Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

I am excited to see what else AppleTv+ has hidden up its sleeve regarding video content, and perhaps movies too. I doubt they have anything else Ted Lasso like, so I will be switching gears to go mystery thriller, or sci-fi apocalypse aftermath akin to Fallout. A show on Amazon which I got two or three episodes in before moving on. I own the third game, but never opened it, nor played it. Got it as a birthday present to myself many years ago. Looked fun, but complicated. Skill trees only ever make sense once you’ve committed to doing them wrong I find. And by then, whom would ever want to start over again to correct it? Not me.

Saturday means climbing sessions with the kids. I’m excited! Could do without the extreme cold temperature warning though. Yeesh. It’s going to be a tad nippy outdoors today. Not a fun walk from the parking lot to the gym locale. Will need to trot at a good clip to not suffer the worst of it. Fun fun.

Yesterday’s PA Day was mostly uneventful, thankfully. I worked during the day, on & off while I sorted out the girl’s needs. A short lunch with grandpa, then back home for more work, then 2 hours on the back hill tobogganing with friends to wipe them all out. Of course they were both up until nearly 10:00pm waiting on their mum, but that’s par for the course around here. We have a process, but not neccesarily a schedule if you know what I mean. The girls get their particularness from me. Borderline tunnel vision for how their nightly routine ticks off boxes. I apologized all ready. Ha.

Soon I will get rid of the wood cut offs in my garage. Soon the childrens kitchen will head up north. Soon, if I haven’t bought anything else to use the funds, I will buy a propane heater for the garage so that I can in fact work out there if I so choose. But, and here’s the big ole butt! I can’t just be out & about shopping for other things like a dedicated climbing bag, or fitted apparel from the climbing gym, nor books off of Amazon, or any sort of tool that strikes my fancy between now and late February. And here’s why; the heater will be $200.00 plus dollars, and I will need to buy several 1lb propane tanks for fuel, and will need many D batteries or an expensive 6 volt adapter for the wall to run it. That’s a sizable purchase for myself, so if I go picking up bits here, there, and everywhere then I’ll have spent the few bucks I’ve saved to cover it already. Tightening the belt is a state of mind. I still have to get gas for the vehicles, and buy groceries, but the extra spending has to slow to a trickle, if not completely stop. Takes concentration, and dedication. I don’t like debt, nor being broke. So cutting out the frivolous holiday spending attitude, and trimming around where applicable on the “must do” spending. Going off brand for toilet paper, paper towels, or disinfectant wipes is one thing. But staying true to brand names on items we all love is another. Finding coupons, and sale deals, or bulk sales will help too.

I’ve bored you enough this morning. Happy Saturday. Hope your elementary PA Days are getting somewhat easier as the days go by. Ciao Bella.

It took 90 minutes for my trusty late 2014 iMac to start up, and load the Adobe creative suite, and actually open each of the three programs that I use daily. After many aborts, false starts, and force quits to programs not responding it did manage to losd them up, and work. But if I were in a rush, or traveling I can’t be doing a 90 mi ute boot up, and restart. And that’s no guarantee that they would actually do more than just bounce their icons, and stall out. It’s positively nerve wracking. Makes my insides roil with turmoil. Thanks — I hate it.

All joking aside I am glad that it turned back on. It has taken quite some doing to get all of my up to date files shared across two computers. I thought that the iCloud folder was larger than just 5Gb, but that’s a paid monthly subscription to get more. Handy for passing pdfs between machines. I haven’t had much luck in the past from airdrops, so I tend to use flash drives, or an external hard drive, or microsoft one drive to transfer large volumes between machines. It’s clunky to use so many different options, but I’m no IT guy, so I do my best. I’m just glad I didn’t have to do it all 32Gb at a time with a thumb drive. Which reminds me, I need to update my 8Tb tower with all of the new files I’ve made since early January. The work of organizing never ends!

We are back at it again, with yet another PA Day. I spent much of the morning doing my computer stuff, luckily I was able to send a few invoices, and other various emails once I got the old iMac to boot up successfully.  Well, I didn’t do much of anything but hope & pray, and give it time to do something, anything at all. Turns out that 75 – 90 minutes, along with some relaunches, and repaired files saved the day. Much appreciated.

Kids are on their tablets either playing games or watching videos side by side. Now that they are getting older they require less constant monitoring, and can be trusted to ask me for items that they can’t do themselves. Frees up time to actually work, if only a little interrupted by meals, snacks, questions, laundry, and beverage requests, turning on/off gaming consoles, tech questions about the dvd/bluray player, the radio, or to play in the yard. You know, the usual. Kids. A full time commitment. I work from home, so that’s my jam!

I do believe it is Friday today, so all the best. Let us hope that climbing tomorrow is just as much fun as it normally is. Tried to get out on Tuesday night to go again, but the idea was snubbed. I was a little saddened by that. February is almost here. Go get your Valentine’s Day affairs in order. A card, a gift, a dinner reservation or delivery order. Whatever it is, get on it.

The last game my daughter attended with me was a real dud, a nonstarter, very lacklustre, a no show, a whiff, a swing & a miss. It was like they were holding in commercial break mode whilst the game was going on around them. Very strange. But an experience nonetheless. The three previous games she gone to had all been wins for the Leafs, so we were hoping they could pull one out late in the third period, but with only six minutes to go they finally showed up to play, but were ultimately unsuccessful. On the bright side we caught an earlier train, and got home before eleven pm. A notable improvement! Would have been happy to atleast make it into overtime, but I digress.

We left a bit earlier than usual in order to eat at the far cheaper food court at Union Station. Had some tacos for our troubles. Train ride was smooth, food was good. There was a group there with a megaphone chanting about Palestine, which raised some smart questions from my daughter. We talked about it for a little bit, but that’s a long conversation to have with lots of nuances, and political wrangling that I wasn’t up to the task to delve into in a Leafs Jersey in a food court, eating Taco Bell. Food was good, drinks were cold, icy, and rather tasty. Fries were better than normal for a change.

We wandered over to the arena and then poked around inside Real Sports looking at cups, gloves, jerseys, coats and more. If I had an extra three hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket you could do some real damage in there. The professional level jerseys start at $616.99, so yeah. Nearly a grand for an “exact copy of what the pros wear on ice” is cool, I suppose. Too rich for my blood, but good to know you can get that kind of quality if you wanted it.

We settled on a new TML scarf for my daughter, and a toque for myself. That killed the last of her TML spending money for souvenirs, but I think she’s happy. In all she got a named/numbered Matthew’s jersey (from her uncle & grandpa) a puck, a mini puck, a toque, another plain jersey (this was a birthday present, actually), a metal coffee mug with lid, a t-shirt, and the brand new scarf. So she’s all set for the years to come of watching the Leafs play.

I wanted to get a sweater to wear under my jersey, and over my Matthew’s t-shirt, but the one I liked was $300.00 plus, and the reasonably priced ones were too thin, and not my cup of tea. No worries, I’ll live.  We were looking for gloves, or mitts for my daughter but the ones she was after were sold out, or not visible on the shop floor. Plus it was real crowded in there, and loud, and far too busy to shop in any semblance of peace. Not my bag y’all.

Then we made our way up to the seats, and cheered all game long. Heard some good razzies from the crowd. A couple of good natured pokes at the team. A sad loss, but we still had fun.

The worst part was the train ride home where the toilets onboard were out of service, or had homeless people hunkered down in them, smelling of faeces, vomit, and other unpleasantries. My daughters back teeth were floating she had to pee so bad, we walked through nearly half the train to find a serviceable, and open toilet. Found one though! Phew! Could have been a real issue if we hadn’t.  Gotta love the TO homeless crowd. Can’t we get these folks some help, and a place to stay, some food, and a chance to bathe? Really. I’d gladly go back to paying for license plate stickers if it would help, schools, hospitals, and the homeless population.

Man, I live this Ted Lasso show, but boy does it make me sad. Sign of good writing, and acting I suppose. If I cared to check I’d wager it won a few awards for both of those things. Starting season three at some point today if I can.

Also started book #5 a day or two ago, it’s the first Mistborn book by Brandon Sanderson, someone I haven’t read yet. I started Elantris at some point last year, or in 2023, I don’t recall which, but only got forty or so pages in when an Amazon delivery arrived and I read the newest item I had in hand. Didn’t look back, so now I can try again, and see if I’ve been missing out. He, the author that is, comes up on my YouTube shorts feed quite a bit talking about the act of writing, so my interest is renewed. For now. I’ll give the book atleast forty or so pages to draw me in before I bounce to something else.

Though, truth be told reading four books in January was pretty decent (for me), and my eyes are giving me a little trouble. Not sure if it’s eye strain, dry eyes, aging blue eyes, or terrible lighting in my house. An eye twitch has made reading progressively more difficult as the month wears on. I’ve made an appointment for the end of next month. See if we can’t learn something about myself then.

Oh what a feelin’. Off to a slower than normal start today. School and chores still come a calling at the same time, but after a bitterly cold walk where we saw a coyote on our way into the darm, we’ve been a bit subdued. I got paid work off for review, and I hot the dog tags taken care of for 2025, so not a total loss of a morning, but not a particularly auspicious one. Could be a moody blues settling in now that winter is well underway. I do so hate the cold. Wind, snow, freezing rain, I hate all of it. Lack of colour, and feeling penned indoors, are not conducive to a vibrant “vibe”. If you know what I mean. Nothing so much is wrong, but it feels a little off. A bit of seasonal depression to keep the back straightened. No matter, with time the sun will come out, same with the grass & leaves, not to mentioned fun outdoor activities like biking, long boarding, swimming, and road hockey.

Otherwise not much else going on at the moment. I have fewer than 100 pages left of my current book, a Leafs game to look forward to, and climbing on the weekend. It’s all good.

It really is a feel good charmer of a series. It’s a shame I had to wait until I was given three months Apple TV+ for free to be able to watch it. I intend to binge Ted Lasso, Severance, and potentially Silo too if I can manage it. I think there are a few movies on there too that I could not watch anywhere else otherwise.

I got through just four episodes last night before I realized it was midnight and had to shut it down, as school comes early in the morning. But here we are! I have three seasons of this show to enjoy. I’m excited!

Got through the rest of season one, and it made me tear up once or twice. Bravo — well done Ted Lasso. It’s looking good for seasons two & three if you ask me. Onwards and upwards.

The holiday season sets a terrible precedent with personal spending habits, and my January investment in a new computer further extended that habit another month. Add in the new mouse, and Apple care and I added an additional $4K to an already higher than usual bill. Yikes. Now I actively have to stay my hand when it comes to just picking up bits, and Bob’s that I previously wouldn’t even think about. Twenty bucks for a book here, forty for a dog grooming tool there, gas, groceries, and some other fanciful gear for the shop there, and what do you know the Bill’s have ballooned up once again. So, now I have to reset my brain, batten down the hatches, and rein it in because with these new tariffs coming, and the corporate world leaning into AI so heavily I can’t be assured of work coming. I’m fortunate right now that I have concrete dollars locked in for ongoing work this winter & spring. That I am thankful for, very much so. But I’m not Daddy Warbucks, I can’t be spending thousands each month just because I “feel” like it. Prep for the worst, while hoping for the best. I’m fortunate that I’ve done two big reports all ready this January, and I know of at least one, possibly two more to come, so my first and second quarters this year (2025) should pan out to be fairly even with the previous two years. I’m not taking in millions here by any means, but I’m not totally broke yet either.

I hot ten years out of my last computer before it became obsolete on the software upgrade side. It doesn’t support all the new additions to just about anything. So I had thought ahead to set aside funds each year for the replacement. Not much, but some. And luckily I bought the same spec’s on my new machine that I had on the old, but more streamlined, and $2K cheaper if you can believe that. Meant a drop from a 27 inch monitor to 14, but eh, what can I do about that. I had thought (hoped?) To turn my older computer into a monitor for the new labtop, but it turns out the late 2014 model iMacs don’t support such a feature. Oh joy! So I might need to go get a cheaper monitor so that I can keep working in the fashion to which I have grown accustomed. Or not. Again reining in the spending!

I have a library of books I haven’t read yet that I can go tap into. Stop being lured in by the bright, shiny & new novels I hear about, and go read those which I have already bought, and paid for. It’s a real mindset shift. Maybe I should disable Amazon from my phone? Probably be a hood idea. If I have to drive out to book stores, and malls for things that might curtail all the last second spontaneous spending. The problem isn’t the one off, it’s the cascade a one off starts. It’s the snowballing, runaway compounding effect of it all.

I’ve been poor. I’ve been dead broke. I don’t want to go back to debt, and heavy struggling, and flipping payments between cards, and pushing funds around to look like I’ve made payments, and then draw that over to elsewhere. It sucks. I could never work enough, or save enough, or not spend enough to sort it out, until I got a far better job, and my wife’s help. Drowning sucks. So we tighten the belt, and rein it in. Christmas will be back before you know it!

My wife and eldest daughter have gone away to an overnight Girl Guide camp so it’s just the dog, the youngest and I here for the weekend. We started off strong with dinner at grandma’s house. Then home for an hour long soak in the tub, where she was able to watch 2/3rds of a movie in the hot bubble bath until pruny. Then we played some Minecraft together where I built tunnels, and underground hovels, and she intermittently came in and killed me for fun. Then it was tooth brushes, hair brushing, and a good night story. After all was said and done, with a fair few stops in the middle for very long, and intricate questions about everything under the sun, she was asleep just after 10:00 pm. Not my best time, but given how attached she is to my wife, the fact she slept through the night without scream crying is considered a win. I had packed a snack & beverage in the fridge for her should we wake before me. I’m sure she did, but the dog barked at the front door just after 7:00 am, so it’s not like I overslept anymore than on a regular weekday.

I’ve taken the dog for an hour long forced March at the farm, so hopefully he isn’t too revved up when we come back from rock climbing and lunch today. He is ever so slightly getting more bold about spending time in the yard doing dog stuff. That’s a brief win. It has been very, very cold here lately so he hasn’t done all that much alone time out of doors, but as it warms up, and he settles in further, I hope he can chill on the deck by himself while I vacuum or mope the floors, without him walking through it all, or getting scared and hiding on my bed.

The girls looked a bit tired, but seemed to be having fun when we facetimed each other last night. I believe they are cross country skiing today for a little while at least. I hope my wife’s ankle holds up, she has a tendency to go over on it, and hurt herself a great deal. It swells up like a melon, and goes all purple. It’s agony to endure I’d wager. So with any luck she will give that a miss to sit, and relax a bit.

From what I could see the cabin they are in looks reasonable enough. I don’t know about the two troops worth of ten year old girls though. That might be a major source of irritation because I just know a good third of them were too excited to sleep, and got loud & chatty late into the morning hours, and are probably a bit irritable, and snippy today because of it. Fun times!  There’s always one too amped up to sleep that keeps others awake along with them. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Ha.

Is it Friday already, wow this week was fast. One half of the family are off to a two nights Girl Guide camp out of town, so the dog & I will be trying to keep my youngest occupied for the duration of this trip. That means Minecraft, funny fail videos, karate chop bed time story time, rock climbing solo acts, and private lunches just the three of us. If I can convince her to watch a movie, or play a board game we’ll do that too. Perhaps some ninja turtles / dungeon crawling on the xbox if we get desperate. She does have three books to read before going back to see her tutor, so we’ll kill an hour doing at least two of the three.

We could go for a wander around a mall out of town, just the two of us, after we walk the dog that is. Maybe head out to Square One and get our 20,000 steps in for the day? Ha! Right. Go for a walk about, check stuff out, grab a meal, see a movie, make a real day of it? Nope. Too little still. Not interested. Maybe when both kids are in their teen years they’ll want to spend the day out with me then. Right now they can go about an hour to ninety minutes walking around before they get bored, have sore feet, or just want to go home. I appreciate their efforts nonetheless. I think that if they should become more clothing oriented they will appreciate my ability to wander a mall, checking stuff out, waiting for others to try things on, and grabbing food stuffs, and not rushing around. Especially when the weather outside is awful, a climate controlled stroll is fabulous, add in tasty snacks, and a new book under my arm and you’ve got yourself a deal.

Probably why I like to just walk the aisles at Canadian Tire, and Home Depot, or Lowes, and Rona when I want a bit of exercise, but not be outdoors in the snow, rain, fog, or high winds. I have very little knowledge of current trends, so going out to look at the broader picture of what is, and isn’t available anymore will help you to see that. We can get pretty silo’d when we shop online, and not go outside with other people. I realize the looming spectre of both Covid, and this Avian Flu are major detractors which has shifted people away from public spaces. I get that. But if you want to remain current, or in “the know” then you have to go out to see what’s on display, and not what has been specifically targeted to you by algorithms, and advertisers whom know you too well. That’s just an echo chamber.

We’ll see how things go once the February 1st deadline hits and the tariffs drop into place with the US. That could potentially curtail a whole lot of sales. Hopefully we have enough local producers of all types of products who’ll see a sales boost as we depress what we buy from out of the states. If the price of gasoline and water spikes heavily in the US then that might out some pressure on them to come back to the bargaining table and rethink their position on trade. But I’m no economist, nor negotiator, so what do I know? Nothing much.

Plus, wow it’s almost February. One whole month of 2025 knocked out all ready. That is wild. Still feels like Christmas break was last week, only it was nearly four weeks ago. We’ve had two deep freezes, a bunch of snow, some fog, high winds, and rain. January has been a month. As we head into the dead of winter, those grey sunless blahs really make themselves known. Blue monday approaches! With any luck we will get past the worst of the winter, and we will be head long into spring before you know it. Well spring, and tax time. The tax man cometh.

Second semester is about to start real soon, which means just five months left of the school year. Five months until my youngest turns eight! Good grief.

I always thought those CLIF bars were supposed to be healthy, like some kind of activity recharge type thing. But due to the high sugar content it’s just a deconstructed candy bar really. Not so much a meal replacement, or healthy alternative, as a calorie dense treat. The chocolate oatmeal ones are pretty delicious if you ask me. Not a weight loss option. Not a meal replacement.  It has far too much sugar to serve that purpose. Would be good while climbing though, I suppose.

It’s a balmy minus eight today, so a far more reasonable temperature for the kids go have outdoor recess, and a play time after lunch/meal time. I know my kids hate being cooped up inside the school from first to last bell. You can read it plain as day on their faces. Plus they tend to be real punchy at home. Quick to irritability. Fighting ensues with little to no hesitation after an entirely indoors day. So now they are able to roll in the snow, and soak their socks in puddles at the door. Nice!

Walking the dog when it’s like that is no picnic either. We just about ran through our route in order to get back into the car and go home as fast as possible. No moments to watch clouds, birds, or bunnies. No looking for deer tracks. No admiring the sun rise. Just in and out. For us these deep freezes are short lived, and more of an inconvenience. Don’t get me wrong winter is still cold, and full of snow & ice, but typically it’s liveable atleast. These polar vortex, historic lows are getting out of hand though. It crossed minus thirty the other night. Water freezes in mere seconds at those temperatures.  Ouch — nasty!

Spending some time today tracking down older unpaid invoices, looking to see where the funds were put. Fun times.