don’t think a day camp will work, too expensive, and likely far too late into the season to find two open slots in a themed camp both kids would get anything meaningful out of. Like an arts & crafts camp that would provide them with the chance to make Fair entries under guided supervision. Our kids rarely do day camps like that, seems a waste when I WFH, and my spouse is off for the summer except when she spends a couple days each week building out next falls curriculum, and sourcing books, and field trips.
Overall it has been a high quality summer break with everybody at home. I can feel my older child becoming more independent and wanted to go out with her friends more and more. That’s great! She is a preteen after all, and as long as she makes smart decisions, she is welcome to expand her independence at will. Do something stupid though, and that contracts to almost absolute zero. But, they’re good kids. Good heads on their shoulders. We’ve got eyes all over town so they’re never all that far from us in the end. Ha!
You can probably tell where this is going right? Yeah, my legs started to itch within about 90 seconds, and today my calves feel like cinder blocks, and my quads are ok, but my knees ache, and and and. I was planning to have a thirty minute run while the girls are at their swimming lessons, but I overslept by an hour, and I had paid work to complete the moment I got out of bed. So today’s goal is to stretch out my calves as much as I can without shouting a blue streak, and pick things up again tomorrow.
To nobody’s surprise our battle of the tube plans went off without a hitch, and yet my shoulders, forearms and back all hurt because of the intense bouncing around I did. I cannot for the life of me steer my tube, but my eldest daughter sure can, and she attacked me with both vim & vigor! I spent the whole ride being thoroughly jostled and having the water try to pull me off the back of the tube. My arms are dead now too.
I struck out on a very short paddle board ride yesterday and had a hell of a time trying to stand up. I got there eventually thankfully which took some strain off my knees and ham strings because I was kneeling (which is not something I typically do with both knees firmly planted on a surface, usually it’s just one, or the other knee gown at any one time). I had the wobbles pretty badly when I tried to stand up. My youngest was out there tooling around getting used to doing her own paddling for a change, so I went to check in on her and she rammed me for funsies, a number of times I might add. All good natured fun I can assure you.
So my legs are a mess today, same with my arms and shoulders. Back is a bit sore from the wave induced scorpion pose I hit a number of times whilst having a tubing battle. So I’m going to sit today out. A big electrical storm is supposed to hit at some point today, so I’ll be here just a stretching my legs out. Stretch, stretch, stretch. Gotta do a bunch before an activity, and then do even more afterwards too. I’m getting closer to fifty than ever before, and these are the rules now.
I’m of the generation this was geared towards and yet I never once set foot in a podcast studio, nor ever attempt to start one up myself, what gives? Likely it’s because I scratch that itch here on paper (such as it is written down) and don’t feel the need to speak it aloud. I also don’t care for the sound of my own voice, and most definitely don’t want to talk on camera. My thoughts are jumbled and varied and don’t lend themselves well to video. I’d panic and repeat myself. Also if 8 have to listen intently I’d likely hear the buzzing of the lights, the ceiling or box fans, the AC, or some other conversation and not be able to 100% pick out the dialogue I’m supposed to be following along in order to answer any questions. Also, not that interesting of an individual am I. Welcome to another edition of “Somewhat of a midlife crisis and hobby change with Mark!” Are we riding giga coasters at Wonderland, building furniture, sculpting, building model kits, painting, playing the guitar poorly, doing lawn care, splitting wood manually, or assembling miniature terrain? Maybe we’re looking at starting welding, or sheet metal fabrication? Having a good in the kitchen with a trusted recipe, or digging for fossils & geodes with my kids, or planting new fruit trees to combat food scarcity… I don’t know, but I do know others have dedicated themselves to any one such topic, and would do a far better job at it. Jack of all trades and a master of none! It would be a mess, but a fun mess at that.
Sunday Funday. We had another couple of inches of rain yesterday. Good for the corn and beans. At least it was two to six inches like Niagara got last weekend, that’s far too much all in one go for a single day. Dangerous too.
My stinky little monkey enjoying himself on the boat while the kids are tubing. (Fig 1.)
Oddly enough I do know somebody with a music podcast, they explore esoteric musicians and discuss arrangements and music theory. Things I know next to nothing about. That sort of thing seems dense and unforgiving. I play music, I don’t write it, or about it. It’s why I can enjoy Angine de Poitrine without waxing poetic about microtonal math rock. Time signatures that differ from four-four baffle me. I still like it though, but I couldn’t discuss it beyond a guy feeling, and a vibe check. I know a fair number of people that do Tik-Tok or IG video clips about strength training and sports specific muscle group development which is cool. I’m too pear shaped to try to be a fitness influencer type. I like crabs and snacks far too much.
I’d rather have my collected short works take off than be known for anything physical about myself. Downloads are still creeping upwards too which is pretty awesome. Thank you very much! They’re free, both books. But I digress.
Swinging a hammer sans gloves for the sheer joy of breaking stuff (Fig 1.)
Not going to lie, I like to break stuff so any chance to swing a hammer or a pick axe, or just an axe is going to be a yes from me. We took the kids on a slight misty morning detour since there’s no swimming lessons on Saturdays. They get to put on safety goggles, grab a hammer and bucket and go ham. I get to sit in one spot and break rocks for the sheer joy of it all. It does however take a toll on my hands since I forgot gloves, and those stone chips hit like shrapnel, and cut like scalpel blades. Luckily it was limited to my striking hand and not my face, neck or legs. If I’d have thought about it for any length of time I’d have brought my Rstwing mini sledge and an assortment of cold chisels to really take this place apart. Oh well, on to lunch and a more relaxing afternoon. I do think the repeated hammer swings will have taken much of the fight out of my kids. That and the concentrating on finding treasures among the rocks and boulders. Strategic efforts on my wife’s part.
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