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Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday mornings, these are now known as prime play date times moving forward. Hop on board with it or else face social ostracism. Oh to be in Grade Four and Grade One. Loud shrieking voices in the house for the next 120 minutes. Yelling from one room to the next? Check. Running up & down the hallway? Check. Screams, yelps, shrieks of glee? Check, check & check! Everything is coming up aces, and we’re only ten minutes in.

Pretty soon we’ll have to bust out juice boxes and goldfish crackers, and apple slices for a mid morning snack. Where did I leave my ear plugs? Can I sneak out to the shop without raising suspicion? Probably not.

The temperature has dropped so significantly since Saturday morning that all that slush has turned to jagged tire popping ice. We now enter the period where the van doors will freeze shut at every imaginable turn. Do you like to enter your van via the rear lift gate? Yes. Well then winter time door freezing season is right for you!

Fifteen minutes in and they’ve settled down ever so slightly. The tablet has come out, and now mine are playing electronic games and the friend is elbow deep in LOL’S, Shadow/Rainbow high, and Barbie dolls. Of which we have hundreds, plus accessories, vehicles, homes, cabins and houses. Ludicrous. My wife bought boxes and totes full of these things for pennies on the dollar. We just have to find room for it all. Oh, some went to bedrooms, basement, front room bins and toy boxes. Others went to the cottage play room, cottage bed rooms, and cousins houses too. We have enough to launch a well stocked bricks & mortar store. Would my kids let any doubles or triples go to a good home you ask? No. No they would not.

Almost halfway into January. Man time has been just flying by the last few months.

Did it immediately rain after the massive snow storm last night? Yes! Yes it did. And my back, shoulders, arms and heart are not going to be terribly happy about it for quite some time. Blah! Hated it.

Welcome to Saturday morning to you too. I desperately want to upgrade my bandsaw, but I think that money will eventually have to go to the purchase of a snow blower of some shape or size. Not suffering a heart attack out in the snow is key. It’s a real concern as I get out into my forties, not being a terribly in shape human being that I am. I wonder if I should chew some Aspirin 81mg in preparation for the shoveling. I hope not. May be rushing down to Canadian Tire for a snow blower faster than you think.

Two more weeks and the front half of the school year is in the books, cooked, and done for. Five months in with only five months left to go before summer vacation. The life I live is cyclical, and I have the same or similar thoughts each year. I though Deja vu was for more immediate feelings of sameness and not because I have the same reoccurring thoughts year after year! So odd.

Sometimes when I’m reading a physical book I get a sense of out of place deva ju on how the pages feel in my hands. The weight of the book on my elbows, and the kink in my neck from looking down. I think that physical memory comes from university, and not childhood.

I don’t remember all that much about childhood, beyond being sick in my teens, and a few fights where I got beat up by older brothers. I remember a Christmas when my brother Steve got the GI Joe snow truck I desperately wanted, and I got the Sargeant Slaughter tank he wanted, but he wouldn’t trade as it turned out the truck was the far superior toy (as I most certainly knew it was when asking for said truck!). That I recall clear as day. I recall getting pushed down the stairs, on several occasions (top set, and basement set) not on the same day mind you, but by the same brother. Ha. Kids. I remember proms, school dances, school plays, the band practice where the school knob end bashed in the rear tire of my Eddie Bauer street racing bike. But I don’t really remember much about just being a kid. A few baseball games on the driveway, walking about town during day camp, one visit to the beach during a heavy wind storm where the waves were the largest I’d ever seen in person. Some snippets of theme parks, like a giant indoor vertical slide made of wood, with a rope ladder used to climb up, and massive padded bags at the bottom to stop you after the descent. I remember being scared to death of my uncle’s german Shepherd Carla, who would growl at me when I needed to walk passed it in the front hall to use the toilet. Is the lack of memory a trauma response? Probably.

Makes me wonder what my kids will remember for childhood as they grow older. Hard to interpret what will become a core memory in the end, and what is just fluff to be discarded by the brain.

It’s Friday today. I sent off my first big report for the year last night, so hopefully that will be free and clear of mistakes and I can shoot off an invoice, the first for 2024! I think I might watch The Creator today as a reward. I finally sat down the other day to watch Oppenheimer with my wife. It was good, I liked it. Brought the book to life. Glad I watched it at home, I had the subtitles on, and loads of bathroom breaks. I even rewatched TMNT Mutant Mayhem the other day just for shits & giggles. Still as good as ever. I do like where Sony Animation has been able to go recently, especially when you think about Spider-Verse as well. Truly great stuff. I’m pumped for their third and final installment, probably sometime around 2026.

Do their thing is very interesting. I would prefer to paint my own sculpts in a more cohesive manner. I’d like to improve quite a bit, my painting skills. I can get a good base coat on gradients with my air brush, but the real kick it up a notch touches come from controlled brush work. And I’m not there yet. I don’t have the patience for blending and texturizing with paint strokes. I understand how some of these Golden Dragon, and other such award winning painters can spend upwards of 300-400 hours on their diorama pieces in 32mm scale. Although the one I just watched must have been 75mm, as it was huge! The basing portion I could really get behind, as I do enjoy building a bit of terrain when I get the chance. Tufts, static grasses, wood, rocks, water effects, you name it, I’m down for it. Would I like rock moulds and a static grass applicator, proxon hot knife for foam cutting, and all that goodness? Yes please! I could go to town with some balsa wood, fine kerf saw, and styrofoam, paint, and a bunch of time on my hands. Crazy. Don’t have to offer me a second shot at a good time. I’m there for it!

I just don’t have anywhere to store it, and I’d be awful precious about it to play war games on it! Ha. I’d like to give MDF buildings a try. I have a Dremel tool, I can customize things. I just never followed into 3d printing and resin pours. I don’t like adding strong smells and chemicals into the house. It’s bad enough with furniture stains and finishes in my wood shop, and that’s outside! Oh the things I would do with a four by eight foot gaming table with sunken play arena. Glorious. Maybe in a few years time.

I’m willing to bet it has been longer than I think it has since I built my original four 2ft by 2ft gaming plates, and the separate dungeon box. Feels like just a few months ago, but it must have been 2020 or so. I’d need to check out my photo album to see the dates on the first build of the plate with the mountain portion. Such fond memories. I used a tonne of plastic trees and flower tufts on those four boards. I could spend so much money on replacing them all, and expanding my parts library for future builds. An expensive endeavour to say the least. But so rewarding. And ever so much fun.

Happy Thursday to you all. Have fun crafting, painting, building, or doing whatever you like for fun. Ciao Bella!

To wash away all of the accumulated snow which we just recieved. Now it’s all grey/brown slush, puddles, rain drops and mud. And we are almost double digits into January. This feels more like late March weather. So I know the massive temperature drop is coming along with about a meter of snow fall to accompany it. Or, now hear me out, we have finally gone over the deep end and ruined the local climate a bunch, and this is the new normal. In which case we’ll see new bugs every year that previously couldn’t survive our winters, new snakes and critters that like the lack of a blisteringly cold winter season. Not a good look. Yikes!

Either way it’s still Wednesday, Hump Day, Middle of the Week Day. And I need to go work on my comparitive report for a big client. I even had a call last evening about some new work this year, so that’s exciting. I was also able to procure a sizable commitment of work from another client for the new year. Very happy about all that!

Oh look, no more rain, but massive snow flakes are falling. Weird. Unpredictable even. Best be off and about my business. Happy Wednesday to you all.

Tuesday is here, and the snowmageddon is not – yet. I can see the forecasts and the wind maps and precipitation estimates on the radar and I think if it gets here today, sometime close to this evening, I may just cancel our evening plans. Nothing too big just the kids programming. Shame to miss the first week back but if we’re going to get several dumps of snow I’d rather not be trapped across town if I don’t absolutely have to be. One step up from kinderdance is NOT that reason. Neither is Taekwondo for that matter. First testing I might because that doesn’t come along very often.

I need to get back down to my office to pick up where I left off on this latest report. Wish me well! Ciao Bella!

Luckily it didn’t take a stick of dynamite to get myself or my kids out of bed this morning in order to get ready for school. If anything we were about eight minutes earlier than usual. Rare, but not unheard of for us. We will see how tomorrow goes after all the extracurriculars start up again tonight. I don’t think our kids realize just how much we pay for them to do outside of school hours. You get a real sense of just how long a day is when both school and those extra things are all shut down for winter break. We fill a fair few hours every single day with fun stuff. Lucky us! If and when they have kids of their own they may just come to understand the lengths we’ve gone to to offer them a chance at just about anything they wanted to try.

I have my first big project for 2024 to start at 9:00am this morning. Glad to have the opportunity for success. I know the clients really liked last years, so I hope to meet and exceed expectations. Repeat customers are very welcome! I had a line on some paid woodworking but I’ve had to divert that to a friend whom works in the cabinetry business, as his work is slow, and I have this project I have to get done. Hopefully everyone gets what they need and we’re all the better for it.

I continue to wish folks a happy birthday as the prompts come up on Facebook. I don’t know if it means much to them to hear from me specifically, but I know how I feel when somebody takes time out of their day for me, and it’s pleasant. So I’ll keep that going for another year. I don’t get to everyone, but I think I hit a pretty good percentage of them. Takes 2 seconds and is no skin off my nose.

Two weeks have flown by. We are already eight days into the month. First semester at school is done once we cross into February. My baby, almost half way through grade one. Who’d a thunk it. Well now I’m just stalling. I need to go dig into the first report of 2024. And a happy monday in January to you all.

On package two of eight and we are already missing two integral pieces. I do not hold out much hope that things will get better, or that those missing pieces will miraculously be found among the other sachets of bits. You’d think after spending more than $120.00 on a sizable set that all of the parts would be there, but you’d be wrong. I wonder if they’d been getting complaints and that’s why it was on sale. It was still $120.00 plus tax, so not like I was picking through open boxes in a clearance bin. We had seven lego sets this Christmas, so hopefully they aren’t all like this submersible city set.

Sunday funday lazy last day before school starts up again. We know of one family currently battling Covid, so might be a great idea to mask up for the next couple weeks if you haven’t been doing so, with an N95 or better mask. And for those of us still masking, keep it up. Stay safe out there. I have to imagine that there are more families with sick kids just waiting to send those children off to school after having them home for 14 straight days. Or the school will be a Ghost town with so many missing sick kids. Hard to know at this point. I’ve read from some European doctors and whatnot that they believe Covid to be akin to an airborne aids, if you can believe that. A level 3 biohazard that depletes the immune response. Lots of acronyms, and talk of CD4, telomeres, long bits of technical jargon I don’t understand, along with charts, and diagrams. Sounds terrifying. But I dropped Chemistry and don’t pretend I understand the raw data. But the mention of “airborne aids” gives me cause to pause. I’d rather err on the side of caution than run that kind of risk for my kids and I.

We did get all of 2 cm of snow last night, so looks like winter now. The consistent minus eight and added windchill made that point a while ago. The lights still left up outside look much nicer in the snow covered trees. Looks as though I need to dig out my own snowpants and long johns in order to enjoy the winter weather. I’ve heard it told we are forecasted to get a significant dumping of snow this week. Maybe I’ll go out and get myself a snow blower after all. Save myself the physical stress of having to shovel so much. Well, four to five inches of light powdery snow is one thing, but sixteen inches of wet packing snow is entirely something else.

** don’t recall what came up to make me end this post so abruptly. Possibly the need to clean my eldest daughters room. Well… no. My spouse and daughter entertained the idea of a rearranged bedroom but failed to include how much time/effort was needed to clean it prior/during & after. Best to do that kind of thing with the kids gone. Otherwise you get tantrums over keeping broken guy bits, wrappers, and box scraps. You’d think they had nothing for how fiercely they cling to garbage. Very strange. Finding spent candy wrappers all over the place so I know we still have halloween candy caches in the house. So when the kids left I completed the once over cleaning, and then left it in a reasonable state. She, my eldest child, that is, needs to release her death grip on old unused broken toys to make room for her birthday presents and Christmas gifts. Can’t live life like a hoarder around here for long. Once it spills out into the hall or front room or basement, dear old dad will have a go at it. Ruthless I am. Urge to purge! Rising! Rising!

The last two days of winter break are upon us! Complete with dull gray overcast clouds, and a very cold breeze. From what I understand we are to get snow this week, and a whole lot of it too. Which is too late for a fun family outing for mid day tobogganing & hot chocolates. That might have to happen next weekend if the snow sticks around. That’s a pretty sizable IF from where I’m currently sitting. Would be nice to get some snow sooner so that we don’t keep getting it come April. By april we’re all ready for sun shine, warmth and light jackets when playing at the park.

Happy Saturday morning. Back to reality come Monday! No more sleeping in. Bah-Humbug! Have to once again turn my morning alarm back on. Awaken when it is dark out once again.

Ciao Bella!

Just when you thought you had become cold to the missing friend in your group good old Facebook is there to promptly remind you of their impending birthday. It’s a shame you didn’t make it to your next birthday, especially after your daughter died not 10 days after hers. A jumble of things to feel and think. Five months on and the untimely deaths still come to mind. I did not, until recently realize just how popular your hair cut was, and that style of glasses.  I seem to see them everywhere. Funny how that is. Reminds me of college where I died my hair this deep burgundy colour, and then everywhere I went I saw others with the same colour. Haven’t noticed it before or since. It’s like realizing your hands are expressive only once your kids put nail polish on during a “spa” day. They just be out there flipping and flapping and churning about as I talk. Distracting.

Five says in and I have the exterior lights off the eaves, the two wreaths off the garage, and various cords rolled up & off the ground. I took the tree down this morning with my oldest helping me. Went as smoothly as I expected. The tree is packed away safely for another year. Ornaments went into clear totes so I can see what’s inside. Floor has been swept and vacuumed up. The room feels ever so slightly bigger. More natural light now that the 7.5ft tree doesn’t block the window. Now to get rid off all the “saved” paper for crafting, and get the presents shipped off to the appropriate bedroom. I’m going to try and stop the migration of junk into the basement where it has to sit for 12-18 months before I can toss it, or sell it, or donate it to someone else for safe keeping.

Speaking of the basement, our house feels bigger now that we use the additional space more wisely. It’s bright, clean and somewhat organized now. It could always be refined more, but I’m happy to be able to be in the space and not feel anxious about the mess/clutter/dirt that had previously built up down here. Though winter is here, it hasn’t fallen upon us yet so the basement isn’t freezing cold yet. Still manageable. Nice!

I scratched a bad itch by cleaning up at the cottage with the use of fire. Got some much needed work done removing old junk, and freeing up space by the shop, and down around the firepit. I picked up seventy pounds worth of hangers, truss pin boards, nails, screws, and lag bolts with nuts and washers still attached. If all the lifting hadn’t aggravated my back I could have run that bon fire for seven days straight to clean up all the wood cut offs, mouldy trim, and whatever else is still hiding under the cover of brush & overgrowth. My farming extended family don’t work that way. They keep things long after needed, until it becomes a different kind of problem. Ha. Hoarders essentially. As a pack-rat myself I understand the reason and the desire to keep stuff “just in case”, but up to a point. And my point is miles, and miles behind where my wife’s families is. I urge to purge in order to clean up. The property is beautiful until you start to look too closely, and then you start to see all the things being kept, and you think, oh this would be really great if all that were gone. But I digress. I’m no farmer. I’m no conservative. I don’t believe in the bootstraps myth. Those physics don’t physics, know what I mean?

Anyway, happy Friday, much goes back to status quo on Monday at 9:00am, so breathe a sigh of relief, and welcome to 2024. Ciao Bella!