Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Funny, that. A few weeks ago it seemed miles away. Two crazy busy weeks later and it is just a random Friday at the end of April. Notable because the CRA here in Canada is on strike, and as far as I know, my accountant has not been able to process my taxes yet. Otherwise, not much else going down. I blazed through a hefty report, and busted my guts to complete a laundry list of other projects for other clients, and now I’m a bit frazzled. So much so, that once again, I have not prepared anything of note for this 500 Days of continuous writing challenge milestone that I am currently crossing. Just another empty feeling goal. I applaud my “stick with it-ness”, but on the day it feels empty. It’s only when you take a step back to think about it all, does it even register. Huh. Such is life I suppose. Guess that’s why rich folks are all so sad, or depressed. Gotta enjoy the process more than the end result, as the doing is where all the intrinsic value is, and the struggle. Gotta keep reinforcing that fact. I seem to have to keep relearning it, time and again. I’ll be happy once I, I’ll be happy when, if I can only get to… in the shit is where you need to be happy. Hard lesson to have to take to heart. Now, on a parallel note here; one would assume that winning a huge sum of money might prove a bit different, and could be just as much fun as it looks. But I think those that grind for their empire, trying to reach their first million, those types are the ones still miserable even when counting the zeros before the decimal point in their bank account. Not all of them, but you gotta sacrifice, and grind, and step over people to get those dollar bills, and it can leave you lonely at the top. I would assume.

So – Friday. End of a crazy week. So very busy. Wrist made it out still functional. Oh! I almost forgot. I finally stuck to my guns and did a full tear down of the table I had left in the garage. Which allowed me to move my mitre stands orientation, and open up another wide open path through my garage shop. It feels so light and airy in there now! I am rethinking the new chop saw. May stick with my old & trusty 10″ Skil miter saw for a while longer. I am now looking at a mobile work station with full length drawers, and a 52″ work top, to replace my old smaller Craftsman work table. I will cannibalize it to steal the peg board, light, and power strip. But will get rid of everything else. I now need full drawers to be able to properly organize my hand tools, and still be able to do wood working projects. A full tool chest would inhibit that I think. Not that I’m going to rush out to buy the mobile work bench any time soon, but it’s what is on my mind right now. The new fixation. It’s fun to scour the web looking for deals. Though, if I could find a reasonably priced 1.5, or 1.75hp motor bandsaw for my resawing needs I’d swoop in and grab that first. I gotta find a way to process all this Ash without having to run it through my planer 10,000 times. Just a total waste of materials to do it that way. Yeah, so I’m fixating on a mobile work station now. I’m finding it annoying to rummage for tools in over packed drawers. Plus I’d like to get rid of all the plastic injection moulded carrying cases i have accumulated. Organized, flat, and readily accessible in larger, wider, deeper, drawers is my new jam. For how long? No idea! Whee!

I still occasionally think about my children’s book. I didn’t dream it! Still have all of the working files for it. Work is not done being crazy. I have a website reskin project that starts on Monday. I put a few hours in so I don’t have to start from the very beginning. I’m nearly half way in, or a little more than that. A good place to be. Or so it feels. All the best to you out there. Ciao Bella!

No mention (that I’ve heard) of a filing deadline extension, so I guess a bunch of Canadians will get that delay of payment percentage fine to look forward to. I packaged my details up and sent it to the accountant weeks ago, but haven’t heard anything back, am I worried? Yeah – sorta. But I can’t do anything about it. I’ll just pay it when I know what that amount is. I’ve been holding off on a home repair until I know what I owe, so that I can budget for a new water softener plus installation costs. Might – might have to buy it before I know my tax bill as this hard water, and old faulty leaky softener are not doing this family any favours whatsoever. But that’s my two sense. One more stress to add to the pile I suppose.

These cold damp rainy days are really starting to wear on me right about now. The forecast shows another five or six days of overcast skies and rain. Gah! That one weird week was such a tease. Would have been better to just add a degree or two of heat for every other day in the month, than to have that one spontaneous summer like stretch. I get that the grass, and trees, and the water table etc need the recharge because before you know it the rains will stop and we’ll be in drought conditions. But – sweet cheese, I’m getting sick of the cold.

Also, can you believe it’s gonna be May! In just a few more days. The speed at which this year is moving along feels kind of alarming. No more months of click, click, clicking up the coaster, we’re up & over the precipice whizzing through the year at break neck speeds. That – or I’m just getting older and time has started to move at a greater pace because I have been so busy this year all ready. So far I’ve had no 9-11 week breaks with no work. It’s pretty incredible. I have been steady going since January 2nd of 2023. Pretty much unheard of since I started my business in 2006. Peaks and rush periods – well yeah! Duh!, but nothing like this constant stream. Truly is wild. Glad for it too. Like my old InDesign instructor used to say, “The reward for good work, is more work!” A truth more certain has never been uttered in my presence. I took that statement to heart, let me tell you.

One positive about all this rain is that the fertilizer I put on the front lawn yesterday afternoon should soak in. Birds were trying to eat it, but I can’t imagine that’s good for their insides, like, at all. The bag has a poison control number on it. So we tried to shue the birds away. Will I have more lawn than weeds this year? No idea! But I’ve made the slightest of efforts this time around. Bathe me with your admiration! Bask in the glow of my minor glory! The most modest of attempts! I’ll take a cookie & the medal please.

Lots of kids laundry to sort and put away today. Perhaps some loud music will ease my troubled mind. Hey get rythm! When you get the blues, come on get rythm…

That’s the sound of this latest report kicking my ass. But I have sent it off for review, and my arm/wrist is just a throbbing! Best fetch the Voltaren yet again and slather that shit on good & thick. It wasn’t the only work I had this week either. Which would have been tough enough on it’s own, but I had several, nearly ten if I think about it, multi-part projects to do on top of the report both yesterday and today, combined. A real brow beater of a few days. I’d like to spend tomorrow doing sweet F/A if I could, but that seems unlikely. No matter. I’ll do some grocery shopping tomorrow to finish off the week for lunches for the kids. I did at least three loads of laundry, not yet sorted or put away, but washed & dried nonetheless. A win in the Domestic Duties column! I did some tree pruning to remove as many dead branches as I could on Friday, don’t need any serious injury from those widow maker storm snapped branches on my conscience. Got a good jump on the legs for the resin kit last week, even after realizing I had to pull the old legs apart to add in the previously unmentioned swap out parts. So that was fun. I could potentially wash, prime and paint those leg pieces, if I were so inclined. I’m not. I’m too tired and sore right now, but the option is there if I want it. Good to know, good to know.

I’m fairly certain today is Tuesday. Feels a bit off, because I worked through the weekend to meet a very tight deadline. I’m a little discombobulated at the moment. I need to check the schools lost and found for my daughters gloves. Had a notice that the L&F is getting removed come Friday so it’s now or never if I’m going to have a look for them. Do it now, or forever hold your peace type deal.

I even have the dishwasher running. Almost managed to stay on top of my home duties while working hard. Not 100%, but I’m giving it a try in my off moments. Meal times, and when I need to pee. Dash off to load the washer/dryer, fill & start the dishwasher, move the garbage and blue bins. It ain’t much but I got’er done.

Ciao Bella!

This project is fairly large. After putting in around 16 hours over the weekend, and finishing prepped pages this morning, I’m down to the last 30 subsections. Some subsections equal one page, others can be five or six pages, depending on various factors. It’s a long haul, and I’ll be leaning heavily on my Voltaren to keep my wrist mobile for the rest of this week. Frequent breaks, eating, and stretching should keep me going during these stressful weeks! All the best out there. Ciao Bella!

And the kids have gone to the Zoo with my wife so that I can work on this massive report without distraction. Thus far, moving along smoothly. How long that will last is up in the air. Right now I’m taking the path of least resistance approach and doing whatever seems easiest to garner some positive early wins. That will keep my spirits up so that I want to come back and try to squeeze in more completed pages. It’s a weird affectation I have, but it seems to work when I’m under lots of pressure, and a difficult time line. So ciao!

Fighting the urge to sleep in and not get out of bed until you really, really excruciatingly need to pee. But alas, ringette calls and the kids are up, dressed and on the ice before 8:00am. Such is life.

The foreign language instructions you followed precisely to build your inner frame, the structure upon which every other element rests, is wrong. Well not wrong precisely, it just omits to tell you that various body parts you were instructed to add on with epoxy, metal pins, or glue need to be swapped out once you move on to the second stage of the build which is adding all the armor panels and dress up bits (think photo etched metal fins, and metal bearings, things of that nature) that no longer work because the internal frame you meticulously build doesn’t fit those parts anymore. As you are expected to swap out integral frame segments, heretofore never mentioned, like ever, not even hinted at. So I had to take a fine kerf blade to it and saw my resin model kit apart. Pull parts off that would give. And then use a dremel to reopen tenon and mortise points because the old tabs snapped off and stayed behind inside those needed voids. Not impressed. But I suppose with new pins, epoxy & putty I can dress up my errors – again. Would have preferred to know about the swap in parts from the very beginning. But the two sets of instructions are sealed in two separate pouches. Had multiple separate baggies with their own listed parts. I can all ready tell I need to swap the hips, and possibly even the shoulders. I don’t know how I’m going to do that, as the arms are glued up rock solid. Damn.

Oh well, on the bright side I’m going to be too busy next week to care, so I will calm down by the time I come back to it. I forsee then next two weeks, possibly three being very busy for me. I have a big report coming, a web site reskin project, also gathering up materials for a third company’s archives, and any smaller items that pop up in between. So atleast 2 weeks of heavier than usual work flow. Perhaps the weather will have turned a corner by then. Do need to remember to visit the bank next Friday to pay my income tax. That’s a biggie. A key element to next week!

Today is Friday. Another week down. Will also have invoices to send out next week. So that’s always good! No big plans 9n the horizon, so hopefully a quiet weekend spent chipping away at this big report that’s coming my way. All the best to you out there. Ciao Bella!

As of this morning the radial arm saw is off to its forever home at my wife’s high school in Sutton. Where it will spend the rest of its days cutting chunks of whatever they have to throw at it until it dies. The saw was second hand to me, and most likely from the mid eighties or perhaps nineties. I don’t think it was made earlier than that. A sturdy, and extraordinarily heavy item. I fought with it for a good hour just to get the damn thing into the back of my wife’s SUV. Unfortunately the 2×4 stand it was on could not go with it. It failed whilst being moved to the trunk of the SUV. I ended up having to use a sledge hammer, saws all, and a crow bar to get the thing broken down (the stand that is). No major loss, the tool still works, and I locked it down so it won’t swing around and clang the whole drive there (I hope). They are definitely going to want to have two or more people move it, as it is deceptively heavy. Cast iron, and almost entirely metal parts. A Sears Craftsman item from the 80’s! It’s loaded with metal parts. It would serve quite well as a boat anchor. Now I have freed up more space! Yay! Not sure what else I can do to open up the floor anymore. Well, I mean I do know, I just don’t want to. I don’t have thousands of dollars to buy a 72 inch 3 bank rolling tool cart & hutch, to consolidate all my hand tools etc into one spot. It would leave me with no where to put 2 of my 3 vices. I already need to modify my wood working bench in order to accept the smaller second wood vice. I don’t have a long enough table top to mount a permanent metal vice too. Maybe if my bench were a full 8ft long, but at just under 6ft I can’t afford to give up that much table top real estate. In order to mount my second wood vice I need to cut down one end of the table to 3″ thick, down from the 2×6’s I had used to build it, otherwise the vice sits too low. Not going to happen any time soon, as a project like that needs to be thought about, thought out, and planned for. It will also take me an hour or two of cutting, hammering and chiseling before I can even attempt to dry fit the vice. I have to mount it where it makes sense, but also doesn’t interfere with where I set up my box cut joinery jig at the far end of my bench. Can’t be hasty about this. Have to tamp down my desire to be impulsive.

We have arrived at the Wednesday portion of the week. Far enough in to see the weekend, and far enough away from Monday to settle into projects, meetings, conference calls and whatnot. Once again I’m not certain of what today will bring work wise, so I’ll putter around the house tidying things up as I go. Throw some junk away if I can. Yeah – that’s the ticket! That usually sets my phone to chirping, if I decide to tackle a home project of minor importance. Ciao Bella.