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Just a sweeping deep cold blustery, sunny blue sky day. Back at it again with temps down in the minus twenty two range. Two whole degrees warmer than yesterday if you can believe it. It’s that stinging, pinching, knife straight through you type of cold. It’s funny when you find blast furnace heat it makes the outer most layer of skin too hot immediately, but it doesn’t feel like it cuts through you, whereas the deep cold feels as though it finds the gaps in between cells, and goes in the front, and right through, and out the back of you. Very unsettling sensation. Like a ghost has passed right through your core. Horrible.

Have you seen the latest news on the California wildfires? Just horrendous. A wind storm kicked off, the Santa Ana winds if I recall, and whoosh, the Palisades have gone up in smoke. I’ve seen video of people in their house watching the racing flames whip by. The poor dog looked petrified. I have to assume given the proximity of the flames that that whole family were killed after taking that video. I don’t know how a home could withstand that kind of heat, and assault and not catch fire too. Or boil the air, and everything inside it. Leave them gasping as the air further ignites as the blaze passes over them. Horrible. Just a ghastly way to die. Caught unawares by the speed of the oncoming flames, trapped in your home, watching, and waiting for it to do the most horrible thing you’ve ever felt until you die. Chilling to the bone. God speed.

We are in the midst of a real deep freeze so the idea of an out of control forest fire seems so foreign to me. Now come summer, we are no strangers to smoke clouds, and the smell of ash on the air from northern fires. But what’s going on in California in January just seems so alien to me. Not that snow or rain would do much to help them at this point, both would sizzle away before reaching the fires anyway. And the blustery winds we are having would only make things worse. A tragedy.

Today is Thursday. I should go fold laundry, and put stuff away. Take care out there. Ciao Bella.

Yes, yes it is cold. So cold in fact the kids could walk straight into the school without having to line up for the bell. So cold that recess, and probably lunch too will be held in the gymnasium along with their classrooms for kids that need to run, and exert themselves in order to remain productive members of society. I for one made sure to wear thermal underoos, and the cold was still biting at the edges of my body. This is an unkind, uncaring level of cold. This type of chill usually doesn’t appear until February when we are all lost desperate souls, depressed by the lack of quality sunlight, heat, and vibes. This kind of cold is usually the norm for Family Day long weekend, and Valentine’s day, not so much single digit January days. However, it is most definitely sunny, and bright blue skies above today. Win some, lose some I suppose.

It is after all Wednesday, Hump Day, Middle of the Week Day around these parts. This first week back has come as a shock to the system. How easily we adapted to the holidays, and it’s lack of structure, schedule, or expectations. Sleep late, stay up later, eat too much, drink a little more than normal, hang out as a family, and just be. So easy. Now we have places to be, things to do, responsibilities to take care of. And I’m so tired. The kids haven’t really adjusted their sleep schedules successfully just yet. Still staying up too late, which means I’m up too late. Can we go back to putting the kids in bed by 7pm? No? You don’t think they will go for that.

I’m going to go vaccum the floors again. This puppy sheds like crazy. They say German Shephards only shed twice a year, six months in summer, and six months in winter. Ba-dum-tss

Last night was the last class of the early puppy training session, and graduation ceremony all rolled into one hour long event. Afterwards the puppies all got together for some hands on play in the training ring under careful scrutiny. Graham here being among the biggest (and oldest at 1 year) was monitored so as to not be too rough & tumble with the tiniest tea cup pups in his class. They all played very well together. It was a lot of fun to see. Graham was pooped after all that running, rolling, and bowing towards his friends. He went through quite a few treats during the training sessions, and is a little less rough around the edges. Still a ways to go yet, but I hope to put any further organized training on hold until the spring. Road conditions are so unreliable this time of year. I prefer to be a hermit and not have to face the roads out of town if I don’t absolutely have to.

So for now we will just be reaffirming what we’ve been taught, and trying to build up from there as we go. I’d like for him to not try to knock down smaller children in an attempt to play with them. It’s not malicious, but it does cause friction and dismay among extended family. Especially those with the small kids he likes to knock over with his chest or bum. They cry, I laugh, it’s a bit of a thing.

Tuesday is here. My my how time does fly.  It’s going to take me all week to get used to going to bed earlier, and waking up earlier for the school run in the mornings. Tomorrow I’ll go grocery shopping because I’m a tad off schedule at the moment, but it’s nothing I can’t overcome in another 24 hours time. Right the ship, get on course, that type of thing.

I got the crafting pieces set up for my youngest daughters Girl Guides group today. That’s done ahead of schedule, so it’s not all bad news. I found the pine cone stash in the basement so that’s another part of the craft sorted out. Hopefully some of the other leaders have paints, hot glue, and glitter and such. Sounds like a chaotic riot, and a mess is about to go down at Guides this week.

I have toyed with the idea of going back to bed during the day, but then I won’t want to go to bed around 10:00pm if I do that. Counter productive. I’d like the kids in bed by eight, so that I can chill for two hours with my wife, then go to bed. Not have the kids finally asleep by 9:45pm, and then I still go off to sleep at 10pm. That’s not fair. We’ll have to figure something out.

The sun is up & shining today. But it’s a cold one out there. Something like minu eighteen with the windchill. Brrr. That’s uncomfortably cold. Stabs right through you when it gets like this for long stretches. Going to get colder as the week progresses too. I will have to wear snow pants or long johns to pick up. Too damn cold not to.

Well it’s just about noon, so I should go feed myself something reasonable for lunch. Ciao Bella.

The official first day back after the winter break, and holidays. It’s a somber time of year. The weather is grey, snowy & cold. The children not do full of laughter as the bundle close together lined up ready to go back into school once more. Schedules are starting to wind up once again. Disturbed sleeping patterns, and eating habits have to be reset. Outbursts, tears, tantrums and fatigue are here for the next week, possibly two while everybody adjusts back from the pre holiday season hysteria. I imagine a number of conversations regarding santa claus, toys, and what kind of haul they all came away from Christmas with. In our case, less stuff, more Hockey Games downtown! Booyah! Second game watched, second game won! Nice.

This was the first Christmas in a very long time in which I didn’t have to bust out a large card board box to house all of the other smaller cardboard boxes from kids toys in order to get it to go in the recycling. Besides some lego boxes, and a remote controlled gecko, not much mess to be had. Glorious! Now there are more unopened Lego boxes, but they are all relatively small, and in the kids rooms. Not currently being stored on the island or dining room table like years before.

I was given some grief for taking the tree down on New Year’s Day, but it’s tradition, and I put the tree up, and I take it down, no one else will do it, so it goes on my schedule. The kids helped to decorate it, but were busy playing on their tablets and didn’t want to participate in the dlower, and more meticulous tear down process. I wasn’t upset. Each set of ornaments has to go back in their respective boxes, and aligned just right to fit. It’s slow going, and can’t be rushed. Untangling lights from the tree, and reclaiming fallen hooks, and hangers takes time. It let’s me process the holiday, and transition into the new year with a few early accomplishments. I also use the day to tear down the ground light elements, like tree wraps, inflatables, and free standing characters from the lawn. I also pulled up all of the extension cords before they froze to the ground in a big block of ice. I can now scrape the front walk without fear of electrocution from a forgotten (but live) cord running to a random tree out front. Good for my health! It was cold. I had wanted to do some of it on New Year’s Eve, but even to me that felt premature (even if my fingers would have appreciated the few extra degrees of heat the day before afforded). I got it done regardless. A second stroke for the win column. All we do is win-win-win no matter what!

Last nights Leafs game was a success. Went into overtime to do it, but we caught our train, and got home before 11:30pm, so that was really great. A hard night before going back to school probably was a poor choice on my part, but it’s about making those memories folks. Two more games later this month to look forward to. I have to imagine that either my father inlaw, or brother in law will take my daughter to one of those games, as they are during the week, and won’t interfere with any weekend plans they might have. I’d be very happy to take her myself, mind you, as I enjoy watching hockey in person. I went to see the Peterborough Pete’s a number of times when I was in university. If Oshawa wasn’t so sketchy I’d go see some local OHL games to.

But here we are on Monday January 6th, 2025 and that silly mr Trump is heading back to the oval office in two weeks time. What a shit show that’s going to be. Funny how things work out.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella.

Here I was at the end of 2024 thinking I hadn’t done any meaningful wood working this year, when in actuality I had done several things. While it was classified under shop infrastructure I still think it counts. Plus one glaringly large error on my part. After all I did repair and refinish one entire table. Converting it over from two spindle legs to having four separate Ash legs which I could bolt in place, and remove at will. That was one. The other two items were wooden carts on wheels for my jointer, and my planer. I cut the old singular cart into pieces, and rejigged the whole lot to save space, and make it so that I could use each tool individually without the other tag a long tool making my life more difficult. I also got around to putting heavy duty castor wheels on my main workbench so that I can move that about the shop freely too. Was more of a build & attach session than a wood project, but I still got it done. I also had built my big wooden tool chest/box this past year too. That’s on wheels, holds my paints, and adhesives, plus my Ryobi power tool selection, safety equipment, and all my hand saws, chisels, and straight edges. It was a fun build. Ugly as sin, but it works. I couldn’t find a paid option with the same capacity for less than $600 pre-tax. Besides the castor wheels everything else was from scrap, or repurposed old furniture items. Oh it looks rough all right, but it works!

Also uncle Fred gets to spend the rest of his time as Ashes inside the Urn I made for a different uncle whom passed on final purchase. So I could make a new one if need be. But I’ll have to see about that.

The dog and I are having a lie in this morning. We were up late watching Gladiator after the hockey game. Leafs won! Let us hope that tonights game is as exciting, and also a win for us too. I’m very excited to go see our second ever Leafs home game. We’ll be just about half way through our games after tonight. I have both my jersey and t-shirt washed and ready to wear! Go team. Ha.

In other news I had to bite the bullet and purchase a new computer for my business. Slowly, but more so over the last six months my computer has been showing signs that my older operating system isn’t compatible with the constantly updating software I use. Programs were no longer updating, and I was having real issues once shut down logging back into things like Microsoft office, word, power point, and my Adobe suite of tools. I bought my current computer in Feb of 2015, meaning it was a late fall 2014 model. And a desk top not meant for boxed travel in hot/cold vehicles, on bumpy side roads, or in humid cottage conditions. So now, finally, I have an equivalent laptop computer coming so that I can work when I travel should I need to do so. I don’t want to be that guy whom works all through vacation, but I like being able to take my business & wips to meetings with me, as nobody reviews emails of pdfs in advance anymore.

Either way, I have a big company purchase for the 2025 taxes I will do in April of 2026. Here’s to good record keeping so that I can remember that factoid come next year’s tax time.

I should get myself and the dog up & out of bed for breakfast and a farm run, but the peace and quiet of the empty house is keeping me in my toasty bed covers. I should think about better blinds for my room. I could do with just a touch more darkness when I sleep. Neighbours high beams, and tail lights constantly bleed across my far bedroom wall illuminating my room at all hours of the night. I know we have fire fighters and nurses living on this street, so late night comings and goings aren’t anything new. I’m just tired of the light penetrating my room, keeping me awake when I’m trying to fall asleep.

I still have yet to discover a totally fool proof way to get a decent nights rest consistently. If any ody ever figures it out somebody give me a shout. Ciao Bella.

Had to stay behind due to work issues while my wife, and kids went north to the cottage. Just myself and the dog here right now. The house is very different when the children aren’t in it. It feels a little colder, and a hell of a lot quieter that’s for sure. I’m no stranger to being home alone between 8:30am, and 3:00pm, but after that it’s a different story. A work day without kids is one thing, but the whole day is something else. Not that I like the constant fighting, but the conversation is better with the kids around, I can say that much. I very much miss my evening tv cuddle time with my wife when we can actually catch up on life without the kids eavesdropping on us. Plus – that’s when we watch Reacher, or Jack Ryan, or it’s always sunny, or some such.

I did take the liberty of watching First Man, and Apollo 13 again. If I can do so, then today I will rewatch Ad Astra too. It’s a quiet and contemplative look at inner system space travel, and dealing with the crushing weight of being entirely alone in the universe. A slow burn with some odd pacing at times, but I still like it. It felt very on point with Covid and the lock downs hot on its heels just a few years/months after it’s release. The isolation, and loneliness is palpable.

I took the liberty of downloading some free online Nintendo games onto the switch, namely the gameboy library, and the NES library. Both free with the Nintendo family subscription for the year. I also bought them Super Smash Bros because they were both asking for it by name, and I didn’t buy it along with the system like I was going to. I didn’t know if it was going to be a digital only type console or if it would take cartridges, or both or what. Once I got the memory card sorted out, and we found out it will use the tiny cartridges too I jumped on it. BAM! Surprise.

I tried my hand at it, but I can’t seem to make any sense of the game mechanics. So much jumping around, but the attacks don’t seem to do damage. I wish it was more of a Marvel vs Capcom type thing, or Street Fighter, or Mortal Kombat, Tekken or whatever. Those I understand a bit better. Perhaps I’m showing my age with this stuff now. I knew it would happen eventually. But if the kids dig it, then that’s what matters the most.

I did play another grand prix in MarioKart 8 deluxe, which is still an awesome game. I am slowly working my way through the cup challenges. I’m only in the 100cc races. I did a handful at 50cc to get used to it, but I know there are still a fair few things to it that I haven’t sorted out yet. I haven’t found the brakes yet, for one. And secondly I still don’t know how to dodge or avoid incoming attacks from the racers behind me. Like the squid ink, or lightening shrink ray, or the red/blue spiked shells. I cannot for the life of me manage to avoid them. No amount of sliding, skidding, jumping, or rotating barrier of weapons can seem to impede their attack.

A fair few of these tracks are all new to me, so I need to get to know them better. Right now I don’t know any of the short cuts, or secrets to shaving off precious seconds of my time. There has to be some! If not for every course then at least a good chunk of them should have some type of gimmick for getting a head start on others. But I digress. Games can too easily become all consuming. Ask me if I dream about them. Go on- ask. Yes. Yes I do. I dreamt last night about racing as Yoshi. It’s a very odd, yet very real compulsion. Lucky me it’s not gambling, drugs, or travel. Could get expensive otherwise.

An empty house means that I need to do every dog walk these last three days (today included). So I need to dress warmly, and go tire out this pooch! Have a lovely Saturday if you observe. Ciao Bella.

Prior to the Leafa game I sat down to eat dinner and rewatch First Man. Along with Apollo 13, I could watch these two films over, and over again without much trouble. I really enjoy them both. I was going to place Ad Astra there too, but it has a pacing issue which can put me off sometimes. Plus the body horror segment seems out of place to me, but I didn’t write it, nor film it, so who am I to judge. Not my tempo!

The very first Friday of the year is upon us. I had a fairly busy day yesterday, as it was likely a very official back to work day for many. I do not know if today will be quite as busy, but I would not be surprised if things got quiet again until Monday. That’s when all the kids head back to school, and things really go back to normal. Plus being six days into the new year I can just about stop wishing folks a happy new year. Maybe Monday morning will be the last of it as all us school parents gather togather once again after the break concludes. Then no more.

I best go wish my dad a happy birthday last I forget until too late in the day. I sent his birthday present along with the Christmas stuff so I wouldn’t forget this year.

Maybe today I will break out Apollo 13 and continue my love affair with space related things. Happy friday.

You won’t find any of that here, pfft! Jog on. No, around here I write about such niche things as: working freelance, parenthood, rock climbing, lawn maintenance, raking leaves, car troubles, finances, coming to terms with why I am the way I am, child rearing, video games, movie reviews, book reviews, and general talk about the weather. So very niche. I’m so uniquely me. Or you know, whatever.

I very much enjoyed the free wheeling approach to this blog that I used in 2024. I had started the year off wanting to plan individual posts, and assign myself topics to cover, but I’m not much of an academic, and this was far more pleasurable, and cathartic. Made a couple of good strides towards knowing myself a bit better. Sorting out how/why I react to the things my kids do has been eye opening. Good to know. Gives me reason to pause and breathe a second before getting angry, or deciding to be nicer about some issue that has come up. That’s for the best yeah? I think so.

I don’t talk much politics here, whether that’s Canadian or American. I’m most obviously a canadian Liberal/NDP fan, but I don’t wave flags, or wear hats. I have had to help out our local PC party person as a personal favour to my father in law- a farmer. So the blue goes with the agricultural territory for some reason. Not like Doug Ford cares for the farmers around here at all. Polievre doesn’t either, the little wastrel. But I digress.

I haven’t been out to see too many movies as of late. Been playing a fair bit of Nintendo Switch with my kids though. Mainly bowling, tennis, and golf. I prefer mario kart, but that’s because I’m better at it.

Day two of the new year. Lots to do. Ciao Bella.

First things first I got outside took the wreath off the front door. Then I took down all the floor mounted lights, inflatables, and anthropomorphic animals doing Christmas type things. Then I pulled up all of the extension cords from the ground. I unwrapped the two trees that had light strands on them. And I pulled the two oversized light up wreaths off of the garage. I dried off the inflatable, and put everything back up into the rafters of the garage. Once the inflatable was dry it went back into its box and stored away with all the others from Halloween. I won’t be taking the lights off of the house until April, unless I get an oddly warm day with no work, and no winds, rain, or heavy fog. The house lights are up for months most likely.

Inside the tree came down, along with all of the ornaments which required organizing by type, size, and colour. Then the tinsels, and then all of the interior light strands. I also packed away the hats, tree floor mat, Elf from the Shelf, and any other child made holiday item we break out for Christmas. Also all of the stockings and their fancy fire place hangers get put away too. It’s about 90 minutes of work, and the tree going hack into its storage container always leaves me with forearm cuts, scrapes, and scratches. Such fun!

But once more the house is brighter, and less cramped. We can now play Switch Sports without fear of decimating the tree, lights, and all those hand painted ceramic ornaments we’ve made over the years. Definitely a step in the right direction for day one of the new year. Cleaning house, reorganizing closets, and putting things away. One thing that helps is that I bought less “stuff” for Christmas so the kids don’t have a tonne of junk just lying around in the living room this year.

I saw an interesting short on IG the other day about how I have living room children, whom keep their toys out here, and play out here, where I was a bedroom child, and my things & playtime was spent in my room. I like their presence out here with us, but an occasional bedroom playtime wouldn’t go unappreciated either. At least as far as keeping the common areas tidy. I could do with less “stuff” out here, but I like having the kids nearby, so I’ll not make too much of a fuss. Ha. Right.

Laundry was done. Dishwasher has run a session. Floors have been swept now that the tree has been out away. Now I see that the blinds could do with a wipe down because they are caked with dust. Ugh. It never ends. Baseboards, walls, trim, cabinets, door handles, ceilings full of cobwebs, you name it. A near constant rotation of additional cleaning that always needs doing. Not to mention all the new dog hair accumulation. Never ending!

I’ll have to look and see how much writing I actually did last year. I’m guessing somewhere around 115,000 words. Perhaps more, perhaps less. I’m none too concerned.

Anyway, Happy New Year to you all. Ciao Bella!

Namely golf, and on occasion bowling if the pins don’t fall my way. I’m seeing a lot of splits that I just can’t seem to make no matter how hard I try. Boo-boo! The golf was infuriating, but still fun. Seems I put like I drive, with a little too much oomph! No matter, we can spend some time getting better at it over the course of the new coming year. We have one more game from Christmas that we haven’t even cracked the seal on yet. The kids didn’t seem too interested, but maybe once the music starts they will care more about it then.

I’m off work today and tomorrow due to the New Year holiday. I guess I could have worked today but my being busy requires my clients to also be in the office working on a holiday. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t I don’t really know. I’ll take the day to play with my kids and enjoy the no rain for this second.

I almost didn’t get out of bed this morning with my alarm to do the garbage, green bin, and recycling. Has to be at the curb for 7:00am, for that one in a million shot where they turn up exactly at that time for collection. Alarm went off, I muttered WTF, rolled over and went back to sleep. Bolted up after about 15 minutes and got my gear to the curb. Luckily they had not come through the neighbourhood yet. Phew! Crisis averted. Garbage week only happens every other week, so we’d be saddled with more than we could get rid of if I missed it. That is to say that even with the holiday, today is a day just like any other, with consequences. Dun-dun-dun.

Happy New Year! Start the clock anew tomorrow kids. Also we are the furthest from Christmas that you can get. In six months school is out, summer is here, and we’re all a little older & wiser. Ciao Bella!