Category: Uncategorized

No worries about a drought when I’m around, I can bring the rains out of the wood work if there’s a chance it could ruin my plans whilst on vacation. Ha. Atleast I’m doing my part to keep the grass green, and the water cisterns partially filled. Party on Wayne, party on Garth.

Nothing quite like waking up knowing I have eight or more inches of snow removal waiting on me. Can’t say I’m too pleased about that. I don’t have a heated driveway, nor a flame thrower so back breaking labour it is then! Fun times.

It was on time, it was delayed, it was back on time, the engines wouldn’t start, it was an hour and forty minutes late departing. Oh my. Picked up just before 2:00am, and we got in around three. Yikes.  I’m very tired right now.

Gotta make a late night airport run, so today my main plan is to take things easy, and perhaps grab a nap at some point. Can’t be out & about on the highways after dark while sleepy and tired. Let us pray for no more snow, and no flight delays. Fingers crossed.

Looks like a full foot of snow out there, and there’s not a thing that I can do about it. Thankfully the neighbour has hos snowblower fueled and at the ready because that much snow removal gives me heart palpitations. The last time we had that much snow my heart began to race uncontrollably,  and didn’t stop for about 90 minutes after I can in, undressed, and sat on the couch sipping Gatorade. It was a very sweaty ordeal. It’s times like this where I want to have a snowblower, but it’s not a regular enough occurrence to warrant spending around $2K for a new one. Decisions decisions.

Still alive. Water is choppy in the wind. Still feel like I’m bobbing up & down on the waves. Feel a tad green around the gills.

Trying to get out and have some fun before the wind picks up even more. I don’t have any dramamine here to keep me from getting motion sick. Fingers crossed!

Glad the snow didn’t interfere with us this morning, as heading out to the car in the pitch black cold was hard enough when it’s this early in the day. Didn’t sleep so well either. I will say this of the Superbowl though, it was excellent to see KC get blown out of the water by the Eagles 40-22 by the end of regulation time. It was 34 nothing for the first three quarters which was so satisfying to see. Glad they didn’t three-peat. Just goes to show how reliant they were on the officiating playing as their twelfth man on the field. The Buffalo Bill’s got screwed — hard, by that KC loss in the play offs. Would have much preferred a Bills/Eagles superbowl, but to see KC lose in such a fashion was a great second option.

I’m off & busy, so have a good Monday.

Came home from climbing yesterday and had a big lunch and thought to myself “just how much stuff is on those wooden racks in the garage?”, and then proceeded to empty them onto a table in the middle of my garage. By the time I had all of the items down I saw just how janky the rack really was and then started to tear it down. Yeah, started and then completed the tear down. I now have no racks, and a big mess to vaccuum up, and I need those metal racks in order to make the space useable once more. I’m fully invested in this process now. Ha. Nothing like starting a dream project to bring it into sharp relief, and make it a reality.

Over did the physicality of it yesterday. My back is really unhappy with all that extra lifting, and hammer swinging, sawing, and wrenching of boards. It very much so was a safety hazard. I never would have put so much weight on it if I had known it wasn’t secured to the wall, or even fully attached to itself with more than just sixteen nails. If that had of come down on me or my kids they’d have been crushed to death, especially when I had them in there with me when they were little-little. Oh my, glad that never happened.

Next steps are cleaning, and then buying the racks I’m after, building them in place, securing the uprights to the concrete pad, and then sorting my bits onto the five shelves, and the extra unused space off to the sides. I could kill a whole day in there no problem now that I have to do a big sort! I do now have far more pieces to send north to the cottage to burn though. Like, a lot more. I might finally have to figure out where the dump is around here and take a load, or two, there for disposal.

Otherwise we have enough cut up scraps for a massive outdoor inferno in the fire pit at the cottage. Looks like alot in my garage, but out in the open pit it’ll look puny, and not at all like the space jogging inconvenience it really is. Perspective! 

Is does look as though I will regain a couple of square feet worth of floor space, and height now that the looming rack structure has been taken down. I hope to move my wood pile to be against the back wall, and make my automotive section all one spot on the new rack, rather than spread out all over the garage a willy-nilly. I’m a tad concerned that a five shelf 90″ by 90″ rack might not cut it for all that I have, but then again a purge of useless crap is where it’s at. I love paring down what I’ve got to just the essentials that I need.  I am so close to having the shop space of my dreams! I’m excited to see this come together between now and spring time.

Other good news, after days of wiping off all of the car sensors, and taking the vehicle through the car wash the AEB finally clicked off the warning, and is back to working again. I fear this new car may have a few too many sensors on it, but it’s just an inkling that I have. We’ll see.

Another side note, I was moving sheet goods around yesterday and decided to through a half sheet of three eights ply wood directly onto one toe. Luckily the opposite toe to the one I dropped a table on in September. I’m still watching the black bruise grow out of that toe nail all these months later. Now I might get to do the same with my other foot! Oh joy! I was not happy with myself for doing that. After that point I pulled out my reciprocating saw and cut the rack to bits, rather than knock it down bit by bit. I had lost my patience once that happened. I also realized the futon I’ve been holding onto since 2001 is a ruined, rotten mess, and will need to be thrown away, along with three doors, and all the smashed up rack bits. I made a mess. A considerable amount of dust too. Gotta clean all that up at some point soon. I’d take some photos, but it really is a gross mess.

Now I don’t know how many sessions my kids have left in them once this second set of classes are done at the end of the month, but I sure would like to keep going back and trying my hand at getting better. I’m finding a good rhythm with the 5.7’s, and the 5.8’s. There is some kind of a skill/technique jump associated with the 5.9’s that just seems beyond me at this point. I think some of it has to do with the much smaller finger holds, and the softer/rounder hand holds where I just cannot for the life of me hold fast with my palm splayed, or cranked on hard. I just bounce right off those.

Besides learning the skills, I have a ways to go in the conditioning department. I’m still about 30lbs heavier than I need to be. I should try to settle onto a 165-175lbs if I really want to make more headway with climbing. The additional bulk I’m carrying around makes my arms tire faster, and my belly makes lifting my legs just a little bit more difficult. Now I don’t think for one second that I would become a dramatically better climber with the weight off, but it can’t hurt.

Even a month after the holidays are over I’m still 195 lbs, so the dog walking and climbing, and smaller breakfast & lunches has gotten me only so far. I need to either diet more harshly, and monitor calories in a meaningful way, or I have to add a whole lot more exercise into my daily routine. Seems like every couple of months I encounter this issue, and as of yet haven’t done much about it beyond the daily dog walking, and the saturday morning climbing. So what’s it going to be? Weight lifting? Elliptical usage?  Cross country skiing? Skate boarding or roller blades? I don’t know. But I need to find an activity that I’ll stick with for good. It’s about habits, not short term fixes otherwise I’ll be back here in a year whining about the same shit.

It’s not a resolution, but a habit I’m trying to form. Happy Saturday. Ciao Bella.