Used the PA Day to

Play with the kids while they were home and wanting to be outdoors and active. I took them skating to a friends backyard rink for an hour, and then had a park play date later on in the afternoon. It was cool, breezy, and very wet. Kids loved it. Now I need to work over the weekend to complete the last (but significant) edits to my report, which affects the tables. It’ll be a long repetitive process with lots of fiddly bits to keep track of. I’ve had a brief lie in. I will eat breakfast, and then I’ll get stuck in I suppose.

I get a second try at a Saturday today, which is kind of nice. Best spend it working! I have no wheels as the van is sitting idle. It needs a new radiator part, about $350.00 worth roughly. So as to not further injure the vehicle it shall sit unused until such time as I can get my mechanic to repair it. So no road trips to the store for me this weekend. I can attempt to fix (again) the bathroom door handles, and hinges. Best finish my paid work first though, before I tackle any DIY home repairs.

I feel bad I didn’t go to the cottage but I really do have a lot to get done to reorganize these tables. This is when I wish I had an assistant I could delegate work to. But just me, so I need to remedy the issue. No risk no reward!

From the looks of it we’ll have a sunny Saturday morning atleast. Pretty bright out through the curtains. Take it easy. Hug your loved ones. Ciao Bella!

Yet Another Friday PA Day.

Have to keep something in your pocket for just such an occasion. I think ours is going skating with friends this morning, to run the kids ragged out on the ice. Helmets and sticks, chasing pucks around for an hour should do the kids some good. I’m in the midst of a debate about whether or not to spend time today with the kids, or if I need to knuckle under for all the edits I have for both of my concurrent reports. I could be at them for a few days, so maybe a morning with the girls would be ok. Hard to say, I’m torn between wanting to get this big job off my desk, but I also know the girls are only little once, and missing out on making memories really sucks. Responsibility to my business & clients versus the responsibility of being a present and involved parent. Hard balance to strike on some days, especially PA Days when they’re off for the whole day, and here with us (me). But then tomorrow is the weekend and I’ll see them for 48 hrs unhindered (possibly, lots of one type of style choice to enact across all tables).

Dentist visit yesterday was not much fun. My back left molar and gum is sore from them patching an old filling of theirs that fell out. They really had to pull on my cheek, and jaw to get back there. Muscles are sore, and even with Tylenol it was a challenge to sleep. I don’t particularly care for a frozen mouth. The numbing agent lasted about five hours or more. Luckily I did not chew on my cheeks, lips, or tongue. That’s a small blessing atleast. But they did poke and touch my gum line while working at the back of my mouth and that is not feeling so nice today.

Lunch yesterday was a mess. Soup and a bagel were less than ideal choices for eating with a numb mouth. I should have eaten more before my appointment, but I was a bit nervous about those mouth numbing needles that go way up into the gum down to the nerves. Good grief those are not fun to endure. Lasts just a hair too long for my liking.

We gotta get out of here for an hour soon, and then I’ll tear into my report edits. Have a restful Friday PA Day, and Ground Hogs Day. The movie should play on an uninterrupted loop on every channel for 24 hours today. I think that would be hilarious. Ciao Bella!

Off To The Dentist.

I have a mid morning appointment to fix an old filling today, so I’m not going to be much good. I hate having to wait for appointments. I feel paralyzed by the looming target time to get somewhere, park, and do the “thing“. I can’t get stuck in on any projects prior to the appointment because I might whiff on the appointment itself by being preoccupied, missing my alarms and warnings. I hate it so much, thanks. I hate knowing I can’t get in to, or stay in the groove if I start something because the appointment is there, waiting, to ruin my finely aligned firing synapses. Such a strange space. Way better to schedule appointments for first thing in the morning, then I end up with no lost time waiting for the thing to happen. Gladly I’m no longer scared of going to a dentist. I found one that is very accommodating.

It is now February! February first to be exact. One month down, and eleven left in the basket. Did I hit my weight loss, slash exercise goals? No. No I did not. But I was active, just not as much as I should have been. 90 minutes of dancing at a house party was the height of my activies. Lots of fun. I also never bothered with pre destined blog posts, as it seems I had enough to say otherwise. So no 52 weeks of predetermined essays or ruminations on a theme. I’m ok with that. Also, am reading for fun, though no longer attempting a 12 for 12 challenge. I don’t want the added pressure for a fun pass time. However, I still want to read as the mood takes me.

Lots going on with extended family and illnesses. Hard to plan when various family members are caught up in deteriorating cancer journeys. Whether it’s dementia or multi organ terminal cancer, our future looks to hold at least two funerals, and possibly a third. Not a pleasant thought to plan family vacations around.

My wife’s year off is quickly counting down, and all these extended family emergencies has sucked much of the fun out of it for my wife. Covid has put limits on our children’s school for field trips and such. Which I know my wife had hoped to participate in all this school year. In a few years time she will be able to do so again, and I hope everything is more cheerful by then.

On the other hand the van engine temperature gauge is all over the show. So either the thermostat is gone, or the head gasket has gone, or the hoses are leaking badly as the overflow reservoir was nearly empty. Luckily I had coolant on hand to refill it. The true sign is that the vents were blowing only cold air even after driving for twenty plus minutes in above freezing temps. Fingers crossed for the thermostat, and maybe one easy to reach hose, or fitting/clamp. Otherwise – yikes. I mean it could also be the fan, or a belt issue, or so I have read. I’m not a mechanic and these new fangle modern engines confound me. I’m not exactly tech savvy, nor mechanically inclined. Those diagnostic machines aren’t cheap!

What a funny little book.

A mixture of Lord of the Flies, Swiss Family Robinson, and a pulp romance novel. Very of it’s time (1964). Though far less xenophobic/racist/classist than one might expect. Nice and short too. Action packed in a believable way. Sad. Touching. Moving even.

I do not remember buying this book, and the mech like machine on the front is very misleading, but still a solid read. I also loved that it came in under 300 pages.

I’m about to jump into book #3, called ‘Star Dragon’ by Mike Brotherton. It’s a little longer at 352 pages but I hope not to get bogged down by it, and that it reads easily, and is enjoyable. It came from my TBR pile, of which I still have many others if this one doesn’t grab me in the first 40-100 pages, or if it goes hard in the paint for either physics or math jargon. Both bore me, and will end up killing my enthusiasm for the book.

That’s all for today. I need to complete my first draft of my latest report today, and it looks like it’ll be close to 100 pages. So I need to knuckle down and get it done. Ciao Bella!

Shockingly Click Baity Gasp! And other such fun adventures.

I’m in the midst of it now. One of the longest reports of the year is well underway. I figure with two more well paced, but urgent days I can have the first draft off my desk by late in the evening on Wednesday, assuming all goes to plan. I have a dentist appointment of my own on Thursday mid day, so I can’t really spend that day on it either. So it must get done! Had a very active friday with 32 pages, and a solid monday with 26 pages completed, and let us all pray I can keep up that pace. I’m looking at near, or around 100 pages total this go round. These winter reports are always the longest, and some of the most challenging projects I’ll undertake all year. I need the December lull to rest up my wrists for this shock & awe extravaganza of data, pies, charts, and tables. A real wrist burner of a document!

In other news, today is Tuesday. The last Tuesday of January. Almost one whole month of the new year down and in the books. Weird weather and all! Which reminds me, I need to grab some small Valentine’s Day gifts for my girls. When I next go grocery shopping I’ll find something to get them. Just to say I’m thinking about you. Nothing huge like a Nintendo Switch, or a new car. Think more along the lines of a new book, or a small Lego Set, a single chocolate egg, or a small stuffie with a heart on it. I mean sweet cheese Easter will be here before you know it, and that’s in March! Then tax time, then the May 2-4. Time keeps on coming.

A bit grey and gloomy today. I think we might get some flurries at some point. Hard to predict given how uneven our weather patterns have been the last several years. All those smoke filled orange forest fire hazes must have contributed a fair bit to these wild swings. I remember being at Wonderland with my oldest when the upper Canada fire smoke drifted southward to cover all of Vaughan. Hurt my eyes and throat. Not cool.

Cleaning house – On My Phone Edition. The “Do I care about this THAT much” episode #117

My phone is fairly old by current technology standards and I have several thousand photos and videos of my immediate family. I constantly go through my 6,000 plus photos to whittle away all of the unnecessary triples, quadruples of shots that I have taken. But still I have gigabytes worth saved. I just went through my videos, and axed a bunch of them to free up some space. Random gift openings, dancing to the tv, back of the head type videos that I have not gone back to watch even once, beyond my fact finding mission to delete stuff and shore up some memory space. I feel bad pushing memories off into the ether like that, but it wasn’t wedding reception quality montage material we are talking about here. As I said, this phone is five or so years old by now, and showing the wear and tear. The worst looking phone I’ve ever owned. Dented, scratched, and for the first time ever, a cracked screen. I was aghast! Never have I ever cracked a screen before. Not until my youngest dropped it from her seat in a Longos grocery cart, on the frame three feet below. Perfect shot. Huge cracks right down the centre of my screen. D’oh!

I had multiple shots of the same events, so I kept the best one, and deleted the rest. At a certain point I won’t be able to thin out my photos any further. And as the kids do more stuff I continue to add new images. Will have to upgrade at some point in 2024, I’m certain of it. Just not right now. I have a very busy week ahead of me. A particularly large report came in on Friday, which I started, but it’ll be most of this week consumed by it before I finish. So I best be at it. Ciao Bella!

Some folks just don’t dance.

You can have a wide open dance floor, loud music, drinks, food, and lots of good vibes and some folks just don’t dance along with you. Have to admit, it’s been a few years since I last had a good dance party session. I know I’ve danced at weddings over the last decade, but besides cutting a rug in my kitchen along with the kids, I haven’t danced in full view of the public in a very long time. I’m also fifty pounds heavier, and my knees and hips are older than ever before. I’m not a smooth on the dance floor as I once was. Tired, heavy and falling off the beat! Ha. Still had a good time though. The music wasn’t entirely my jam, but I can make do.

I would have to imagine there are a number of hangovers avoided today by those using edibles instead of alcohol. Buzzed with no morning after roughness, what more could you ask for? No dry mouth, or raw throat from smoking. Bladder less stressed because I’m not pounding five or six beers. Less time spent searching for, and using the washroom. I’m still a touch dehydrated, but that’s from dancing in a sweater as a fat-(ish) forty odd year old man, in a small room with ten other people. Drank some Gatorade on the short walk home, and I feel right as rain.

Big plus is that the majority of my friends were there, and we all live stumbling distance from the house we were partying in. Babysitters were in short supply for the evening, I’ll bet, due to how many shin-digs were going on. We’ve had this party on the calendar since early December. It was a shame my spouse couldn’t join me in the end, but for a shining moment I thought we’d actually go to a party together for a change. But her cough, and our lack of babysitters meant she opted to stay home. Her take home prize from the doctors office earlier in the week made her desire to go out wane considerably. Damn you doctors office bug!

On the positive side no hangover means I was up and at’em by 8:00am, and my wife can have a lie in, and chill without the kids being mental, or all up in her space. I don’t need 12-16 hours to get over a hangover. It’s a really great way to party. I endorse it as long as you can walk/taxi where you need to be. Don’t drive under the influence, not worth it. Also no throwing up, no pounding head ache, no gut rot, no need to go pee every half hour, no spins when trying to sleep, no night sweats, no dry mouth, it’s all pretty up & up compared to drinking. I’m a ten milli Tommy. That makes me feel good, but not out of control, or destined for the moon. Feet firmly planted on terrain firma, with my head in the clouds, but not in a totally blacked out menace to society kind of way. It’s nice, don’t have to worry about saying/doing anything stupid. Doesn’t make me aggressive, or melancholy, or feisty. Just a nice warm internal hug that makes me feel alright. The CBD also helps to alleviate those general aches and pains in my knee, hip, wrists, and lower back. That pain relief fuzzy coating makes the THC buzz just that much more like a warm hug. Glorious.

Anyway – Lazy Sunday is here! Shall we watch movies as a family. Play a board game? Or sit listening to the kids lose their minds playing Mine Craft. I’d like to watch more Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings trilogy if I had it my way. But that’s a long slog even for me, and I’m a fan of both series. I don’t watch the SW prequels, and I’m not as enamoured with episodes 7, 8, and 9. Rogue One however, I could watch twice in a row on most days. Far superior to all three prequels, and most of the last trilogy as well. It went off the rails as soon as The Force Awakens tried to rehash A New Hope. Lost cause. Andor was a slow burn, but added more than any of the last movies have done to the world building, and using non-Skywalker era characters. It was far more interesting. But I digress.

Can’t take the kids skiing or tobogganing due to the rain. Might need to find something constructive for them to do before they drive me crazy with Mine Craft tantrums. Where are the head phones! Not dry enough to scooter, or ride our bikes. Too rainy for ball hockey in the driveway. Maybe I should take them somewhere like a mall for an hour long walk about. I wouldn’t mind going to a Chapters/Indigo book store to find more reading material. I do have four books that I found out the other day from my TBR list, so maybe I’ll cool it on the book purchases right now. You know what I’d really like, another book like the New Horizons one, about the Pluto mission. I tried reading about the Mars Rover, but that comes across like a textbook slash technical manual. The Pluto mission was more cinematic and humanized. It was a terrific banger of a read. Makes me think of Apollo 13, and their scramble to fix issues off the cuff.

Have a great rainy Sunday January 28th, 2024. Ciao Bella!

Social Posts Going On A Run – Again.

It’s the weirdest thing, every so often a post, or tweet will catch on and that will gather likes, followers, making the view count numbers all jump up. Over the last week my Twitter count has jumped by seventeen followers. I had had a hard ceiling of 58 followers for a very, very long time, and now I’m up to seventy five. Pitching the same content out into the ether as before, but suddenly gaining a tiny fraction of traction. Same here on my blog. I’ve gone on a follower count bump run over that same seven day period. Curious. I’m up over two hundred and fifty blog post followers here with WordPress/JetPack. I’m not exactly drawing “numbers” in the traditional sense for a celebrity or a brand/product, but for little ole me, it’s a noticeable jump. And I could not tell you what sparked it. I will say this, at least as far as Twitter is concerned. The new adds are mostly bots, and Cam girls, and the like. I don’t for one second believe that they are real people, or that I am getting famous. I play it up, because the idea of being a person whom gets a fat head, and begins to act like an influencer with 75 followers is hilarious to me. I also toy with calling them my henchmen. And using such limited notoriety to run for school parent council, or being an honouree to open a brand new local laundromat. Ribbon cutting for clout. Ha. Makes me giggle.

As far as I can tell it is still raining. I believe that is to continue until tomorrow or Monday. I started book #2 for this year. It is called “Transit” by Edmund Cooper. Written in 1964. It’s not a bad little book. After finishing the nearly 600 pages of the Adrian Tchaikovsky novel, last in the Trilogy, I wanted something self contained, and considerably shorter. Win on both fronts! I also went poking around my book shelves last night and found four books I haven’t read yet, and I will read from that bunch when I have a chance. I’m not doing the 12 for 12 challenge this year. But I do want to keep on reading, if/when possible. My To-Be-Read pile from all of my previous years of book collecting is substantial, and varied. Mind you I did get rid of quite a few from this TBR pile, because I knew I would never read them. I had tried Tad William’s and Erik something or other before, and found it distasteful. I also got ride of books I didn’t like even though I read all three parts of the trilogy. Now, would I like to read all the books in my collection? Yes, sure I would. If I never bought another new book, I could probably do it. But I follow a fair few authors whom are still releasing new works, so the likelihood of not reading anything new in favour of finishing what I already have is slim. Life comes at you fast, so you never do know.

I also got rid of two of the four Mo Hayder books I owned because they were so disappointing compared to the first two that I had read. Plus she, the author, is now dead and no new book was forthcoming to set it all right by course correcting. Can’t blame her because she’s dead.

In other news I took a few minutes to myself yesterday, away from paid work, to go into my garage and break down the change table for parts. Nuts and bolts went into a jar, the mdf went into my wood pile, and the change pad went up into storage. I think certain parts of the change table are real wood, and not particle board with veneer. So I kept those for random projects that sometimes present themselves. I still need to break down the sidewall portions, but I might need to find out a saw to do that as it didn’t just unscrew, or come apart with a few hard whacks with my palm. I still have our backyard bench in there taking up space, but it’s a keeper, and I can’t be busting that up. It was a project from my wife’s students and has sentimental value. Just reminds me they used my expensive stain like paint, and used the entire $40.00 can on one single bench. No wood grain to be seen. Was supposed to be a smokey blue grey wood grain, but now it’s just a solid wedgewood blue. D’oh! I had to laugh, once I stopped being annoyed. I didn’t even get my rollers or brushes back afterwards either. Nor my drop cloths. Donations to the human fund I suppose.

Well travelers, it’s been a morning, and I must be about my Saturday business. Ciao Bella.

Feels like mid March outside right now.

It’s currently raining, in late January, in Southern Ontario, Canada. That’s absurd. It should do only one of a few things at this point in the winter season; snow, freezing rain, icy cold wind, or dead calm and sunny but still be cold. Not get up into the positive temperatures and rain. I’d expect this leading into Mid March and April, but not now. Not that I cared for the polar vortex and those insane low temps, but this is just as bad. Need a sustained cold to kill off all those extra bugs we don’t want around here, and to keep snakes and shit away.

Friday is here, you’ve made it through yet another week. I have at least two more weeks with appointment shuffles to do for the kids, and myself included. By then it will be February, and the red/pink lead up to Valentine’s Day. Yes! Little more than two weeks away. Chocolates and stuffed toys, flowers and such to flood the market place. Great thing is all of that will be super cheap come the 15th. Wait a day and get 25-50% off face value. Love it.

Given that I can’t get a weeks groceries for less than $200.00 any more, I think those savings on the extras are worth my while to wait for. I spend about $1,000.00 on food for the month roughly, for us four, and my kids don’t eat all that much (according to their school lunches that come home 60% full each day). Milk, juice, juice boxes, and snacks run through our fingers like water. Laundry soap and toilet paper are an investment to make these days. Wowzers. Need vitamins? $20.00 or the better part there of, easily. We aren’t poor, and I’m not broke, but god damn I feel bad for folks whom were struggling before. This shit is crazy. Don’t get me started.

Had a good wander around the shops yesterday. My day was off anyway, with a sick wife, youngest who couldn’t sleep and woke me up at 4:00am, and kept me awake until just after 5:00am. Then we had a later start, doctor appointments, late school drop off, and a grocery shop. I took an extra 45 mins to just wander around looking at pajamas, tools, and movies still available as physical media. By the time I got home, un packed the shopping, made & ate lunch, did some paid work, it was time to go get the kids – again. Then off to night time sports with the oldest. It was calming to come home afterwards though. I ended up making grilled cheese sandwiches, and watching the animated Addams Family movie until I put the kids to bed. I was in bed asleep by 9:30pm last night. I could have gone to bed at 7 if I’d of had the chance. I have a huge capacity for sleep. Probably stems from years of dealing with fatigue. Though sleeping with fatigue doesn’t help all that much either. Nothing like waking up feeling more tired, and not feeling rested and utterly exhausted. Like going to bed with your body battery being on 3%, and waking up eight plus hours later feeling like you’re at 1% and falling. Don’t miss those days at all. Too tired to sleep. Awful. Just awful feeling. I spent my later teen years like that, for months on end at a time.

But enough about me, how are you all doing out there in Candy-Land? Moving your pieces strategically or just taking a roll of the dice and pushing forward, sideways, backwards as the roll dictates? Strange times. Yo, when do the masses rise up and eat the rich? I hear those 1% folks are building bunkers and safe havens. I guess they know something we don’t. Until next time.

Doing the Morning Appointment Shuffle.

Woke up around 4:00am to a distressed child and mum. Mum has food poisoning and feels rough, and the youngest was put out she couldn’t sleep in mum’s bed for the remainder of the night. So that took about 90 minutes to settle and get the youngest in a bed and asleep. Fun.

Now we’re all packed up and waiting for their eye appointments. Using those paid for benefits! Eye exams for both kids! And some form of x-rays too if I recall our phone call correctly. Once we get through this ordeal I will drop them off at school then go do a light grocery shop. Mainly milk and juice. Eggs and bacon and possibly bread too. Don’t need too to much to get us through the weekend.

Glad I know my kids well enough that taking them to appointments myself isn’t a huge hassle nor herculean task. Keep them occupied and engaged in some type of activity and we can try to get through this with the least number of fights, melt downs and tears. That is my only goal. Get through it! Ha. Lofty goals I’m sure.

In about 5 mins we’re going to head in. No coats to over heat in. Trying to limit forgettable garments and impediments to success. Know your limits, play within them sort of mind set. I don’t gamble on farts or my children being behaved in public. Just safer that way. Either one will cause a scene, and a mess. Ha!

I’ll leave you with that mental image. Ciao Bella!