Teaching self reliance.

It has come to my attention that we are not doing a super job at teaching our kids to be self reliant. Not to the point where they need to find jobs, and shop for themselves, no. At this point I mean, fetching themselves a drink, and making their own breakfast. Nothing major. I’m just tired of having to feed these kids while they lie in bed with hunger pangs, and it not even crossing their minds to head to the kitchen to grab a drink, or pour a bowl of cereal, or eat a snack bar of some sort. Instead they’ll get ready for school, with our help and then whine that they didn’t get any breakfast. Get up! Walk the fifteen feet to the kitchen and grab fruit, make toast, pour yourself a drink. These aren’t major under takings that I’m talking about here. Ugh.

Maybe I’m just tired and cranky because yesterday involved a tonne of walking, standing, and being on my feet outdoors in the smelly unclean air. My hips ache, and my eyes and chest didn’t feel all the better for it either. But I think these kids are more than capable of sorting out a snack for themselves. 90% of what they need is kept at a level where even the youngest can reach it. Maybe I need to move some food stuffs around, and we’ll have another little demo on how to mix their own chocolate milks, juices, find testable bread, and where the bowls, and cups are – again. The early morning attitude is too much. All that angsty vitriol is too damn high! Perhaps another lesson with the can opener, and toaster are in order. Get these kids up to speed for summer, because I’m busier than ever with work, and I don’t fancy playing maid, butler, chef, event coordinator, and chauffeur all fucking summer long.

Hold on. School’s just called, youngest has a sore throat and I need to collect her and bring her home. So much for horse back riding, and meeting the friendly donkey tonight. Now I need to sort out how to grab my oldest once school is done, and juggle the two for this evenings birthday party out in the woods. Guess I won’t be staying to meet and greet all the animals. Which sucks. But sick kid comes first.

Have her in bed with some pain meds for the throat. Perhaps she’ll sleep? Doubtful. But stranger things have happened. Air quality wasn’t even all that bad outside when I cut the grass this morning. Maybe she caught my wife’s cold, but it has hit her throat first. I’ll have to bust out the Covid tests over the next several days if symptoms persist, and test her a bunch. This was the last real full day of school left. Guess they won’t be doing tomorrow’s half day either. Puts my plans on hold for a bit then doesn’t it. Welp! Not much I can do about that. We will just have to wait and see if she perks up and can drink like normal, or if she is actually out of sorts. I know the coming summer, and changing from kindergarten to grade one has her very concerned. Could just be she’s upset. Don’t know. Need more information, and data points to draw from. Right now, she is medicated, resting in bed with a drink and a show she likes, and I can check her temperature and fluid intake over the next few hours.

Work wise, I got nothing to say today. Take care out there. Ciao Bella.

Up before 5:00 am…

Too scared she’ll miss the bus for the Royal Ontario Museum trip today. Not that the bus isn’t going to leave until around 9:00am or anything. No, had to be up and dressed, waiting at the door before I even woke up this morning. Lord knows what the kids will do come Christmas morning!

We did hit a small snag, in that our usual vehicle is in the shop for repairs so we have a borrowed vehicle for a few days. One that does not contain an ice scraper, so I had I sit in it while it warmed up enough to clear the windshield. Then I used the blade of my hands to clear tactical spots on the side windows so that I could see out, and use the mirrors. The spare scraper from inside the house has gone missing, which I wasn’t aware it had even been used yet, by anyone. So that reserve item needs to be found and/or replaced sharpish. Crisis was averted and we made it to school without too many tears or outbursts from either kid. The youngest has had her nose out of joint for a few days due to all the build up concerning the bus rides and ROM trip into downtown. She is a jealous little beastie. Not good with expressing joy for others if she isn’t getting anything out of the situation either. We will need to work on that. But, in the end I got them to school, dressed, and without tears being shed. A win for me, a slight one at that, but I’ll take it.

My lone nostril issue seems to fade in, fade out as the days go by. I have noticed that when I take my temperature it can range from anywhere between 35.6° to 37.1° Celcius. Which seems weird to me. But no positivity on a RAT, and no other issues I can think of. Fatigue has subsided, almost as quickly as it came on, but that’s pretty standard for me. Nasty guts is no barometer to go by for me for new or worsening illness, so all things being equal, that’s par for the course in my life currently. I can breathe out of both nostrils no new head aches. No sore throat. No cough or lung/rib pain. Sense of smell and taste are very much alive & well. Possibly just a cold? Hard to know at this point. It wasn’t all that bad. Just felt kinda off. Not wretchedly ill, as with other nasty bugs we’ve caught before.

Funny story, I developed Crohn’s Disease about six months after having the worst flu of my life, one Christmas when I was twelve. My grand parents were visiting from England that year, and I was in my pj’s, lying on the floor of the family room watching tv with my family, when I burped out of no where. And I remember turning away from the tv to tell my mum, “I can taste rotten eggs”. She gave me a puzzled look, and by the following morning I was feverish, and vomiting and having all sorts of gastric distress.

Do you remember that old Tom Petty music video about Alice in wonderland where her body becomes cake and the mad hatter and the rabbit eat her as she watches and screams, while lying on a table? That happened in my dream. And a dark black room, with white and black checker board floors began to get longer, as if the rear wall was falling away, and the floors curled, and buckled, and bulged, as my bed became all topsy turvy like a Tim Burton film set. I had days of a high fever, and had the same fifteen seconds of dream a thousand times over on repeat, until it just cleared up and went away. – Then one late May afternoon when at Canada’s Wonderland on a school trip Crohn’s Disease decided to make itself known to me, and that has been my life ever since. That was 2013. Fun times. Weird memory to recall so vividly. Huh. I am not entirely sure if that was when I developed the grey forelock of hair that I’ve had since forever, but is not in any childhood photos before my early teens. Could be. Or maybe not.

As of 4:48pm today we are officially into winter! A new season is upon us. And the shortest day will happen, and then the evenings will ever so slowly begin to get lighter later. Just a handful of seconds per day. I hope you have a wonderful winter break. And have restful holidays whatever you celebrate. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Seven years ago today…

I was lying in an ER hospital bed feeling like death. A prolonged chest cold, & sinus infection that I spent more than a month fighting with anti biotics, Tylenol and any other over the counter medications I could get my hands on just couldn’t shake it off. I also wound up with pneumonia and picked up a case of Epstein Barr (Mono) from the hospital. I spent six days in isolation, with several visits from the CDC. People wore gowns, respirators, face shields, gloves and booties to come in and see me, change my IV backs and give me needles. It was unpleasant. But I made it out with some lasting memories from the staff that helped me out. Saw some shocked faces when we discovered i had a fever of 41.3° C, or just over 106°f for you American readers. Another few points after the decimal place and I would be dead. Organs fail at 107°. So needless to say, very happy to be here, and see the birth of my second child. Not only that but see them both just about every day since. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared at the time. Some of the news I was given was not particularly welcome. Brain parasite, heart lining infection, lung lining parasite, some rando new disease from China (have I traveled to Asia in the last month came up about 1000 times). They were most insistent about that question. And given COVID-19 I now understand why. Thank the lord for YouTube videos and the comedy stylings of Brian Regan. Had a good, much needed chuckle thanks to his comedy specials.

Today is Wednesday, the 19th of October 2022. The weather is rainy, cloudy and cool. I have a few projects left to finish outdoors, but I’m in no rush. Slack line needs to come down, the swings need to come down, and the hose disassembled, dried and stored for the winter. That should just about cover it for now. I located the snow shovels, and found bags of road salt too, so that’s a bonus. At this time of year you never truly know what kind of weather to expect. Spin the roulette wheel and pray you guessed correctly.

Well by the tick of the lock I can see we are after 9:00am, so I best get to work. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Recipe for disaster.

The first stomach bug has followed one of my children home from school. To which I woke up to puddles of puke in the kitchen, hallway, bathroom floor and the tub. It really emptied my youngest out. Points for coverage and density of material. No flow issues found. Snopes.com says – “True, no lies detected”. So I bolted out of bed from the yells for help from my wife. And spent a good while of this morning soaking up the mess, gathering chunks, and depositing wet paper towel globs into a plastic bag. After several rounds of mopping, and then lemon scented wipes for wiping down all of the surfaces my youngest Jackson Pollak’ed all over. Through it all the youngest remained calm and really positive about the whole thing. Bravo. Nicely done. I’ll take some positives wherever I can find them this morning. Which also happens to be an elementary school PA Day. Great timing! 3 days to recoup and test to make sure it’s only a stomach bug and not Covid.

Either way I’ve washed my hands, and the floor and several other surfaces a handful of times. If it’s a bug, we’re for certain all going to get it, just due to proximity. A tiny bungalow doesn’t offer much breathing room to escape from anything brought into the mix. Let’s hope it is over and done with before the fair starts next week. We’re right in the thick of building our entries, and prepping materials for display & judging. Nobody wants to miss a day of fun just to be draped over a toilet feeling violated. Next weekend is one of the longest that we experience all year. We spend double digit hours at the fair grounds from Thursday through Sunday. Plus setting up, and dropping off entries on Tuesday evenings. Then you have tear down and entry pick up on Sunday night. Flash, boom! The whole thing is over in the blink of an eye, and all eyes turn to next year! It really has a rhythm of its own.

Lately we’ve taken to watching “Welcome to Wrexham“, with Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney. It’s funny, charming, touching and some times rather moving. Whether they keep a hold of the team for a decade or just a few years they’ve certainly revitalized the stadium and that’s gotta count for something. I didn’t realize my home town football team, The Wycombe Wanderers were in the EFL, or League One, which is several tiers up from Wrexham. The Chairboys could potentially, with a promotion get to the Champions League, and then be in the Premier League one tier higher after that. Awesome. They have really nice blue jerseys, of which I have several. I recall having a cousin named Mark who when in his teens was playing for the farm team system for a major football club. He’d be in his forties now, so I have no idea if he ever made it up the chain to play professionally, or semi professionally. Either way, I’d bet he was glad to have followed that dream, and to have had the skills to do so. Mark Thornton if my memory serves, but again, been three plus decades, so don’t quote me on that. I played on one Rep team in Ontario, where I missed most of the games because I couldn’t get a ride to any matches that were scattered around southern Ontario. I recall the day the coach came to one of my local games and gave me this amazing cotton white Jersey & shorts combo. It was so much nicer than the polyester kit the non rep level teams were wearing. Oh what could have been!?! Most likely not soccer stardom. My knees and ankles can attest to that. But… to dream. MLS wasn’t a thing in Canada back in the 1990’s (that I ever recall hearing anything about), so I don’t know what all the soccer stars did. Probably had to go play in the states or Europe in order to make anything of their potential.

Chairboys apparel collection.

I chose rugby over soccer in university, better drinking games, larger crowd to hang out with. But I did play soccer in high school, and again in a men’s league once. Badly damaged a knee that season. That was the summer of 2010. Twelve years ago now! Twelve!?!

Phew! That was a mad scramble…

But now it’s time for something a little different. I’ve been tasked with building two new replacement newel posts for my FIL. The current ones have rotten over the two decades since they were installed, so I’m hoping that the two new Cedar ones I’m making as replacements hold up just as long or longer. I will prime them in thick white oil based exterior paint, so I hope that helps.

My conundrum is that I have two slightly different pieces of trim, enough to do one newel post cap each. Do I do them in similar but not the same trim (which I have on hand, and is therefore free) or do I go buy a full length so they both match, but it’ll cost me money to do so. Hmm. The problem with being cheap/frugal is you gotta be ok with things being eclectic, or slightly off and not at all matchy-matchy. It’s for an exterior entrance that nobody ever uses, so I think I can get away with it. The Cedar I bought for a Christmas gift for my BIL where in I didn’t need all 8 lengths, just seven of them to complete my signage gifts. So the cost was sunk in another project. I think I have answered my own question.

My wrist is aflame from yesterdays mad rush of 182 images, with an additional 74 this morning. I am done on my end, awaiting review and any change orders or additional requests. Glad for the work. It made Friday fly by without any fuss. Our holiday plans changed on us by way of “The ‘Vid” so we are searching for a way to remedy that in the near future. Oh well.

Still no new progress on my childrens book. I might shelve it for the time being. Mind you, I still have five more weeks of school days in which to pick it back up before schools out for summer and my minions are home full time for 9 weeks. Then I will get very little done by way of hobbies. But I will accomplish paid work, don’t you worry about that. I think I have one or two reports coming for the summer and one more for the fall. Not terrible, not great. I hope for more than that. Or some extra can labels, t-shirts & apparel, retail signage, catalogue work or build from the ground up branding/packaging work in the alcoholic beverage space.

Though, maybe I should stop chasing the nostalgia of my alcoholic beverage packaging days. Rose coloured glasses and all that jazz. I once had the opportunity to build, from scratch a proprietary glass bottle, and it was looking amazing, but the job was put on hold during a personnel issue inside the brewery/distillery and I never got to see the design go to market. We had built a series of eight flavoured cans too for a Mimosa project, well ahead of the curve, but that got stopped too. Much to my chagrin. It was good work on my part, and that of the brand team. I was very upset to see it go nowhere.

We’re only human after all.

Six days in and I’m finally starting to feel a little more like myself. Still have the register of Barry White when I talk, and fluctuate between stuffed up and Oh God, Eew! With an occasional cough. So not totally out of the woods yet, but – still negative. So, we have that going for us, I suppose.

I had some work to do yesterday, most of which I did, while my head was swimming in cold & flu medications. Nothing major though, and I left a good chunk for today just to give me a chance to plan it all out so that my foggy mush brain didn’t cock it all up. So far, so good.

Kids were all on the up & up yesterday after five days off school recuperating. This bug hit us all in fun and exciting ways. No two completely alike! Fun fact, I can’t distinguish between eaten tomatoes and watermelon in a puddle of vomit. Suspiciously alike in many ways. Ask me how I know! Go ahead do it.

Views here have tanked, obviously. No one wants to read about me whining of being sick. But I’m not mentally in a place capable of plotting some of the most important chapters/installments of my short story series. This brain fogs gotta go. DayQuil and NyQuil , whilst excellent for treating symptoms, make me spacey AF. So a delay is in order. Hopefully you’ll check back in once they start up again.

I need a shower and a nap.

It’s seven o’clock on a Monday evening,

In mid November, and the day was dreary, grey and cold. The leaves have long since fallen from the trees, and everything is a mucky mixture of crushed leaves and water logged grass clippings in mud. The wind has started to pick up and what was a bland flat lit day is now quickly deteriorating into a murky black dusk. Perfect timing for it to begin to down pour now that we have to pack up all our things, muster the kids into the car, and head home after the impromtu long weekend spent at the cottage preparing for the coming of winter. It has been a bitterly cold, and long weekend spent out of doors, tackling chores that were better suited to the warmer days of late September or even early October. But alas, priorities for all involved were not exactly aligned at that point in the year. So here we are, two tired and mopey children, a cascade of rain hammering down in sheets, and the prospect of a three hour drive home, and then school early in the morning. Our youngest has napped fr the first time in two years today. Not a good sign. But she doesn’t have a temperature and isn’t coughing or sneezing, so onward we press, towards home. Fifteen minutes into the drive, she begins to vomit all down her front, and into her car seat. She manages to do this in near silence. But my wife, whom is driving, notices her rolling forwards in the glare of the rear view mirror. “She’s throwing up!”. She says, nudging my arm. I turn to look into the back seat, and there is the eldest, hands on chin, deeply engrossed in her movie. “Not her, it’s Ashley!”. Twisting to look directly behind me, I can see the dark grime on Ashley’s chin and chest from where she has thrown up her chocolate milk and what looks like a first full of Cheetos. “Oh!” I say. I frantically dig around at the kids feet to find any old containers. Finding an old cookie tin I hold it up to Ashley’s face as she bucks and heaves into a coughing fit followed by a glob of vomit. “No…. no… I don’t want it daddy….!” She screams in between heaves. “It’s ok baby, this will keep you cleaner, I can tip it out once we stop off the highway.” Variations of this follow until we pull off the rural highway, and come to a stop under a street lamp outside of a road side restaurant. Opening the door to assess the level of destruction. It’s not too bad, a bit on her chest, face and hands, and a glob on her leg and a dribble or two on the chest harness of her car seat. In a wave of miasma the smell hits me full in the face. To my dismay I then realize, our Ashley has been out of diapers for more than a year, and we no longer travel with a diaper bag, or wet wipes. Thinking quickly my wife hops out of the drivers seat, while my eldest quivers at the sight and smell of her younger sister’s stomach contents. Rooting through her luggage to hand me an old worn t-shirt. I unstrap Ashley and proceed to wipe her down, face, chest, hands and legs. I pick her up for a look over and shuffle her off to the back of the car for a change of clothes. A few heart beats later we’re strapped back in, she is sound asleep, and we are back on the road. It is still raining heavily, and the night is both dark and cold. The youngest, Ashley, will not be attending school the next day.