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It has been a few years since the Jericho blew through the farm leaving a bunch of detritus in its wake. And now that uncle Fred has been dead for the better part of a year the salvage job has finally started to clean up the grounds a bit. The busted trees were taken care of the fall immediately after the wind storm, but it has taken some doing to sort out jurisdictions, insurance, and under whose purview this salvage job is to be. My father in law got all the ducks in a row and now they’ve begun to remove the old busted grain silos, tin roof, and mangled equipment that was left to moulder in the bushes. Plus some old vehicles are being extracted from the tree lines, and inner fields by the work shop. I’m sure you could keep a flat bed truck, and several bins busy for 7-10 days clearing out all of those old cars, trucks, vans, tractors, and farm equipment that has been left on the farm to die. I imagine the use of a chainsaw is required to get much of the oldest items to pull free of their parking spots, especially if in the tree lines between fields. Freddy wasn’t too keen on taking stuff to the scrap yard. He used stuff til it was dead then dragged it to the trees and forgot about it.

If it were me I’d want to start in one area and clean it up entirely, but I don’t know what sort of items the salvage guys are looking for, or are interested in. I’m sure they grab things they can turn a profit on first, then collect the waste items afterwards. I haven’t seen any of it in action, I just notice the tracks, and bins later on, and try to guess/recall what was taken away. A fair few trees and limbs have come down, that much I can tell you for certain.

Funny to see just how deep a truck will settle into the earth when left alone for a decade or more. Some of those tire holes are a full foot deep if not more. We are going to need to get a burn pit permit to dispose of all the rotting wood that a bunch of this old farm junk was sat on. Old pallets, fencing, planks and such. That would be real handy to have a burn pit. I could then take my wood shop cut offs there instead of waiting for a cottage run every few months.

The farm grounds will change a whole lot if they are able to clear out most, if not all of the junk. Why you could even rebuild some smaller outbuildings on the reclaimed foundations of buildings long left to ruin, and overgrowth. Like a whole new farm down there these days.

It’s Thursday, so I’m still on the clock for some paid work. I best get moving!

I do not intend to do any traveling this Christmas holiday slash winter break, so I feel confident in pre planning some outings for my kids, and their little friends. It will begin at the farm so that my puppy, and our friends dogs can run wild and blow off some steam. The kids can explore outdoors for a while before they break off into separate groups and spend the rest of their time together on devices. This way I can tire out my dog, and know my kids will have spent at least one full hour out doors running around, so that they could be ever so slightly less full on during the remainder of their respective play dates. A little mud and fresh air will do them all some good. I’m really excited to see if the dogs can/will tire themselves out at all. That’s my main goal. That and occupy the kids for a bit when we are so close to Christmas that you can taste it.

In other news Christmas is one week today. My how time flies. I think I am finally finished shopping and wrapping for the season! Joy to me! I’ll need to start wrapping up my projects for the year soon.

Oddly enough I have received two new projects already this week, with several more on the way I’m sure. Which by all measures is a good thing. Means I’ll have work in the new year! Score. That’s terrific news if you ask me. I’m always happy when I know I have work coming in the near future. Takes a lot of the anxiety out of freelancing when you’ve got pre planned paid work on the books. Typically December through March are really empty, and kind of dead. Which really sucks because it’s far too cold to go in my shop and build furniture, and I can only do so much cleaning, purging, and organizing inside the house. Things usually even out in the end though, so it’s all good.

Sitting and waiting for a chop to open 8n order to grab one more item for my youngest child. I was under the impression it had been ordered already, and we were waiting on shipping, but that isn’t the case, so here I am. Luckily things open a bit later around here so I was able to take the fog on a lengthy walk first. I also hope to be able to find what I’m looking for fairly quickly. That would be nice touch too. But I’ll just be pleasantly surprised if they have it in stock here at the bricks & mortar physical store. I had visions of getting lunch or making a day of this sort of thing, but it’s not as much fun by myself, and I have paid work to finish up later this morning. Onwards, and upwards as they say.

I spent a good two, to two and a half hours wrapping gifts for the family yesterday afternoon. The kids were elbow deep into their own crafts or games, my wife was watching House Hunters International, and we’d just come home from a four hour family Christmas party at the nursing home & farm house. I figured since everybody was entertaining themselves adequately enough, I would adjourn to the basement, and would try to get through all of the things. I got pretty close. I have two childrens gifts left to wrap for my niece and nephew. Plus various adult beverages to decorate for my in-laws, and my wife’s brother & sister. I mailed my side of the family gifts via Amazon, so I was mostly done early last week. All except for the wrapping. Which meant loud music, several rolls of tape, lots of paper choices, bows, tassels, peel & stick labels, and a sharp pair of scissors. I had intended to fix myself a lovely little mixed drink, but I forgot. If we were going to stay in for the rest of the day I would have done so. But knowing I likely had to drive the kids to grandma’s house for dinner, I opted not to drink. No need to pick up a DUI this holiday season, or at all for that matter.

We are still under ghe ever watchful eye of this stupid Elf from the Shelf bastard. Losing ideas for fun scenarios he can do that won’t require extensive additional planning, staging, or clean up afterward. Christmas eve we could “accidentally” feed him.to the dog, and be done with it. Might make some lasting memories that way. I’ll have a good chuckle about it, not sure the kids would too. No need to add extraneous trauma to their little kiddie lives. That also puts a big black cloud over the dogs head in my children’s eyes, and that’s not cool. He’s just a little puppy trying to get ahead in this world. An easy foil for my contempt of the Elf. A patsy if you will. An easily manipulated fall guy for my nefarious plans to rid us of the Elf presence. Muah-ha ha ha…

Anyway, it’s monday. A rainy, grey, dreary, dark, dank monday. I have laundry to run through. Floors to clean. Invoices to make & send off. Lots to do. Can’t sit around bad mouthing the Elf all day. Ciao Bella.

The loud prancing boisterous one at the front acting like a “macho” tool. It’s the quiet one making sure that all members of the party are present, and accounted for. Keeping the other members from falling behind, or falling away from the group. Hm. Wonder why that interpretation didn’t take off? No glory in stoicism, or it doesn’t feel as macho to watch out for others, and take up the rear guard I guess. Less notoriety to be the last one in, last one out. Young bloods want to lead and be exciting, but real leadership, comes from care, observation, slow and determined actions that lift everybody up. Not first come first served, bared teeth, and too much snarling. That’s all performative, and not a value add quality. What an interesting turn of events. Might have to read up on that a bit more. Myths of the alpha wolf. The lone big guy clawing his way to the top. And not, say, the leading breeding pair and their family whom take care of the youngest first, and foremost. Crazy.

Tried to stay up and watch SNL last night, but I just couldn’t do it. Whether it was because I was tired from climbing earlier that afternoon, or the skits just weren’t hitting on all cylinders, or whatever. I called it quits by midnight, and was soundly asleep about twenty minutes later.had a good run at the autobelay climbing though. I tried mostly 5.6, 5.7, and a few 5.8’s. Oddly enough I could do the .8’s more often than the .7’s. Maybe I was cheating, but somehow I put my hand on more top holds in the higher rated routes than the mid tier ones. I’m definitely not technically proficient as a climber. I would love to find an entry level/novice group whom could teach-show me some manoeuvres for getting up around certain obstacles or layouts on the wall. My guess is, is that I should work privately 9n grip strength, core strength, and flexibility so that I can hang, and place my feet more easily when climbing. Losing weight would help my arms, and hanging ability by not putting as.much stress on my arms, shoulders, and hands. Not that I want to start running. Though I had a good stretch of time on an elliptical in August. I was putting up some solid step counts, and calorie burn numbers if I recall. At least for me it felt that way. Very consistent.

Usually I realize something is off when my numbers dip for more than a one day period, but I’ve had a pretty good following the last few days so I did not notice the old Jet Pack/WordPress and LinkedIn disconnection problem that crops up every three months or so. I have once again remedied that issue, but honestly I don’t know for how much longer I intend to use LinkedIn, as I don’t feel like I can use it to find work, smaller to mid sized clientele, or leads for new corporate clients. Seems like a fair bit of noise to me.

I’m having to think about dropping Twitter, as not as many people that I liked to follow are still there anymore. I also don’t want to join Threads, BlueSky, Mastadon, or any other new fangled social site. I’ll keep with Reddit, IG, YouTube for now. I might drop Deviant Art too, but I haven’t made up my mind. I would need to drastically update my portfolio page in order to do that, and then I would lose all my sculpture photography & exhibits. That isn’t exactly a win for me.

I got with dropping Facebook too, but I still have 99% of my family on there, and I’d lose decades worth of photo curation if I left. Although, truth be told, I’m not able to look through most of the very early photo collections, as I think those are corrupted, or gone from Facebook anyway. Not sure what happened there. My England trip, my Vegas Trip, my very early design pieces are all greyed out squares that cycle, and cycle, but never appear. Or I can see photos, click on them, and get a blank page returned. Sad to see them lost into the wind. All of that stuff is on old phones from decades (plural) ago. Nice.

I have our second to last rock climbing session today, which is exciting. I’m sad it’ll be done, but I think we’ll be back in January! I hope. Or atleast I will be. On another note I really need to wrap some Christmas presents this week coming because the holiday is not far away anymore. Middle of the week, after this coming week. Ten or eleven days from now! Yikes. I’m going to need more tape! So much more tape.

The big ticket birthday present for my eldest daughter was an evening out to downtown Toronto, for some public transit, a meal, some souvenirs, and an at home Leafs game at the former ACC, now Scotia Bank Arena. We sat in section 324 up in the rafters, but the view of the ice was unobstructed, the crowd loud, and action on the ice exciting! We won 3-2 against the Anaheim Ducks, wearing their orange & whites. We sported our brand new Fanatics Leafs jerseys, and had a good time. We sat Carlton the Bear banging his drum. Got on the jumbo tron for a few seconds, and narrowly missed winning some swag. All in all a great time. All told it was nearing seven hours, so a bit of a commitment time wise, but time well spent with my daughter.

My daughter bough a puck with some birthday money from her uncle Steve. I bought a t-shirt because the local SportsChek sells out of my size almost immediately. Plus the way they security tag their t-shirts pretty much ruins them, so I’ll give their tees a pass from now on. Also three hundred bones for a jersey is too rich for me, so we opted for the thinner versions, with no names or numbers. Saved two hundred bucks per jersey that way. These will fit us for years to come!

Unfortunately we now have to wait until January to go again. Once more as a Christmas present to my daughter. Once as my own Christmas present. And again as a birthday gift to myself. I’m going again one more time in march, but I’ll take my buddy with me as by then my daughter will have done four games, and may be “over it” after that many visits. Doesn’t take long to acclimate to something new, no matter how extraordinary it is. Humans – so adaptable.

We left home some time around 4:30pm, and we home a little after 11:25pm. Made for a long night full of walking, and lots, and lots of stairs. We did manage to figure out both the trains, and the busing, so that’s a headache I nolonger have. And my google wallet worked great, so no concerns about the tickets there either. That’s a load off. Bathrooms, and food were near by, and the seats were padded, and warm. It was by all accounts a great evening. Can not wait to go again.

But the windchill puts it at -15°C, do that’s pretty chilly out there walk walking around, or worse yet – working. Dress warm ladies and gents. What could be better on a cold day than going downtown to our first at home Leafs game at the ACC (Scotia Bank Arena). Just like the Skydome, this will always be the ACC to me. Change the title on the building all you want by selling the rights, but the name stays the same in my mind. Sorry, that’s just how it is.

I saw the Ducks losing to Ottawa last night 4-0 before I switched channels, so I hope that the Leafs can pull out a win while we are watching from the stands. We have our jerseys in hand, and some team spirit to share with the crowd. The last game we saw was in Tampa Bay and it was 90°F outside at the time. We will have to prep a little differently to enjoy tonights game here in southern Ontario in mid December  let me tell you.

Still trying go decide if we want to take the train from Rouge Hill, or a bus from the station 2Km north of us. The train is faster, but I’d have to pay to park. Or get free parking and a longer ride down/back. But, less chance of car theft/break in up here, as opposed to down in Scarborough. Decisions decisions. Either way the weather is going to be cold, and blustery, and generally unpleasant.

My guess is we are going to eat inside the arena, so not much else to worry about beyond hot dogs or hamburgers. That and what we’re going to drink to wash it all down. Thirteen dollar bottle of Powerade, or a twenty dollar Tall Boy! Ha.

Nice to see a blue sky today though. It has been missed in among all these grey, foggy, rainy days. Last night had a quick splurge of snowfall from out of nowhere. Just randomly started and stopped suddenly. Gotta love winter, and unpredictable weather. Blue sky and sunshine are a nice touch though. I’ll take it!

More than most people in this instance I would, yes. However, I have noticed the same issue on two separate sets of drawings, and I don’t think that you see it, in your professional capacity. Which gives me pause. But, I think you will definitely see the issue when you have to go to press with those drawings and come face to face with the issue. A simple oversight. Whoopsie daisy! I’m sure we’ll get it sorted between all of us involved.

Wednesday is here! Another glum, gloomy, foggy, rainy day up for grabs. Any takers? Yes, no, maybe so? I need to clean a big more as we will have a guest this afternoon. So I’m going to run the vacuum around, and mop the floors, and clean the bathroom up just a bit. Happy hump day.

Somebody thought it was a great idea to introduce an Elf on the Shelf into our home, and now it’s this big obligation, and I fucking hate it. I hate the idea of surveillance for one thing. Lying to my kids about some “magical elf conduit to Santa” that moves around. Not only that it seems to be more of a way for parents to fuck with their kids, and be mean, more so than adding to the Christmas spirit of joy, and cheerfulness. Do you know how hard it is already to mask my hand writing to add Santa labels on presents, and now I have to write full on notes in yet another style of handwriting that isn’t my own, or Santa’s? It’s really tiresome. I love decorations. I love music. I love going to see lights, tree lighting ceremonies, Christmas markets, and school events. I like movies, plays, and books about Christmas. But this is a step I’m none too fond of. In fact I hate it.

I’d like to say that this is the end of my rant, but I’m more angry that it was foisted upon us without any considerations for the obligations it brings. No body even asked us if we wanted it. I know that we have expressed a disdain for the idea openly, and that was ignored. They could have bought it, and kept it at their own house, and done all of the little tableaus, notes, pranks, and more themselves. But no! It became our obligation to do all that, so that they could just bring it up, over, and over, and over again. Never dropping the subject. But also never doing anything significant with it themselves. Must be  nice. Just like them, constantly making plans for other people to have to do, with zero follow through required on their part. It’s kind of ridiculous. Now my kids are in the middle of it. Sure, cool. Use childlike wonder against us. Love it. Why not.

In other news the fog rolled in like this was an east coast town. So thick, and moist. Very damp out there today. Early this morning you could hardly see more than eight to ten feet in front of your nose. On the plus side the roads were clear, and it wasn’t icy. The rains have washed much of our snow accumulation away. Back to mushy green grass, and lots of mud. It’s a gay old time!

I don’t think I’ve been sleeping well because I am feeling exhausted right now.