Category: Uncategorized

I do hope that traffic isn’t a nightmare when trying to go just about anywhere next week. All of the parks, and things will be jam packed with day campers, and lost souls alike. Trying to get a group together to do anything fun indoors, or outdoors will be a herculean task over the next nine days. If you didn’t schedule it before, it probably won’t happen. Just saying.

Next week my wife and I will have reversed roles, where I will be working and she will be off. So atleast the kids will be partially supervised for 99% of the time. They are a little bit older now and don’t require 100% supervision to not die. Now it’s more like 85-90%, unless they get into Minecraft and then they just sink into the couch with the game for an hour at a time. Unless they ask for a beverage they aren’t going to need much of anything at that point. Far simpler than kids under five. Atleast for brief spurts.

I’m so sick of the snow it would have been amazing to head back out to sandy beaches and sun shine. But not this time. We got out ahead of the surge pricing on flights, rentals, and hotels etc by going mid February instead. Which was super fun, but now that there is still so much winter left to go I’d rather be swimming under the warm sun – again.

I have yet another full day to go in order to wrap up my latest report, so I best be about my business shortly. I will say this, isn’t it funny how life imitates art, imitates life again. Full circle. Funny that.

Spent this snowy, blowey morning walking the dog, and grocery shopping expecting a quiet end to a mostly quiet week when BAM! new big report comes in. I knew it was on the horizon so not entirely unexpected, or from out of the blue, but it did add a whole lot to what was essentially an empty day. Now I’ve got charts, tables, graphs, and photo sets to pour over like a madman. Nice. Work in means invoices out! Happy Thursday.

Tried out the new glasses for an hour or two before they made me feel queasy. Slow steps. Did make things clear though, won’t lie about that. Just that the peripheral vision had an orange peel wobble to it that  turned my stomach. Fun times.

I am now officially in possession of my first pair of reading glasses. I should mention that as of about ten years ago I should also have been in possession of atleast one hearing sid, so while I do treat the new reading glasses as a mark of aging, I don’t think of my poor hearing the same way. I’ve had hearing loss since I was about six years old, so not age determinate. That was more genetics and not an organ slowly changing shape over a forty year span. But on that note perhaps you’ve guessed it, I am now forty five years old. Closer to age fifty than ever before! Fifty, wow. Yikes. There’s an age that always seemed so far off into the future as to be unobtainable, and yet it’s now closer than feels comfortable. Ha.

The glasses are a welcome change as I read a fair bit all day every day, so making the text clearer, and thus easier to see is a boon! Bestowed upon me for a not inconsequential sum of money, I might add. Aging, isn’t it fun. Different, yet similar for a good chunk of us.

I took my youngest rock climbing last night, which was pretty awesome. The gym is less full on Tuesdays than Saturdays.  Go figure. Tried my hand at some old trusty favourites, with success. Even went so far as to try a 5.9, which in turn laughed at me with its entire chest. Not there yet. I still have to work on grip strength, angle of attack, hand & foot holds, pivots, swings, leaping up to catch a hold from a crouch etc… long way to go yet. I just seem to slide off those tiny little nub holds. Whether it’s a foot or a hand I can’t seem to stay put on too many of them. I know my balance is bad, the Wii sports pad/board thing showed me that fifteen or so years ago. You had to stand on it and do breathing exercises, or yoga, skiing or hoola hooping, and my body was all over the place even at rest. I didn’t know I moved about quite that much, but rolling on the balls of my feet to keep my weight centered was pretty obvious when tracked on screen. It was enlightening. I’ll never be a surgeon! My hands aren’t steady enough. D’oh!

Today is Wednesday of all days. That means Taekwondo and tutoring runs for the kids after school. And it’s a real wet one today. Just pouring rain outside. So skating next week, or even later this week has been called into question. They might have missed their chance by about a week unfortunately. For next week is March Break so no school trips then either. Which puts the rain date into the third week or March and who knows what kind of weather we’ll have by then? Any bodies game at that point.

Made a pit stop after walking the dog in the rain down at the farm. Had to go all the way across town to the optometrist office to grab my new specs. They could have just handed them to me, but instead they made a big show of opening the box, washing the lenses, having me try them on etc… should have been twenty seconds, took fifteen minutes. Oh bother.

I have them in hand now. Maybe I should take the day to read nonstop in them while I get used to them. I opted for some very light frames, as I have found my sun glasses to be far too heavy. Those fall off my face at every opportunity. Slide down my nose, or fall off the back of my head if I put them up for a second. It’s an irritant. Maybe I’ll buy one of the sports cables to keep them firmly affixed whilst I have them on for good measure. Don’t want to drop them!

Would have preferred a win rather than an OT shoot out loss, but I had very little to do with how my beloved (yet heavily criticized) Leafs perform. Coming off a six game heater to lose to the second worse team in the league certainly is something. Made downing multiple large Coors Banquets that much easier, I’ll tell you that much.

For some reason I had the game starting at seven, but it didn’t kick off until seven thirty so that should have been my first clue that the night would go long. I thought (stupidly?) That we’d catch the 10:12pm train/bus combo home and I’d be in bed sound asleep by 11:30pm. But when we had to catch the 11:15pm bus I knew that hope was a bust. Home before 1:00am though! Yay! That’s a very late Monday night for me. I try not to be up after 11pm if I can help it.

The Taco Bell Deluxe Box with a 32oz drink was as spectacular as ever. Came out  as hot as the surface of the sun, so I held it gingerly whilst eating, so as to not burn all the flesh off of the roof of my mouth. A whole lot of hasafasafasafasaa while chewing early on in the meal. Delicious, if a tad hot. At least my Dr Pepper was vast, deep and cold. It was very tasty. Could of had another later on in the evening.

Now we are back to normal, and I’ve got work to do for my accountant, and for clients alike. Tax time, and the tax man approacheth. Tread carefully! Ha.

Oh oh oh there’s a Leafs game tonight and I’ve got tickets to go, yay me! Taking my good friend with me this time. I did at one time feel bad that I wasn’t taking my eldest daughter, but I think she’ll get over it while playing at her grandma’s house for the evening. I do hope to be home and in bed by 11:30pm, so I’m not going to be out and about partying afterwards just because I don’t have a child with me. But first — work.

Not sure if I picked this up from my youngest child, from the optometrists office, or because I had a laughing fit that make me cough violently, then checked on my drink the same day, but it’s irritated, and exacerbated by lying down, which makes sleeping less enjoyable. Either way, not feeling 100% right now, but I’m also not bedridden, and feeling like death, so that’s a plus, and a check in the win column. Tasting blood during bigger coughing fits is unpleasant, but thus far, few & far between. Nice!

Somehow yesterday I thought it was Sunday already, so last night was weird. I may have fipped too deep into the cough suppressant to enjoy my evening coughing fit free, and slipped into an alternate dimension. It was — weird. But luckily today is actually sunday, so huzzah! Another day or rest. If I can keep my cough under wraps I might actually enjoy tomorrow night’s Leafs game downtown.

Now that it’s March I should take some time and put my taxes together for real. That means three plus hours of data entry! yippee. Has to get done, so I best get at it some time soon.

My new glasses should show up either on Friday or the following Monday of March Break. Here’s hoping I didn’t waste a bunch of money on them, and that they actually help me on a day to day basis. Turns out my right eye has gotten weaker, by a fair margin over the last three years. Since my last eye exam anyway. Numbers on the microwave and stove were getting fuzzy from my vantage point on the living room couch. But it wasn’t due to being tired, or low light. My right eye just isn’t very sharp at certain distances, and type sizes any more. I had to close my right eye to be able to (kind of) read small text at a distance. But now, objects kind of disappear at a certain focal depth, so I was having trouble clipping my kids toe nails because it all goes blank, and I lose what I’m looking at if it’s too close and too far away. That’s been a fun experience. Now my entire immediate (childhood) family wears spectacles. I was the last hold out, and it finally got me at age 45! Ha. Grey hair, glasses, and I do need a hearing sid for my left ear. I’m positively geriatric at this point. Don’t let me stop rock climbing, or long boarding as they’re among the only things keeping me young at heart. Besides model kit building, and miniatures painting, guitar, sculpting, wood working etc etc… it’s a state of mind. Gotta keep the body moving though in order to enjoy that other stuff.

I need to sort out tomorrow night, because the kids need to be looked after while my wife has her staff meeting, I need to get down town, and the kids need to get to their programming as well. Though in all honesty, we could miss one day of Taekwondo, if we still pick up Wednesday & Thursday of this coming week. My eldest can pick up one additional bout and still get the same amount of combat experience for the week. Tuesday nights will now be for climbing with my youngest at The Hub, so my dream of going twice per week will actually be realized soon enough. Put my monthly membership to good use, with four additional days of usage. I can dig it.

Starting to feel the urge to purge now that spring is near. Boots & shoes need to be sorted out because we have just so damn many of them, every where. Boots of all types, cuts, heights and adornments. So many shoes, sneakers, and dressy sandals. Flip flops and crocs, and water shoes. High heels, fur lined, uggs, the list goes on and on. Soccer cleats and rain boots, ankle height galoshes. It’s like a payless warehouse in here. Coats, coats, and more coats. Snow pants and splash pants. Ponchos and more just littering our front hall closet. I need to regroup. Ciao Bella.

Oh my god can it just stop snowing alreast! I’m tired, so very tired of shoveling snow, and breaking up ice, and having to go back days later to continue to pare down snow banks, and widen paths, and widen the end of my driveway. I hate this white devil substance so much right now. Just go away, but not too fast where everything floods, but at a reasonable rate where it’s manageable. I would very much so like to see green grass again, and be outdoors without a fear of frostbite, or lost toes, and stuck together nostrils.

March first is here! Bully-bully for us all. With any luck the worst of winter is behind us, even if we still have three weeks of winter’s death throes before us until the official kick off of spring. Not that the sunshine automatically kicks in at 12:01am on the first day of a new season, but let us pray it doesn’t let the cold weather linger about too long after. Not that I’m in a race to start mowing my lawn, but I could do with some much needed fresh air, trees with leaves, and soft grass underfoot.

We have the crazy weather of April & May to look forward to. When it’s so cold in the mornings, and swelteringly hot in the afternoons. How do you dress for such a wide variance in temperatures? By living dangerously — that’s how! Commit to the heat, it stays cold. Gove favour to the cold, congrats it’s boiling hot now. Plan for rain, it’s drier than a dog fart. Plan for a scorcher, it’s both rainy and windy. It’s a crap shoot each and every time you go outside. May is also when we expect a reoccurrence of that surprise Jericho that destroyed a good chunk of the farm infrastructure. Gotta be prepared now. For anything!

I for one look forward to throwing a ball around and playing catch with my kids. Or ball hockey in the driveway. Or bouncing basketballs. Or bumping & volleying together. Or taking up running once more in preparation for track & field. I have last years 200 m run times logged on my phone. So I know where we were last spring. A benchmark to beat to know we are getting better, and not worse, nor stagnating in place. Nice. I’d like to get a round of golf in this year. Or, hit the driving range a few times, that’s a fantastic second option as far as I’m concerned. I wouldn’t say no to a batting cage run either. Can’t remember the last time I actually swung a bat.

In a few short weeks I can bust out my longboard skateboard and do a few laps of the street for a short tour, just for fun. I have my helmet ready to rock & roll. I wonder if I should also pepper in some knee and elbow pads just because I’m a bit of a klutz. Better safe than a skinned knee. Ha.

Happy saturday to you all. May the snow leave by a reasonable date! Amen.

Generic common sense question with no real definable answer. Platitude. Of course you’re in the right, the whole world is wrong. And here’s how that is. I’m not really telling you, but I will allude to some things. Give you tasty tid-bits that make YOU think you’re in the know. Then, here comes the hard sell. Buy my course, book, seminar, retreat for more information. It used to be that you’d buy a VHS tape that was 29 mi utes long, and the reel to reel inside looked almost entirely too empty. You’d spend $29.95 on each subsequent tape, and they never really would get to the point, and solve what they said they could. Funny that. Right? Grift. It’s what’s for lunch.

So here we are in Friday February 28th, 2025 the last day of the second month. I don’t know about you, but this has felt like a very long week. It might be that my daughters Taekwondo belt promotion landed her in an all new schedule, with far later start/end times than before. It could be that I’m not feeling 100% as of late. It could be the late winter doldrums after a very warm & sunny Florida Keys vacation. Or all of it, or none of it. But my god this week felt like its own month. I need to send out invoices today, and start to build out a template for my next big report that’s coming at any point over the next couple of days. I could actually sit down and start my taxes too if I were on the ball a bit more. I have the hard copies, and now need to do the data entry portion. It’s a three or four hour job, and not difficult, just not much fun.

March is coming, same with the March Break. Will we continue to have snow & ice to skate on that far into March? Hard to say. I believe we are to get more snow this afternoon. But I have not triple checked the weather to see if it has changed wildly since my phone last beeped me some details. Different apps give you different readings oddly enough. That’s fun.

Not much going on here at the moment. My wife’s car is still waiting to go to a shop that will actually fix it. Nobody wants to do the job because it’s an easier fix, but the caveat is, you have to drop just about e very part in the engine bay to get to the issue (which sucks) and for how much it’ll cost nobody wants to waste their time on it. But buying a second new car is way outside our means after the van up & died in October. This $2K fix should keep the car going for another 12-18 months atleast. We just put $700 into the breaks, pads, lines, calipers, and rotors, and a parking break cable too. Not paying for all that to junk it one month (or so) later. Ridiculous.

Makes the case for my wife to come work more locally though. One vehicle, one insurance, one wear & tear fund, one set of all season and winter tires, more room on the driveway for the kids to play. Less fuel consumption, fewer 407 trips, the only snaggle is that both kids need to be in multiple locations on the same night in different towns, and that’s not manageable with only one car. Joys of parenthood. It would require a complete redo of all our activity planning and scheduling to move to just one vehicle. Whitchurch-Stouffville is nice, but it6not exactly a walkable town. The sprawl is real. Everything mostly useful to us is west of us by a couple of kilometers. I can’t grocery shop in town and walk home with groceries over that distance. I could do it once in a pinch, but not weekly. Not without a sizable cart/wagon suitable for a bicycle. Spring, summer, fall is fine, but what about the winter months? I guess much smaller but far more frequent trips would have to become the norm. A tricycle with a human carrying basket up front like they have in the Netherlands would be a requirement for that type of lifestyle. I’d get in shape, that’s for sure. We also don’t gear our roads to safely move bike traffic around town. All very car centric. Not all that flat around here either. But I digress.

Looks as though voter apathy won again last night leaving Doug Ford in charge with his PC buddies. Saw that coming from a mile away. I’m not in the mood to get into it. Maybe later. Ciao Bella

Took us longer to find parking near the venue than it did to walk in, vote and leave. But, on the plus side our civic duty is now done and I can go on about my business. Yay!  Getting in as the doors open is far superior to having to wait in long lines after 5:00pm rolls around. Kinda silly they put our voting station inside an active elementary school during day light hours though. Lots of weirdos just wandering your school unchecked. That’s a liability just waiting to occur. Yikes. Big yikes. Also no parking available on site during regular school hours, so not so hot for those with accessibility issues. But I digress.

Today is Thursday, the second last day in February. Can you believe it? Snowing again too, but not so very cold as it had been before. I think I can be proud of February.  Not only did I vacation with my girls alone (mostly) for five days, but I got a fair amount of work done, and I took apart the wooden racks, purchased & assembled the new metal racks, and spend a considerable number of hours tidying up the garbage wood, cut-off, and general trash that had accumulated over the preceding decade or more. Plus, I recaptured some open floor space, and opened up the head space around my work bench. I have a couple small tools to find a suitable home for, but that task is about 98% complete. Good enough to be done, but I could always do more type of thing. The small items are jars of screw & bolts that need a proper home, and a whole array of hand clamps that need a final storage solution where they are easy to grab when working, but are not in the way of anything else behind or below them. That’s what makes the fix tricky. It requires some thought, and careful planning. But not so much as to freeze the project dead, stopping all progress in its tracks. A fine needle to thread if I do say so myself.

March Break will be upon us soon, and with that comes the potential for sun burns to the face with the heightened strength of the near spring time sun. I do love to sit by the boiler watching the fire, keeping the sap at a rolling boil. Pulling ice from the sap buckets, filtering the sap, pouring the sap, the smell of the cotton candy smoke when you splash a little to wildly onto a hot surface around the boiler. And sometimes we get a secondary bonfire going to dispose of work/construction materials, and old junk (a la my wood cut-off, and old garage bits). Usually water logged furniture, torn mattresses, old dressers, and magazines, and some times even an old textbook or two that nobody would take off my hands. I’m no pyromaniac, but I enjoy a good bonfire session. The best was the decades old roof trusses that I had to man handle into the fire every time a five foot section burned clear through. They are big, but mostly empty. Still heavy though. Pushing and pulling those about in a bonfire is no joke. Gotta watch for all those nails, screws, and truss tie plates with those barbs on them. Proper footwear required! And a crappy jacket that you don’t mind getting a little singed.

It’s out there just a snowing today. Temperature has been holding a 0°C, so it’s real good packing snow. First started as massively fat flakes too. Makes the trees look real pretty too. I’m just about sick of snow, and shoveling but I can still enjoy the view of a undisturbed snowfall across my lawn. Not for long, but I can, and that’s the point. Ha.

I’m just about done talking your ears off, so I’m going to eat breakfast, and go check some work emails. Ciao Bella.

Actually getting some warmth off of the sun these last couple days, feels a bit different. Maybe because the official start to spring is about 25 days away now. Are we turning a corner? Not if this weekends weather has anything to say about it. More snow, and an associated cold snap to boot. Yippee! No. Not really a yippee moment. These False Spring events can really do you in by getting your hopes up, and then dashing them on all of the new snow, ice, and bitter windchill it blows our way before spring really settles in once and for all. I guess you’d call that moving the goal posts, but done by nature instead of by some greedy asshole looking to make a buck off your back.

Reacher Seazon three is now on Prime, the first three episodes of it anyway. Seems like this season is moving faster than the previous ones, but I’m along for the ride. My spouse is too. She was rather excited once she saw it was back on tv again. I’m sure Alan Richardson getting down to his skivvies didn’t hurt her choosing to watch the show. I’m just trying to guess which female officer he is going to wind up sleeping with. Probably the phoney Boston Accent lady if I had to guess at it now.

It’s wednesday today, rejoice! Hump Day has arrived, and by 5pm, the majority of the week is done! Our Florida luggage made it home to use last night, so I have several loads of laundry to tackle in my near future. Speaking of work, I’m getting e-mails as we speak. Best be about my business. Ciao Bella.