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Hope and pray your kids don’t decide to wake up at 6:00am setting the new puppy off so that he thinks the day has begun. Then fail spectacularly at it, making all members of the party miserable. That’s what. The reality of the situation kicks off tomorrow morning around 8:00am when my wife will have to head off to work – alone. For this week anyway it will be a sort of reprieve from the summer time smothering attention she gets from our youngest. I think for this coming week only – no students until Wednesday I think,  she will have peace & quiet at school or in her office doing curriculum building work to prepare for her review by the board that comes up this school year.

I on the other hand will have both children at home to myself for the week. So I think it best that we tidy up our rooms, and sort out the closets and drawers. I bought them back to school consumables, such as pencil crayons, markers, pencils, glue sticks, scissors, rulers, and a pencil sharpener. There was one thicker lined paper book each too. Which reminds me, I need to find their lunch bags. I cleaned those on the last day of school – luckily. Didn’t the year before and was met by a foul smelling mush that I needed a hazmat suit to dispose of! Ugh! Just awful. I learned my lesson. What I haven’t done yet is clean the very inside of their back packs of junk, food crumbs, and scraps of paper or wrappers. I asked if they wanted new back packs and they both said no, so that is all sorted for now.

The household purge is so close now, I can almost taste it. I even went through my bookshelves once more to remove another 35-40 books. Those will go to a care & share, or a school, or into a burn pile at the cottage if no one will take them. I’m of the mindset that I should start thinning my horded crap now, while it’s up to me to choose, so that should I perish at any point, my family won’t have to wade through mountains of my trinkets and crap to clean up after me. I’m focusing on keeping higher quality things, like working shape/in order tools, and gear, as opposed to novels I’ll never read again, or just will not read period. Don’t fret, I still have a sizable collection of books I would not hesitate to read a second or third time. Whole series of them. Some of those collections are 11 books deep! And expanding. Hell my Warhamner 40K Black Library books set is almost 30 or more novels by several authors. I have to be ruthless with my stuff to justify doing the same to my kids things.

I’ve been scouting the closets for old coats and such for the donation pile. I’m going to be busy keeping this place cleared out.

Not only did I complete several paid projects yesterday, but I cut the grass, used the weed eater, trimmed some shrubs, pruned two fruit trees, and then cut down three more trees. Those three trees,  I broke down their branches, and cut the trunks into 18 inch chunks. I was then able to fetch a farm truck and carted off three sizable piles of brush & debris to the wood pile at the farm. It was a lot of chainsaw work, and use of my loppers too. My back & shoulders are feeling it today. What’s worse is that I was too tired to go to the movies last night. I was trying to get out to see Alien : Romulus, or Deadpool & Wolverine, but by 8:00pm I was ready to call it a day. Far too much activity for one day!

I am very happy that I not only got those trees down, but cut up and disposed of. I thought I wouldn’t have the time to get to it until next week, or even early September.  I even had the chance to repair the fence where those trees were rubbing, and loosening the boards. Add that to the list of things that were done yesterday too. Happy I don’t have to do it today! Clearing those brush piles was a massive win for me too. I hadn’t planned on it, but when I had the truck to myself, and the opportunity arose, I jumped at it. Twenty minutes of added labour was well worth the effort. The front, and back yards are now clear of brush piles once again. Looks almost reasonable out there! I do love have trees ,and shrubs, and bushes on our property but they make a hell of a lot of mess. I may find I have to go at the root ball with a shovel, and a pick axe to really bring that chopped tree to its end. I cut through three of the main root sections that I could see, but I bet it’ll take me a while longer yet to really kill it good & dead.

I was working up a horrendous sweat in the sunshine yesterday. Makes me glad I don’t run a chainsaw every day. The exhaust, dust, and chips were very unappealing. Inside my boots, down into my socks. Found a bunch inside my waist band too. Ugh! Had to shower twice because the tree sap smeared all up one arm, and across my opposite leg. Well, shin bone mostly. But ugh! A Sticky, dusty, wood chippy grossness had attached itself to me. Not to mention the sweat pouring down my face I to my eyes, and all down my back, and chest. A big fat powdered donut working in my back yard.

It’s funny, I didn’t think the two last trees in the stand were all that big. When standing that is. Once I cut them down they seemed to quadruple in size! Right before my eyes. I’m very happy my neighbour moved his beautiful, brand new Tacoma, that wouldn’t have been fun to brush up against! His driveway now doesn’t have my tree looming over it anymore. Less shaded there now too. I remember planting the small woody tree years ago once we put the sand box back there for my oldest child. It provided a vast canopy for shade, and grew quickly to fill the space. Also made it so the neighbours across the street couldn’t look directly onto our deck. But all the other trees have grown into their own, and my kids haven’t used the sand box since the Covid lock downs of 2020-2023. Might be time to retire, and remove the sand box. Probably a next year thing. I need to shift the sand of leaves, twigs and such before I bagged it all. Moving the sandbox with sand still in it is something I will never do again. I also don’t have my 30 year old back any more. So it HAS to be made lighter, just as a matter of fact. I can’t pick up 315lbs anymore. Atleast not without extensive training, and a proper power lifting belt. The herky jerky times of my life are over with, failing some sort of catastrophe or emergency situation.

So now, I’m tired. Fatigued if you will. My upper back, between my shoulder blades is sore. My hands ache. And my knees aren’t up for doing much today. The ease I feel from getting all that work done, is weighed down by my body saying “Hey-man WTAF”. Welcome to Saturday morning. Don’t mind me, I’ll just hobble out of bed to get some breakfast now. Ciao Bella!

The dog sleeps really well at the cottage because our room is deep into the basement, surrounded by 8ft of bedrock, is silent, cool and very, very dark. So I can get home to stay asleep until 8:00, or 8:30am without much trouble. At home the blinds are crap and our room lights up around 6:00am and he is ready to start his day three hours early, much to my chagrin. I’m going to need to paint my window black, hang curtains, or stuff a pillow in the window well because I’m not ready to start my day at six. Seven is one thing, but any earlier than that is just overkill. I work from home, so it’ll be silent here between 8:30am & 3:00pm every weekday for the next ten months. So it isn’t like I need to drink a coffee and read a newspaper in peace before I tackle the daily grind in an office setting. I’d rather just have the maximum amount of sleep I can squeeze out of the night before I absolutely HAVE to be up to make breakfasts, and lunches for my school aged children. The dog isn’t on board with that yet. He is still just an right month old puppy. And a terror when he chooses to be.

To tell you the truth, I’d rather be asleep right now. Or prepping for a nap. I seem to have hurt my back yesterday and I do not know how. I just feel stiff, and sore. I didn’t work out yesterday, and I do not recall having lifted anything of note. Must be my body still trying to readjust to my favored bed, over the one from the cottage. Or the height difference in my pillows has affected my back, neck, shoulders. Feels great to get older doesn’t it? Random aches and pains, with no discernible reasons as to why that is. Better than being dead, I suppose.

I know of at least one project I need to make changes to today, but otherwise lawn care is on the menu today, and possibly weeding our front garden beds too. The tomatoes took over, and have grown like a wild fire, but have very few fruits, flowers ready. Shame. Maybe I’ll just pull them up and call it the loss that it is. I didn’t water them, or monitor them at all in August, so it’s my fault. Put all their energy into growing the plant itself, and not bearing any vegetables I could use to make salsa or sauces. Probably should have fertilized it, and watered them once we got out of July. I like my plants, trees, and shrubs to take care of themselves. I’ll get them started with a generous helping hand, but you have to keep yourself going after that.

I see some whispers of new trees growing that I’ll need to cut down and remove. I should take down some other trees and bits around the property too. Rubbing on the fences, and hanging low over my neighbours driveway. I think it’s time the last two in the stand of six should come down. It took me nearly three hours start to finish, to remove and clear the first four parts of that stand of trees. Maybe the last two will go smoother, or take me less time? One can hope! The corner of fence will be bare, but the cedar there should enjoy some extra light, and the newly transplanted sapling from April/May should like less competition for water and nutrients out of the soil. Should be a win all around. Then I just need to make sure I kill the roots. I’ll drill plenty of holes into it, tear it up a bunch with the chainsaw. Or try to remove it with a pick-axe and saws-all. We’ll have to wait and see what I feel up to doing as the day progresses.

Just thinking about all of that makes me want to have a nap. Warm bed, cool fan breeze, firm mattress, darkened room. Say no more! I’m in. Ciao Bella.

Traveling is fun, but the adjustment period between getting used to, and then achieving a good nights sleep in it is a harsh reality for some of us. Even now that we are finally back home, and I love my bed, but I had to alter my sleeping position, timing, and space utilized while at the cottage, and now I need to unlearn it all to best use my time at night here at home. Takes a couple of nights to do. Coming home that one full day last week didn’t help me out much either. My leg cramped up on the drive, and then I didn’t sleep well for the days errands, and appointments, and my leg still hurt when I had to drive back again. Blah.

Besides decent shoes, a mattress is something you should take care when buying. I for one don’t care for the 18″ thick pillow tops. It’s too much. Too soft. Hurts my back just thinking about it. The only things worse are bowed beds with too little support like a hammock, or water beds. Both of those options are horrendous. Me, I need my bed to be firm. Not like stone, or a slab of concrete, but not all bubbly and squishy either. That seems nice for winter, but way too hot for late spring, summer, and early fall temperatures around here.

Just as I suspected the grass here is a hood 8 or 9 inches tall. Going to have to find the time to cut it today, or at worst tomorrow. I have an informal meeting this evening, so I won’t do it closer to sun down either. Weeds seem to have been kept at bay since I pulled up so many last Thursday/Friday. That was a welcome sight. Even if the grass is ugly to behold.

Do you sleep well at night? Do you hold off on travel because your choice of pillows/mattress can be hard to replicate? My neck goes off pretty easily if the pillow height/consistency is not right for me either. I’m a real barrel of laughs when I travel. Can’t sleep, can’t turn my neck, and if I have to fly my guts will be all out of sync. Such fun!

Here’s hoping that the last ten days of summer are a wonderful experience for you out there, and we all go back into September safe & sound. Ciao Bella!

While we did not commit to the seven full weeks here like we have done in years passed, we still managed four weeks up here this summer. I broke that up by going home to check on things, run errands, and take various people and pets to appointments.  We will be back into the real world soon enough. While I don’t particularly care for the length of our stay it is a lovely place to relax, and enjoy the outdoors. I however would prefer to have my musical instruments, model building apparatus, sculpting tools, wood shop, and karaoke things here too. I can only sit and watch the lake for so long on any given summer. The fact that the only radios here are in the boats is kinda weird. I utilize music when I do just about anything. Probably why I volunteer to drive around so much up here, so I can blast tunes in the car by myself. I need music in my life! Gotta have it. What a crap existence it is without music in it. I should say not just music, but that of my choice, and choosing. No chance to cut a rug up here either. At home we dance in the kitchen/living room almost every day, the kids and I, that is. Makes life more fun.

I think it’s Wednesday today, so I’m tying up loose ends with all of the various interns I collaborate with for the clients I do work for. They’ll all be returning to school in the next two weeks, and I wish them well. I meet quite a few each year, and I enjoy the fresh ideas and innovations which they inject into our ongoing projects. Some are Ivey League business students (under Canadian standards) that I follow along with their exploits on LinkedIn. Helps me to find & understand new trends. Youths. Indispensable.

What else is going on? Hm. Kids are now off to the library for their last information session with the town. This time it’s about bugs/insects. They’ve done some on the moon, turtles, sewing, and possibly one other that slips my mind right now. 2 hours for them to go and do some educational learning away from devices, and out from under my feet. I need to cut the grass so this should be a good time to do it. Then I can go home and do my own lawn later this week. Just you watch, the temperatures will soar, and I’ll be drenched in sweat taking care of my own property. Just lovely.

Actually I’ll be able to sort out our gardens on the daily, once school starts up again. I don’t think I’ll have a tonne of paid work to do this fall, so my table refinishing project, and the gardens, and walking the dog will become much bigger priorities. Getting a sculpt completed and painted for the Markham Fair will be high on the list too. Finish my resin model build, can’t forget the Ninja Turtle bust aswell. Turn out the last couple of illustrations for my children’s book and publish that on WordPress. Maybe get a gym membership for weight lifting and/or continued elliptical usage. So much potential available in the days, weeks, months ahead. Positive thinking! Strike a bunch of long term projects off my list.

Sort out closets. Purge clothes. Purge old/broken toys. Wash walls. I have plenty to keep me busy inbetween paid work. I should definitely try to power wash the back deck. I sanded & stained it only a few years ago, so I should try to maintain it better this go around. Which reminds me I have to cut the nozzle off of my garden hose if I want to be able to use the power washer. Add it to the list!

You know what awaits me when we get home? Laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, and the untended lawn. I pulled up about 200 weeds when I went home last week, so I pray there aren’t 200 more after all the rain we’ve had. An obscene amount of it this year. Something like 42cm worth since June. That’s insane! We still had drought like conditions in between those massive downpours. Three to four inches one night because of Berryl, and then this other storm that dropped another 2-3 inches in 24 hours or so. Cloud bursts and sudden heavy showers all over the place. Weird. So very weird.

Happy Hump-Day, Middle of the Week Day. Ciao Bella.

Last night I cleared out quite a few cardboard boxes, and I managed to burn about 100 old useless magazines, and a number of old text books which the kids school wouldn’t take, my wife’s school wouldn’t take, and the care & share wouldn’t accept. So a good old fashioned book burning was had! Autocar bible from 2006 – whoosh! Up in flames. Maya, Flash, Quark Express, and a first edition DreamWeaver went to Ash too. Front porch cleaned up, and the boxes went out of the front entry way. Burnables from the kitchen used up too. If they’d let me loose for a day or two we could really do some damage to all the extra crap kept here. But alas – farmers. Keep everything. Just one notch shy of pack rats, and a ways off being hoarders.

I never understood getting attached to cardboard boxes. One or two, sure thing, keep them out of the way, but dozens of them? For “just in case”. Yeah – no. Recycle that shit. Burn it. Get rid of it. Pure garbage. Looks so messy, and squalid. Ruins a lovely space. If it were my choice I’d get rid of all of the kids “cardboard creations” that have sat untouched for the previous two years. Weeze it! Gone. Poof!, no longer a problem, or an eye sore. Sentimentality over a poorly cut-up cereal box doesn’t make any sense to me.

Tools and such should be kept organized in the shop or office space instead of left lying around in every single room, and in every conceivable surface. Kick a hammer, stub your toe on an impact wrench, stab your feet on screws, nails, staples, and racks of every shape & size. Come on, it’s fun! All the cool kids are doing it.

Not to mention the piles of building materials left all over the place taking up room. Promised to sit for only 6-8 months, now going into year three of its placement in everyone’s way. Glorious. Add to that various piles of broken second hand appliances, and you have yourself a party. Dig up the landscaping and leave it that way for multiple years? Yahtzee! Bingo! Winner winner chicken dinner.

I have a line of five itchy, lumpy bug bites on my left leg, and let me tell you something, I’m not all that happy about it. I’ve managed to avoid bites for the last month, and now I’ve been munched on while asleep. Means people are leaving doors open to the basement, or not closing the screen doors after themselves, and my leg is feeding all the mosquitoes that found their way indoors. Not cool. Hard to defend yourself when asleep! Not like I’m out camping, or sleeping in a tent or yurt here. So itchy. I hate it.

I thought the weather was supposed to get better today, but maybe the sun will come out after lunch. It’s Monday anyway, so I bet I’ll have work to do before too much longer. Speak of the devil! Gotta jet.

I didn’t beat my old score by much, an extra 7 calories, and an additional two hundred steps or so. Real close to hitting 5,000 strides in 33 minutes. I think I can make that happen, but I really have to focus on my breathing, and my pace. I’m very happy with the incremental upwards movement of my score.

To get anything  drastically more I will have to really work harder than I’ve ever done whilst running. Maybe shoes so I don’t slip on the pedal platforms once I get all sweaty. Choosing my music and sticking to the playlist songs so as to not divert my attention away from running, and keeping my pace set, instead of fumbling with my phone’s iTunes app.

Perhaps not eat right before a run. Use the bathroom atleast twice before settling into a desire to run. I don’t know. I’m not up on the mechanics of what produces better results for running on an elliptical. Outdoors you have wind, sun, weather considerations, bugs, and other people. Inside I’m by myself and don’t have to worry about any of that. I don’t really know, besides trying harder, what I could do to get better, beyond sticking with it, and watching the step counter and clock to keep near where I want to be at any point in time. I’ll just do that. Seems to work so far, four or five runs in.

Breathing was a little less than I wanted this go around, but I did just eat breakfast before I ran, so maybe that’s it? I took a run yesterday, so my legs today weren’t as rested. I don’t know if that played a part in not getting to 5,000 steps or not. Hard to quantify. I think taking my eyes off the running to figet with my phone cost me those 40 or so steps needed to get to 5,000. Better luck next time!

Not to mention whomever was turning on lights and wandering around at 4:00am this morning set the dog off to barking for a full minute, which I didn’t care for. Not that I admonished the puppy, afterwards I just fell right back to sleep – exhausted. I imagine the puppy will sleep a fair bit today after stressing through last nights storm. The rain doesn’t seem to bother him, noise wise (he isn’t a fan of getting wet) but the thunder really makes him sweat.

I sleep like the dead so storms don’t typically wake me up, but a dog pacing around on my bed does, same with a full belly bark inside my room. So I may be a tad grumpy due to such interrupted sleep. I’m not ashamed to admit that a terrible nights sleep will adversely affect my mood. I try not to let it but my patience will hover near zero at a minimum today. Fun times.

In other news my run didn’t seem to upset my hips, knees or calves. That’s a good thing! My breathing is getting better when I run now too. Usually that is the big barrier to success for me, breathing. That and my ankles wanting to snap off my legs leaving me just about unable to walk afterward, for several days. The elliptical seems to not aggravate that. I guess it’s from the strange truncated gait it utilizes for the modified run path. I’m all for it. My guess is if I try to run for real my ankles and legs will immediately not enjoy it, and my breathing & pace will go right out the window!

If I can get a run in over the next few days I’ll be happy. I thought I might try for every day, then every other, and now I’m just looking to go again regardless of frequency. Better head phones should be used to eliminate technical obstacles, and the need to constantly adjust the listening experience. My playlist is over 4 hrs long, so I have no shortage of good tunes to run to. Keeping the kids occupied so that I can run is another challenge in and of itself. Goodness me.

Oh well, it’s Lazy Sunday-Funday so let us hope the rains pass quickly, the storms are brief and uneventful, and that we don’t lose power or the cable/satellite internet either.

Did the 28 min, plus 5 min cool down Weight Loss run again today and managed 1000 additional strides, but only 8 more calories burned. I blame it on my in ear head phones which I spent more time readjusting them back into my ear rather than focus on running, or my pace. I am not breathless which is great. That’s how I felt last time when I opted for an additional 60 minute interval run, which ruined my hips, and turned my calves into bricks for 3 full days. So today it’s just the one run. I’m happy-ish with the results. More steps, more calories burned. Those are wins in my book. I had hoped for a marked improvement, but incremental serves to build a habit more than wild flights of fancy, as far as I am concerned.

Next time I need to use the headphone that go over the top of my head. Better for running in. Sound quality isn’t as good as my in ear ones, but fussing with those was a pain in the ass. I’ll take slightly lower bass in my tunes, for a fuss free run/jog on the elliptical. Still going barefoot too. Why mess which what seems to work for me?

Perhaps drinking the Twisted Tea Mango before I ran was a bad idea, but it is what it is. Runs in the bag now. I’m sweaty. I should go back and swim or something. Or go stand in the rain. Happy Saturday!