Oh what a feelin’. Off to a slower than normal start today. School and chores still come a calling at the same time, but after a bitterly cold walk where we saw a coyote on our way into the darm, we’ve been a bit subdued. I got paid work off for review, and I hot the dog tags taken care of for 2025, so not a total loss of a morning, but not a particularly auspicious one. Could be a moody blues settling in now that winter is well underway. I do so hate the cold. Wind, snow, freezing rain, I hate all of it. Lack of colour, and feeling penned indoors, are not conducive to a vibrant “vibe”. If you know what I mean. Nothing so much is wrong, but it feels a little off. A bit of seasonal depression to keep the back straightened. No matter, with time the sun will come out, same with the grass & leaves, not to mentioned fun outdoor activities like biking, long boarding, swimming, and road hockey.
Otherwise not much else going on at the moment. I have fewer than 100 pages left of my current book, a Leafs game to look forward to, and climbing on the weekend. It’s all good.
It really is a feel good charmer of a series. It’s a shame I had to wait until I was given three months Apple TV+ for free to be able to watch it. I intend to binge Ted Lasso, Severance, and potentially Silo too if I can manage it. I think there are a few movies on there too that I could not watch anywhere else otherwise.
I got through just four episodes last night before I realized it was midnight and had to shut it down, as school comes early in the morning. But here we are! I have three seasons of this show to enjoy. I’m excited!
Got through the rest of season one, and it made me tear up once or twice. Bravo — well done Ted Lasso. It’s looking good for seasons two & three if you ask me. Onwards and upwards.
The holiday season sets a terrible precedent with personal spending habits, and my January investment in a new computer further extended that habit another month. Add in the new mouse, and Apple care and I added an additional $4K to an already higher than usual bill. Yikes. Now I actively have to stay my hand when it comes to just picking up bits, and Bob’s that I previously wouldn’t even think about. Twenty bucks for a book here, forty for a dog grooming tool there, gas, groceries, and some other fanciful gear for the shop there, and what do you know the Bill’s have ballooned up once again. So, now I have to reset my brain, batten down the hatches, and rein it in because with these new tariffs coming, and the corporate world leaning into AI so heavily I can’t be assured of work coming. I’m fortunate right now that I have concrete dollars locked in for ongoing work this winter & spring. That I am thankful for, very much so. But I’m not Daddy Warbucks, I can’t be spending thousands each month just because I “feel” like it. Prep for the worst, while hoping for the best. I’m fortunate that I’ve done two big reports all ready this January, and I know of at least one, possibly two more to come, so my first and second quarters this year (2025) should pan out to be fairly even with the previous two years. I’m not taking in millions here by any means, but I’m not totally broke yet either.
I hot ten years out of my last computer before it became obsolete on the software upgrade side. It doesn’t support all the new additions to just about anything. So I had thought ahead to set aside funds each year for the replacement. Not much, but some. And luckily I bought the same spec’s on my new machine that I had on the old, but more streamlined, and $2K cheaper if you can believe that. Meant a drop from a 27 inch monitor to 14, but eh, what can I do about that. I had thought (hoped?) To turn my older computer into a monitor for the new labtop, but it turns out the late 2014 model iMacs don’t support such a feature. Oh joy! So I might need to go get a cheaper monitor so that I can keep working in the fashion to which I have grown accustomed. Or not. Again reining in the spending!
I have a library of books I haven’t read yet that I can go tap into. Stop being lured in by the bright, shiny & new novels I hear about, and go read those which I have already bought, and paid for. It’s a real mindset shift. Maybe I should disable Amazon from my phone? Probably be a hood idea. If I have to drive out to book stores, and malls for things that might curtail all the last second spontaneous spending. The problem isn’t the one off, it’s the cascade a one off starts. It’s the snowballing, runaway compounding effect of it all.
I’ve been poor. I’ve been dead broke. I don’t want to go back to debt, and heavy struggling, and flipping payments between cards, and pushing funds around to look like I’ve made payments, and then draw that over to elsewhere. It sucks. I could never work enough, or save enough, or not spend enough to sort it out, until I got a far better job, and my wife’s help. Drowning sucks. So we tighten the belt, and rein it in. Christmas will be back before you know it!
My wife and eldest daughter have gone away to an overnight Girl Guide camp so it’s just the dog, the youngest and I here for the weekend. We started off strong with dinner at grandma’s house. Then home for an hour long soak in the tub, where she was able to watch 2/3rds of a movie in the hot bubble bath until pruny. Then we played some Minecraft together where I built tunnels, and underground hovels, and she intermittently came in and killed me for fun. Then it was tooth brushes, hair brushing, and a good night story. After all was said and done, with a fair few stops in the middle for very long, and intricate questions about everything under the sun, she was asleep just after 10:00 pm. Not my best time, but given how attached she is to my wife, the fact she slept through the night without scream crying is considered a win. I had packed a snack & beverage in the fridge for her should we wake before me. I’m sure she did, but the dog barked at the front door just after 7:00 am, so it’s not like I overslept anymore than on a regular weekday.
I’ve taken the dog for an hour long forced March at the farm, so hopefully he isn’t too revved up when we come back from rock climbing and lunch today. He is ever so slightly getting more bold about spending time in the yard doing dog stuff. That’s a brief win. It has been very, very cold here lately so he hasn’t done all that much alone time out of doors, but as it warms up, and he settles in further, I hope he can chill on the deck by himself while I vacuum or mope the floors, without him walking through it all, or getting scared and hiding on my bed.
The girls looked a bit tired, but seemed to be having fun when we facetimed each other last night. I believe they are cross country skiing today for a little while at least. I hope my wife’s ankle holds up, she has a tendency to go over on it, and hurt herself a great deal. It swells up like a melon, and goes all purple. It’s agony to endure I’d wager. So with any luck she will give that a miss to sit, and relax a bit.
From what I could see the cabin they are in looks reasonable enough. I don’t know about the two troops worth of ten year old girls though. That might be a major source of irritation because I just know a good third of them were too excited to sleep, and got loud & chatty late into the morning hours, and are probably a bit irritable, and snippy today because of it. Fun times! There’s always one too amped up to sleep that keeps others awake along with them. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Ha.
Is it Friday already, wow this week was fast. One half of the family are off to a two nights Girl Guide camp out of town, so the dog & I will be trying to keep my youngest occupied for the duration of this trip. That means Minecraft, funny fail videos, karate chop bed time story time, rock climbing solo acts, and private lunches just the three of us. If I can convince her to watch a movie, or play a board game we’ll do that too. Perhaps some ninja turtles / dungeon crawling on the xbox if we get desperate. She does have three books to read before going back to see her tutor, so we’ll kill an hour doing at least two of the three.
We could go for a wander around a mall out of town, just the two of us, after we walk the dog that is. Maybe head out to Square One and get our 20,000 steps in for the day? Ha! Right. Go for a walk about, check stuff out, grab a meal, see a movie, make a real day of it? Nope. Too little still. Not interested. Maybe when both kids are in their teen years they’ll want to spend the day out with me then. Right now they can go about an hour to ninety minutes walking around before they get bored, have sore feet, or just want to go home. I appreciate their efforts nonetheless. I think that if they should become more clothing oriented they will appreciate my ability to wander a mall, checking stuff out, waiting for others to try things on, and grabbing food stuffs, and not rushing around. Especially when the weather outside is awful, a climate controlled stroll is fabulous, add in tasty snacks, and a new book under my arm and you’ve got yourself a deal.
Probably why I like to just walk the aisles at Canadian Tire, and Home Depot, or Lowes, and Rona when I want a bit of exercise, but not be outdoors in the snow, rain, fog, or high winds. I have very little knowledge of current trends, so going out to look at the broader picture of what is, and isn’t available anymore will help you to see that. We can get pretty silo’d when we shop online, and not go outside with other people. I realize the looming spectre of both Covid, and this Avian Flu are major detractors which has shifted people away from public spaces. I get that. But if you want to remain current, or in “the know” then you have to go out to see what’s on display, and not what has been specifically targeted to you by algorithms, and advertisers whom know you too well. That’s just an echo chamber.
We’ll see how things go once the February 1st deadline hits and the tariffs drop into place with the US. That could potentially curtail a whole lot of sales. Hopefully we have enough local producers of all types of products who’ll see a sales boost as we depress what we buy from out of the states. If the price of gasoline and water spikes heavily in the US then that might out some pressure on them to come back to the bargaining table and rethink their position on trade. But I’m no economist, nor negotiator, so what do I know? Nothing much.
Plus, wow it’s almost February. One whole month of 2025 knocked out all ready. That is wild. Still feels like Christmas break was last week, only it was nearly four weeks ago. We’ve had two deep freezes, a bunch of snow, some fog, high winds, and rain. January has been a month. As we head into the dead of winter, those grey sunless blahs really make themselves known. Blue monday approaches! With any luck we will get past the worst of the winter, and we will be head long into spring before you know it. Well spring, and tax time. The tax man cometh.
Second semester is about to start real soon, which means just five months left of the school year. Five months until my youngest turns eight! Good grief.
I always thought those CLIF bars were supposed to be healthy, like some kind of activity recharge type thing. But due to the high sugar content it’s just a deconstructed candy bar really. Not so much a meal replacement, or healthy alternative, as a calorie dense treat. The chocolate oatmeal ones are pretty delicious if you ask me. Not a weight loss option. Not a meal replacement. It has far too much sugar to serve that purpose. Would be good while climbing though, I suppose.
It’s a balmy minus eight today, so a far more reasonable temperature for the kids go have outdoor recess, and a play time after lunch/meal time. I know my kids hate being cooped up inside the school from first to last bell. You can read it plain as day on their faces. Plus they tend to be real punchy at home. Quick to irritability. Fighting ensues with little to no hesitation after an entirely indoors day. So now they are able to roll in the snow, and soak their socks in puddles at the door. Nice!
Walking the dog when it’s like that is no picnic either. We just about ran through our route in order to get back into the car and go home as fast as possible. No moments to watch clouds, birds, or bunnies. No looking for deer tracks. No admiring the sun rise. Just in and out. For us these deep freezes are short lived, and more of an inconvenience. Don’t get me wrong winter is still cold, and full of snow & ice, but typically it’s liveable atleast. These polar vortex, historic lows are getting out of hand though. It crossed minus thirty the other night. Water freezes in mere seconds at those temperatures. Ouch — nasty!
Spending some time today tracking down older unpaid invoices, looking to see where the funds were put. Fun times.
I’ve been living in long John’s for a while now, and it makes school drop off and pick up bearable. Still stings the face, and acts like a lance through my jacket though. Numb fingers in too thin gloves, and icy toes in boots which insulation just can’t seem to keep up. Nasty stuff. Not that 100°F plus heat & humidity are any better, but the extremes just aren’t all that much fun. I know it’s bad when my eye lids threaten to freeze open or closed. When my nostril interior freezes shut. When skin goes white & waxy looking, that’s prefrostbite knocking at your door. These kids are going to have spent a fair few days inside for recess this winter. They aren’t all that fond of indoor recess and lunch breaks multiple days in a row. The polar vortex should begin to subside sometime soon though. The forecast for the weekend looks liveable once more. Playing outside in -3 weather is doable. Not so much when it tops out at -30 or worse.
Did you see they announced a Switch 2 the other day? Larger screen, larger Joy-Controllers, and more internal processing power (I’m guessing?). Looks cool, but since I only just laid out $400.00 this Christmas for one, i won’t be upgrading to the other any time soon. We have access to any number of other console systems. Xbox, xbox 360, PS4, PS5, Playstation one, Sega Master system, Nintendo snes, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, an Atari. We have lots of options for the kids to try spread out between our house, the grand parents, the cottage, and their cousins. No shortage of video games to tackle. I’m never ready for when stuff like this gets released. Too easy a trap to fall into.
So last night we finished watching the last of Mindhunter’s second season. I see they aren’t going to make a third, so the very last episode is a real lacklustre way to conclude the series. Shame – it was actually pretty decent. I have started to watch Chernobyl, but that’s a much shorter series at just one eight episode chunk. Slow moving, slow burn. But it has been very well done so far. I’m part way through episode three I think. Lots of radiation poisoning, and burns at this point.
Almost halfway through my current book now too. It’s the kind of thing I like. Short. Fast paced. Action packed. Doesn’t take itself too seriously. Might have four books done for my 2025 reading challenge by the end of January! Speaking of challenges, my eight loss reached an all time low of 195.4lbs just before Christmas. I think it’s back to 196/197lbs, but I’m trying to drink more water, snack less – or atleast snack in a smaller portion, and be slightly more active with the dog walks, climbing, and free weights. It is going to take quite some doing to reach 175lbs, or below any time soon. I cleaned out my closet but saved the 33″ waists just incase I manage to get beyond my 34’s! I gave up on the 32’s, as I was pretty unhealthy when skinny enough to wear those, or the 30’s & 28’s. That was pre diagnosis of Crohns when I wasn’t managing my symptoms, and repercussions very well. Stress helped keep me thin by limiting my appetite, and constantly twisting my guts in knots.
I don’t want to be uncontrollably sick just for the sake of shedding twenty to twenty five pounds. I need a caloric deficit for that. Hence the snacking changes, and higher consumption of water. I’ll keep you posted on how any of it goes!
I’ll place it in my list with an asterisk then shall I? It’s not often the last 120 or so pages of a book gives me so much grief. Normally I get within a fingers width of the end of a book and I’ll have one very late night trying to get through it. Not in this case. It has plagued me since October, at least. But it’s done, put to bed, and I can start my next book immediately. This is how I work, hot out of the gates to cover as much ground as possible while the weather is terrible, and then once it warms up, and I’m outdoors more I lean off the books, and then try to slot them in here and there, rather than as my main focus. In case you can not tell I hate the cold. It’s just awful. Yuck.
I’m going to read a very short Alien novel called “Rogue”, from many years ago, and then I will have to decide on if I want to hit up Dune, or more Alien novels, or find an alternate book from my collection that I haven’t read yet. I have several, from all kinds of genres. It’s gotta pull me in within the first 40 pages though or else I’ll set it down, and move on. I can’t be doing any cold boring starts. I hate cold boring ends too, but that’s another matter.
The book in all its 1994 glory!
It is minus twenty six with the windchill factor today. Starts with a balmy minus seventeen, and then the wind just makes things that much worse. I know the prairies have it worse, more consistently, but they chose to live there! This is bad enough. Thank god for automatic car starters, and block heaters etc etc… makes me wish we had a much larger garage, not just for tools, but to house our two cars too. I could spend a lot less time clearing snow off of the cars, and scraping windshields free of ice build up.
A funny thing happened on the TV yesterday. I saw, on the news, multiple sources that is, Elon Musk give two, in very quick succession, ole Sieg Heil salutes at the inauguration of #47, Donald Trump. So I had to face the reality of things and delete Twitter. A sad day, but necessary at this point. Deny it as I might have done for the last several months, the utility & purpose has declined a great deal. I used it to follow politics, but politics is a stagnant cesspool, so let us not dwell in the shit anymore. He will get no advertising dollars from me, nor my continued engagement.
Here we are, on a Tuesday, double digits in January all ready. The twenty first day at that! My my how the days go by. It’s my niece’s birthday today — Happy Birthday!
Came home yesterday to the fire alarm chirping again after I just replaced the battery middle of last week. Hit the tester/reset button and that seemed to get things back to normal. But just incase it was picking up something else I went to the furnace room and replaced the battery on the carbon monoxide detector too. It did bot go off (which was a relief) and I tested it, and the ear piercing shriek it emits was well and truly horrifying. Glad to hear it. Hard to miss anywhere in the house. So besides a potential low battery I don’t really know what set it off again yesterday evening. The fire alarm that is. No smoke, no smells, nobody had made bacon, or had a too hot shower where the steam from the bathroom could collect around it. I don’t know. A mystery to me.
Here we are, Monday morning, kids are at school, I’ve walked the dog in mi us seventeen weather, and I’ve done a weekly grocery shop. I can put the kids laundry in the wash, and vacuum the house if I feel like it. I can clean the sink & kitchen, and the upstairs bathroom too. I have some work to finish, and then I can start proofing my report before I send it away for review. The day is as busy as I make it.
Domestic Duties Monday is off and running. Technically, now that we have the dog, whom sheds like he has alopecia just waiting to happen, I need to run the vacuum about the house almost every single day. Not to mention the grit he drags in on his fur from walks on the street with my wife. Hair, grit & dander are ever present here now. No escaping it! I’ve cleaned the kitchen, and the floors. First batch of laundry is in the wash, with one more to go. Then dryer time, and if I still have any get up and go, I’ll fold it all and put it away. But I have paid work to do inbetween getting all these household tasks done. I have an Excel sheet with my name on it, with a whole batch of data points I need to graph out, and put into a marketing document for easy consumption.
Up next, either today or later on in the week, toilets, sinks, and the tub itself. Towels, and floor mats, bed sheets and hand towels from the kitchen all need to get done soon. It’s a never ending battle. Costly one too, when you think of how expensive detergent, fabric softener, and static sheets are these days.
Now, I don’t consider myself much of a prepper, but I do have a gas powered generator, and now a battery power bank for my computer(s). I often think of getting the house a solar panel & battery combo so that no matter what time of year it is, we can have power at our finger tips should anything happen. When you consider just how volatile the US is with 45 back in as 47, I think it best we be prepared for anything strange. Extra food in the pantry, full gas can(s), and power source(s) if we get left to our own devices during something big, or drawn out. I have two medical kits here, fire extinguishers, limited external power sources, and lots of rice & pasta, but I’m not going to build a bunker, or anything like that. We have bottled water in a few spots in the house. I just don’t want to be caught out totally unprepared for either extreme weather, or the US doing something dumb. Does anybody else have this creeping urge to do this sort of stuff as they get older? I was “devil may care” for forty years! Not so much any more. Likely why we have all the fruit trees, and berry bushes on our property!
As I thought it would happen my interests wavered and I leapt ahead to read “Mercy of gods” by James S A Corey before tackling the last 120 pages of the Aliens Omnibus I was already reading. The Mercy book was good fun, wish there was a follow up ready to jump into right now. The problem of jumping on a new book series right away is the interminable wait for the next installment. Luckily it wasn’t a massive book at just over 400 pages, so I could skim it a second time once I have the second book in hand, provided this one takes off like The Expanse series did. I feel like they were building a lot in the background so that the action & intrigue could take off in book two onwards. I liked it a good deal. But now I’m right back where I was pre Christmas holidays, trying to stay focused enough to finish this damn Aliens novel. I have three more to read on my TBR list for 2025, plus two Dune novels. I just pre ordered the fourth Lady Astronaut book about Mars from Mary Robinette Kowal, due out in March. The title escapes me, as I ordered it the second I discovered it was coming this year. I have greatly enjoyed the other three books, two of them especially, and one other was perfectly fine, no complaints.
The three MRK novels so far.
I’m hoping for a new release from John Scalzi, George RR Martin, Robert J Sawyer, or any number of other authors to round out this years list. Or, on the flip side to come across a new writer whose work I enjoy and can start to dig through their back catalogue. Like how I found Adrian Tchaikovsky, and his Void series, and the space faring spiders series. That was a lucky break. I know I should read more widely, about topics, and genres, but I don’t like it to feel like homework. Nothing kills the vibe surrounding a book, like it feeling like a book report, or an obligation. Ugh! Yuck.
Added some Adrian Tchaikovsky to my library.
I found some authors by reading D & D novels geared at adolescents that was fortuitous, as I really loved those books. Unfortunately I don’t see a fifth Fart Quest book on the horizon, nor another entry for the Adventourous D & D series whose titles escape me, unless I go look. ** Dungeon Academy** Well—well, according to google AI there was to be a Fart Quest book 5 out in November of 2024, but I can not locate any other corroborating evidence for that statement, so my initial feeling still stands. It provided no title, and no synopsis, so my guess is, it’s not really a concrete thing.
Quartet of Fart novels.
I have my finger on the button ready to purchase Scott Lynch’s next Locke Lamora, Gentlemen Bastards book should it ever achieve a release date. Now there’s a series I really enjoyed a great deal. The first three books were all excellent. I could read those again without too much hesitation. While a tad on the long side for me now, at around 600 pages each, they are engrossing, and very, very entertaining. Lots going on. Many surprises to be reckoned with. Fantastic. Praise worthy each one of them.
Scott Lynch to the rescue!
I do wish Yann Martel would write another fiction book, as I have loved everything of his I’ve come across. Life of Pi, Self, Beatrice and Virgil, The facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, What is Stephen Harper Reading? . All of them were very positive experiences. Plus he’s Canadian, just like Robert J Sawyer!
Some Yann Martel on the shelf.
You know who else I wish would release more books, Gail Z Martin, her Chronicles of the Necromamcer series was amazing, I bought all four books in the series, plus two more from The Fallen king’s Cycle, but that one didn’t take off, as I never saw a third entry. Maybe it was a pseudonym she was writing under, and her other works fared better in the long run. I don’t really know.
Gail Z Martin representing PAGES on my shelves.
I was also captivated by Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus trilogy. It’s geared toward youth, but I still loved every word of it. I’m not above reading a fun book geared at the YA crowd. It was a very pleasant series to read.
Vibrant inside & out.
That’s my time for today. Go read something just for fun. A sentence, a paragraph, a page, a chapter. Whatever it is, go explore and have some fun! Ciao Bella.
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