Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Well, first off I started the sanding process on what I had thought was a hardwood table, to find out later that I had in fact sanded through some badly gouged veneer whilst attempting to restore the eating surface. I was very disappointed by this revelation regarding veneer. That took the restoration job down a peg to a mere repair. So I ended through all the grits I felt it needed, stopping at 220. I stained it twice with two heavy coats of Danish Oil Dark Walnut Stain, and eventually caved into adding a spray on Varathane brand diamond clear satin finish. Very light mind you. I sanded that with 400 grit once dry to take down any micro bubbles or lumps. My shop is dusty and particles get everywhere regardless of how much I vacuum the space.

Once that was all squared away I turned my attention to milling up some simple Ash legs, instead of gluing up a bunch of Walnut legs. So I spent a full day jointing, edging and then planing some three inch thick legs. I rounded those over with a repeatable stop at one end. As I need to capture the square end against the table to properly align the inserts for the bolts. I’ve made the legs 36 inches long, which feels like the right height. I should double check that though. I’ve sanded all four legs up to 220 grit. I am going to stain them a dark black/ebony to hide the lesser quality wood used. We’ll see if that works at all. Ha. Then I need to build the caps, match the drill holes, countersink the rim of the holes, add the inserts, and assemble. Take a photo for my records, and then bring the whole lot down to the basement for use with Lego, puzzles, and homework. The folding table currently in use can get put away beside the basement fridge where it lived for ages, out of the way, but accessible.

Besides the table, I  did a fair bit of reading, played some video games, worked a little, did the lawm and gardening, laundry, dishes, and floors. I didn’t do any fair entry stuff, but I still might? Hard to say. I really was focused on the table because I had high hopes it was of a better quality than it really was. I was terribly disappointed to find the veneer. Just gutted. What a let down. On the upside it is still real wood through, and through. Just not the rich Mahogany of the top most layer.

Doing wood working with a cough is not much fun. Wore my dust mask so as to not make things worse for myself. Still floats up into my eyes though, goggles be damned. I think I will turn my attention to a new sculpted fair entry once I get the table build completed. I’d like to keep making furniture as my time in the shop is limited by the weather (temperature). By November it’ll be too cold on there to use hand tools comfortably without them making my hands go numb. My tiny little heater may keep my back hot, but it’s not enough to warm up the entire space, and everything contained within it. I usually like to spend June/July in there, and Sept/October too if I can find the time away from paid work. May not be as big a concern this year. If we get a warm spell in November I can be out there between 10:00am and 2:00pm to putter around. By then the leaves take up 90% of my outdoor activity. Raking, blowing, vacuum bagging, mulching, and dumping them all back into the beds to protect my flowers through the winter, and add clean fill for the following growing season. Soil levels drop faster than I can replace them!

Happy Saturday out there in internet land. May your coughs be short lived, and not aggravate your throats/lungs too much. Ciao Bella!

Feeling more gurgley now, than in the early days. What started as a throat clearing tickle, is now a very phlegmatic hacking, wracking cough. I could honestly do without it, but that’s not my path right now it would seem. NyQuil at least gets me better quality sleep, even if my mornings are more groggy than I care for. Oh well! I feel like, now that there is a physical aspect to the cough, the gurgle of mucous in question, I’m making headway towards getting over it. Eight days of just painful coughing with no real definable source was annoying. Now there’s phlegm, so… that’s the point to attack I feel. That’s where I direct my attention now. So – is it really getting better? I don’t know, but if history serves as any guide, I’m going in the right direction. I think. But after looking up a few things, I do not believe it to be Whooping Cough. A sigh of relief was had by all.

It’s Friday today! End of a short week. The first four days of school have come, and are almost gone. No major morning melt downs – yet! So that feels promising. Have yet to lay eyes on my oldest child’s teacher, so I need to figure out who it is, beyond just a name. I’ve met my youngest’s teacher a number of times through the years, so no issue there.

My table project is progressing, albeit a tad slowly. If I can cut, and round over, and sand the legs today, then I can stain them on Monday, and build the capture point, and drill them all out, and think about putting it all together downstairs at the end of next week. I’d love to let the stain off gas outside of the house before I bring it all downstairs to stink up the basement with stains, oils, and sprayed clear coats. But likely I’ll rush to bring it inside just to have it done, and over with. So there is that to contend with. The kids don’t spend a whole lot of time downstairs, so I don’t think the smell will bother them. Just me. My office is downstairs, and that’s where I spend the majority of my day.

What else to say? Oh yeah – wife has been back to work for two weeks now. House feels empty with just the dog and I here. I have yet to venture out to grab a hot lunch. I do make a mean sandwich here with all my fixings, so it’s not really a problem. Work has quieted down a touch, but that’s because all of the marketing interns have returned to school, and the brand people are circling wagons, and looping back to see where they stand on any given project. Could be a few more days before I see any new items become available. It’s to be expected.

Still have not found the time to go see Deadpool 3, nor Alien Romulus. I’d like to catch at least one of them in theaters, but streaming will suffice if I end up having to wait even longer. I will eventually see them. Just a matter of time.

Well, I should get back to my table project. It won’t finish itself. Ciao Bella!

In his shop, sanding unknowingly through the veneer top of what was assumed to be an heirloom piece of hard wood furniture. Upon closer inspection it was then decided, by our intrepid friend to continue to upgrade the table into a suitable crafting/homework/Lego station rather than completing the original quest of a complete restoration. Now it’s a mere refurbishment meant to keep the table top level, and free of gouges. No more, no less. Also the idea to stop the Walnut leg build and course correct to simple Ash legs was implemented. Saving an expensive resource for another project. Also relieving himself of a rough sawn Ash board he’d been hoarding for nearly a decade. A Win-Win if you will. Hold for applause! Divine.

Also – yeah, day eight of this cough. It sucks. Day-Quil, Robitussin, Benalyn all seem to be next to useless once the fits kick in, but otherwise, no fever, no nasal congestion, no fatigue, no nausea, no upset guts, no nothing. Just a cough that has now aggravated my throat. I can still eat & drink without issue, so… there is that. I hope to be rid of it by this time next week, or I’m going to have to see a doctor about it. We’ll wait and see what shakes out. NyQuil however works extremely well, as I had the first good nights sleep in seven days last night. So, much obliged NQ!

I did manage to put two thick layers of dark Walnut stain on the table top yesterday, as well as complete all the initial sanding needed to apply them. Which was nice. Looks great where there is still veneer! Less so otherwise. But I’m in no position to reapply veneer to the top so it is what it is at this point now. Table clothes or Jraft paper will cover the top from now on. No so much to protect it, as to hide my discovery of the falsehood behind this table we’ve held on to for nearly 20 years because we thought it was better than it really is. No matter, another solid work surface is always appreciated. More horizontal space to hoard “things” I guess.

It is now Thursday, the third official day of school, out of two hundred and sixty some odd. So the next ten months are firmly in motion. I think we have about four weeks until the classroom assignments are set in stone, so the kids could still move, get bumped, or placed elsewhere before October 11th (which was a previous years deadline for such things, if I recall). So no cause for celebration just yet.

Back to school means birthday parties are kicking off again! No shortage of friends with gift requirements at my kids school. I think both of them have something or other coming up in the next ten days. Lots of weekend shuffling about from venue to venue, event to event. Fun, fun, fun.

The first day back to school! It has arrived with a flash, a bang, and nary a whimper. I took their photo to commemorate the moment, and then we found the lines we needed for each class, and the bell rang, and BOOM! home alone for the first time in more than a year. I ran a couple errands, and have mowed my lawn. I’m about to walk over to the in-laws to put out their recycling, and that’s my day. Perhaps some laundry. A bit of a tidy up. But nothing major. I’m going to save the driving range for tomorrow. All of last weeks organizing, and cleaning has paid off. I’m several weeks ahead on inside stuff. I’m not totally ready to start the table just yet, but that will start soon enough. Just trying to bask in an ever so slightly decluttered, and quiet house. TV isn’t on. Radio isn’t playing. Dogs asleep at my feet. It’s all good.

Lawn is done. I cut down yet another small tree that my wife wasn’t too fond of to clean up the front of the house. If I pull up the tomatoes that will go a very long way in tidying up the front yard too. This year it’s not the pumpkins being a problem, but the tomatoes! Gardening, what a hassle it can be at times. I took a few outlier branches off of some ground cover shrubs near our front door, so they are longer a tripping hazard. You can clearly tell where the step ends now. So nobody should twist an ankle by over stepping it anymore. Not that it has happened. But it could have, due to the poor visibility due to the branches. Either way, it will make shoveling snow there just a little bit easier.

I do have a fair bit of exterior maintenance left to do. The back hedge needs another trim up, along the sides, and top (if I can reach!). The patio space feels crowded in by the hedge growth. I have at least one full bag of weeds to pull out from the back alone. Some neighbourhood cat is using my front, and back flower beds as a litter box. Not a fan of that. I deal with my dogs poop, I don’t need to deal with somebody else’s cats bowel movements.

We got home later yesterday than I would have liked. When we did venture off the traffic was lighter than usual (a nice bonus!) But the sky grew dark way too soon. Far too soon for my liking. Well, I best venture off to the inlaws to catch the blue box man. Ciao Bella!

That’s the benchmark I just hit, and I’m not sure whether to be excited to have hit that number, or sad it took so long. I imagine some sights do that kind of traffic in less than an hour. But you know what? I’ll take the win. Ten thousand individual views of my various forms of content. Images, video, audio, and written posts. Even my interconnected short story series has a chunk of those views contained within it. Yes – yes I believe that I will be happy about what I have done, and not compare it to other things. I choose to take the win in the spirit in which it was given. Congratulatory. With animated fireworks even! Go me!

I’ve had this cough now since Thursday, and it isn’t accompanied by a runny nose, fever, tummy troubles, or any other major issue. Except that the sudden explosive bursts of coughing has caused my throat to become sore in spots. I can (as of this moment) still swallow without issue, and I can eat/drink without trouble. Gets worse when I lie down, or recline, otherwise it just kind of bubbles up every so often.  It isn’t constant, and feels like more of a nuisance. Quickly running out of cough syrup here though. Wish I’d have though to bring more.

It is the holiday Monday, Labour Day to be exact. This is it, the last possible day of summer break 2024. Soon my phone will start to blow up as other parents try to figure out if their kid has any friends in their newly assigned class. It won’t be set in stone until the first week of October,  so no cause for celebration just yet. Lots of shuffling/juggling of kids left to do between then and now. By this time tomorrow my wife will be at work, and both of my kids will be in class.

I’m going to celebrate with a visit to the driving range. And possibly a bunch more cleaning around the house. The gardens, and the leaves coming down will take up a bunch of my time soon enough. I need to cut my grass too. We never did reach a point this summer where the grass stopped growing. Really strange (read : wet) summer this year. Rain fall for the record books if I’m not mistaken.

Funnily enough a big draw, and portion of the 10K views was due to the images, video, and play by play of the war gaming terrain I built during the height of the Covid lock downs of 2020/2021. I still have all four boards displayed in my basement. I did however get rid of the secondary buildings I’d made. Four “stores”, and the bad guys hide out which was just too large, and too similar to the Inn I’d made first. So now that Inn is loaded to the tits with all the 3d printed interior terrain items, like beds, boxes, chests, and sacks of coins. I have an itch to build more, but I don’t have anywhere to keep it at the moment. Isn’t that the story of our lives.

It’s a well worn pastime of every single dog I’ve ever owned personally. Doesn’t matter what make or model of toy it is, they are going to back chew it to death and extract the frosted white gold inside. Super tuff, unbreakable, extra hearty, nothing much matters as my dog is going to get down into the juicy, squeaky heart of it, and RIP it’s stuffed guts out. I spend a good deal of time picking up puffs of dog toy stuffing from the floors all over our house. The garbage can is currently full of it.

I managed to declutter the living room, and the basement bookshelves in one fell swoop on Friday. I got two large tote bins full of stuff. Giant floor puzzles, colouring books, baby/infant toys, Peppa Pig brand mini figs & houses/vehicles, Barbie dolls, their vehicles, and clothes. Plus every single low end Mc Donald’s toy that I could lay my hands on. I’m so far ahead of schedule that I can start my table project on Tuesday of this coming week. I managed to clean out the toy box in the living room, and the associated bins of Barbie, LOL, and Shadow/Rainbow/Monster high dolls, and all of their accessories too. Bins of blocks, and all three wooden stacking toys which my two year old nephew is very excited for (as I knew he would be). All of this cleaned not only my living room, some of the dining room, but opened up shelf space on the basement bookcases. I do still have some totes on that bookshelf to look into. We have an awful lot of broken WII guns, steering wheels, mats, and paraphernalia. I’d like to toss all that, plus some other broken technology that is taking up space.

I know I’m on the right track because on Friday, while I was purging the house, two new bags of clothes showed up on our doorstep from our friends whom have an older daughter. That’s why I had to move stuff out, as more was coming in! Can you believe it? Ha. I do appreciate it, a great deal. I just have to be the one to keep the cycle moving. If it were up to my wife our basement would still have 20 bloody great bags of baby, infant, toddler, small child clothing, plus all the cribs, change tables, swings, exercise circle thing, and floor tummy time mats etc… I had to be the coldhearted SOB who removed it all.

I think a trip to the driving range to celebrate is in order!

It all wraps up come 11:59pm on Monday night. Tuesday is the very first day of school. Which means meeting new teachers, and seeing which of the kids friends are in their classes. They’ll be entering & exiting the school from opposite sides once again, so I’ll need the oldest to run to find me at the end of the day. Same as always I suppose. Hard to believe that all nine weeks have come, and gone already. I guess with my wife’s fourteen months coming & going so quickly, the mere nine weeks of summer break disappeared like a fart on the breeze. Poof! Gone.

The early setting sun in the evenings is a real clear sign that fall is looming large on the horizon. That and the amount of leaves that have dropped already. I’m going to have to start vacuuming up leaves and mulching them into our garden beds. I don’t think I’ll get any pumpkins this year, nor gourds. I pulled up the vines in May, and those few which I left in the compost pile have not flowered or produced a single fruit/bloom. Which sucks. Could spell the end to my free  ongoing pumpkin supply. Instead my garden is over run by tomato plants with no ripe tomatoes on it. All the small green ones you could ever need, but no ripening fruits. Was it lack of water? Lack of a trellis so it spread outwards too far, for too long, instead of growing tomatoes. I don’t really know. I didn’t water them in July or August, so that probably contributed to some stress on their part. Oh well.

I took a moment the other day to use my hacksaw to cut the old hose nozzle off the end of the hose. Now I can actually attach the hose to my power washer to clean our exterior windows, garage door, and back deck. I didn’t want to cut the nozzle off, but even with vise grips and a vise I couldn’t get them to unwind. Too much gunk on the threads some how. It was a new nozzle from a year or two ago. I didn’t think it would of welded itself together so quickly, especially since I never turned the actual water on this year. Just goes to show how many minerals and things are in our water causing things to seize together.

I used my dremel originally, but it got gummed up by the melting plastic. So I switched to my hacksaw, but had to cut through horizontally, then attack the threaded portion from two sides and split it with a heavy mallet. I did not test the threads, so I may find that I’ve warped them and it won’t hook up to the pressure washer anyway. Time will tell. I plan to go to the driving range to celebrate another successful return to school start next week. I have one new club to try out. A new to me sand wedge / pitching wedge, 64° and multi-purpose to me. My collection of second hand clubs is missing a few numbers, but since I typically only golf using a nine iron, driver or putter I should be ok. Now I have a dedicated club for sand traps and height obstacles. Not that I get to play much golf. Mini putt and driving range are far more accessible, and better priced. Less time intensive too. I’ll see if a buddy can join me for swinging a club about early in the week.

I paid for my daughter to start Taekwondo once again as of September 9th, so now I need to look into Good Life Fitness for myself. I’m looking for a decent elliptical, and quality free weights. I like the idea of getting back into doing olympic lifting to build muscle, and bone strength.  I’ll need to look at pricing, and the equipment.

I love that some listicle on Facebook says that Zoey Deschanel lives like she’s poor, with a net worth of approximately $25M, and only $22,500.00 a month spent on expenses. What ridiculous bull shit is that. Twenty two grand a month spent is living like the “poors”. Are you mental? If it were $2,250 a month I’d say bravo on your restraint, and not having a mortgage payment to make, or at least not much of one. But $22K? Ah – no. In what world is twenty two grand a month spent being poor? Who are you? Tom Segura? Do you perhaps not use a wash cloth when you shower and/or bathe in general? Yikes.

In other news it is Friday. And I have two full tote boxes worth of janky toys to go up north with at some point in September. Oddly enough the living room is not bare! I sorted the Barbies, from the LOL’s, from the Rainbow High’s, and the Shadow High kids, one or two mermaids, and some Frozen characters. I cannot take all of the credit, at least 80% of it was done by my spouse with some help from the kids. I tackled the toy box, panda chairs, and inside the ottoman storage cubby. Unfortunately if I go any harder then that will cause major problems. But, on the other hand the kids will have a wide, and varied selection of toys to enjoy in the playroom at the cottage. That’s a big plus in my book. Should make next big break a bit easier if they have toys to sort through and play with. It’s hardly empty here. Their bedrooms are still full of toys. The baskets are now better sorted and stocked with dollies of all shapes, sizes, colours and Brand IP. Doll houses are intact, and still upstairs. I get ahead of next weeks purge. Toys don’t get thrown out but rather get moved on to a better location for all the littles to enjoy. I feel good about it. Again, the bulk of what I toss is garbage, random plastic packaging, Kleenex blankets, pipe cleaner bundles just strewn about the toy box, and hidden behind things on our floor.

I would be happy to throw more of this stuff away, but that’s cruel. More gentle to retire unused, or infrequently used items to the toy room at the cottage. With four kids under ten, I makes sense to have ample goodies available up north too. Ones that don’t have to get packed up and brought back home every single trip. Our vehicle is small, and with the fog now space is at a premium. My efforts to clean aren’t to harm any one, or hurt their feelings. It’s just that there is so much STUFF constantly underfoot that I’m breaking toes, and hurting my feet trying to avoid stepping on the overflow. I can also sense the kids being drawn towards phones, tablets, game consoles, and that sort of thing. Still very big into crafts, but not so much the toys. Or – better yet, toys are taking a back seat to technology, but when they want to play with toys, the go toos are not the Peppa Pig, Playmobile farm animals, or blocks, and stacking rings. We’ve aged out of that stuff I think. Barbie house, cars, jet skiis, and snowmobiles still have their place during play time. But a lot of the Blaze and the monster machines, Truck Town, Troll dolls are becoming a thing of the past with my kids. Not a problem.

I do think that taking the art off the walls to hang my wife’s framed Peru images, and Paris painting might cause a bigger stir. Those drawings have been up on our wall for atleast eight and a half years now. Since Tot-Spot in late 2015.

And, here’s the kicker, I’m not throwing it away, we just want the kids to curate their own works in a portfolio we have for each of them. It has lots of room for drawings, paintings as, and flat lying crafts. I just don’t think drawings from when my eldest wasn’t even two yet still need to be displayed so prominently in our living room / dining room. Especially now that the newer stuff they make is so much more inventive and indicative of their new interests, and skills. I enjoy a good scribble, but I now also really appreciate a Hatchimal character study with fine details, and colour matching done by my youngest. I love to see what draws their attention long term. To see where, and with what they will devote effort to. I can’t frame 63 different minecraft worlds unfortunately. I know they spend hours making castles, houses, and such digitally.

Yeah. So. Don’t take any wooden nickels or whatever.

Whilst it’s a great way to kill multiple hours, enjoy the sunshine, and be active, there is a formidable downside to so much swimming. The ear ache. And my youngest has had a number of them this year. Never before, but now we are on instance #3 for the summer. Once from lake water, and twice from the pool. I think it comes from how much more diving, and time spent underwater in the pool versus the lake. So she has had a low grade fever, and lots of ear pain. One time the ear pain made her jaw hurt too, so that’s a new one for us. Drops of medicine in the ears, rest, and keep an eye out for the need for Tylenol for pain/fever.  It hasn’t lasted for more than 3-4 days, so luckily not a massive problem for my little one. Still uncomfortable though.

Yesterday’s rain brought the overall temperature down by nearly twenty degrees. The roses appreciated the break from the heat, and the additional watering it provided. My tomato plants, while sprawling and large, have only produced two ripened tomatoes. One that was eaten into by ants, or some other bugs, and one which my kids harvested, and is currently sitting on my kitchen counter. I had plans to make salsa or sauce, but one ripe tomato, and 100 green ones just won’t do. That’s the issue you run into with my brand of “set it, and forget it” home gardening. I’ll either end up with more than I could ever eat, or next to nothing for my troubles. My grape vine is set to have a banner year for grape production. My tomatoes? Yeah, not so much. Well, if all the late in the season green ones live to turn red, and grow to full size I’ll be able to make both Salsa and Sauce. But I shan’t hold my breath for it.

Now we are on to the last Thursday of August 2024. It is also my mother’s birthday today. She is not home right now though. She will spend six weeks at a cancer ward in a Victoria, British Columbia hospital having a second tumor radiated five times a week over the total length of her stay. Last year it was for the tumor on her right side bundle that was causing eye issues, and Aphasia. This new growth is on the upper most portion of her brain stem. So that meant a new facial cage be moulded, and built to suit. 45 mins a pop, bolted face down on the table. I’m told she has a sedative to help remain in position. Happy birthday! Will any of these ease the increasing number of migraines she has? Doubtful. Was told that the two things, cancer & migraines, were unrelated. I know very little about it so I couldn’t say one way or the other.

The last long weekend of the summer is almost here! Summer Break 2024 is almost over, can you believe it? Doesn’t much feel like nine weeks have gone by. But then last November’s trip to Florida doesn’t feel like it was nearly a year ago either. Time has felt weird this year. 41 days of vacationing will do that to you. Same with visiting the same four spots month after month, after month makes it hard to distinguish one trip from another. I can hardly believe that the 14 months I spent with my spouse at home has already gone by. Wild. How did we do both so much, and so little over the course of fourteen months. Boggles the mind. Yatzhee!

I am saddened by the thought that we can’t have our standing lunch dates anymore. Or run errands together, child free, during the day, like we were back in our twenties again. That was a lot of fun. Watching movies, and reading side by side, just enjoying each others Company, whether we spoke or not. Now it’ll be just the puppy and I. Not the same! He’s not much of a conversationalist. Neither am I, but you get what I’m driving at here.

I am excited to start the tear down of the house to clean it from top to bottom. That will give me purpose, and an objective to aim towards. My table build and fair stuff will fill in any gaps. I have new books, so between paid work I should be all set between now and Christmas. Wow.