Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Some folks just don’t dance.

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You can have a wide open dance floor, loud music, drinks, food, and lots of good vibes and some folks just don’t dance along with you. Have to admit, it’s been a few years since I last had a good dance party session. I know I’ve danced at weddings over the last decade, but besides cutting a rug in my kitchen along with the kids, I haven’t danced in full view of the public in a very long time. I’m also fifty pounds heavier, and my knees and hips are older than ever before. I’m not a smooth on the dance floor as I once was. Tired, heavy and falling off the beat! Ha. Still had a good time though. The music wasn’t entirely my jam, but I can make do.

I would have to imagine there are a number of hangovers avoided today by those using edibles instead of alcohol. Buzzed with no morning after roughness, what more could you ask for? No dry mouth, or raw throat from smoking. Bladder less stressed because I’m not pounding five or six beers. Less time spent searching for, and using the washroom. I’m still a touch dehydrated, but that’s from dancing in a sweater as a fat-(ish) forty odd year old man, in a small room with ten other people. Drank some Gatorade on the short walk home, and I feel right as rain.

Big plus is that the majority of my friends were there, and we all live stumbling distance from the house we were partying in. Babysitters were in short supply for the evening, I’ll bet, due to how many shin-digs were going on. We’ve had this party on the calendar since early December. It was a shame my spouse couldn’t join me in the end, but for a shining moment I thought we’d actually go to a party together for a change. But her cough, and our lack of babysitters meant she opted to stay home. Her take home prize from the doctors office earlier in the week made her desire to go out wane considerably. Damn you doctors office bug!

On the positive side no hangover means I was up and at’em by 8:00am, and my wife can have a lie in, and chill without the kids being mental, or all up in her space. I don’t need 12-16 hours to get over a hangover. It’s a really great way to party. I endorse it as long as you can walk/taxi where you need to be. Don’t drive under the influence, not worth it. Also no throwing up, no pounding head ache, no gut rot, no need to go pee every half hour, no spins when trying to sleep, no night sweats, no dry mouth, it’s all pretty up & up compared to drinking. I’m a ten milli Tommy. That makes me feel good, but not out of control, or destined for the moon. Feet firmly planted on terrain firma, with my head in the clouds, but not in a totally blacked out menace to society kind of way. It’s nice, don’t have to worry about saying/doing anything stupid. Doesn’t make me aggressive, or melancholy, or feisty. Just a nice warm internal hug that makes me feel alright. The CBD also helps to alleviate those general aches and pains in my knee, hip, wrists, and lower back. That pain relief fuzzy coating makes the THC buzz just that much more like a warm hug. Glorious.

Anyway – Lazy Sunday is here! Shall we watch movies as a family. Play a board game? Or sit listening to the kids lose their minds playing Mine Craft. I’d like to watch more Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings trilogy if I had it my way. But that’s a long slog even for me, and I’m a fan of both series. I don’t watch the SW prequels, and I’m not as enamoured with episodes 7, 8, and 9. Rogue One however, I could watch twice in a row on most days. Far superior to all three prequels, and most of the last trilogy as well. It went off the rails as soon as The Force Awakens tried to rehash A New Hope. Lost cause. Andor was a slow burn, but added more than any of the last movies have done to the world building, and using non-Skywalker era characters. It was far more interesting. But I digress.

Can’t take the kids skiing or tobogganing due to the rain. Might need to find something constructive for them to do before they drive me crazy with Mine Craft tantrums. Where are the head phones! Not dry enough to scooter, or ride our bikes. Too rainy for ball hockey in the driveway. Maybe I should take them somewhere like a mall for an hour long walk about. I wouldn’t mind going to a Chapters/Indigo book store to find more reading material. I do have four books that I found out the other day from my TBR list, so maybe I’ll cool it on the book purchases right now. You know what I’d really like, another book like the New Horizons one, about the Pluto mission. I tried reading about the Mars Rover, but that comes across like a textbook slash technical manual. The Pluto mission was more cinematic and humanized. It was a terrific banger of a read. Makes me think of Apollo 13, and their scramble to fix issues off the cuff.

Have a great rainy Sunday January 28th, 2024. Ciao Bella!

Social Posts Going On A Run – Again.

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It’s the weirdest thing, every so often a post, or tweet will catch on and that will gather likes, followers, making the view count numbers all jump up. Over the last week my Twitter count has jumped by seventeen followers. I had had a hard ceiling of 58 followers for a very, very long time, and now I’m up to seventy five. Pitching the same content out into the ether as before, but suddenly gaining a tiny fraction of traction. Same here on my blog. I’ve gone on a follower count bump run over that same seven day period. Curious. I’m up over two hundred and fifty blog post followers here with WordPress/JetPack. I’m not exactly drawing “numbers” in the traditional sense for a celebrity or a brand/product, but for little ole me, it’s a noticeable jump. And I could not tell you what sparked it. I will say this, at least as far as Twitter is concerned. The new adds are mostly bots, and Cam girls, and the like. I don’t for one second believe that they are real people, or that I am getting famous. I play it up, because the idea of being a person whom gets a fat head, and begins to act like an influencer with 75 followers is hilarious to me. I also toy with calling them my henchmen. And using such limited notoriety to run for school parent council, or being an honouree to open a brand new local laundromat. Ribbon cutting for clout. Ha. Makes me giggle.

As far as I can tell it is still raining. I believe that is to continue until tomorrow or Monday. I started book #2 for this year. It is called “Transit” by Edmund Cooper. Written in 1964. It’s not a bad little book. After finishing the nearly 600 pages of the Adrian Tchaikovsky novel, last in the Trilogy, I wanted something self contained, and considerably shorter. Win on both fronts! I also went poking around my book shelves last night and found four books I haven’t read yet, and I will read from that bunch when I have a chance. I’m not doing the 12 for 12 challenge this year. But I do want to keep on reading, if/when possible. My To-Be-Read pile from all of my previous years of book collecting is substantial, and varied. Mind you I did get rid of quite a few from this TBR pile, because I knew I would never read them. I had tried Tad William’s and Erik something or other before, and found it distasteful. I also got ride of books I didn’t like even though I read all three parts of the trilogy. Now, would I like to read all the books in my collection? Yes, sure I would. If I never bought another new book, I could probably do it. But I follow a fair few authors whom are still releasing new works, so the likelihood of not reading anything new in favour of finishing what I already have is slim. Life comes at you fast, so you never do know.

I also got rid of two of the four Mo Hayder books I owned because they were so disappointing compared to the first two that I had read. Plus she, the author, is now dead and no new book was forthcoming to set it all right by course correcting. Can’t blame her because she’s dead.

In other news I took a few minutes to myself yesterday, away from paid work, to go into my garage and break down the change table for parts. Nuts and bolts went into a jar, the mdf went into my wood pile, and the change pad went up into storage. I think certain parts of the change table are real wood, and not particle board with veneer. So I kept those for random projects that sometimes present themselves. I still need to break down the sidewall portions, but I might need to find out a saw to do that as it didn’t just unscrew, or come apart with a few hard whacks with my palm. I still have our backyard bench in there taking up space, but it’s a keeper, and I can’t be busting that up. It was a project from my wife’s students and has sentimental value. Just reminds me they used my expensive stain like paint, and used the entire $40.00 can on one single bench. No wood grain to be seen. Was supposed to be a smokey blue grey wood grain, but now it’s just a solid wedgewood blue. D’oh! I had to laugh, once I stopped being annoyed. I didn’t even get my rollers or brushes back afterwards either. Nor my drop cloths. Donations to the human fund I suppose.

Well travelers, it’s been a morning, and I must be about my Saturday business. Ciao Bella.

Feels like mid March outside right now.

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It’s currently raining, in late January, in Southern Ontario, Canada. That’s absurd. It should do only one of a few things at this point in the winter season; snow, freezing rain, icy cold wind, or dead calm and sunny but still be cold. Not get up into the positive temperatures and rain. I’d expect this leading into Mid March and April, but not now. Not that I cared for the polar vortex and those insane low temps, but this is just as bad. Need a sustained cold to kill off all those extra bugs we don’t want around here, and to keep snakes and shit away.

Friday is here, you’ve made it through yet another week. I have at least two more weeks with appointment shuffles to do for the kids, and myself included. By then it will be February, and the red/pink lead up to Valentine’s Day. Yes! Little more than two weeks away. Chocolates and stuffed toys, flowers and such to flood the market place. Great thing is all of that will be super cheap come the 15th. Wait a day and get 25-50% off face value. Love it.

Given that I can’t get a weeks groceries for less than $200.00 any more, I think those savings on the extras are worth my while to wait for. I spend about $1,000.00 on food for the month roughly, for us four, and my kids don’t eat all that much (according to their school lunches that come home 60% full each day). Milk, juice, juice boxes, and snacks run through our fingers like water. Laundry soap and toilet paper are an investment to make these days. Wowzers. Need vitamins? $20.00 or the better part there of, easily. We aren’t poor, and I’m not broke, but god damn I feel bad for folks whom were struggling before. This shit is crazy. Don’t get me started.

Had a good wander around the shops yesterday. My day was off anyway, with a sick wife, youngest who couldn’t sleep and woke me up at 4:00am, and kept me awake until just after 5:00am. Then we had a later start, doctor appointments, late school drop off, and a grocery shop. I took an extra 45 mins to just wander around looking at pajamas, tools, and movies still available as physical media. By the time I got home, un packed the shopping, made & ate lunch, did some paid work, it was time to go get the kids – again. Then off to night time sports with the oldest. It was calming to come home afterwards though. I ended up making grilled cheese sandwiches, and watching the animated Addams Family movie until I put the kids to bed. I was in bed asleep by 9:30pm last night. I could have gone to bed at 7 if I’d of had the chance. I have a huge capacity for sleep. Probably stems from years of dealing with fatigue. Though sleeping with fatigue doesn’t help all that much either. Nothing like waking up feeling more tired, and not feeling rested and utterly exhausted. Like going to bed with your body battery being on 3%, and waking up eight plus hours later feeling like you’re at 1% and falling. Don’t miss those days at all. Too tired to sleep. Awful. Just awful feeling. I spent my later teen years like that, for months on end at a time.

But enough about me, how are you all doing out there in Candy-Land? Moving your pieces strategically or just taking a roll of the dice and pushing forward, sideways, backwards as the roll dictates? Strange times. Yo, when do the masses rise up and eat the rich? I hear those 1% folks are building bunkers and safe havens. I guess they know something we don’t. Until next time.

Doing the Morning Appointment Shuffle.

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Woke up around 4:00am to a distressed child and mum. Mum has food poisoning and feels rough, and the youngest was put out she couldn’t sleep in mum’s bed for the remainder of the night. So that took about 90 minutes to settle and get the youngest in a bed and asleep. Fun.

Now we’re all packed up and waiting for their eye appointments. Using those paid for benefits! Eye exams for both kids! And some form of x-rays too if I recall our phone call correctly. Once we get through this ordeal I will drop them off at school then go do a light grocery shop. Mainly milk and juice. Eggs and bacon and possibly bread too. Don’t need too to much to get us through the weekend.

Glad I know my kids well enough that taking them to appointments myself isn’t a huge hassle nor herculean task. Keep them occupied and engaged in some type of activity and we can try to get through this with the least number of fights, melt downs and tears. That is my only goal. Get through it! Ha. Lofty goals I’m sure.

In about 5 mins we’re going to head in. No coats to over heat in. Trying to limit forgettable garments and impediments to success. Know your limits, play within them sort of mind set. I don’t gamble on farts or my children being behaved in public. Just safer that way. Either one will cause a scene, and a mess. Ha!

I’ll leave you with that mental image. Ciao Bella!

Can I interest y’all in some rainy fog this fine morning.

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What a start to Wednesday. School drop off followed by scraping ice and snow off of every available surface around the property in order to try an avoid a flooded basement once all the rain kicks in later on today, and stick around until late in the weekend. Fun times.

More appointments for the kids are scheduled for this week, and next week, as well as the week after. Gotta use those paid for benefits on these kids! Eyes and teeth. Keep those in perfect working order for as long as we can! Wee.

The vehicle still looks to be holding up as far as the bumper is concerned. She ain’t pretty to look at, a tad rough around the edges, but fingers crossed it stays put for as long as we need it.

In other news I still have a change table in the garage I need to figure out what to do with. Break it down, burn it, throw it away? I’m not sure. All I know is, is that it is taking up space in my garage, and I hate feeling boxed in. Not that I can currently work in there given the weather. But still. It is the principle of the matter. Less clutter! Bah!

I have some paid work, so I best get a move on. Ciao Bella!

Seems to be holding up – for now.

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Did a bit of additional driving about town yesterday, and my bumper repairs are holding strong, for now. Do I put a lot of faith in those plastic welds? No, not really. But if I can limp into late spring, and then think about swapping out for a new bumper, I’ll consider this fix a win. All about making due. The car is old, and we do need to trade in for a new vehicle before too much longer. If I could get the bumper to last that long, I’d be super impressed with the 220W plastic welder / hot stapler I bought off of Amazon. Oh I searched Canadian Tire and Home Depot web sites first before turning to Amazon, but that’s an entirely different conversation. As it stands I don’t feel the ROI on a brand new bumper is worth it given the potential life span of the vehicle itself. Had I of done this nine years ago, BAM! new bumper, no contest, but the vehicle is atleast eleven years old, and I don’t think we’ll get all that many more years out of it. I can live with the zippered look as it stands right now.

On a side note: what the fuck is Cam Newton wearing on Good Morning Football right now? That’s a hell of a get-up. Makes a statement. Half Doc Holiday, half Diane Keaton, all pimp. The outback ten gallon hat is a focus puller – fo sho. Damn.

I’d like to be able to revisit the bumper issue in the spring when I can be outside in better weather. If I have to crawl under the van, I’d rather do that in the sunshine than on a bed of ice & snow. Maybe that makes me weak, or only half serious about DIY fixes, but I don’t relish the thought of freezing my fingers to stubby numb nubs while working on body panel clips, and sorting out all the unforeseen issues that accompany body panel/bumper swap outs. No thanks. Not in minus twelve or worse. If I had a bigger, insulated garage, that might be a different story. I’m a DIY’er of leisure, not a hard core go’er.

Have a great Tuesday. Ciao Bella.

Hot Staples to the rescue? Or not.

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Ordered the 220W plastic welder slash hot stapler for our front bumper repair. Well, it was I whom well and truly fuckered the bumper, so I found an inexpensive method to try and repair it. I don’t typically do body work, because I’m not trained on that sort of thing. I can pull a dent, and sand bondo, but I’m no “car guy”. After watching reviews and some Youtube videos, the hot stapler plastic welder gun thing looked like it was something I could do, atleast rudimentally. And what do you know? It VERKS! I actually did it. Now, a caveat (of course) if I weren’t so afraid of the whole lot shattering and exploding into fifty pieces it would have been better to pull the bumper off and do the staples from the back, keeping the front side pinched closed with an additional pair of hands. That would look mint. But as it stands, I did it myself, from the front, and we have a zippered up Frankenstein front passenger side of the bumper. I tested the mesh first method, but the minus twelve plus windchill this morning meant I couldn’t keep the gun tip hot enough to mix the mesh into the plastic/acrylic of the bolt down struts I tested on. So straight to staples, and the various sizes I used worked pretty well. At least this far. I haven’t driven it yet, and I kept the lashings on for additional support. Two elastic tie downs, and a length of 300lb tensile strength rope. If I can keep it from falling off until we decide to buy a new vehicle I’ll be happy. All this to save $400 on a new unpainted bumper, plus delivery, and then trying to reuse the light well clips that go on the back inside of the front bumpers. Otherwise I’d had to purchase the new light well sockets too at an additional expense, and potentially paint the whole thing. Ugh! Money, money, money and more money!

So that was about 75 minutes of my Monday morning. I need to do the kids laundry and head over to my dentist appointment. It’s a full Monday today, believe you-me. Wilding out over here! Domestic Duties Monday is in the hizzay! I didn’t sleep so well last night either. Sore back, shoulders and arms from shoveling and scraping the rink ice. Makes my wrists ache just thinking about it. Good lord was it ever cold this weekend. Minus nineteen and then some. Bare handed putting kids skates and helmets on & off. Chasing hockey pucks and dodging children with chairs, hockey sticks and chunks of ice. Exhausting and icy cold. I need a weekend from my weekend. Ciao Bella!

Clearing the ice is an undertaking not chosen lightly.

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To clean the ice on the 1/3rd size rink is a real endeavour. Snow blowing, scraping, and then shoveling off all of the wispy bits. Followed by checking the entire pad for cracks, hollow spots, rough edges, and then to flood the ice even further takes time aswell. Drilling a hole in the ice at the water source, dragging the pump down to the water, running stacks of two inch rubber hose, and then letting it flood for three to four hours. It’s a whole thing. Plus you add in the time it takes to get four kids, and several adults dressed, skates & helmets on, and a good two hour skate, and your day is over. Add in some meals, a hot tubbing session, and any other work done around the property and you’ve got yourself a weekend chock full of manual labour. Which is why my shoulder, arms and chest are all sore to the point of hurting. Love it.

Used the small electric Toro snowblower to clear of sixteen inches or more of snow on the back deck. I had to do that in layers, as the little Toro didn’t like being rammed into the bottom of a frozen, icy pile of snow taller than itself. It doesn’t look like much, but after an hour of holding it up in the air to clear off layers, my arms, back, and chest are just groaning today, let me tell you. Still much better than shoveling all that by hand. I imagine that job would have taken me about 3 hours to do manually, and just over 1 hr to do it with the mechanized helper. Huzzah for technology!

It’s Sunday Funday again. Not the usual Lazy Sunday we have around these parts. It is a good time to get out and do stuff, although the cold does inhibit some of the fun. Just have to play in moderation to avoid frostnip, bordering onto frostbite. Sledding, skating, tobogganing are all lots of fun. The snowmobiling is not advised right now as the kids helmets don’t all have face shields, and that wind is dangerously cold. So would I rather lie in bed until 10:00am, have a hot brunch, and then watch movies or read for a good portion of the day by the fireplace? Yes, yes I would. But the kids? Not so much. So activities it is. Probably why some weekends don’t feel very restful as we jump from one activity to another.

Almost a whole month past Christmas and the kids still have a few Lego sets left to build. I took it upon myself to Plough through the submersible build. I finished the main sub, and got 3/4 of the way through the sunken wreck / shark lair. And my oldest built one or two other small ones aswell. There should still be two or three left to go. All small, maybe 250 pieces each, or around there. That’s always a solid move if I want some peace. Lead them to Lego! They will either sit quietly and build for the better part of two hours, or immediately start to squabble over pieces. I think I have it worked out, new sets equal peace, building from the same bin of parts is mayhem. Hence so many small new kits for Christmas/Birthdays.

I have a sneaky suspicion that work is going to pick up in the next couple weeks. I need to review some documentation for a job I have to quote on. I will leave that until later on Monday afternoon. I’m hoping to do some repairs early tomorrow on the van’s bumper before I dig into actual paid work stuff. It’s lashed down pretty well to the body of the van, in order to get the kids to school, but I’d like to try and repair it in a more stable manner if I can. Hot staples, wire mesh, and melting plastic, what could possibly go wrong. At least the temperature is supposed to go up a few degrees this week, so I don’t have to work in subzero temps. Small miracles and all that. Ciao Bella.

Uncooperative weather patterns.

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Came to the rink to start clearing it of snow, but yesterday was -19 before the wind chill, and today it is snowing rather heavily. I do not know if it is worth it to begin clearing the snow off the ice if once I complete a pass just as much will have newly settled upon it in my wake. Seems futile if you ask me. Or is that defeatist of me to say? I’d rather wait for it to stop and get all of it once. I hate having to do the same things over & over again.

In other news I’m in need of ordering a new tool for Monday so that I can repair the bumper on the van. I damn near tore the whole front end off on the ice at the end of my driveway. Well, I think I bumped it pulling in tight to one side, and then scrapped it pulling hack out, and POP! Off she came. I am hoping with some wire mesh, and metal pins I can plastic weld the two brackets back together, and reseam along one side. It doesn’t need to be pretty, just hold together around town. I have it lashed down fairly well as it is. But if I can repair it a bit more I will feel better about it. Idiotic thing for me to have done. With the freezing temperatures we’ve had I should have known that wasn’t just snow, but an 800lb block of ice/wall. Totally my fault. God damn. If the repairs I have been eyeing up don’t work, then I need to fund the replacement of the entire front bumper. Foolish. Finger, arms, legs & toes crossed the planned repairs do what I hope they can for my particular predicament. I’d rather spend $75 and spend two to three hours fixing it, than dump $1,500.00 or more just on parts, I then have to pay someone to put it on the vehicle, and dispose of the old one. What a mess I’ve single handedly created.

PA Day Antics.

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Hello glorious Friday morning, how are you! For what it’s worth the sun is currently shining, I can see some light grey blue sky out my window and the kids are home off school because of the York Region pa day schedule. I believe there is another one, plus the Family Day holiday in February to plan around too.

Not to mention there are only a few weeks left until Valentine’s Day. Not a huge deal, atleast not around my immediate neck of the woods. We do something nice/simple for the kids, but we don’t make much of a fuss about it between my spouse and I. Haven’t done so since the mini mites entered the picture. We haven’t celebrated some of our more minor milestones from November yet. For a few years running, actually. Finding a trust worthy baby sitter has proven challenging, and we don’t go out all that much to warrant an exhaustive search. My eldest can do her babysitting course in another year or two, and then we’re all set to go out on the town to enjoy ourselves until 10:00pm. Living large! I’m excited. For a few years from now, we’ll really be able to live it up together, as a couple! Instead of trading off to go and do stuff separately.

The temperature is still really low, low, low, low. Not going to be much fun to go outside. I know we’d spoken of doing an outdoor skate this weekend, but I fear that will require hours of labour to clear the rink before we begin. And by then I’ll be too tired/frozen to want to skate for an hour or more.  The things we do for the ones we love. Not looking forward to having to manhandle the old snowblower around on the ice pad at the in-laws. Heavy and traction less. Stinks to high heaven, and never wants to start. I always end up pulling skin off my fingers pulling the recoil fifty times in a row. Not to mention the sore shoulder that will give me. Or I’ll get to scrape down the ice pad with a metal blade and then shovel the fine crystals off so the ice is nice and smooth. The only thing I don’t do, because I think my brother in law enjoys it, is flood the rink or run his homemade zamboni contraption. Can’t say I blame it. Setting the boards, stakes, and liner was a real chore. Cleaning the ice sucks, but maintaining the cleared ice pad is a piece of cake in comparison.

Which reminds me, I need to find all the skates and helmets for the outing. Pray that last years oversized skates still fit, and that the edges are still keen enough to skate on reasonably well. The girls have done two sessions of Ringette so they know how to skate, the basics anyway. Can move forward and backwards, but we’re not doing olympic trials or speed runs or anything like that. Good enough to just have fun is all that matters at this point.

Working from home during a pa day certainly is an experience in futility with small kids at home. Some times I think my oldest is mature, and other times – yeah, not so much. To think the original plan, pre Christmas was to be back in Florida right now. Several things didn’t line up, so we had to pass on it, but otherwise we could have avoided much of this sudden deep freeze, and be riding roller coasters right now, or sitting on a beach. It wouldn’t be all that hot, but a mid sixties to low seventies is better than the minus twenty give with the windchill we currently have. I can do shorts and a sweater in a theme park. I sure as hell can’t do that here, right now, deep into January. Brrr. No thank you.

I very nearly pulled the trigger on a new bandsaw yesterday. I held off though. I got to looking at saw mills again, and my eye started to wander. Then I was looking into chainsaws and Alaskan mill set ups, and got to thinking – again. So I halted all activity because I’m obviously not 100% certain of what I really want to do with my limited funds. I think I still need a bandsaw regardless of if I get into milling. I need to be able to resaw boards, more than I need to be able to slab logs. No, scratch that. Processing my own logs into slabs is great! But, I still need a bandsaw to break down slabs for use on anything other than live edge projects which are not trendy anymore. Had a real hay-day the last four to six years, but moving away from that sort of thing now. More straight edge, asymmetrical designs. Think minimalism with a flare for angles and joinery. But I digress. I only watch a few Japanese, and American furniture builders right now. It’s what I’m seeing, but that’s a tiny sliver of what’s going on out in the wider world.

Anyway. Have a nice Friday, and a great weekend. Stay warm!