Was both one of the hardest and most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It took me just shy of a year and a half. I read the entire seven book Harry Potter series to my eldest daughter once she showed me she could pay attention long enough to make the exercise worthwhile. We started book one by reading half a chapter at a time, doing voices and dramatic pauses, sounding less like Alan Rickman as Snape and more like Will I am Shat tner. We read the first book three times in a row before she was comfortable enough to move on to book two, which we read twice. My throat took a real hit reading out loud every single day. Once the shit downs hit, and school went on line, we would read chapters throughout the day as well. We did that right up until this summer when we finally completed the whole series, and moved on to Percy Jackson, which was ok, but nowhere near as entertaining. We have yet to finish the fifth and final book of the series. Not sure if the payoff will be worth it. The whole point was to spend time together doing something fun, and imparting a life long love of reading and storytelling. I know that I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. I hope to some day read The Lord of the Rings to both kids. Then we can watch and enjoy the films together as well. Or I’ll enjoy it and they’ll tolerate it and move on which is fine to. I show them the thing of interest, and they can choose to enjoy it or find something else that interests them instead. I want them to like this stuff, but I don’t expect them to love it or become obsessed with it. I just want to be the one to offer it up to them, I don’t care if they don’t want to wrap themselves around it like I did as a preteen/child. I just want to introduce them to stuff I like so we can share it for a bit, as a fun experience and then let it go. If they adopt it – great, if not, at least we shared it for that brief moment in time.
Category: With Thoughts Like These
The long January begins with a – whine…
Once again we have come back to online e-learning for the kids. The long grey bleak winter has finally settled upon the ground around us, and we are house bound. Which is both a blessing (greatly reduced Covid exposure) and a curse, cabin fever with two very socially starved kids. It could very well be far, far worse. I mainly bemoan the situation because I detest the cold and dreary Canadian winter, and much prefer the sunshine and warmth of summer. We also prefer biking, walking, swimming and other far more fun warmer weather outdoor activities. In all actuality we are very protected here in our home bubble, and we shouldn’t be put out by the actions required to flatten the curve and bring the numbers of cases back down to a reasonable level of infection. We have masked up, socially distanced, hand washed, and avoided going into more than one store per week for almost two years now. We were very fortunate that we qualified for a 3rd booster dose, and my older child has had her first dose, but our youngest isn’t eligible for six more months. I work from home regardless of the situation so I’m not impacted much work wise. I can put the bulk of my work into the evenings if need be in order to help my two kids navigate online school, home work, lessons and finding pages or web sites for classwork. If both of us were full timers things would get ugly, but my work is flexible so we have that going for us. The only real impact is to my cleaning schedule which I can’t properly do with two young kids underfoot. Hobbies are on hold until cases come down and schools can safely open for the educators, admin, cleaning staff as well as all age groups of children. The next however many weeks of us all together twenty four seven could get ugly, but it is definitely for the best.
Three weeks of writing everyday
And what have I learned, or what is my major take away? It’s this… I still can’t figure out how to get in the groove to write any new fiction/non-fiction creative writing for a (micro) short story. I have had a couple of flickers of story ideas flash through my mind, but nothing I’ve been able to jot down on paper or contemplate long enough to find my way through it. Which is… annoying, I suppose. I’m not a writer per se, but I really did enjoy putting 60,000 plus words together in a somewhat cohesive story line in 2020 and early 2021. I always wanted to write a book, and I did it. I guess I thought that once I had done it I would be able to revisit that ability at will. That is proving to not be the case, at least at the moment. I’m what?, annoyed… yeah a little, disappointed…. sort of… feeling like it’s just a bit of a funk? Most likely. Much like any of my creative endeavors, if I force it, I’ll only produce forced garbage, but if I maintain some discipline and attempt to do something along those lines every day, at some point something will click or an idea will catch and my habit of doing it for a little bit every single day might stretch out and I could get on to something. Could, might, maybe, if… not possibilities to shy away from this early into the new year. I hope the month of January finds you all clear headed, and with vibrant ideas flowing from your finger tips.
Three days in, how are you doing?
We are three days into 2022 and how do you all feel? I didn’t make any resolutions this year, much like I haven’t done the last three years or so. I have things I want to do more of, which are things that I all ready do ‘some’ of. I will do what I can to utilize my down time more constructively over the year. Now this doesn’t mean that every single second needs to be accounted for, or that I must produce X amount of projects or progress in any single hobby. Just that over all, I did more of just about anything; cooking, cleaning, mending clothes, wood working, home DIY stuff, sculpting, drawing, painting, playing the guitar or piano, creative writing, blogging. Anything, just try to limit being a lump.
Also, if at all possible, refrain from going out and picking up a new pet from a shelter. It has been eight months since our old boy passed over the rainbow bridge to take up residence at the farm, in a room with a view. I love dogs and having one around the house, but it has made life simpler to not have one around during the pandemic. Puppies and old dogs and just about everything in between are very appealing, but I just need to hold off for another year or two. I can easily break on this issue depending on how the school year in Ontario shapes up with covid and Omicron lurking about. However, not having to pick up bags and bags of poop off the back lawn means the girls can play barefoot in the grass again without fear of a nasty squishy surprise. But a warm dog cuddle does a weary soul some good when you didn’t know you needed it most.
It is currently warming up from minus seventeen degrees Celsius, so perhaps a play at the park is in order, or a jaunt to the farm for some private sledding with my girls. Snow pants are a must here, there is no denying it anymore. Winter is far too long and cruel to the skin here to not properly outfit yourself for the bitter cold. We are nowhere near as bad as the prairies, but getting down to minus twenty five or below consistently over a course of three months means you need to be realistic, and dress accordingly. Take care of yourselves out there.
Why, oh why
Do my children insist on trying to communicate with me at the pitch of a whiney tea kettle. A stream of unending vowels and consonants imitating the squealed peel of an agitated dolphin. To my hearing lossed ears it’s just a pointless whistle that contains no information at all. Like a fire alarm in a high C monotone in which I am requested to decipher both the meaning and an action plan remedy. Followed, obviously by tears, flailing and shouting from the other sibling in response. And it happens constantly no matter how many times I tell them that I don’t speak tea kettle, dolphin, or whistle languages fluently. The Joy’s of parenthood I suppose. Blessed.
Welcome to the future…
It’s really very similar to the recent past but otherwise it offers you hope, if only a sliver. The weather outside is pretty strange, seeing as the temperature is slightly positive in January, in southern Ontario Canada. The roads are clear enough we can ride our bikes or roller blade, which is very strange. The snow seems to hold off longer and longer, if it doesn’t absolutely dump down on November first in a 12 inch blast of school closing insanity.
We were all in bed asleep by quarter to eleven last night, because we have small kids who wake up exceedingly early, and can be a real bear to deal with by seven pm. After getting them off to bed and watching an hour or two of HGTV no one felt the need to greet midnight, and a potential 5:45am early rise from one or both kids. I was going to pour myself a drink and watch a movie, but my enthusiasm for that waned quickly and I watched part of a Jim Gaffigan stand up special on Netflix, but turned it off half way through instead. The life of a rock star over here folks.
Things I’d like to do more of this year are, and in no particular order; creative writing, sculpting, wood working, miniature painting, assemble the giant G-System Best resin model kit. Obviously if I am able to gather, retain or reclaim more paid work in graphic design/illustration & packaging, those items will take precedence. But I have made a plan to utilize my down time to be more rewarding personally. It gets all too easy to climb into YouTube or put on a movie and space out for 2hrs on any given day.
First things first though, we have to get COVID-19 under a modicum of control so that our kids don’t get violently ill at school, or develope life long medical issues due to rampant exposure. This fact alone will have massive knock on effects for our day jobs, and hobbies, not to mention the whole rest of our childrens lives. It is no small matter. It weighs heavily upon us all. Welcome to the future, the same as before, only different. Hello 2022.
The contradictions of being two things at once.
I’ll give you an example, loving the sound of my kids laughing and giggling, but being annoyed by them making too much noise as those same laughs move into the cackle/shriek territory. Enjoying a quiet afternoon, and then finding out your kids were quiet because they were destroying a windowsill with inkless pens and drawing straight into the wood itself. Wanting to be alone and then feeling isolated and lonely. We are strange creatures us humans. Walking, talking contradictions. Wishing you all a happy, healthy 2022.
Those dark shadows in between.
Could be the lack of brilliant sun shine, it could very well be the onset of the winter cold. The feeling of being adrift and starting to float reminds me of being depressed in my teens due to medications, & fatigue from Crohn’s Disease. I find myself wanting to sleep more and more, losing interest in hobbies, and also having angry or violent dreams at night. My sleep is restless and every day feels the same regardless of holiday, weekday or weekend. I realize the pandemic has us all on edge and have recently discovered what a low level panic attack feels like, and bud, I feel for all of you whom have had to deal with a full fledged version, because, WOW!, unpleasant. I also know that I’m really getting inside my own head of late, and that’s not a good place to spend too much time. I due have introverted tendencies, so I love alone time and being quiet, but that’s when it is by choice and not foisted upon me by external forces I have zero control over. It can sometimes feel like a weight pressing down on my shoulders while the tide is trying to kick my feet out from under me. However, soon enough there will be sunshine, warm, grass and flowers and the ability to get outdoors more comfortably. It’s not all bleak and gloomy though. I did get the last book in a great series to read for Christmas, so I do intend to enjoy that as much as possible. And, reading about the exploits of the James Webb Space Telescope has been rather exciting! (JWST) For the potential science win. Woot woot!
One of life’s simple pleasures…
In a time of chaos and panic, or when you are just starting to find yourself feeling a little off, is taking a quiet moment to close your eyes and lean your heated forehead against a cold pane of glass and shut your eyes for a second or two. It’s brief, but aren’t most of our adult moments of splendor brief and fleeting. That momentary flash of cool across your brow, and perhaps also your cheeks and nose. The calming blackness from your closed eyes, the fading out of the background noise from your life. Taking in one, or two rich, full breaths. Then leaning back and carrying on with your day, evening, nights activities. Stay sane out there. Try to stay healthy if you can.
‘Don’t look up’ a Netflix Movie Review.
Can I start out by saying that I liked this film even though I hated how close to the bone it cuts? It was well done, but it stressed me the fuck out. It made me angry even when it made me laugh. I cringed an awful lot at the actions of Jonah Hill’s character, who was at once hilarious and horrific. A ‘himbo’ who placed his Ivy League uneducated devotion in the wrong people. Jennifer Lawrence goes full bore on her incredulous millennial schtick and sticks the landing, hair cut and all, well done. I love that Leo goes full nerd but still gets to smash the blisteringly wealthy talk show host with too white teeth (Cate Blanchett). Both sides of the ending are… something. A blood pressure raising, pulse increasing, rage inducing, funny, satirical send up of modern times that slices deeply along the vein.
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