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Last day of Ringette for the season. Both of the kids skating has improved a great deal over the last 8 weeks or so. The youngest is up and off her balance apparatus, and the eldest is doing skills training, shooting & passing. At least now we know that they can both skate. Well enough to attend a party or event on the ice and not get stuck holding the side boards or floundering out on the open ice. Glad to see it.

Another glorious Saturday at our disposal. Maybe if the weather cooperates we’ll play some Badminton on the driveway again. Spent some time yesterday doing a trial run of assembling our new second hand tent. Making sure all the poles, pegs, straps and loops are in working order. Getting things wrong now, so we can do them right on the day. Two more weeks until it goes into use with the kids. Plenty of time to set it up & tear it down to get it right.

I look forward to having that night to myself to watch a movie at a reasonable hour, and then sleep in! What passes for excitement these days.

The heavy humid mass of just plain HOT approaches, a little every day as we creep closer to June 21st. The summer solstice, and the near end of open window season. That’s when you move from temperature controlled house, to car, to building, to house. Limiting outdoor exposure to swimming, or walking in the creek at the farm, when at all possible. It’s at this point where I am really happy that I finished both the screen door for the back door of the house, and a window screen for the large picture window over our kitchen sink. That cross breeze blow through is a dream while it lasts. We have a few weeks from end of April to very early June, and again late September to late October that I can have the windows/doors open all day. Brief but worth it. Mind you my wife has allergies so not as much fun for her. But our hepa filters help tamp that down all night long so that she can sleep more comfortably. We will all be sealed shut indoors with the shades drawn soon enough, and the interior air quality will be much cleaner for everyone, with the reduced pollen in our air.

The hepa unit we had that broke when we had Covid was finally replaced while under warranty by the manufacturer, so along with the furnace filters, fans, and hepa unit, our air is better than it has been in a long while. Well, today is a pa day, and we have a tent to test out for a camping trip, and I need to find things to do to keep us all occupied (besides work).

Ah yes, the story of my life. Seriously though, I had planned today to speak about the next two books I want to read this year. Namely a new Adrian Tchaikovsky novel, the third and final book of a series, and one more Mo Hayder book. Thought I’d give her other book a go. Problem with that is, I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ve read it already, but nothing specific is ringing any bells. That was my plan anyway, and then…

One of the town work vehicles exploded next to my side yard and that pulled my focus for a good few hours yesterday. It started around 1:25pm. I was walking up my stairs from the basement and I heard a loud fire cracked of a pop. Looking out a side window I could see billowing white smoke. I thought my yard was on fire so I grabbed the kitchen fire extinguisher and ran out my back door, and found a town truck with the front hood blowing smoke. I handed the worker my extinguisher and he used it up. Not nearly large enough to stop an engine fire unfortunately. Plus the truck was running, and they couldn’t open the hood for the flames & heat. I offered to grab my garden hose, but they had 4 inch hoses for use with the town’s fire hydrants. They unrolled one of those and attempted to douse the flames, which poured smoke directly into all of my open windows and doors. I ran inside to seal up the house, as the burning plastic and wiring smelled awful. Then after 10 minutes, or near enough, the fire department came, and support units, and police, and sorted it out. They had to use the jaws of life to open the hood enough to stick a hose in and get at the fire directly. The void left in the engine bay once all the wiring, hoses, and plastic bits were gone was astonishing. So enjoy a gallery of the event now.

It was after all this hubbub that I wanted to turn on my AC unit, to discover the fan had seized. So I soaked it in Jig a Loo for several hours, and with a block of wood manage to get the fan to turn freely, without having to whack it, or reef on it. And what do you know, the ac works once more. Although the air smells of air brush cleaner. Hope that’s not a Freon leak.

There are a few things that I know my wife loves, Spa Day type creams and face masks, fancy cheeses & a fresh baguette, grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, and Europe vacations, and fully functional house hold items. A few of these things I can do, and happy to do so, others, not do much. It’s the BIG 4-0 this year. She doesn’t want a party, and I’m ok with that too. I spent a lot of money, time and effort last year into getting a party up and running for my wife and all bar two people flaked, so it looked really desperate, which made her feel bad, and I wasn’t too keen on a repeat of that. I had ordered pizza, fancy cheeses, charcuterie food stuffs for 12 guests, and their children, so when only 2 people came, it looked really weird. And no, I didn’t leave the invites to the last minute, nor forget. I called, texted, and emailed to get dates, times, and kids programming ready, six weeks out from the event, and still they ghosted us. I was not impressed. So no party this year. Immediate family only. I also picked up a sash, head band, and ribbon for the birthday girl. 40 in candles, a banner topper for the cake, sparklers, and pink balloons. It’s not a party, bit I think it shows we care!

I’m done grocery shopping for today, and I’ve cut the grass all ready this morning. Just having breakfast before I tackle my work day projects, and also send out invoices for the month of May. I’m annoyed now. Having thought about those people flaking on my wife’s birthday party at the last minute on the day of, or just not showing up at all. Argh!

You know what, I think I’m just hot and hungry, and a touch dehydrated. I’ll chill with a cold drink and a bagel and will even out in a moment. Gah!?!

Because being angry all the time just ain’t worth it no mo. Put out nothing but love and kindness and you may find yourself surrounded by those you care about, and those whom would feed upon your kindness like a leech. Taking, and taking, until you feel all used up. Have to find the middle ground between being cautiously guarded and free spirited. Balance. That’s what I’m talking about. Finding balance. Moderation. Trust & respect. Trust that there are those who would take advantage. Respect yourself enough to put good things out into the world knowing you may have to keep it away from those whom would seek to take it all for themselves. Whee!

Tuesday is upon us. Still here in the month of May. Just barely though. Tomorrow the month is O-VER! And along with that switch to June, comes the last weak days of school. Looks like a long dry summer ahead. I will need to prepare invoices tomorrow and send those out as we completed yet another month in this year of 2023. The Tax-man did take his chunk, his pound(s) of flesh, and now I need to work hard to rebuild in preparation of next years bite. Save save save, wherever possible. Tighten that belt up. Cinch it tight.

I’m just talking nonsense. I have a project to start, and I’ve been wasting time instead of starting. Hard to not want to sit here in the shade with the birds singing, a slight breeze, and lovely warm (not yet hot) temperatures. Back to it. Yehaw!

Summer is just about here. 20°C at 8:00am on a sunny Monday morning, means we are getting so close to summer time. Shame the kids school will become a sweltering cesspool of sweat dripping concrete walls, and humidity before the week is out. Although we saw a significant reduction in temperatures from the BC wild fires, and now that Nova Scotia has a significant burn going that smoke will reach us here in Ontario in the coming days, giving us vivid red/orange sunsets, and cooling the daytime sunshine by 5-10 degrees potentially. Will it taste of smoke, soot, ash outside? Probably not, but both sides of the country being on fire this early in the year is a terrible sign of things to come.

My youngest was bitten by a black fly on Saturday morning, and now the ete brow is swollen, and very pink. Doesn’t seem to be causing any pain or discomfort, but troubling to look at. Something we will need to keep an eye on over the next few days. Make sure the eye doesn’t swell shut, or develope any strange illnesses, like a fever, fatigue, or nausea.

We took a very sunny Sunday morning and did a bunch of tie dye t-shirts out on the front lawn yesterday. We made five shirts in total. I tried a newer (to me) method of folding up a shirt in rectangles, like a set of Venetian blinds. Looks cool. Will need to try squares, triangles, and anything else we can come up with. The kits are microwaveable, so the dye sets in two minutes, instead of having to leave the wet shirts somewhere in a plastic bag for a few days before rinsing, drying and wearing. The kids have some of those shirts on today at school. A good way to kill an hour or so. My hands wound up looking as though I had murdered a unicorn or smurfs. Some magical creature which bled out all over both of my hands. We have a very colourful patch of grass under a tree out front where the rinse water went after we were done. I’m certain we have pink dyed rocks out front as well. The dye gets everywhere. Drip, drip, dribble, dribble, drop. Happy Monday all. Ciao Bella.

That’s my fault. I’ve gotten out of shape and I don’t wish to blow out a knee chasing the birdie all about the end of my driveway. Near perfect weather for it this morning. Hardly any breeze, sunshine, and warm but not sweltering hot. We’ve taken a shine to Badminton over the winter, playing it for brief stints in the hall or living room. It’s a stunted game when we play indoors. Low ceilings, narrow halls, pendant lights. It’s a whole thing. But now! Now we can play outdoors. So far we can comfortably manage between 4 & 7 returns in our rallies. We have no net, and keep no score. Just trying to get to a point where we can just pass the birdie back and forth, before we worry about things like nets, court sizing, and the ultimate conditions needed for competitive play. Hell we are also trying to get out basketball dribbling down pat, before I invest in a hoop, or whole rig for the front driveway. On occasion we’ve even spent some time bumping and volleying in preparation of playing volleyball come grade four (4). Trying to stay active without over doing it. We played a couple games of road hockey in January when we had oddly hot weather for two weeks, and again in early March, prior to getting the ‘Vid.

I think going on a bike ride will be the next big thing. I should get a wider & softer seat for myself, because… ouch. I’m also 10lbs shy of the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life, and all that extra weight on one tiny seat will leave me walking funny for a day or two. Too much pressure over such a limited amount of area. A fuller seat would alleviate some of that, or so I believe.

The mosquitoes and black flies have been unpleasant so far this spring. I can only imagine how bad it is at the cottage. My sibling in Ottawa has been swarmed by them in Ottawa, so cottage country must be horrendous right now. Yuck.

I finished off our back hedge row yesterday, and gave myself all new scratches on my arms that sting and throb. Cedar and me don’t get a long. Not as bad as a Juniper bush, but enough that I look as though I attempted to hug a badger. Strike that off the honey do list. Now I need to find a way to dispose of three fairly large piles of brush consisting of Maple limbs, Lilac limbs, and the top 6-8ft of my entire Cedar hedge row. It still stands 10ft tall, so it’s only noticeable if you knew how much taller it was to begin with. I have let it grow untouched for 8 years. And this winter’s heavy snow & ice storms caused them all to nearly bend in half. Hopefully this way, now they will thicken up along the trunk and not be so susceptible to bending during inclement weather. I need a trailer to get rid of these three enormous piles. Not like farm enormous,  but suburb enormous –  piles. Couple hundred pounds of dead and dying wood, brush and leaves. Too much for a mini van to lug around, unless I took five or six trips, and even then, might need a few more after that. I still need to clear out over the top of the back of our shed, but I hurt my biceps using the loppers, and didn’t feel like doing more damage to my left arm. Both shoulders are sore today anyway. So glad I called it off when I did.

Yesterday was a very long and productive day. Only one more month with the kids & wife out of the house until summer starts, and then things will get really crazy. Ciao Bella!

Beauty of a morning, up early, and the kids are out on the ice. Looking at a short week next week with the Friday PA day for report cards. Hope the weather holds up on Friday and we can spend a good chunk of it in the pool – for free! We’ve opted not to choose day camps for the kids for the day off. A morning in the pool would be a welcome change I think. I’m sure the kids will agree.

The Saturday morning turn out is as strong as ever for Ringette. Happy to see it. I hate when things fizzle near the end. I do wish it were a few hours later into the day, but this way the whole day is before us, and our obligations are done right as we all get up. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy sleeping in, but I have years of that to look forward to once these kids become sullen teenagers, or just get fatigued from high school life, home work, extra curriculars, work, and life in general. Top of the morning to you. Ciao Bella.

What I was saying the other day regarding Marvel movies, I sat down and watched Wakanda Forever, Black Panther 2, and I enjoyed it a great deal. A real tear jerker regarding the untimely death of Chadwick Boseman from bowel cancer (IRL), and a mysterious illness in the movie. It was a decent enough follow up. I guess that’s the Iron Heart girl from the comics filling in with a Tony Stark-esque way with machines & suits etc… cool cool. I can dig it. He left a void which needs to be addressed in one way, shape or form or another. The visual effects were still good enough to not annoy me, or stick out for feeling rushed and unpolished. I’m now kicking myself for not seeing GOTG v3 in AVX, but I’ll still watch it on blue ray at home. I should watch the holiday special and catch up on the characters too. I’ve been really tired as of late (Covid after math most likely) and had to wait to watch my back log of stuff. I’m none to keen on Eternals just yet. Maybe on a miserable rainy day I’ll give it a whirl. Just thought I’d add my addendum in, given I spoke of Marvel movies just a day or two ago. Ciao Bella – again.