With a valiant effort, and two tries at breaking the board my eldest managed a promotion to a full Green Belt in Taekwondo. We are all very proud of her for doing so. Three nights a week, and lots of sparring with other kids. We now have a few more weeks left until we hit the pause button on Taekwondo in favour of summer activities, so we’ll take care to learn what we can, and attempt to retain it for our return to the discipline in late August. Then she can aim towards a blue stripe/blue belt in the next set of sessions next fall. We’ve talked about it, and though she was initially eager to get to a black belt, her goal now is to stop somewhere in the blue belt, or red belt space. And you know what, I’m ok with either option. It’s not just me being cheap. If she knows how to throw a punch, and deliver a devastating kick to protect herself, and has undergone extensive sparring one on one with larger opponents, then we’ve done what we can to see that she is capable of protecting herself reasonably without heroics. Tick that box off the list. Call me satisfied.
This Sunday feels like an extra random day. Friday being so disjointed with the funeral, visitation, and social afterwards has left us feeling a little out of sync with the calendar. Yesterday was busy too, with the testing in the morning, and a four hour play date for the kids in the late afternoon and on into the evening. They were still up until 9:00pm, and were exhausted. They should have slept in until 8 or 9am today. But no. Still up before 7:00am like it won’t be a chore to get them out of bed at the same time for school tomorrow. They never sleep in when given the opportunity. I’ll remind them of that once they become drowsy, mopey teens/tweens.
It was randomly minus sixteen yesterday, but sunny and bright with blue skies. It was rather deceiving if you ask me. Felt very much like the February I remember. Seasonal is the word I’m looking for. But this week will see lows in the negative double digits, and highs in the pluses in double digits too. Very odd. That’s quite the range if you ask me.
I had high hopes of continuing on with the pine bed yesterday, but those cool temps put me off the idea of doing any gluing fixes, or staining. Just too damn cold. The glue wouldn’t take, and the idea of handling fluids in the cold makes me shiver just thinking about it. My space heater is only good to about 12 inches directly in front of it, and I don’t fancy putting any fine dust particles into it, or having it run with flammable fumes in the air. Not looking for a ball of flame to the face. I do not wish to test any close quarters DnD scenarios about a fireball in a small room. 10D6 damage taken. Yikes!
The first of two sparring matches. Was she ever tired afterwards. Dominated the second round like a champ!My timing with the camera wasn’t good this time around, and I failed to get any pictures with her foot at the Alex of any kicks. Had to ask for a still shot, and still missed it! D’oh!
That’s all for this cold Sunday morning. Take care out there. Ciao Bella.
Today is THE day. It’s here. We made it. Hurray! And it looks as though I am going to be busier than originally planned. So I will do a select few notes on the books I read, and enjoyed more than most.
Books on the tall left pile I read cover to cover, and those on the right were only partial reads as of this time.
***I’m still reading both System Collapse, and Lords of Uncreation at this time, I just haven’t finished yet due to travel, and a busier than expected work schedule.
I started the year off with Tom Segura’s book, and enjoyed the hell out of it. Short & sweet, I think I fi wished that in a day and a half. Not very thick, and reads like a funny conversation. The Fart Quest D&D books are always a pleasure to read. Childish and silly with lovely illustrations on many pages. A fun treat for me. Don Winslow’s books are cracker jack popped full of organized crime, murder, gangsters and Danny Ryan. Fast paced, exciting and I can’t wait to read the third and final installment. The Steel Remains was entertaining. I did at one point look into buying more of the series as I like Richard Morgan‘s work. I read two of his books this year, along with Mo Hayder, and Adrian Tchaikovsky too. I read an entire trilogy of a new to me author very early on this year, and it was decent. Had a lot of SA, and physical abuse of kids in it which I didn’t care for, but the writing was good. Those were written by N.K. Jemison.
All told I read 15 books cover to cover, and another 4 books were partial reads of 1/4 to 1/3 of the book in question. So I hit my 12 books in 12 months reading goal. I slowed right down as of September as I got busier with work, as I knew I would. I front end loaded the year pretty heavily to make up for my waning attention, and increased work schedule.
Also for this year in review I didn’t do anywhere near as much sculpting, wood working, or model building. I did one or two items in each category, but I don’t think I finished much. Perhaps next year. I did use my airbrush a fair bit this year to paint old sculpts, and board game pieces. That was a lot of repetition, but also fun to do.
No short stories were written that I can think of this year either. At least nothing comes to mind. I should check the website closer to New Year’s Eve for the official word count for the year. I do not believe that it will even come close to 100,000 words for the year. I just didn’t have that much jam this year. Also I don’t think I made any real progress on my illustrated children’s book either. Was just too busy during what is typically an 11 week long slow period. It was all go-go-go!
We had Covid in march of 2023 and that caused a 90 day reprieve on my exercise regimen to try and avoid long Covid symptoms. Also meant that my weight has remained in the 205-209lbs range for the majority of this year. I swam a lot, but did not ride my bike much, nor run, nor skateboard like I had hoped. I do need to sort something out on that front as I am unhappy with my current pear shape. I could do with being about 175lbs and reduce the belly by a wide margin. Eating and exercise. Simple solution, but oh so hard to implement. Ha. Habits to be build and enforced, just like the writing.
Big question looms. Do we go for a year three of the writing streak, or go until we forget or have more pressing matters to concern ourselves with? If I have another obsessive compulsive year of writing this blog then so be it. I’d blow a kazoo to celebrate if I could. Pfft! W00t-w00t!
Other things to reflect upon? Hmm. Great family vacation to Florida this year. Hadn’t gone anywhere since 2018 so we packed up and flew to Tampa, and then spent a week in Orlando/Kissimmee area. Did three theme parks for 11 of our 14 day trip. One beach day in Clearwater, and one visit to Disney Springs outdoor shopping centre. It was sweltering in Tampa, and rainy and 73°F in Orlando. Not too shabby. Warm enough to swim in the rain, or sit in the hot tub unbothered by it all. We essentially gave the month of November a miss by going away mid month. Strange, but very effective.
Great grandma is alive and kicking, heading towards her 96th birthday in January. Uncle Fred is still in the hospital trying to recoup enough to do another week of 3 Chemo treatments in a row. Otherwise we had the kids pick up a missed immunization that the Ministry notified us of, though they were way off with our youngest. Bit of a mix up there. I picked up a Tetanus shot as I have zero recollection of the last one I ever had. Was probably in high school, if not grade school before that. Good to have as I work with reclaimed wood and pull rusted nails every so often. Better safe than sorry.
I was busier with more work from fewer clients this year. The two micro breweries I usually get work from were very quiet this year. Perhaps in 2024? Maybe. My three biggest clients all did more work this year than usual. Well, two of three did lots more. Not going to complain about that! I lost one client to an acquisition to a large conglomerate that had it’s own in-house design team. No harm no foul there. Win some, lose some. Hard to complain when other clients pick up the slack and then some.
I’m sure more happened that I will remember in a couple of hours time. But that’s the gist of my year. Kids got bigger. Moved up in grades. Homework and extracurriculars abound. Taekwondo, dance, gymnastics, girl guides, and soon Ringette too. We’ve been busy if not over scheduled for children’s programming. Can’t say they didn’t get the chance to try lots of things.
New water softner, fixed water heater valve, and a fridge freezer we no longer use in order to keep the fridge running smoothly. Some how the AC unit has kept chugging along. We will see if that luck continues into 2024. I do see a new fridge in our futures if im being honest.
The story up till now goes as follows; My youngest was in a crib at the cottage for a long time. Then I transformed said crib into a day bed, which she used until she was too long for it and spent all night kicking the end and side panels waking everyone up. I took the crib down and we pulled a single mattress into the room and set her up on the floor. With the intention of putting up a bed shortly there after. Things happened over the summer and the bed was forgotten about. Travel, funerals, anguish, and work took a front seat. Come to September and I milled down a few pine boards, cut them to size, made lots of tight fitting joinery, and then let it sit because I had other things to do and it wasn’t a priority. Fast forward from September to February and a warm spell and I finally had the time to sand it all down, and then I went ahead and began assembly and fitting it all together. Wood movement is a thing, and I continuously don’t pay enough attention to that fact and leave projects for months on end. Good news is, we are assembled. I need to do a few gap fill touch ups, and then a final sand in a few spots, and then stain it all. Let is stand & off gas for a few days then schlep it to the cottage in the back of a truck. It’s pine so it’s pretty light. Easy to move around, and lift up several sets of stairs.
Unsanded pieces.Freshly sanded pieces.Assembled while upside down. Waiting for box joint fixes, sanding and wipe on, wipe off stain.
It’s not the prettiest thing, certainly not heirloom quality, but one inch thick pine should hold up for a few years at least. Slatted to hold a box spring, or go straight over with a firm mattress. Would I have preferred to build it with Walnut or a hardwood, certainly I would, but it would be 10X the weight, and who knows how much extra in cost.
I put in an order for 20BF of Walnut last night from a company that delivers. Rough cut, one inch thick. Should come some time next week. I can then plan some narrow book shelves for my kids, and a new Urn. I’m going to try hand cut dove tails this time. I want to book match the outside so I’ll also need to cut some boards down the middle too. That will take some time. Sounds like fun!
I just can’t seem to find the time to get over to the mill to view lumber, so getting some delivered is really helpful. If the wood quality is a bust then I will have to do so myself, shop in person that is. I didn’t spend crazy money on it, so I’m not expecting glowingly perfect boards. A touch rustic perhaps, definitely straight with no cupping, or twist would suit me just fine.
I recently had the chance to use my wood moisture meter. Works great. Reminds me I need to charge and format my endoscope for the car. Has lights on it too! He-he.
We have the funeral today, so I need to fetch the kids from school, change, and head over to the visitation, and then the service proper, and then hang around after to take all of the decorations, flowers, and photos down. Hug your loved ones. Ciao Bella.
If you took both of the novellas I’ve written and smushed them together you might almost get a full sized novel? The first book is on Kindle Unlimited, but I never released the second. Didn’t feel the need to. I figured if anybody cared for the first, it was because they had read bits and pieces of it here first, and I’ve made it well known that if you want Part Two for free all you had to do was comment to ask for it. And I’d ask for an e-mail address, burner or otherwise, and I’d send you the PDF free of charge, just because I’d be tickled pink that somebody might actually read it, other than myself, and various family members around the world. Now all I write are blog posts, and not very good ones at that. No sex, no drugs, and very little rock n’ roll to speak of. If you want depravity in your Science fiction then go read my books, or track down all fifty to sixty individual story posts in the archives.
The Company – A series of interconnected space short stories: Varied works of short fictionhttps://a.co/d/3uYvqJ2
Today is Day 800! Wow, great to be here, thank you. No applause needed. Wild ride. We have weathered travel, several deaths, a Jericho wind storm that knocked out power for 26 long hours, illnesses such as Covid, the flu, stomach bugs, and other such fun items. Not to mention a very busy work schedule, and most of my wife’s year off. And a whole lot of chatter about the weather. So much weather talk. Like being stuck in a line at the bank. How about this warm spell? So grey out. Can you believe the wind? My goodness. I do go on.
So what’s instore for my luxury conscious fan base, those accustomed to the finer points I love to elucidate for them. Well, not much. These big milestone dates seem to pile up, come & go without much fanfare. The daily habit became more important to me than hitting any one of these numbers. I do however, occasionally get suckered into watching the view count for dopamine hits, but I try to limit that. I don’t do this for any kind of notoriety. I do it to get stuff out and on record for myself, more so than for any body else. Maybe my kids might read some of this, but even that isn’t why I keep all of these thoughts written down. A legacy of thousands of words to litter the internet with. I’m doing my part. AI can suck it!
Day 800of the write every day challenge, has a good ring to it, but other than that, isn’t of much use to me. I can’t use it on my resume, I’m not seeking work for copy writing, plus my style is loose, bordering on unpolished turd territory. A fair few of my characters all sound just like me, regardless of gender or orientation. Young, old, all me. Mean spirited, snarky, and a little too earnest. Say what you mean, mean what you say! I’m not good at writing mysterious people, or heists. So I don’t. I write about being lonely, or sick, feeling isolated, and worrying about things bigger than myself. I try to steer away from technical jargon, as I’m not that guy. I do a fair bit of finger waving at physics and science in general. Plus I was writing very short stories, so being concise yet evocative was my jam, man.
Except in the case of the children’s illustrated book I’m making. I mean, it’s short too, but more silly and fun than my typical short fiction. Which reminds me I really do need to get those last eight pages drawn, and then post it here for posterity.
The steps themselves are more important than where I finally land. That is, unless somebody wants to option it for a series or a short film and I’ll change my tune for dollar, dollar bills y’all. I think I’d wind up winning the lottery before that ever happened, so there’s that. All I’m saying is, love the steps you are taking on the projects you do, and not the end result. Laurels aren’t for resting on. And other empty hokey sayings. Ciao Bella.
Sun is out but that minus nine looks unappealing. Scattered clouds on these blue skies makes me think it isn’t all that windy, which is a plus. Let us all try to avoid any brushes with Frost Nip this weekend, please and thank you. Luckily last time it was the merest of tickles upon the Frost Bite spectrum, but I don’t want anybody to risk it for a snowmobile ride. Put on a helmet and a weather suitable balaclava to stave off the worst effects of the cold. So if we could all do just the bare minimum to avoid the cold that would be much appreciated.
Doesn’t feel much like a Saturday morning. Not sure what’s making the vibe feel off. Hmm… I’ll have to think on that for a bit to see where things feel different. Perhaps it’s because this is a long weekend, and the extra day off feels weird. Is it the presence of snow and cold after that long warm/dry spell. I don’t know what it is. Could be the looming feeling of Ugh! From next Friday’s funeral and visitation services putting a dark cloud over everything.
On the plus side nobody rushed to call me with the results of my small intestine MRI from Thursday. Which makes me think the news will be mild to good. No news is good news. I’m still worried about having my mask off partially to drink at the hospital, and inside the actual machine. I really hope I haven’t tracked home Covid or anything along those lines. I feel fine thus far. My kids have been coughing and in various stages of gooey for several long weeks now, which I have avoided. Could be the near continuous running of our Hepa filter in the living room. Or my immune system isn’t fighting it and my chest feels a little less than normal, but I’m not oozing like they are with it. Is that a blessing or a curse?
Good news is we can go tobogganing now that we have six or so inches of snow on the ground. We haven’t been able to go for a number of weeks. The town doesn’t even have any outdoor rinks out like during the lock-down periods of 2020-2021. It was pretty awesome, you could go to any number of local parks and skate outside with hardly anyone else around. If I recall a fair few winter birthday parties were held on skates during those years.
In other news I broke down and bought four more substantial caster wheels for my rolling tool cart build. One of the four small ones I had lying around shattered into two halves and would not go back together on the bearing. I went up from a 1 inch wheel to a 3 inch. So it didn’t effect the overall height by too to much. Plus it rolls like a champ now, and all four wheels can be locked, and swivel independently. Very maneuverable. It’s ugly as sin, but suits my needs to a “T”. I even got to repurpose several pieces of our old change table. Now I have memories to keep.
My wheeled cart with shelves, drawers, storage space, and an open top for power tools access. Just what I wanted!
What I thought was going to happen was, I sign in, I fill out a form, I change into a gown, I spend 15-20 minutes in a loud tube, I change back and go home, in and out in one hour tops. What I got was multiple forms, news I should have fasted from 5pm the day before, a need to drink 1.5 litres of sorbitol to inflate my small intestine, an IV for bowel sedation meds, one of which I was ineligible for due to my acute angle glaucoma, and a three hour stay at the hospital, plus some injected dye. I still had to change into a gown/pants combo and put my belongings in a locker. So not awful, but a bigger commitment than I was aware of. My Gastroenterologist told me “You need an MRI. I’ll put in the requisition and the hospital will take care of the rest.” And that was it. No further details provided. I’ve had an MRI before, so I figured this would be much the same. The hospital called to tell me of my appointment only 7 days before it was scheduled, via automated voice message. No details about fasting, length of time, IV drugs etc etc… it didn’t even provide me with an option to speak to a human to ask relevant questions. I walk in there and BAM! My busy day is about to get much more complicate.
The people were lovely, and it was all free, and I only ended up waiting roughly six months for it. I’m not in life threatening condition so it wasn’t a high priority. It was clean, and all the nurses were masked. It’s a building full of high powered magnets, so only the blue surgical masks, but still better than nothing I suppose. I wore my N95 for as long as I was able. Drinking three 500ml drinks was a challenge in a mask. Hopefully I haven’t brought anything home with me. We’ll see.
Trying to drink 1.5L of watered down sorbitol under a timer was no fun. Better than the colonoscopy prep, but that much fluid on an empty stomach makes me feel all slushy, burpy, and nauseated. Trying to burp water while reclined on a gurney makes me gag a bit. Nearly threw up. Oops! Managed not to though. Go me!
Let’s Vogue!
That was a good chunk of my Thursday mid day. The forms do warn you that the bowel sedation meds mixed with the sorbitol can have a nasty effect on you afterwards. So I spent much of the late afternoon and the evening dealing with the fall out of that mixture. Whoosh! Right through you. Unpleasant. Ha.
But, here we are on the morning of another beautiful Friday. The sun is out, I can see some blue in the sky. I finished all of my shoveling for last nights snowfall. It looks like February in Southern Ontario once more. Temperatures are more seasonal as we are back below zero again. We can toboggan if we want to. I now think once more about buying myself cross country skiis. The forecast calls for a few more days of snow. This is also a holiday weekend, with Family Day on Monday to look forward to. Sadly next week are both the visitation and funeral for my wife’s uncle Frederick Pike. Died at age 65, after a brief battle with multiple cancers. Very aggressive. Spread too far & too wide, much too quickly to be combated in any current method that is available. So next Friday will be a somber day to remember the man.
I have paid work to do, so I best be about my business. Ciao Bella!
Going down to the hospital later this morning for my long awaited MRI. Well I say long, but I think it’s about six months, so not totally terrible. I am fasting for it, which sorta sucks, but I usually don’t eat breakfast until close to nine am, so what’s another two to three hours on top of that. No big deal. Time to get in there and figure out if I do in fact have any, one, or multiple bowel constrictions or obstructions. This scan will dictate how we proceed. Do I get to leave things as is because there aren’t any extra issues above and beyond my current Crohn’s diagnosis, and I just live with things and deal. Or are there obstruction(s), how large are they, where exactly are they, and do they need to be removed. If surgery is the option, can it be done laparoscopically with much smaller incisions, or do they need to properly disembowel me like a velociraptor would, spilling my guts in order to search for the offending bits, and do the removal that way. That, I fear, will entail an extraordinarily long recuperation time, pain, bleeding, stitch or staple removal, antibiotics and infection control over a period of months because I, historically speaking, heal very, very slowly. Ugh. Worst case scenario is they find other ‘things’ that lead to the obstructions and I get referred to a whole different set of specialists. Fingers and toes crossed that that option stays well and truly far the fuck away from me. Please and thank you.
I have the details and directions in hand for how I am to proceed this morning at the hospital. Not going to lie, my guts are churning this morning. That’s not all that unusual, but perhaps the presence of the churning will add some insight to my doctors and care givers about my particular case of Crohn’s Disease. I would love for this to help me, but I’d be good if it added some additional understanding that helped others like myself. I know in my younger years my file was used as a case study at medical conferences, and retreats. So, yay! Indirectly helping and getting published in medical journals. Noice! Toit! Without having to write a single sentence at that.
I took a few minutes earlier today to remove my wedding ring just in case that would interfere with the imaging equipment. Took me longer than the 90 sec I thought it would take to unburden myself of my wedding band. Gaining weight has weird knock on effects. Ha. On that note I have worked out a little every day for twelve days now. That’s a good streak for me anyway. Nothing too crazy. Push ups, squats, various leg raises, and sit ups, jumping Jack’s, and the occasional burpee. All body weight for the time being. I’m going to see if I can keep at it myself before I go and add in a monthly gym membership cost. I start strong and fizzle. So best to see if I can make it a habit before dropping even more money on ‘stuff’. I’m trying to be fiscally responsible here folks!
Have a terrific Thursday February 15th, of 2024. Ciao Bella.
Sunday is here already. I feel as though I didn’t see much of Saturday. Could be the three hour long movie I chose to watch, or the six hours I spent working. I saw the sunshine though, so that’s got to count for something these days. I need to sort the kids laundry and put that away. Proof my work again, and send that off for review. Finish watching The Return of the King. Make myself some breakfast. Actually get out of bed (mm, so comfy). I could play my guitar, or crank up the tunes for a loud, long, sing along session at a decibel of my own choosing. So many options. I could continue to watch The Bear (so good), of which I am like the last person to actually watch it. Or I can scroll through YouTube watching tool restorations, engine fixes, wood working project builds, or endless shorts about anything, and nothing in particular. Not doom scrolling, but watching other people make stuff can almost, kinda, sorta scratch an itch about making things myself.
I got into the garage shop to tear down the old change table. I reclaimed the actual wood portions, and have use of the flat boards, and other bits. I feel like I want to pull all of my chisels down off the walls to put them in drawers. I want to reorganize some more. I just can’t seem to figure out where I want everything. Also we have lots of household junk in there I want to throw away, but can’t. I’ll have to take the bulk of it to the dump. Old blow moulded tool cases, very old car seats, old strollers, tote boxes of inflatable water park parts. We stole the blower unit to run our other indoor inflatable park set at the cottage. It was so big it needed a second 600CFM blower to keep it upright with children on it. More doors, an old dining room table, old light box for tube lights, and an old bed frame from my college days of using a futon. If I had a giant bin I could fill it pretty easily. Especially if it would take old paints too. This house gifted us ten to twenty mostly empty paint cans, full of old oil paint. The kind you have to pay to dispose of. Very nicely done. Hidden under the basement stairs for us to find.
I’ve been looking for an inexpensive tool cabinet to put my chisels in for a while now. I don’t honestly know if that change would be an improvement or not. Not having to reach over other items to grab them would be handy. Protection from dust would be a plus. But is that enough to warrant $200.00 on storage? I still have things to figure out in there. Like as I get older, do I want to make it a more versatile space? Do I want to try my hand at welding small things like legs for desks, and tables. Do I want to keep it as 80% wood shop? To resaw wood do I want the 1.75Hp bandsaw, or to do it via chainsaw, or with a hand saw, and several hours of labour per cut, per board. I maintain my mower in there, so I need to be able to manoeuvre & lift machinery that feels heavier every year that I touch it. The deck on my mower has a sizable hole, I’d love to patch that with a welded on bit of sheet metal. Do I upgrade the lathe, and drill presses, or let metal machining go as a fantasy dream that i have. Flights of fancy. To have either in here I’d need a shop crane to be able to move items like that around. But you have to be able to store said shop crane too. And eat the cost of buying one. All to move two specific items once or twice over the lifespan of having the machines. Wouldn’t exhaust fans, and climate control inside the shop be a better investment? Wouldn’t a flat roller friendly floor be money better spent? Wouldn’t insulated walls, and boards on the walls make it feel like a real shop? You know, or you can spend $1,500.00 on a bench top mill, and $2,500.00 on a Southbend lathe.
For now it’s just a time consuming day dream. Hunting for bits on-line while never really taking the leap towards buying any of it. I’ve been looking at/for a snowblower the same way for four years. I have a moment of pause when an item costs upwards of a thousand dollars. That’s always been a real tough threshold for me, money wise. I can’t spend that kinda money without thinking about it really hard. In the back of my mind I always think “You know these good times don’t last forever, you need to have some sort of buffer that can last you months incase all the work dries up, and you still have these bills to pay, food to buy, and responsibilities to keep”. Plus I don’t want to incur any debts. I’ve been there, under the mountain, clawing to get out from under it. That’s a horrible way to live. So once I got out from under it, I’ve stayed away from debt owing. I have monthly subscriptions for my business, but I don’t let debts languish on my credit card. If I did then I’d have to go work for someone else full time, and go back to commuting every week, and see my family far less than I am currently able. If I live modestly and within my means, then I can avoid all that. Seems very worthwhile to me to stay out of debt, and have a less constrained life because of it.
Good gracious, I’m a bloviating blatherer of platitudes today. I must be hungry. It’s ten thirty, and I still have things to do today! Thanks for reading along. Ciao Bella.
Started off last evening with The Fellowship of the Ring, and now watching The Two Towers. And tomorrow after I finish putting all of the kids laundry away I will watch The Return of the King. I do enjoy watching these three films every few years. I take long enough inbetween viewings to forget all the finer points, so that I can enjoy it in full when I do sit down to watch all nine hours of the three movies. I don’t have it in me to watch them all in a row in one day. That’s too much for me. But one a day over three days (technically), now that’s a doable feat for me. I have just enough attention span for that.
I spent four or five hours last night working, and another six today, getting my edits done for the report I have on the books. A little more fine tuning tomorrow and I’ll be all caught up. I did spend a little while today taking apart the door knobs of the main floor bathroom, and my eldest daughters bedroom . Had to adjust the spring/reset tension on the door latches. They stick in, and the knobs spin when they shouldn’t. The set screws aren’t keeping the knobs immobilized to work the mechanisms. I cleaned them off a bit, and took some pressure off so I hope to have fixed the issue. Though weak set screws is beyond me. I don’t have the skills, know-how, nor machinery to make deeper, and stronger biting set screws. I’d love a machine lathe, and a milling machine, but both are out of reach to me at this precise moment in time. I could tear down my wood lathe and swap it for a Southbend metal lathe, because I can do wood turning on a metal lathe. A tad unconventional, but workable. I can not however turn metal on my wood lathe. I also need to readjust my work space to accommodate a mill/drill to replace my bench top drill press. Space and power needs limit me considerably. But I digress. I was talking about rewatching movies.
After I completed a read through of the entire Harry Potter series, speaking it aloud to my daughter at bed time, I had hoped to eventually follow it up with The Lord of the Rings. But we read four of the five Percy Jackson & the Olympians books and then my daughter was able to read by herself and she found her own books to get caught up in. Although, truth be told, the elvish names gave me pause when thinking about reading all three books out loud. In my head I shortened them for ease of reading, and that doesn’t work aswell when reciting long written works. I hope that ship hasn’t sailed, but we could potentially watch the movies together atleast.
Costumes, mugs of “ale”, bread and meats to snack on. Make a real meal of it. Could be a fun way to share it with my oldest.
In other news we shall have one funeral to attend in the next week or two. Things progressed slightly quicker towards the end there, than we were expecting. Sad. But expected. Still caught me off guard when I heard. Hug your loved ones, nothing is guaranteed. Ciao Bella.
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!
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