Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

The HST bill came in yesterday, and all I can say is – Ouch! Not quite as bad as the Income Tax bill, but enough to leave a lasting mark on my account. Yeesh! Not a fun two months paying these bills. Now I’m going to need those invoices to start pouring in left & right. On the plus side I do have some to go out in the next few weeks, so I’ll puff up a tad. Which just means more woes for tax time next year – Ha! The never ending cycle.

I should give more thought to going full time in-house somewhere, only the thought of a commute, and being around other people for 60 hours a week, makes me feel queasy. Not to mention the added cost of pre & post school child care, travel costs with gas and the train, I’m not certain how much further we’d come out ahead. Not to mention only seeing my kids for spits and spurts in the evenings, or on weekends. I love’em too much to not see them every single day, and be there for pick up & drop off. Maybe a part time job to keep money flowing inbetween my busy sessions might be worthwhile looking into. Manual labour to keep me from developing RSI on my wrists from being at a computer 24/7. Who knows. I’ll look into it.

I may just need to pick up a new client to fill some gaps. Or talk inactive clients into doing some new & exciting design work this year.

Well I gotta go cut my jungle of a lawn. Chat again soon. Ciao Bella!

I know I was a little taken aback by the revelation that dementia and multiple strokes ran in my wife’s side of the family also. Not a terribly cheerful late stage of life for our kids to look forward to, if not regarding us, but more so themselves. The brain meltiness runs on both sides of the blood lines. Both rails of that double helix are cursed! Do what you can to steer clear of environmental factors that might tweak it, twig to it, or add more fuel to that type of fire. Not the kind of legacy one wishes to leave to their kids. Brain melting illness that you can do nothing about. Wonderful. Such is life I suppose. Can’t enjoy the highs without also experiencing the lows. Though to be honest, I’m perfectly fine on an even keel, but that might just be me. Perfectly cromulent. No massive wins, but no catastrophic losses either. Like I said, cromulent. Adequate. Reasonable. Acceptable even.

In other news I need to make some phone calls regarding this malfunctioning water softener, and I’m not too keen on sitting on hold for two or three hours to get no where with it. The gloom outside isn’t doing much to assuage my reticence to make those phone calls either. I’m sure the local water table is happy for the recharge, and refill. Sitting in my living room and looking outside the difference of a week or two is remarkable. The leaves are almost all out in full force now. There are a few hardwood trees late to the game as per usual, but damn. This town looks really great with all that leafy green goodness finally here.

Maybe I should take this time to go pick up the birthday presents for this Friday’s movie party my kid is going to. I’m just not in the mood to do much of anything right this second. I’m glad I came home from drop off and went right to work on a couple projects earlier this AM, as I am losing all ambition to do… anything, really.

Oh, I finally saw Ant-Man three a couple nights ago. Now i did watch it on my phone, so that could be a factor here,but it was, meh! Ok, nothing spectacular nor a total abomination. I have fallen off the wagon here recently. Well since Covid i guess. Dr Strange 2 MOM, Thor L & T, Black Widow, Ant-Man 3, none of these have been particularly amazing viewing experiences. The Disney plus shows were better. Hawk eye, and Winter Soldier, even Wanda Vision were really fun. The films seem lacklustre in comparison. I have yet to see Eternals, nor Black Panther 2. I want to get out to see GOTG V3, but don’t think i have the energy to go tona late show just yet. I haven’t seen their holiday special yet either. Falling behind. Falling out of the demographic most likely. Worse things can happen.

I really had a taste of that with the first two new Spiderman movies with Tom Holland. Playing to the youths. Great for them, less interesting for me. Heavily laden with responsibility Peter, now that i can identify with, but it don’t track with the preteens and the kids of today. Nor should it. Let them be hormonal children with deep emotions, and grade school problems.

But, as I was saying, I saw Ant-Man 3, and it was ok. More of the same. Funny when you think that Paul Rudd is into his fifties, and doing all this stuff. He was great. Funny & charming as always. Hard to go wrong there. The MODOK stuff felt like a shoe horned stretch, but, I mean, I guess? Ok. He didn’t seem pivotal to the plot, just a way to kill ten minutes or so of screen time. I don’t know where they go with Kang. Is this all simultaneously happening along with the Loki show? That was a good one too, far more so than a good portion of these films. I could do with less scene starting hair flips though, that affectation from Loki wears thin real fast. Tie it back, shave it off, or do something else. I bet there is a jump cut of all Tom Hiddleston’s hair tosses from Loki, and it’s probably a full eight minutes long. Chill out with that. You’re going to hurt your neck. Will much of the Kang story line be wrapped up with Loki season 2? I feel as though they are painting themselves into a corner here. But I’m no movie maker, I don’t know what they’re going to do. Invest in some quality control would be a start. The VFX are sliding hard core into the bargain bin with less polish, fit ‘n finish. But I digress. It’s like, how does the original iron man have better cgi than Dr Strange 2 MOM? they are 10 years apart, or close to. Jeez.

Anyway, enough whining from me. Ciao Bella.

In the last few months it has become increasingly apparent that my wife is getting more & more forgetful of things. Now it’s only minor stuff that I know of at this point in time, but it feels very much like a return to ‘baby brain‘. The exact kind of short memory loss she suffered when sleep deprivation set in from the immediate aftermath of the birth of our children. Am I concerned? Yeah – a little. But given how close we are to the end of the school year, which means the high school kids she teaches are going mental as they attempt to try to pass their classes last minute, or come to terms with summer school enrollment or failing for another year, things get hectic. Add in her year off, and planning to make her replacements life easier, and you have yourself a recipe for things getting missed. Like water bottles, lunches, keys, etc… small stuff to be sure. At least for now.

My MIL had a potential mini stroke yesterday where she became confused, and forgetful and spoke gibberish for a short period of time, but tests at the ER said she was fine, and in no imminent danger. Turns out this sort of thing runs in their family, both sides, so that’s good to know. My grand parents all died with dementia, cancer, or from strokes, so yeah. That’s something we all know now. Add in bad hearts, but issues, deafness and you’ve got yourself a real party! How can you not smile at a time like this?

Tuesday today. Nearly forgot about the trash & recycling. But I caught it. Seems like today we’re at the end of the line and not the start of the route. Those guys either get here at 7:01am, or not until 5:30pm depending on which direction they start their routes from. Never the same time twice in a row. Trash can roulette. My favourite past time. Haven’t had that chunky raccoon by since he pulled my garbage bin cover apart. Added close to forty new screws the secure it, and tie it together, along with some additional cross braces, and wood glue. Seems to be holding up, but I won’t really know until that fat little fucker tries to break his way in again. For all I know he may waddle through my repairs without a second though. Little shit head. Not to mention our squirrels are still pulling the blooms off of our tulips to eat them fight in front of us. If I had a pellet gun, oh I’d show those little monsters a thing or two. But alas, I don’t, and thus I cannot.

Opened my inlaws pool this weekend. The kids all swam. I opted not to. The pool heater was on, but the air temperature was a tad low, and windy, so not my ideal conditions. We did take in some very rainy fireworks on Friday with a good portion of the town. That was fun. Kids were up until almost midnight. Slept in the next morning for a change though. That was unexpected. But welcome. First time in ages we didn’t go to the cottage. Our understanding was that the bugs were horrendous, worse by far than usual. So we stayed home. The 1 year anniversary of the Dericho storm came and went. Luckily without a repeat performance. I have a generator on hand because of that 26 hour long power outage. Live and learn.

I need to go swap over the laundry. So chat again on day 526 (a.k.a tomorrow). Ciao Bella!

The kids were gifted a plastic skateboard by my wife’s aunt over the Christmas holidays, and we found it in the garage this morning, so obviously we had to try it out. It’s far too small compared to my longboard for it to do me much good, so the girls are giving it a whirl. Our three wheeled scooter has made a brief appearance this morning too. Helmets on for safety, and away we go.

I was just moments from falling asleep last night when I suddenly remembered the longest bike ride I’ve ever taken by myself, and with limited water on hand too. It was the day after a big break up and I took a bike 32.3Km one way from our home in Erin Ontario, out to Belwood lake. I was gone for the whole day. Caught the sun real bad. I just had to stay busy & tired in order to not get too wrapped up in my break up, at the time. Had one water bottle, and finished it once I reached the lake. Took off my shoes and socks and waded into the water. Sat there for about an hour. Then suited up to ride back home. I recall stopping off at a former work friends farm along Hwy 26 to have a rest & refill my water. I just wanted to die by that point. Still had like 2 hours left on my ride home too. We chatted for a bit, and I sat on a comfy chair to rest my groin from the rock hard seat old mountain bikes used to come with. Then rode on home, and showered and collapsed. 64 plus Km in a single day. I have never done anywhere near as much riding in a single day since. I was very dehydrated the next day or two, and had some horrendous leg cramps that night. I’m not sure why I thought of it. Why it came up. I do know I wore my hand me down red Sir Oliver Mowat gym t-shirt for the whole ride, and my yellow & black soccer shorts. A white & red cap on backwards under my helmet to try and stop my neck from burning (unsuccessfully I might add). It all came to me, and then I just couldn’t fall asleep for several hours after that. I hate taking those solo trips down memory lane. One thing cascades into another, and then lots of details come flooding in, and what? What am I to do with these details? Revelations, forgotten memories. Just sit with them, let them wash over me, and carry on. Not much else you can do when that stuff comes flooding in unbidden like that. Weird feeling that is. It’s like how I used to forget where my locker was, like every year there would be a stretch where I would be like, “where the fuck is this locker!?!”, and wander around until it would come to me weeks later. Like oh yeah. Here it is, exactly where it was. Same combo from year to year. You were just three down or three up the row. Idiot boy. I was distracted ok. I was sickly, depressed, tired, and an insomniac. Not surprised that stuff would vaporize out of my brain and then spontaneously reappear as though I hadn’t totally lost my mind for a few weeks about this one thing. Life is messy. Let me tell you. Or not. I’m not your guardian.

There are currently more coaches, and coaching assistants on the ice, than all the kids combined from all three levels of Ringette skills groups. Can’t say I blame those whom didn’t show up today. Dank, dark, grey rain outside, and the first big holiday of the summer season. I’d be in bed too if I could be.

The kids are tired after being out until after 10:00pm to watch the town fireworks show last night. I incorrectly thought it started at 8pm, the fireworks that is, not the event as a whole, so the actual 9:30pm starting to the light show was not my favourite thing. Oh well. Gotta read the fine print. My bad.

Glad I cut the grass yesterday because after this long drizzle into a downpour the grass will be a foot tall before you know it. Blink of an eye it’s a wheat field with tall seedling grasses. Yikes!

But one that has been challenging to achieve has been my weight loss. I have been angling to get down to 195lbs, and then reassess, tweak my plans to get to 175lbs. But due to our March Covid infection I’ve had to put my physical weight training on hold, as from what I’m reading out of the EU is that I need to go very slow for 3 months post infection, so as to reduce a late stage swing into ME/CFS, or Long Covid symptoms, or reactivating the Epstein Barr virus I had in 2015, which was super unpleasant. So I haven’t lifted any weights, been running/jogging, or done push ups, squats or anything of the sort since mid March. We will start swimming in the next three weeks, and I’d like to get out on my bike too. Had some new, weird pains in the body, chest, and back since the infection, so I’m holding off for now. Do I like being pudgy and inactive? No, not really. Do I hate it enough to risk major complications over and above my Crohn’s Disease? No, not at all.

So a tough spot to be in. No summer body this year. Ha. As if. I’m not aiming at Adonis, just less spare tire around the middle, less lethargy, and the ability to lift my kids from the couch to bed when they fall asleep. All without putting my back out would be a nice touch too.

As far as the weight goes, I dropped down from 213lbs to 203-205lbs hovering there for the last few weeks at least. More water intake, keep myself busy, and try to integrate physical activity when it is safer to do so. Slow & steady, with long term behavioral changes, just like my 521 day streak of writing. It’s not all Grapes of Wrath, sometimes it’s just ad copy for toilet paper, you know. But I’m doing it, daily.

And hours have gone by, whoops! Designed that way, and very effective. Taken a number of trips there by following a stream of funny videos, one after the other, on and on it goes. Time vampires, the lot of them. Ha.

There was something I was going to do today, but I can’t remember what that is now. We had to go out last night to cover all the newly planted flowers in order to protect them from yet another frost warning. So I have uncovered them, but that wasn’t the ‘thing’. It just needed to be done. Spent two hours getting the new water softener set up yesterday with the Plummer. I just moved stuff when he pointed at it, and handed the man tools, and chatted for a bit. So that isn’t the ‘thing’ either. Although I do now have access to large chunks of cardboard with which to make my own custom box for my Moose Fence Topper. I have bubble wrap too. Lots of it. Taking up space behind my wood stock pile. I washed the resin pieces for my model kit on Monday, and I’m still not in the mood to paint, so that ain’t it either. At some point it has to come to me doesn’t it? Yeah – likely at 2:40pm as I gearing up to go grab my kids from school for the day.

Was it to power wash the exterior windows? Was that it? I know I was thinking about it. Not sure it’s warm enough to get all these fresh flowers wet right this second. Cars need a wash too, but that isn’t it. God damn! What was I thinking of. Memory holed once again.

Was it the floors? Laundry? Grocery shopping? Dishes? Nothing is ringing any bells here. Did a lot of that on Monday & Tuesday anyway. I’ve pruned trees and shrubs, cut grass, weeded the beds, sent stuff down to the compost pile… what the hell am I missing? Waiting on review for paid work. Hmm. I just can’t think of what was coming to mind yesterday. We talked about the hedge row, was that it? I don’t really know. It’s not twigging any alarm bells. I’ll take a look outside again, see if that triggers anything. Have a good day all. Ciao Bella!

Gotta love the reco to wear masks and utilize ventilation against an aerosolized danger coming AFTER the emergency is declared over. One reason for that, and one only. To save money. If they’d have said it during the emergency then the governments would be liable, and on the hook to pay for ventilation upgrades across the board, and be liable financially for all those hurt, injured, or killed through their inaction. So the reco comes in the day after the emergency order is dropped. Gotta love it. Text book. Take care of yourselves because nobody else is going to. Assess your risk with no data reported. Like playing blind folded poker against a house that has marked the cards and won’t let you see if they are blind folded too. Put yours on first they say. Such is life.

I had a thought late last night about a short story idea. No, I didn’t have anything to do with Covid. It started because I sort of remembered this catch phrase one of my brothers used to use when we were kids, and into our teens, but I’m not sure if it came from TV, or a movie, or was something weirdly local to where we grew up in Scarborough. I’m just about to go and look to see where (if at all possible) it originated from. Gimme a sec to go check… So it originates from an old Adam Sandler comedy tape. Not local to us. Good to know, so if you shout “Fuck me in the goat ass!”, a few people out there might get the reference, or at least kind of remember hearing that in their youth. Not sure why it came to me yesterday, but it did. I was too tired to go look it up. Glad I did though. Moving on.

Wed-NES-day, Hump Day, Middle of the Week Day, again. What a blustery cold day at that. I saw kinds in shorts and t-shirts at 8:00am when it was 4°C outside. Yikes. I was in a jacket and the icy wind was cutting right through me. Silly sods. Gotta watch the thermometer, and not the calendar there bud. In years gone by we’ve had snow this deep into spring. Gotta dress for the conditions on the day, not the average for the month. A hard lesson learned across the land. Not that I enjoy fighting with my kids to look beyond the sunshine and green grass. Look at the temperature though! Look at it, closer to Zero than any other number! Gotta wear long pants, a sweater, and a light jacket. Trust me. Given the cold ears, and trembling while waiting in line to go in, my kids should be thrilled that I pushed for the weather specific clothing options today. They aren’t, but they should be, dag nab it!

Did the grocery shopping this morning too. Might even run the dish washer. WATCH OUT!, crazy fun times guy over here! Whoa. Going to have to ask you all to keep it down. Might start a block party with all this JAM. What with the dishes, the groceries, the floor cleaning, and laundry. When does the fun stop? I don’t know. I just don’t know. Next thing you know I’ll be outside power washing the windows or the cars. I can’t help myself. Somebody stop me!!!

In alternate news I’m halfway through book 13 for the year. I picked up Don Winslow’s “City of Dreams“, the second part of the Danny Ryan trilogy. Last book comes out in 2024 from what I hear on the Twitter. Just as fast paced, suspenseful as the first book. I don’t know what to read next.

Maybe I’ll go pick up sculpting another monster, haven’t done that in quite some time. I have been slowly picking away at the resin model kit for all these weeks. I have everything I need to complete the feet up to the waist. Then it’ll be head, chest, arms and backpack. I think it has a fairly large rifle packed along in there somewhere too. I’m just not in a painting mood yet. I got a fix of that doing up the details on my mum’s Moose Fence Topper. Waiting for the clear coat to fully cure before I break it down, and sort out the shipping. Not looking forward to that bill. Yeesh. Glad I made it from pine, and not ultra heavy hard woods. That’s all the rambling I have for today. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Is upon us, at least in Alberta anyway. The billowing smoke is affecting our weather, and giving us flaming red sunsets aswell. The air smelled a wee bit smokey this morning at the school drop off, but my thinking is that was more locally sourced due to the overnight frost warnings, and chill air this AM. And not a scented carry over from out west.

In other scented news our Lilacs are about 2 to 3 weeks early this year, and there is zero chance any will still be open and perfumed by the time my wife’s 40th birthday rolls around. A shame that. Usually the Lilacs only need to hold on for a couple days, but seeing as how half are already spent here, we’ll have no luck keeping the aroma until early June. Which sucks.

Makes me wish I could find a Russian Olive tree to plant around here, I love the way those smell. Or get some Jasmine planted near by. Anything with a pleasing aroma to make being outside on our property more appealing. As far as being visually appealing the apple tree blooms are going all out this year. Half of the cherry tree is blooming now too. The tulips, those now dead headed & eaten by the local squirrels, are looking good this year. We bought and planted about 50-75 last year, and the chipmunks, squirrels, and bunnies ate most of them. We had twenty five, twenty eight actually bloom this year, and a portion of those got gobbled by the wee bastards. Little shit heads.

I have a few Glads to plant, so let us see if any of those come up later next month. Ciao Bella.