Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Is not much fun to be the constant reminder regarding their obligations to school work. I’ve been reminding my oldest about their book talk three times a day for the last sixteen days. And now with just a mere four days to go, she has decided to start reading in a panic, and has found several words they can’t decipher. Zero sympathy here (which sounds awful I know). For three weeks we’ve discussed the need to pick up this book and actually read it. Which shouldn’t be too hard as I’ve read this book to her on two separate occasions. But waiting until the week it is due to just start makes me angry.

Every single day when we get home from school I’ve said, you should pick up that book, do a little reading. Made sure the tv was off for the first hour we were home. Fixed them drinks & snacks too. In 21 days, of reading a little each day she could have completed the book and started the assignment. But now with a week full of evening events to do she wants to start and try to finish it. Foolish. Absolutely ridiculous. I’m not writing this for her. No way. Take the terrible mark you’ve earned and use it to motivate you to do better. Take some responsibility for the lack of effort you’ve put in. That’s how I feel about it.

It isn’t like we’ve done anything crazy around here to warrant not starting. I didn’t dangle lazer tag, or paint ball sessions to lure her away from doing her work. We didn’t visit theme parks, go to the movies, see concerts, or go to parties as obstacles to this homework getting done. The weather has been rainy & terrible which has kept us all indoors. She chose to sit to watch tv, or hide in her room instead of doing the assignment. We all know that she had five of them to do this year. And with three completed it isn’t like she did not know what was expected of her in getting it completed.

We even have speech to text apps on her computer to help her get started on organizing her thoughts. Then her mother or I cut & paste her thoughts into a coherent order. And ask follow up questions to get cleaner answers or more context. But I can’t do that unless the book is read. So I can be of no help here.

And it isn’t like we don’t model the joy of reading around here. I have hard cover/paperback novels that I read most days in front of the kids, and their mother reads e-books on a Kindle or phone every single day. We derive a lot of pleasure from reading and communicate such to both kids. After this one gets presented on Thursday there is one more to do for June. That one has to be non-fiction. Depending on which book she finds and what it is about, that could take a good deal of discipline to finish. Looking forward to that.

I need to check the lug nuts on the van, and possibly retorque them all. I had wanted to vacuum the inside too, and power wash the exterior, but with more rain in the forecast for today that may not be a smart use of my time. Lazy Sunday spent reading it is then, for all! Ciao Bella.

My Briggs and Stratton lawn mower which is now 17 years old, started first pull – again. God damn. If that’s not a statement towards a products solid design, then I don’t know what is. I’m no mechanic, I’m not terribly mechanically inclined, so 99% of that sturdiness and reliability comes down to the motor itself. I change the oil once per cutting season. I have wire brushed the spark plug once or twice in those 17 years. I use new gas each year. And I wash & clean the air intact filter once per cutting season. I sharpen the blades once or twice per year too. I once had to replace a spring that works a plastic flap which regulates the air intact, but that was a one off. I’ve lost bolts that keep the cowl/cover on, so it isn’t perfect, but God Damn am I happy with this 22 inch mower that could. Also – shout out to my 17 year old Echo line trimmer that started up problem free again this year too. All that has ever needed was a new rubber bulb for priming the fuel through the system. That Echo was probably the most expensive piece of lawn equipment that I ever bought, other than my John Deere ride on mower that now resides at my in-laws cottage property. It still runs like a champ too.

After I get our water softener replaced I’m probably going to splurge on a new rolling work bench / tool chest with butcher block work top. Just hyping myself up for the expense. Hoping the one I want goes on sale for Father’s Day. Looking to save a few bucks if I can. Or maybe my van will go bust and I’ll be happy I didn’t spend all that money just yet. The problem with being cheap and cautious is having a hard time spending hard earned money on stuff just for myself. Gah! Kentucky derby is about to begin, gotta jet.

Waking up early to get out on the ice again. Learning to skate, out on the ice again. Listening to the whistle blow, out on the ice again. Under the florescent glow of those lights again. Sitting on the chilly plastic seats out by the ice again. Whee! Happy Saturday!

Spent about an hour last night working on my 17 year old Briggs & Stratton Lawn Mower. Washed it, drained the used engine oil, drained the old gasoline, and sharpened the blades. It took longer to scrape the dried grass off the bottom of the casing than it did to do anything else. Still a heavy sob to lift up onto my bench. But, this time around I didn’t have to fight with the nut holding the blade on, I used my Ryobi impact wrench to do the heavy lifting there. I braced the blade with a sturdy rubber mallet, and zap! Came right out. No cursing, banging, or reefing on the socket to get it to budge. A lovely bit of kit that is. I’ve used it three times since I bought it in September, and it has gone wonderfully each time, saved me busted knuckles and a bunch of time.

I was smart enough to disconnect the spark plug this time around. Had lots of mower engine oil on hand, so no worries there. This was the first year I hadn’t drained the fuel by running it dry. Not too certain what to do with this jug of water logged fuel. Perhaps I’ll soak some junk logs with it, and then burn them over the weekend after it has off gassed for a few days. Not sure. I do need to go buy more new gas for the mower, trimmer & generator to be prepared for this summer season.

Made it to Friday, and the sun has started to peak through the clouds. Blue sky is visible! Good gravy that is nice to see after 7-10 days of grey rainy mess. I for one am pumped up about it!

I do need to find some new bolts to keep the cowl/cover on my mower. Over the 17 years I’ve had it, it has mysteriously been dropping these quarter twenty look alike hex head bolts out of it randomly. I have never stood on one, or come a cross any of the missing ones in all the years I’ve cut our grass here. And we moved here in 2009. I only cut grass here with my stuff. You’d think I could stumble across at least one of my lost bolts at some point! I did manage to locate the 10mm socket I dropped in September when repairing our broken dryer vent. That was just sitting on top of the leaves beside the garage door. I was over the moon excited when I rediscovered it. My set of sockets was once again complete! I did buy a replacement and a deep version off of amazon, but I can’t have too many 10mm sockets laying around. I need them to have one flat side so they don’t roll off of everything and disappear into the ether. Poof! Gone. I have an Allen key that did the same trick a few years ago while I was working on my lathe. After all this time, several years now, I have never stumbled upon it. My garage isn’t exactly cavernous, nor is it chock a block full of stuff (anymore). My clear out, tear down, and reorganizing has opened up a fair amount of floor space. But no random Allen keys have been located. Weird. The interdimensional vortex known as a garage floor when working with small parts. It’s a conspiracy I tell you! Gotta be gremlins or something. Off the table top, and… it’s gone.

With that bomb shell, I bid you adieu. Ciao Bella!

They plagued us for years and so I built a wooden covered box to house our garbage cans and recycling bins, and the coveted green food waste bin, because the damned trash pandas were scattering food scraps and garbage all over our stoop and front lawn. The bin worked really well for three or four years, that was, until last night, where a fat little fucker chewed into the lid, and snapped off a strip of cedar and then proceeded to pull as much trash out of the bin as was possible. Little fucking menace. I’m going to have to glue, screw, and pin nail a bunch of new strips together to thwart this dirty little shit head. Fuck! Four years with no problems, so why now? I throw all of our food scraps into the compost pile in the back yard. There’s no reason to into the bin. We don’t use the green food waste bin anymore, it all goes to the bottom of the yard into the compost pile. You want a snack, go there you idiot fuck. In case you haven’t noticed I’m annoyed at the mess, and the destruction of my cedar bin box. Rat bastards, the lot of them.

I think it’s Thursday today. Still raining and cool. Looking for the weather to break tomorrow, and we should get a few days of clouded over sunshine. I’ll need to prep the lawn mower to begin a new season of lawn maintenance. Oil change, new gas, blade sharpening, and a cleaning. Loads of dirty fun to be had. Ciao Bella.

Will not help if it pours for so long that everything floods or gets washed away. Did sacrificing your time & money in favour of not spending it on experiences help you in this situation? You lived through a forced austerity of your own making, and now what you did put away is but a splash in the bucket of the vast amounts you’ll need to rebuild. Was it worth it? To deny yourself all those memories, experiences, and in most cases, things you coveted. Hard to say. If something entirely out of your control hadn’t happened then you’d be golden, but now that an unforeseen circumstance has struck from out of the blue, you are no better off, actually worse, because you denied yourself things & experiences and memories that would have made you a happier person for brief stretches. It’s all so chaotic and random. I think planning ahead is a good thing. I think keeping a bit of control over your impulses is good. I think wasteful spending is terrible. But in the end something you can’t plan for, or expect may ruin everything. Some food for thought.

It’s Wednesday, Hump-Day, Middle of the Week Day! It has stopped raining for the moment, a hint of sunlight is reflecting off the cloud cover, and I managed to finish all my cleaning yesterday. I also made some slight progress on my resin kit, yes that is still ongoing. I have the legs dressed (armor), ready to be washed and painted. I got the new hips assembled which took some effort to do. Sprung loaded joints and all that fuss. I’m just about ready to once again primer the now reformed inner structure. At least for the hips to the toes anyway. I see I need to update both the chest and shoulders now too. So it is slow going. I was really busy throughout April, so I didn’t do much beyond spits & spurts whenever I could squeeze in three to five minutes of sanding, clipping, and drilling for test fitting all of these pieces. Might have it done by Christmas! Ha.

I’m more than half way through book twelve of my reading challenge. The book is good, but I’ve come to realize it’s part of a series, and I probably won’t get much of an ending to this first entry. I was kind of hoping for a solid one off experience. Who knows maybe I can locate the later entries in the series somewhere nearby. Or I’ll give it a miss. I’m just looking for quick, simple, one off stories worth reading all the way through. Not exactly a tall order.

The Dune Part Two trailer is supposed to drop at some point today. I’ll go scour Twitter or YouTube to see if it is up yet. I have some Photoshop work to do today, but otherwise a little lighter schedule than usual. Got out after school drop off to do some grocery shopping. Just a quick zip through Wally-Mart. They really give you the gears now to sign up for their customers rewards cards. She was a tad insistent if you ask me. I’m willing to bet they get audited to see how many cards they can sell in a shift. Poor buggers. I don’t need nor want anymore credit cards thanks.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Finally had my tax bill prepared for me yesterday. Ouch. That took a rich, cleaved down to the bone chunk out of my account. Oof. Benefits of having earned more, and foing more paid work in a year. No matter. It’s what I have the secondary account for. Saving to pay the Tax-Man. Not my money, never really was to begin with. I have my HST payment to look forward to paying in June, so the damage is not done yet. At least this time around I’m not waiting on 2023 jobs to pay for 2022 taxes. As I get older I’ve gotten smarter and more cautious with spending money frivolously. At least that is what I tell myself. Whether it’s true or not remains to be seen.

I have saved enough to pay my dues, but I was hoping that the amount would be a bit lower, as I wanted to use whatever is left over to buy our new water softener unit. So I’ll need to redo my budget to cover the additional $1,000.00 for the unit plus install. Which can’t wait too much longer as hard water is probably damaging our pipes, faucets, shower heads, dishwasher, toilets, tub, washing machine, hot water tank, and anything else I can’t think of right now. So I’ll need to bite the bullet and make that purchase sooner than later.

I’m going to sort laundry, vacuum the floors and perhaps mop today before I start to work. I’ve made considerable progress on the website reskin project over the last two weeks, including yesterday, so I feel comfortable doing my Domestic Duties this morning. Towels to wash, sheets to wash. Clothes to sort & hang up. Oh my. The loud music awaits me! Ciao Bella!

Just brought home and opened an organizer for my impact wrench bits, and it wasn’t fitting properly, and I was fixing to throw a fit, but as I grabbed the box up to get mad at it I saw I bought the 3/8’s organizer and not the 1/2 inch. So my bad. I should have realized the price difference, and box sizes were relative to the sockets they carried. It won’t be an issue to fix it tomorrow by buying the appropriate size, but it did make me see red for a moment there. But it is my error. So glad I didn’t get too carried away with it all. On the plus side I do have my impact wrench bits sorted, and away from my regular sockets, so hopefully less chance for catastrophic failure when torquing on nuts & bolts. Just what I want to avoid, fatigued metal shrapnel from an exploding socket to the head, neck, chest and extremities. Super!

So last week was a wild one. This week, less so. At least for now. So I’m going to fire up the washing machine for the girls clothes, then hit up the dish washer, and do some tidying up before I go down to my office to pick up where I left off with the website reskin project I began a week or more ago. Domestic Duties Monday! Welcome back Kotter! Meant to grab milk when I dropped by Shoppers for my Rx, but spaced on it. Totally fled my mind while I was in there. I was so focused on my Rx, I didn’t even twig to the need for milk. Not until I wanted to have cereal upon my return from school drop off, and I was all…”Oh yeah!”. Had enough for cereal, but a bit light if looking to last more than another two days with my Milk-asaurous children. It’s almost 10:00am, I need to get a move on. Ciao Bella!

The 19 year drought of never progressing to round two of the playoffs has been reset. Will they play the Florida Panthers or the Boston Bruins? I don’t know. But we’ll find out later on today. I’m a fair weather fan. A band wagoner. My seats tilt back off the wagon at the slightest provocation, I won’t lie. I was watching the game at a buddies place and had a particularly strong beverage to celebrate in stunned shock once they pulled out that second goal in OT. Once I stumbled home it took an hour or two for my couch to stop spinning before I ventured, still stunned, off to bed. But congratulations to the Leafs for resetting the clock after a 19 year stretch. May hockey here we come!

It has come to my attention that I have been writing daily for more than five hundred days in a row now. Five hundred and one to be exact. So I can say this with some clarity, a certainty that I didn’t have before. I no longer write here because I feel the need to express myself, though that is a perk, but rather I write now because it has become a habit. It is more automatic, almost autonomous. I like to see the number of entries, and the length of days increase. How far will I take it? That I don’t know. It was at first, a test to see if I could boost my numbers prior to the new year starting which was a three week panicked stretch, and then it followed that I had a miraculous year of creative writing when work had come screeching to a halt, and now it’s so ingrained as a part of my day I find the ten to fifteen minutes needed to write no matter how chaotic my day is. What I’m saying is… I don’t know how long I’ll go for, or even if it means the same thing to me anymore. I have been so busy since January this year that even though I find a little slice of time to jot down a meandering post, I haven’t had the time, creatively, or mentally, to do any creative writing whatsoever. No shorts. No micro-short stories. Nothing beyond a streak maintaining blurb on the heaviest of days or weeks, and gone again.

Sometimes I get so far removed from creative writing I worry that I have lost the touch, or the sense of how to craft a narrative, characters, or meaningful dialogue. The last few years it came back to me after exploring a few select one off short stories. But now my attention is elsewhere. Increased output of the day job, wood working and refining my shop space, building out the resin kit, which takes so much time and effort & planning. So much, so, so much. To be honest I haven’t done any sculpting either, nor found much time to play guitar, or build miniatures and terrain pieces. I am very excited about the new increase in paid work, but I lament just a little, the tiniest bit, that lost creative personal time. But on the plus side, I can afford home repairs, oil changes, gas and groceries once again. And I’m still working from home, and see my kids in the mornings, do school drop offs and pick up, and horse around with my children instead of having to commute, or be in an office 50-60 hours a week fighting to climb a greased up corporate ladder with missing rungs, and its own internal politics. More invoices sent out is good. Less personal creative time is sad, but not a deal breaker. As the previous few years have shown us, nothing is certain, nor carved in stone. It could all dry up and go away at a moments notice. So I’ll take what I can handle, or slightly more so, and plan for those gaps in work accordingly.

Today is Saturday April 29th, 2023. The rains started yesterday afternoon, and plan to stick around until the end of next week, according to early forecasts. Umbrellas and boots for all for the next seven to ten days. But by the time it stops the world outside should be verdant & green. The heat will begin to turn up, and the shorts will come out, and sun screen will need to be applied once more. Gotta love it. Ciao Bella!