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We are celebrating yet another birthday around here, so I will be busy doing party prep, shopping, and setting up for the group of kids set to arrive in several hours time. It’s still warm out there, even with it being overcast. The pool should be warm, and the pizza & cake are locked in. I have multiple bags of ice, and juice boxes out the wazoo! We have chips, crackers, and sour keys to get these kids jumping!

Today is the last full school day of this term, so I had best make the most of it. While it was cool enough to enjoy open windows for breakfast, we are warming up, and the AC is back on. Tomorrow is a half day, so it is unlikely that I will get around to doing too much beyond drop off, a brunch meeting with potential new clients, and then racing back to town to collect my kids from school, along with all of their school assignments, indoor shoes, and whatever junk they had stashed in their desks. Next Tuesday’s recycling bin will be full to the brim of old classwork. Looking forward to it.

I need to check the mailbox to see if any letters or cards came for my daughter. I’m going to run over there now before I forget. Take care out there! Ciao Bella.

Humidex takes our local temperatures up into the forties. Whoo boy it’s ugly out there for elementary aged school kids, and their teachers. The un-airconditioned schools are going to be a major issue in southern Ontario as the early summer gets hotter and hotter over the next several years. It’s going to become a huge problem with children fainting, passing out, dehydrating badly, or having heat stroke whilst sat at their desks sweating onto their homework. This heat wave has got to be some kind of a June record, or near enough as to not matter the finer points. Unreal.

No wonder my kids swam for about five hours yesterday to beat the heat. Long sleeved bathing suits, hats, sunglasses, and ice cold drinks in the pool for the win. These temperatures are maniacal. Despicable. Horrendous even. It’s days like this where I am grateful for my indoor job, and lack of any sort of commute.

I do fear that a day draws near where we will have to replace our AC unit. But to upgrade to a bigger size that would offer more air flow, and a stronger cooling ability would not go amiss here. The neighbours took down a gigantic fir tree which used to shade much of the far side of our house. Now that it’s gone, our entire roof is in the full sun 24/7. I’m sure that has an adverse affect on the efficiency of our AC’s cooling ability. Now it has no help whatsoever from the surrounding environment.

However, after the Djericho that blew through here a few years ago, I’m glad that tree was gone before then, as it would have snapped and crushed either our garage and bedrooms, or the neighbours double garage. It would have been potentially deadly as we were all home when the wind storm hit. We didn’t go into the basement until one of our maple tree limbs hit the front porch. Lesson learned.

Let us hope the heat breaks by tomorrow night. Fingers, legs, and toes crossed.

A few moments out of doors and my palms were sweaty and sticky, with a filmy icky sheen of wetness. To put it mildly — it’s gross outside. My kids are going to school today just for the morning. I will likely do the same tomorrow too. Far too hot to be trapped inside a 100 year old three story building with no AC, and not enough fans, or working windows. A hot steamy, moisture laden breeze will not do anything for my youngest stuck up in the peak of the school along with all of that trapped heat.

I sent both kids with thermoses stuffed with ice water, along with a frozen water bottle to run over their palms, wrists, arm pits, neck, face, and lap regions to try and mitigate the effects from such high temperatures, and intense humidity. I do not know how well they will be able to concentrate when so unbearably hot. I do not envy them.

I will free them at noon, and I will immediately take them over to Grandma’s house for a swim. Let them float around in the pool for a spell to regulate their tiny little bodies. It’s the least I can do for them.

Only a few days left of the school term, so they aren’t going to miss any real lessons. Perhaps a movie or a couple of games, but nothing truly detrimental to do without. Let us pray this heat wave goes away sooner rather than later. Ciao Bella!

Health Canada says with the inclusion of the Humidex temperatures over the next couple of days could feel like they have climbed into the 40°C to 45°C range, and that’s nasty. My kid’s school does not run AC, except in the Administration office on the main floor. My youngest whom is located of the top most floor of the 100 year old brick building has no AC, and windows that don’t open more than a few inches. She is going to melt. It will feel like torture to put her up there for seven hour days in this upcoming heat. I need to buy ice, and send them with additional frozen water bottles or something. That type of sustained heat is dangerous, even for short spells, let alone several continuous days of it. Ugh.

I hope that they can rotate the kids through a cooling station, or misters, or a room full of fans every so often because it’s going to get ugly — fast. Or I keep them home with me and give these temperatures a miss. We will see how Sunday goes. If it’s unbearable today before the real threat sinks in, I might just have to pull them out of school for Mon/Tues. We will see.

Glad we completed all of the birthday party preparation yesterday while the weather was milder. Now we just have to wait for the big day. Oh, and get a cake, order the pizzas, get a whole bunch of juice boxes together, napkins, plates, forks etc… almost there. Nearly done.

We had a few spare moments earlier this week so we had lunch at our favourite place a week early in order to celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary in peace. And you know what? The food was great (it always is), and getting there was an adventure because the city was setting up for their Pride Festivities which blocked off 50% of all their parking spots, so we had to entertain ourselves a little while we circled lots in order to get a viable not a tow away zone, nor a makeshift spot. Ultimately we were successful, and the walk to the restaurant was short, and pleasant in nature. Bonus! I saw more of the city than I normally would. I have a better picture of the town in my head now thanks to our drive about session. Funny how that works

A few days prior to this I was in Vaughan with my daughter attempting to do an after school run to Wonderland. But whilst the heavy rains came we ducked into Vaughan Mills for an hour to mooch around, looking at stuff indoors, out of the rain, and away from all of that humidity. We did a circle of the Bass Pro Shop looking at side by side, boats, fishing gear and the fish in the giant tank. And then marched the entire hall from Bass Pro to Legoland, around the bend and back again. I’d love to take a pair of roller blades, or my longboard through there. Under black lights, with decent music blasting over the PA System, it would be a hell of a night. Amazing but of exercise too. You’d definitely get your steps in racing around and around there all night. Add a ten milli tommy to your snack in take, and POOF! blast off. I’d even let somebody go with a scooter, just not battery powered, this is for exercise after all. Foot powered only. I don’t recall the last time I set foot inside a roller rink. I could only guess at this point.

Anyway, after the rains subsided we ventured over to Wonderland in the humid late afternoon steam and rode all three of the big coasters with hardly a five minute wait for each. Tacked on a few Stunt Lot coaster rides, and a Drop Zone session and we were in and out in two hours, plus having had dinner, and had ridden at least 10 rides. Off hours, and off season are so much better than peak times. Walk on rides are so much more fun compared to a 90 minute wait for a 60 second thrill ride/coaster. But I digress.

The week was both busy, and quiet. To my lovely wife, I say “I love you”, and here’s hoping for at least 35 more years together in peace.

Started the day off sending project files to press, and soon enough I will begin the first subsection of a large report.bweekend looks like it will be great weather. TGIF!

Whilst I have only sold one official copy of my book through the Amazon Kindle Unlimited program, I do have double digit downloads (for free I might add) of both of my books of collected interconnected space short stories, directly from my WordPress blog. That makes me happy. I do not know if they managed to read them all or in part, or what. My hope is that they enjoyed at least some small part of what I was going for. Perhaps a giggle, a guffaw, or a nasal snort escaped them involuntarily. That’s a win in my book. I’ll take it!

It’s a rainy, and windy Thursday today. Closer to the end of the month than the beginning at this point. School is out, done, finito, as of next Thursday at noon. Time flies! I think that first day we’ll have them clean their rooms to see what items can get taken to the cottage, and not remain behind to clutter up their bedroom floors. I know we have some small kid sized plastic chairs to take, and a teeter totter as well. Perhaps the pirate water table can go too. It’s a bit big, so that might need to go up all on its own on a second dedicated trip, or something. Not that I want to treat the cottage as a dumping ground, but it beats the landfill, and also my Brice & nephew can enjoy it now too if we move it north, and not throw it all away. I can make that concession. That’s a compromise I am willing to be a part of.

What’s new? More unrest in the middle east. Bombs, bombs, bombs, retaliation, death & destruction. We now have 4K resolution tiktoks of bombs dropping. These newer ones light up like mini suns, and hit the ground before you hear anything. Unreal. Scary as all get out. I’m sure somebody somewhere is going to attack or sink the USS NIMITZ to kick things off for real. Why not get into a war because a 50 year old boat due to be decommissioned next May gets itself sunk. Cool, cool, cool. Who cares whose bombs blow it up? “Don’t touch the boats!” They will all scream. I’m sure it’s nothing.

Nice thing about the rain, drizzle, grey weather is the break in temperature. It was 31°C yesterday, and luckily only 63% humidity. Still a hot & sticky day. Even with the heavy rains in Vaughan it was a roaster, well into the evening hours. So I’ll enjoy this cross breeze while it lasts.

Maybe the breeze will help alleviate the skunk smell. I think a skunk sprayed near our AC unit because it clicks on out of the blue, and makes a real racket when it does so. Scaring a weasel friend causing it to spray on, or near the unit because that stink permeated throughout the entire house when it has no reason to do so. Skunks are pretty active around here, and with all the windows shut it didn’t make sense for the basement to get so stinky too. Must have been drawn in by the affected AC unit. That’s my guess, and I’m sticking with it for now.

I have paid work to do, so best be about my business. Ciao Bella!

My friend is currently in the midst of a move and required a little help to move his mattress and box spring out of a basement apartment. They must have got it in there with mere thousandths of an inch to spare which meant doing it in reverse order was neigh on impossible, hence the SawsAll, and a fair amount of cutting, dust, and shredded fibers. But we got both items up & out of there! To the curb for garbage day removal. Nice.

Otherwise I am waiting, watching, and hoping the weather stays decent for an afternoon visit to Wonderland with my eldest today. Everything is so chaotic I don’t really know how you could predict the weather these days. According to yesterday morning some days next week are to get close to 40°C. There was a 36°C, and a 38°C, but when I look today it now says 34 is the highest, and other days are now in the low twenties. Like I said, all over the place, and chaotic. Madness.

But here we are on Wednesday. Middle of June no less. These last few weeks have flown by. We will be knuckles deep into summer break before you know it. But, we still have one more birthday party to plan & execute, plus our fifteenth wedding anniversary. Otherwise we will steamroll right into July without pause. Day time swims! W00t-w00t!!

I bought my Father’s Day gift for myself a few months ago, probably closer to six weeks, but that is neither here nor there. A set of master craft tool boxes went on sale at 60% off, so I bought a 41″ wide tool chest, and upper cabinet with hutch, so that I could put all of my hand tools together, and out of the dusty open spaces of my garage. That purchase meant I could tear down this awful cart that I had build from an old changing table, and it allowed me to disassemble my first tool bench ever, and give myself more open space to work in. It meant one less flat work surface, but more room to manoeuvre in. A perfectly cromulent trade if you ask me. It pairs well with the Husky rolling tool cart, and the large 90″ by 90″ rack I bought for my birthday. So now my shop space is about as optimized as it will ever be without a huge overhaul that would require construction crews and like $60K worth of work. No thanks, I’m good.

But to make my kids have something to hand me I bought two 9 mm Gear wrench brand wrenches for myself for an additional $30. They were happy, and I am happy. I bought one static wrench, and one ratcheting. I had 8 mm, and 10 mm, but no 9 mm. And when I spent 30 odd minutes drilling through my garden forks to fix the loose tines recently I discovered I didn’t have the nines I would need to tighten down the bolts I was using. I did have one 9 mm socket, and with a set of pliers I could sort of tighten things down enough to suit my immediate needs. Now I can really bear down on it. Great!

Sometimes I still toy with the idea of getting a bandsaw, but the upgraded air compressor, Mitre saw and tool storage solution has been the far superior choice, this far. I used my visa card points for the compressor, and the Mitre saw was on sale. It was still pricey, but it’s of quality make, and design, and it also takes the place of the radial arm saw I once had, but donated to my wife’s school. Their wood working course would benefit from it more so than I. My new Bosch sliding double compound saw is the Tits! It’s fantastic. 10 out of 10. Do recommend.

I don’t think much about getting a dust extractor any more. Too loud, and too cumbersome. I will stick with my shop vac. My only wish was that the central collection tub be bigger by about 20 to 30 liters. That would really help me out a whole bunch. But, eh! I can do with what I’ve got.

I also finally managed to get all of my waste wood to the burn pile at the farm, and then move my furniture grade wood into a single sorted pile in the far corner beside my Mitre saw station. Things are all coming together! It really is fantastic.

Riding that high of cleaning up, and sorting things out lead me to finally tossing 95% of all the crap in the garage. I do have some old tech I need to get rid of, but that will require a trip to an appropriate dump, or collection centre for old monitors, and an old desk top of tower from 20 plus years ago. I bought that tower in 2002. Yikes. It’s older than the majority of my neighbours kids.

How did I get from 9 mm wrenches to my neighbours kids? Train of thought I suppose. Funny how that works. Take your hat as you never know where you will end up! Happy Tuesday.

A few of the Dahlias have all ready come up down at the farm. I do not know who started them off, or when they did, but they are small of stature, but very beautiful. Mostly with a single bloom on it at the moment. Still – a picturesque scene nonetheless.

Yesterday was Father’s Day, and I hope I didn’t break my streak by forgetting to write something, that would be a real misstep on my part. Can’t turn back the clock, so no use worrying about it if I did. I was gifted a hot breakfast in bed, a lie in of about 90 additional minutes, two lovely cards, and the day to putter about the yard pruning trees, planting corn, and playing catch under the shade of our large Maples. I even had a late afternoon swim, and a meat lovers pizza dinner with a Dr Pepper. Mmmm… That’s living.

We face timed my dad later on into the night because they are three hours behind us in BC. Wished them a good day and retired to bed with a few scratches, dings, and cuts. None the worse for wear. Hell I even broke out my long board for a quick few rips up & down the street in my Crocs and helmet. I am a style icon. You out there, mouth agape at all my glory. Suck it!