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So either today, or tomorrow perhaps I will venture outside go put the first batch of Christmas lights up on the house. It is supposed to be warm but rainy today, a bit cooler and sunny tomorrow. I have time to think about it first. My gut instinct is to do it now, so I’m not thinking about it all day long. Get it out of the way. Plus if it is sunny tomorrow,  I can complete this years leaves to the best I care to do, and then all I have to worry about from now until it snows is the patio furniture tear down & removal. I like that plan. I like it a lot.

Going a bit lighter this year too. Blue strands on the house. Red on the big tree, and green beside my Oogie Boogie inflatable. My multicoloured strands have gone to the dump, same with several defunct blue strands, and my oldest, and longest reaching strand of pure white lights. Fare the well my good friend. You illuminated this house for more than a decade and then some.

Now that these beautiful days are few and far between I really need to maximize what I can get done, and what I can get out of them chore wise. Changing tires in freezing rain is no fun. And cleaning gutters with snow covered leaves in them is an awful experience. So while I’m up on the house attaching light strands to the gutters, I will also be cleaning them of leaves a debris. Slows things down a little, but makes it so I have to climb the ladder fewer times per year. That’s still a win in my book.

You never know we could luck out and get another warm spell later in the month, or into December too, but I can’t count on that kind of thing happening, so I’ll plan to do this stuff as soon as I can. One less thing sitting on my mind making me feel panicked. Happy Tuesday.

And let me be the first to tell you, my back aches, my fingers hurt, and my thighs are sore. Ha! Same old song and dance. That was about 90 minutes of excessive bending at the hips, and trudging through wet mud, and dead vines to lug bricks around and palettize them. A solid five layers of bricks on a full sized pallet. At least it wasn’t rainy, nor too hot. It was a balmy 10°C, partially cloudy, and breezy Sunday afternoon in the late afternoon sun. And by late afternoon sun, I mean it was three pm, and the sun was on it’s way down already! Yikes! Time change day is so weird.

I have to go and double check that I have found, and altered all of the clocks in the house today. I think I missed at least one block in the basement. The dog was nonplussed by the time change so that was a relief. He is a free eater, and not on a strict meal time so he wasn’t about to pester me for breakfast. Thankfully. But he might get antsy for his morning walk though, so there is that.

Today is Picture Day at school, so our house is a flurry of activity doing hair, and finding specific clothes. Why my youngest didn’t want to find her outfit yesterday I’ll never know, but my oldest did do that, so we are dealing with just 50% crazy this morning. Fun times!

The dog is a full week out from his surgery, so he is back on the morning drop off routine. Which means my wife’s week off from work is over, and she will be returning to work today. Probably has a staff meeting tonight so I’ll need to keep both girls with me for Taekwondo tonight. Cooking class is over now, so another activity is destined to start some time soon. The life of parents with small-ish kids!

I’m out here in my garage, the sun is shining, the temperature is above zero, and I have a few hours to try to fix these Christmas lights. Time to reduce the number of strands, but increase the number of working bulbs per strand to 100%. It’s probably going to be dull and boring work, but what else can I do on a Sunday before football starts. We walked the dog for an hour at the farm, the time change gave us all a brief lie in, and the kids have a play date in progress.

Yesterday was full to the brim, so today I’m keeping things as low key as possible.

***Editor’s note: fixing most of the lights was a bust. I did complete two full strands but the rest are destined for the garbage heap. Not enough replacement bulbs, fuses, time, effort or money available to fix my pure white strand, or either of my multi coloured strands. I will either have to buy all new ones this year, or next year. Depends on how I feel when I put the exterior lights up on Tuesday when it’s hot out once again. If I’m happy with our set up, then I’ll leave it be for this year, and possibly next year too. Hard to say. I do like a lot of colourful lights at Christmas time. But also not having to put up an addition 12 strands of knotted lights is a time saver, and kind of a boon once it gets real cool & damp here in southern Ontario.

Either way, I made the effort, tried to fix multiple strands, and tossed a bunch of old junk. Sorted the old car seats too while I was at it. Slowly but surely I will tame the mess that is our garage. Between outhtown children’s bikes, holiday decorations, wood cut offs, tools, and consumables I use during wood working sessions the place is a real work in progress.

If I had a rocket stove, or fire pit I’d have that thing running 24/7 to rid myself of saw dust, wood shavings, and cut off waste pieces from various projects. But I don’t so I’m stuck waiting to have it taken up north so that we can burn it there instead. Free day burning starts November sixth, if I recall, so it will still be a while before I can get it going.

I am very hopeful that I will get our lights up on the house on Tuesday, and I can do one last push on the fallen leaves to clean everything up. I do need to buy some premium gas to cleanse the mower before I set it away for winter.

Three of them today atleast. Two 10th birthdays and an additional Trick or Treat special for all the little kiddies at my wife’s uncle’s property.  I did sleep in until 8:30am, so I’m pumped to get things jumping. We’re in Vaughan at the moment waiting to get inside The Bubble. I’ll check in later on.

After 30 minutes in the trampoline section my legs feel like Jell-o and I’m as hot as can be. Ready to munch some pizza and be a bit quieter for the next little bit. Party #1 is nearly done!

Spent some time taking down the Halloween inflatables, skeletons, light up pumpkins, and tree hanging ghouls early this morning. Cut the grass to mulch some leaves, and began the long process of stowing our warm months gear away in the shed. I still have the patio furniture to do, but the solar lights, hose, lawn ornaments are packed up. The hose had to be drained first, so that took extra time. I  mulched up the leaves on the side lawn. I got the kids scooters put away. Now the front of the house looks sad, deserted and desolate. Boo-boo.

Very productive day thus far though. I began with my own laundry in the wash. Moved to loading and running the dish washer. Cut 60% of the lawn, where I could get to that is visible to the neighbours. Did the decoration storage, tear down thing. Started on the outdoor chores that need to get done before the snow comes. Next up will be sourcing salt, or ice melt, and finding my snow shovels, ice scrapers, brushes, and remote starter/block heater paraphernalia.

I need my cut offs taken up north and burned so that my wife’s reclaimed blue bench can reside inside my garage for the winter. I’d love the kids kitchen to go too, but I’d be grateful for the lawnmower box of cut offs gone more. I might have a large pine table/bench combo delivered here in the coming weeks to tear down and either refurbish or turn into something entirely new. I vote for an outdoor bar for the back deck! Not that I drink all that much. Mainly over the Christmas holidays is when I’ll get into a Rye & Coke / Rum & Coke combo kind of an evening.

My oldest daughter was sad that Halloween is now done, and we are into a whole other month, Woosh! Just like that. Now her birthday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve all loom largely on the horizon. Too far away still to get excited about. But close enough with the dreary grey weather knocking on our door. I just hope our new puppy doesn’t decide to try and pee on the indoor Christmas tree. Our other dog never did that, but his wagging tail, and curious nose sure did do a fair bit of damage knocking items off the tree. Reminds me of when the girls were little and I had to put the nice stuff way up at the top, so even while up on the couch they couldn’t reach it, or pull it off the tree themselves. Oh the memories.

Anywho… now that I have the chance to sit down and rest for a second I realize I should go cover the AC unit too. Check that off my list. I broke down the power washer to drain any water in it to store for winter. I will need to service the new mower, but I should have at least one more full cut to do by mid November before I can do that all up properly. I can tackle the weed eater at that time too.

You know what I’d really love to do this year? If I get a warmer day or two. I want to get my Christmas lights out, and condense them down to strands with all working bulbs. I hate when I get individual bulbs, or whole sections that go out. Looks so tacky. I’d rather have fewer strands that are 100% on, that fifteen partials bunched up on the trees trying to hide all the dead/did bulbs. But maybe that’s just a hang up of mine. It’ll take several hours, and in that time span I could just put them up on the house and call it a day. Priorities I guess. It will depend on the day, and how easy/difficult it is to pull old bulbs out, and push new ones into place. If I have a heat source, and some music I’m far more inclined to actually follow through, and do it.

I’m going to vacuum the main floor now, since everyone is gone for the moment. Ciao Bella.

Oh he’s adorable all right, and such a sweet heart, you just don’t know! He’s convalescing after his vet visit, and none to happy with his watermelon cone replacement, and surgical onesie. Either way Happy Halloween on this warm, breezy, and mostly sunny Thursday. The last Thursday of October at that! You know what that means!?! Sending out my end of the month invoices to corporate clients! Yahoo!

A full Happy Halloween at that too. Now that I’ve scraped out the innards on fifteen or so pumpkins, I’m all carved out. My feet hands are cold, and my nose is full of pumpkin guts odor. Not to mention my clothes have all that stringy pulp on them, and I found two wet seeds in my shoes. Yuck!

Next step is to add lights inside them and carve up a few more scary faced pumpkins to line the driveway here at my inlaws house. I’m sure they will have enough to decorate the entire veranda and the front entrance way too. I need more empty buckets for the discarded innards and smelly chunks. I like the results but the process is very unpleasant if you have sensory issues with slimy, stringy, wet, cold pulpy stuff. Ugh. Makes my skin crawl. Got it up to my elbows, and caked around my wrists for good measure.

In other news it’s warm and sunny out today. So not the coldest pumpkin guts I’ve had to handle, not by a long shot. I’ve carved in the rain, flurries, and an all out early snow (kinda). Ice cold pumpkin guts with numb your fingers in seconds. Most uncomfortable trying to cut and detail when you can’t feel either of your hands.

Pretty sure it is Wednesday today. The big day for all kids, both young and old is tomorrow. The kids have been trying to nail down a costume choice for the school day since October 1st. I think they might have finally decided, but what happens tomorrow morning is still up for grabs. A late stage change of heart can either save the day or ruin it. Oh to be a kid again! Ha.

November will be here before you know it. Wow two months of school gone in the blink of an eye. Next blink will be Christmas break! I mean they still have six months of the school year left at that point, which feels like a long haul, but by the time you hit May 1st, and all the activities ramp up, and the temperatures soar, time seems to hop, skip, and jump forwards by multiples.

For now I’m taking a breather from carving holiday messages in pumpkins, and putting my feet up for a little while. Ciao Bella.

Not how I expected to be involved in my puppy’s healing process but it beats trying to remember how the incision looked when he first got home. Now I have concrete visual proof of whether or not it is in fact getting better, worse, more or less inflamed etc… he was a sad boy when I brought him home. He whimpered a fair bit yesterday regardless of the w4 hours worth of pain killers he’d been shot up with. I think he just felt funny from the anesthesia, and the missing parts he spends so much time cleaning every single day. I think his coin purse was his very own pride and joy. Now the spare change is gone. Yeeted! Yoinked! Stolen by the veterinary hospital. He is dismayed to say the least.

I also think he’s upset about the surgical onesie he has to wear thos week to stop him from worrying the wound. We have a cone coming too, as he has somehow managed to weasel his muzzle up one leg to get to the wound. Damn smart dog. It might take a few months for him to lose interest in his testicularly fueled habits. Once all that testosterone Peter’s out hopefully he’ll stop all the urine licking, drooling, teeth chattering, and numb tongue paralysis which he loves do much when we go out for a walk.

Keeping him low key is proving to be more difficult than anticipated. No off leash walks for the first couple days. No “real” walks either. A mooch about in the yard to pee under a watchful eye. Keeping an eye on bowel movement consistency and frequency. The whole nine yards here folks. Not much to do now but get him back go full health as I can’t undo what was done. This ain’t no etch a sketch my boys jewels done got stoled off him. Bruh!

So by the end of this week I will have a fine pile of dog scrotum photos ready to delete, assuming that is, that he doesn’t worry the wound and make it 10x worse for himself. I have found him licking his front foreleg where they shaved a spot for his IV. I am to watch for coughing, as the intubation for surgery might have inflamed his throat a bit. I’ll have to keep the house quiet so I notice something like that. Being hearing impaired I find it difficult to isolate sounds. But I would think a dogs cough would be out of the ordinary enough that my ears would potentially catch it. I hope.

He is eating, and drinking. Has used the facilities a couple times, so I think he is doing ok there. I gave him his pain meds along with breakfast so he should be feeling sleepy, or at least slightly less sore. I hope. It wasn’t our intention to hurt the little guy. It was a foundational aspect of our adoption agreement that he get fixed, so no way around it really. A little bit of pain now should fix any major concerns of him rampaging down the neighbourhood humping everything in sight if he escaped our yard at any point. No new pups!

How is your Tuesday going? Halloween is really getting close now.

Up early before the sunrise to drop the dog off at the vet for his neutering appointment. Not much else going on while I wait for edits, and a second drive back out to Woodbridge to collect the puppy. Taking it easy on this dreary, grey Monday.

Dog is home from his procedure, looking a little worse for wear in his tiny baby jammies. A medical onesie rather than a cone of shame. He’s a bit out of it, and whimpering now that mum has come home early to date in him a wee bit. He was well behaved and no trouble at the vet. Luckily we used a different one than normal so he shouldn’t have any of the surgery associated with his normal tech.

Pain meds on deck for once his surgery stuff wears off. We will keep him as low profile as possible for the week while his innards heal up. I thought they performed a vasectomy, but it’s a total castration where they actually fully remove the testicles. He is just a hair lighter now. Ha. Poor little fella. I know they wait until a year old to stave off the joint issues, but for peace of mind they should do them when still a tiny little pup. But I’m not vet tech, so what do I know.

Otherwise it’s been a quiet grey and dreary monday just before halloween.

What good is an hour or two spent on leaves if your trees are still 60-70% full? I guess the answer is, at least I’m showing the neighbourhood some effort to contain the mess? Because once the rains come, or the wind picks up it will not appear any different than before I started. A lesson in futility to appease the grass crazed neighbours whom spend real money, every single year, to have a nice lawn clear of weeds, blemishes, and fallen leaves. None of which I care all that much about.

I don’t like the idea of taking all of the tree, and soils garden work producing leaves, and then collecting that effort and shipping it off elsewhere. Let those nutrients return back to the soil from whence it came. Although I put it all on a garden bed some fifteen feet away, but still, all that goodness is available after the snows, rains, and weather’s change over the coming months. Gotta be better than sending it to a clean fill, compost site so that they get the benefit instead of my trees.

Our garden road did not come back this year, which was a shame, that fat little froggy was a welcome sight inside my garbage bin box. Perched on top of the can lid, eating critters that were trying to get busy inside there also. We saw him, it, turn from ash grey to a subtle green, and grow in size from a quarter to a toonie, and then bigger still. Good bye sweet prince. My youngest absolutely loved you!

If the kids and dog venture to the farm for pumpkins, then I can do the leaves in some semblance of peace. My first aid kit for the shop arrived, to go along with my fire extinguisher. Starting to feel like a workable space again. Just got to get rid of this dsmnable kids kitchen play set, and all of my cut offs. Taking up precious floor space! But I digress.

Tomorrow the dog goes in for his surgery. I need to get to Vaughsn before 8AM. I’m not much of a morning person. Hopefully he doesn’t get too bent out of shape about what he’s going to leave behind. But, on the plus side, no more threat of puppies if he gets out, or on top of a lady doggo. That’s peace of mind right there. Ciao Bella!