And the results were a tad gruesome. Luckily I managed to get the dog to drip it, and leave it to scamper off and die in peace. Normally he just chases them, and runs around barking like a fool. But now he’s tearing into them, biting & shaking them, and drawing blood. Not cool. Poor fat hibernating squirrel. He never seems able to capture the pests here at home, that pull up our tulip bulbs, and snap our peonies, and attack all manner of flowers we plant yearly. No. The fatted up farm squirrel is the one he snags, and most likely has killed.
After all why not start off your Friday morning with a bone chilling wind, and animal attacks before your very eyes. Snow drifts are a real issue up here in farm country. I don’t think the town has done enough snow fencing, or replacing dying Ash trees. The major roads should be bulwarked by tree lines to stop major snow accumulation in the middle of the roads. Looks a whole lot prettier too, to have some of these bare fields hidden by ever green trees, or any other type of tree/shrub cover. Makes a mess with all the leaves, but for the shade, water management with wetter trees like willows, and wind blocking capabilities I think they are a net positive. Nicer air, carbon capture, and habitat for birds etc. Seems like a winning idea to me.
Also, side note the 2025 Whistler Invictus Games start this saturday, so you should give that a watch if you are sick of Superbowl coverage, but like sports, competition, and military veteran’s getting after it.
Wasn’t expecting any more snowfall this week, but was surprised by a few inches earlier this morning, only to find that the extended family, whilst borrowing our new vehicle for an airport run had surreptitiously removed my snow clearing brush from the car, and locked it away in their house before going on vacation. Thus, leaving me to clear off my windows, and doors with nothing more than my sleeves. Nice touch. Cool-cool-cool-cool-cool.
But, on the other hand it’s all ready Thursday, and the Superbowl is this weekend, and my wife and I found a suitable sitter for the kids, and can attend for three hours like adults, and enjoy our own company. That’s a big ole win right there. I for one hope that the Eagles take it! Not a Mahomes fan. I think the NFL is in the bag for KC and it stinks to high heaven. These calls are going to be one sided as hell, but the tush pushing Eagles can run like the wind, so fingers crossed for those boys in green.
The new propane heater arrived yesterday just as we got home from school pick up. That was pretty handy. I opened the box and gave it a once over just to familiarize myself with it. It is intact the Mr Heater Big Buddy Pro with electric start, and a fan. So I’m happy I received the correct one which I ordered. I have propane, and various batteries ready to go in it once I want to test it out. Depending on how quickly the 1lb bottles get used up, I just might get the hose & filter to be able to use a larger 20/30lb bbq tank, but have the larger tank outside the garage when in use. We’ll have to see about that. No rush at this point, since spring will be here in about six weeks time, roughly speaking.
I turn my attention now back to the racking situation. Am I obsessed? Could be. But! But, I say, I have mentioned wanting to do something about the crappy wooden racks in the garage several times before over the last four or five years now. Part of it is how unsafe I feel the current wooden rack is. Who knows, once I start to tear it down I may find it was a better construction that what I can see from the front. But I’ll have to have a go at it with a hammer, pry bar, and reciprocating saw to really see if my concerns were unfounded, and I just had a hankering for retail therapy (I.E. shopping) and making some changes to my work space.
Reminds me of how good it used to feel when I would change my bedroom layout around as a kid. Make you feel like a whole new person. Made the room exciting. Allowed you to maximize the space, and free yourself of things as you grew up, and out of specific toys. If my shop gear wasn’t so damn heavy, I’d have another go at that out there. But I cannot go without any racks. Just too much family stuff, decorations, and sleds, old beds, doors, and whatnot to tear it out without putting something back in its place. I have my eye on a 90″ by 90″ five shelf rack from Home Depot. I don’t have the Tom for two of the 77’s side by side, not a 77 & a 39 either. Plus the smaller ones are only four shelves, and I’ll definitely need the fifth for the long term storage stuff I’d like to move once and then forget about. Not even heavy, just hardly ever used.
Tearing out those racks will force another purge from the garage too. You all know just how much I love a room purge! Glorious! The lighting would get better in there too, with the overhanging section removed. I can move my lumber storage, and do a better job with my wood stains and finishes. It could really be something a bit extra in there if I put up some cash, and a good sweats worth of effort. Sweat equity and all that jazz.
For now I’m just day dreaming about it. I have two larger projects coming in the next few weeks, so I’ll not get to this until March or April depending on taxes, and work stuff. Stay well out there. Ciao Bella.
Seems like every time my wife drives the new van the AEB sensor goes off from snow accumulation, road dirt, or whatever else you can think of. I wipe off the windshield and the sensors on the front bumper and usually it turns itself off after a few minutes of driving with them freshly cleaned. Not so today. I even took the car to the drive through car wash, and that didn’t reset it. Maybe by this afternoon it’ll sort itself out now that the whole shebang is clean as a whistle. Who knows crazier things have happened.
Bit of a cold one this morning for a walk about, and stop off to get gas, and a car wash. Dog didn’t seem to mind being inside the vehicle with me as the wipers, and spray nozzles went to work on all of that accumulated salt, ice, and snow. Probably because it wasn’t that loud, and he didn’t get wet.
Here we are on Wednesday. Last nights Leaf’s game was a late one. Didn’t start until 9:00pm. I made it until three minutes into the third period when we were up 4-2, and went to bed. Woke up to a 6-3 win over Calgary. I’ll take it! A two game heater is better than the five game losing streak! By a country mile. That was exciting. A near miss on an early goal by Tavares that was called back from him using a high stick. Can’t have them all boys!
I have a new propane heater coming later today that “should” make it so that I can work in the garage on off days during the winter. I’m excited. I can’t really use it any time soon, but I will be able to do so in March, and early April so that’s awesome. I might take some time to tear down the shoddily erected shelves in the garage, and put up some higher quality metal racking. Will feel alot safer, and could potentially net me a few more useable square feet of floor & wall space. I will definitely need to get out the measuring tape, and review all of what I have on there, to see if it’s actually doable. I think added shelves, and more open space would be beneficial. But I may just be hyper fixated on it, and not thinking clearly.
I got fixated on the propane heater, but given power outages in our area, both the generator, and the heater are solid investments for the house, and our safety. Those jericho storms came out of nowhere and left us without power for a couple of days that one spring a few years ago. Not doing that again. And incase of a no heat event, now along with the fireplace we can keep one bedroom liveable. I would love to get an Ecoflow Delta 2, battery bank and solar panels to have for emergencies around here too. Bit pricey at $1,300.00 plus tax, but it’s on my list of preparedness items to have should we ever be required to self rescue during a crisis. The Ecoflow would be enormous help from spring through early fall as a power source, and the generator & propane heater for winters. Water & food we have, but my own prescriptions would be my major sticking point. Let us hope it never comes to that.
On to something else. What more can I say about Hump Day. The weekend is nearly here. Valentine’s Day is next friday coming. The Superbowl is this sunday evening. I do believe we have a sitter lined up to watch the kids so that we can go a few houses over to watch the game with friends — sans children. My kids don’t particularly like football so no hard feelings there. Looking forward to it.
I’ve heard rumors that the wife’s car might cost $2,700.00 to fix for the time being. Not great if true. But not entirely horrendous. Might have to set aside some money to look into a new car after that though, because if anything else goes on it, it’ll become a trade in for sure. It’s not as new as it feels like it is. Ugh.
A rear panel on the engine has blown out due to too much pressure build up from faulty sensors, and janky parts. So I have no wheels today. Oh well. The oil change that took place on Jan 4th had entirely leaked out of my wife’s car. We ran 5 litres of new oil into it yesterday morning, but that has since leaked out too. So now we wait to hear if it can be fixed, and for how much. Depending on the answer we might just have to buy a new car. If the fix is more than $2,500.00 at this point, a second new vehicle may very well be on the books for 2025. Yikes. Dropping more than $3K on a single vehicles repairs in just a handful of weeks is ridiculous. Probably still needs a new exhaust too, as that’s far too loud, and makes the car smell like a machine shop when idling in traffic. Ugh.
I think we will need to find a smaller second vehicle though. Either a reduced sized SUB, or a 4 door sedan with all wheel drive atleast. A Subaru of some sort, or something of that nature. We don’t need a massive second vehicle now that we have the new van for cottage/Ottawa runs. Something great on gas mileage, but road worthy for rural roads, and longer daily commuter distances. Remote start, heated seats, and bluetooth radio would be great too. Oh, and a functional AC unit! Can’t forget about the AC here in Ontario.
Valentine’s day is quickly approaching. Hell spring is coming on quickly too. Before you know it we’ll have Taekwondo belt testing, then the live Newsies shows, dance recitals, track & field days, and then end of school year birthdays. The final five months of the school term come at you quickly around here. Especially once spring kicks off and the weather improves a great deal.
Sucks about my wife’s car though. It used to be the “fancy” car, but it has gone through hell since the Covid induced hiatus on travel. Could always be worse. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!
Buy a new car and the old one decides to shit the bed. Not until after we put seven hundred dollars worth of parts on it though, brakes, brake pads, calipers, rotors, parking break cable, and then an oil change, cabin filters, oil filters, and oil stabilizer. Just to find the oil empty, and a puddle under the car, and a frame just laden down by brand new engine oil. So I don’t know if the oil plug worked itself out, or if a gasket has blown, or if there is an oil pan puncture. I need a lift. My jack is great for changing a tire, but I don’t trust it enough to climb underneath a three tonne SUV out in the snow to look for myself. Also — I’m no mechanic, im6pretty much useless unless it’s swapping bulbs, or topping up fluids. To “fix” anything is beyond me. I can do an oil change (though I did not do the latest one on this vehicle on January 4th, 2025). Plus my youngest child is now sicker than before with a wet cough, and runny nose. That means tears & crying at night, and likely a fever to follow on at some point soon. Poor schmoo.
I did some grocery shopping this morning after drop off for the older child. Bought some additional provisions incase this tariff thing kicks off as something ugly. My new indoor safe propane heater is due to arrive this week, so I picked up propane canisters for that, and a whole bunch of extra batteries, and leaned in pretty heavily on pasta noodles, and minute rice.
Who knows maybe Trump is doing the tariff this as a distraction from emptying out the FBI, and handing the keys to the treasury office over to Musk over the weekend. Make a billion dollar bungle to abscond with trillions!?! Makes sense to me. They voted for it, willingly. But what do I know, who knows what you can trust when reading the news these days. Fun times.
Kicked off sunday evening by doing the kids laundry. Set the Romba off to tackle the dog hair while we were out having dinner at the inlaws last evening. And cleaned the kitchen this morning, so I think the bulk of my Domestic Duties Monday is completed. Got our weekly shop done, as mention above, so I don’t see too much else needing to get done around here, besides keeping the youngest in bed & resting up for school tomorrow.
Started to watch Severance yesterday, and I completed the first two episodes. Thus far I like it, don’t think my wife is sold on it yet though. Seems like an odd commentary on corporate America, or some type of social experiment. I dig it, even if it does cone across as bleak. The 50’s styling of the severed basement floor is kinda neat. I’ll give it a few more episodes. From what I understand there are only two seasons so far, so not a massive commitment if I go for the whole lot. I got three episodes into Chernobyl too, which I liked, but was a slow burn. I might go back to that at some point provided I still have access, and it doesn’t disappear off the streaming sites I use/pay for.
Sat down to watch the Leafs game last night and they beat the Oilers 4-3. But man was it a close game once the Oilers started to score their own goals. Out of the first the Leafs were up three nothing, which is a curse for the Leafs. They always take their foot off the fas and the lead withers out from under them. And in true fashion that is exactly what happened. Luckily there was an offside goal called back, and the boys in blue were able to hold on by the skin of their teeth, that and Brick Woll doing a stand up job as tendy! He deserves all the accolades for his performance in net last night. Better than the Wednesday night game we went to see down town in person, I’ll tell you that much.
These PA Day long weekends always get me feeling mixed up. What day is it. Felt like Saturday two days in a row, and I was fully prepared for Monday, but my alarm(s) plural! Didn’t go off so it must be Sunday. So weird to lose track of the days of the week. Almost feels like winter break all over again. Two whole weeks of lost aimless living, eating far too much. Ha.
Not too sure what is on the docket for today, so I’m going to cut this one finer than normal. Ciao Bella.
I am excited to see what else AppleTv+ has hidden up its sleeve regarding video content, and perhaps movies too. I doubt they have anything else Ted Lasso like, so I will be switching gears to go mystery thriller, or sci-fi apocalypse aftermath akin to Fallout. A show on Amazon which I got two or three episodes in before moving on. I own the third game, but never opened it, nor played it. Got it as a birthday present to myself many years ago. Looked fun, but complicated. Skill trees only ever make sense once you’ve committed to doing them wrong I find. And by then, whom would ever want to start over again to correct it? Not me.
Saturday means climbing sessions with the kids. I’m excited! Could do without the extreme cold temperature warning though. Yeesh. It’s going to be a tad nippy outdoors today. Not a fun walk from the parking lot to the gym locale. Will need to trot at a good clip to not suffer the worst of it. Fun fun.
Yesterday’s PA Day was mostly uneventful, thankfully. I worked during the day, on & off while I sorted out the girl’s needs. A short lunch with grandpa, then back home for more work, then 2 hours on the back hill tobogganing with friends to wipe them all out. Of course they were both up until nearly 10:00pm waiting on their mum, but that’s par for the course around here. We have a process, but not neccesarily a schedule if you know what I mean. The girls get their particularness from me. Borderline tunnel vision for how their nightly routine ticks off boxes. I apologized all ready. Ha.
Soon I will get rid of the wood cut offs in my garage. Soon the childrens kitchen will head up north. Soon, if I haven’t bought anything else to use the funds, I will buy a propane heater for the garage so that I can in fact work out there if I so choose. But, and here’s the big ole butt! I can’t just be out & about shopping for other things like a dedicated climbing bag, or fitted apparel from the climbing gym, nor books off of Amazon, or any sort of tool that strikes my fancy between now and late February. And here’s why; the heater will be $200.00 plus dollars, and I will need to buy several 1lb propane tanks for fuel, and will need many D batteries or an expensive 6 volt adapter for the wall to run it. That’s a sizable purchase for myself, so if I go picking up bits here, there, and everywhere then I’ll have spent the few bucks I’ve saved to cover it already. Tightening the belt is a state of mind. I still have to get gas for the vehicles, and buy groceries, but the extra spending has to slow to a trickle, if not completely stop. Takes concentration, and dedication. I don’t like debt, nor being broke. So cutting out the frivolous holiday spending attitude, and trimming around where applicable on the “must do” spending. Going off brand for toilet paper, paper towels, or disinfectant wipes is one thing. But staying true to brand names on items we all love is another. Finding coupons, and sale deals, or bulk sales will help too.
I’ve bored you enough this morning. Happy Saturday. Hope your elementary PA Days are getting somewhat easier as the days go by. Ciao Bella.
It took 90 minutes for my trusty late 2014 iMac to start up, and load the Adobe creative suite, and actually open each of the three programs that I use daily. After many aborts, false starts, and force quits to programs not responding it did manage to losd them up, and work. But if I were in a rush, or traveling I can’t be doing a 90 mi ute boot up, and restart. And that’s no guarantee that they would actually do more than just bounce their icons, and stall out. It’s positively nerve wracking. Makes my insides roil with turmoil. Thanks — I hate it.
All joking aside I am glad that it turned back on. It has taken quite some doing to get all of my up to date files shared across two computers. I thought that the iCloud folder was larger than just 5Gb, but that’s a paid monthly subscription to get more. Handy for passing pdfs between machines. I haven’t had much luck in the past from airdrops, so I tend to use flash drives, or an external hard drive, or microsoft one drive to transfer large volumes between machines. It’s clunky to use so many different options, but I’m no IT guy, so I do my best. I’m just glad I didn’t have to do it all 32Gb at a time with a thumb drive. Which reminds me, I need to update my 8Tb tower with all of the new files I’ve made since early January. The work of organizing never ends!
We are back at it again, with yet another PA Day. I spent much of the morning doing my computer stuff, luckily I was able to send a few invoices, and other various emails once I got the old iMac to boot up successfully. Well, I didn’t do much of anything but hope & pray, and give it time to do something, anything at all. Turns out that 75 – 90 minutes, along with some relaunches, and repaired files saved the day. Much appreciated.
Kids are on their tablets either playing games or watching videos side by side. Now that they are getting older they require less constant monitoring, and can be trusted to ask me for items that they can’t do themselves. Frees up time to actually work, if only a little interrupted by meals, snacks, questions, laundry, and beverage requests, turning on/off gaming consoles, tech questions about the dvd/bluray player, the radio, or to play in the yard. You know, the usual. Kids. A full time commitment. I work from home, so that’s my jam!
I do believe it is Friday today, so all the best. Let us hope that climbing tomorrow is just as much fun as it normally is. Tried to get out on Tuesday night to go again, but the idea was snubbed. I was a little saddened by that. February is almost here. Go get your Valentine’s Day affairs in order. A card, a gift, a dinner reservation or delivery order. Whatever it is, get on it.
The last game my daughter attended with me was a real dud, a nonstarter, very lacklustre, a no show, a whiff, a swing & a miss. It was like they were holding in commercial break mode whilst the game was going on around them. Very strange. But an experience nonetheless. The three previous games she gone to had all been wins for the Leafs, so we were hoping they could pull one out late in the third period, but with only six minutes to go they finally showed up to play, but were ultimately unsuccessful. On the bright side we caught an earlier train, and got home before eleven pm. A notable improvement! Would have been happy to atleast make it into overtime, but I digress.
We left a bit earlier than usual in order to eat at the far cheaper food court at Union Station. Had some tacos for our troubles. Train ride was smooth, food was good. There was a group there with a megaphone chanting about Palestine, which raised some smart questions from my daughter. We talked about it for a little bit, but that’s a long conversation to have with lots of nuances, and political wrangling that I wasn’t up to the task to delve into in a Leafs Jersey in a food court, eating Taco Bell. Food was good, drinks were cold, icy, and rather tasty. Fries were better than normal for a change.
We wandered over to the arena and then poked around inside Real Sports looking at cups, gloves, jerseys, coats and more. If I had an extra three hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket you could do some real damage in there. The professional level jerseys start at $616.99, so yeah. Nearly a grand for an “exact copy of what the pros wear on ice” is cool, I suppose. Too rich for my blood, but good to know you can get that kind of quality if you wanted it.
We settled on a new TML scarf for my daughter, and a toque for myself. That killed the last of her TML spending money for souvenirs, but I think she’s happy. In all she got a named/numbered Matthew’s jersey (from her uncle & grandpa) a puck, a mini puck, a toque, another plain jersey (this was a birthday present, actually), a metal coffee mug with lid, a t-shirt, and the brand new scarf. So she’s all set for the years to come of watching the Leafs play.
I wanted to get a sweater to wear under my jersey, and over my Matthew’s t-shirt, but the one I liked was $300.00 plus, and the reasonably priced ones were too thin, and not my cup of tea. No worries, I’ll live. We were looking for gloves, or mitts for my daughter but the ones she was after were sold out, or not visible on the shop floor. Plus it was real crowded in there, and loud, and far too busy to shop in any semblance of peace. Not my bag y’all.
Then we made our way up to the seats, and cheered all game long. Heard some good razzies from the crowd. A couple of good natured pokes at the team. A sad loss, but we still had fun.
Early on before the massacre on ice happened.
The worst part was the train ride home where the toilets onboard were out of service, or had homeless people hunkered down in them, smelling of faeces, vomit, and other unpleasantries. My daughters back teeth were floating she had to pee so bad, we walked through nearly half the train to find a serviceable, and open toilet. Found one though! Phew! Could have been a real issue if we hadn’t. Gotta love the TO homeless crowd. Can’t we get these folks some help, and a place to stay, some food, and a chance to bathe? Really. I’d gladly go back to paying for license plate stickers if it would help, schools, hospitals, and the homeless population.
Man, I live this Ted Lasso show, but boy does it make me sad. Sign of good writing, and acting I suppose. If I cared to check I’d wager it won a few awards for both of those things. Starting season three at some point today if I can.
Also started book #5 a day or two ago, it’s the first Mistborn book by Brandon Sanderson, someone I haven’t read yet. I started Elantris at some point last year, or in 2023, I don’t recall which, but only got forty or so pages in when an Amazon delivery arrived and I read the newest item I had in hand. Didn’t look back, so now I can try again, and see if I’ve been missing out. He, the author that is, comes up on my YouTube shorts feed quite a bit talking about the act of writing, so my interest is renewed. For now. I’ll give the book atleast forty or so pages to draw me in before I bounce to something else.
Though, truth be told reading four books in January was pretty decent (for me), and my eyes are giving me a little trouble. Not sure if it’s eye strain, dry eyes, aging blue eyes, or terrible lighting in my house. An eye twitch has made reading progressively more difficult as the month wears on. I’ve made an appointment for the end of next month. See if we can’t learn something about myself then.
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