memories – Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Yet Another Friday PA Day.

February 2, 2024greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Have to keep something in your pocket for just such an occasion. I think ours is going skating with friends this morning, to run the kids ragged out on the ice. Helmets and sticks, chasing pucks around for an hour should do the kids some good. I’m in the midst of a debate about whether or not to spend time today with the kids, or if I need to knuckle under for all the edits I have for both of my concurrent reports. I could be at them for a few days, so maybe a morning with the girls would be ok. Hard to say, I’m torn between wanting to get this big job off my desk, but I also know the girls are only little once, and missing out on making memories really sucks. Responsibility to my business & clients versus the responsibility of being a present and involved parent. Hard balance to strike on some days, especially PA Days when they’re off for the whole day, and here with us (me). But then tomorrow is the weekend and I’ll see them for 48 hrs unhindered (possibly, lots of one type of style choice to enact across all tables).

Dentist visit yesterday was not much fun. My back left molar and gum is sore from them patching an old filling of theirs that fell out. They really had to pull on my cheek, and jaw to get back there. Muscles are sore, and even with Tylenol it was a challenge to sleep. I don’t particularly care for a frozen mouth. The numbing agent lasted about five hours or more. Luckily I did not chew on my cheeks, lips, or tongue. That’s a small blessing atleast. But they did poke and touch my gum line while working at the back of my mouth and that is not feeling so nice today.

Lunch yesterday was a mess. Soup and a bagel were less than ideal choices for eating with a numb mouth. I should have eaten more before my appointment, but I was a bit nervous about those mouth numbing needles that go way up into the gum down to the nerves. Good grief those are not fun to endure. Lasts just a hair too long for my liking.

We gotta get out of here for an hour soon, and then I’ll tear into my report edits. Have a restful Friday PA Day, and Ground Hogs Day. The movie should play on an uninterrupted loop on every channel for 24 hours today. I think that would be hilarious. Ciao Bella!

This ear infection brings back a memory from my youth.

February 7, 2023February 7, 2023greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Not of the intense inner ear pain, but a memory I had following a surgery to have tubes placed in my ears to shore up the collapsing inner walls of my ear canal. It was late in the evening, I was getting over the anesthesia from the surgery, in my own bed at home and I was crying because there were noises keeping me awake. And much to my surprise my mum told me I could hear the birds outside my window, and the rain on the glass. Two, usually too soft sounds I didn’t really take much notice of before, and were so new I couldn’t place them. Mind you I was drugged to the tits for a six year old or so, but it was still pretty startling. How can you live like this, hearing all this weird shit. How do you know what to pay attention to? If I can hear a fan, cars, mumbled talking, phone notifications, birds, and what not, odds are I can not hear you talking to me from several feet away. It’s all one jumbled mass of noise to me. Write that shit down. Text me!

Weird memory to have late last night as I was putting antibiotic drops in my ear. But a vivid one at that. Never can tell what you will remember about life. Happy Tuesday all.

Ps. Yes I did lose the airbrush compressor. It has died a death. I’m now on the lookout for a higher quality replacement that offers slightly more versatility. But which does not break the bank. I know the top of the line Iawata guns and compressors will cost over 1K. Too rich for my blood. I need a mid to lower mid tier set that will last five to ten years of intermitten, sparse use. Any recommendations from out there in internet land?

I must have been talking in my sleep – to myself.

January 22, 2023greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Because I would swear up and down that I had the perfect topic to write about today, and that I came up with an exceptional title, and had several points I was going to cover, and now I’m here, and… – blank. Damnit! It’s right there, on the tip of my brain, I know I went over it a bunch of times. Had to of been a very convincing dream/partial waking moment. I don’t know what to say. Oh, oh that sparked it!

I was going to write about how in my dreams I misremember the way architecture looks about places I have spent a lot of time, and over the years (after leaving) I have the same reoccurring dreams that utilize this new, and fantastical designs for the school campus, that when I go back after a few decades I’m shocked to recall just how off my dreams of the places really are. And it’s really very offputting. I have a terrible memory for picking out the year that things happen. Unless it’s really recent, or super huge, like getting married or the birth of my kids. But other life events, no chance. It all runs together in a big muddy puddle. That’s beside the point. I convince myself after years of the same dreams about places, where everything is somewhat similar to reality. Like the entrance to rooms, carpet, tiles, cement structures are very much real, but my dream moves them into new layouts or positions on the grounds, and after repeat exposure I become certain that that is how it actually was. But then you go back and it’s like – oh yeah!, my dreams totally rearranged things, how could I forget! What else am I misremembering? You know, do I recall things about other people that are cobbled together from real actions, but are attributed to the wrong person/people? Am I misremembering things that I think I have/not done? Makes me wonder. Is any of that normal? Also why am I dreaming about these regular places but giving them fantastical redesigns, and then sticking with the redesign when I recall things that have happened there? Did I dream those things that happened too? No, I have ticket stubs, photos, uniforms, text books, pages of notes, and various diplomas and certifications as receipts for being there. It’s not a delusion. Ha.

I bet that if you visited all of the universities, colleges, and training centers I have attended, and those I just visited (like U of G or U of T) you could stitch together photos of real spots to recreate a mosaic of much of what I misremember these places looking like in my dreams.

Otherwise today is Sunday January 22nd of 2023. We had a very light sprinkling of snow last night, the temperature is hovering around minus three, which is warmer than it should be. Usually by now we get in to the late teens, early twenties of below zero temperatures. According to ten years worth of facebook memory posts that is.

So I did have the conversation with myself in bed this morning. It must have occurred right as I was in the middle of coming to though. Ha. What a way to start my day. Ciao Bella!

And so the present wrapping saga begins.

November 26, 2022November 26, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

I don’t mind wrapping one or two items on any given day, but I detest spending hours on end wrapping everything under the sun. I think I drew the line at stocking stuffers last year, and straight up refused to gift wrap shampoo bottles, tooth paste and hair brushes and the like. Way too much work. Sounds curmudgeonly, I get that, but by the week before Christmas my kids have my nerves frazzled. So this year, I am formulating a new game plan to alleviate much of what I don’t like. Smaller doses of wrapping, spread out over a whole month. 30 days until the big man makes his early morning debut.

We are using more and more gift bags as I get older and more ornery. Rather than leaving the whole lot for one night, I think I’m going to schedule just a few minutes every day to wrap one or two things. I also detest the asymmetrical, non standard box shapes for all of these toys nowadays. Give me flat surfaces, 90° corners, and fewer compound curves. Not that I want my wrapped gifts to look rigid and over tailored, but crinkled edges, and bunching isn’t my bag man. Not that the kids care. Like, at all. So, I don’t really know why I concern myself with it so much.

I’m trying to get into the holiday mood, and it’s increasingly becoming more difficult to do so. The tree is up, decorated and lit. The exterior lights are up and illuminated nightly. There is a new light up wreath & bow on the door. That’s about the most of it until the kids get older, and we start to lose more of the toys that clutter the house. We sat down to watch Elf as a family, and later on I sat down to Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Still not feeling it. Maybe I need a movie marathon with Scrooged, NL Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Die Hard, Gremlins & Home Alone to really drive it home. The presence of snow really does help it feel like Christmas. That and music. I miss the yellow LP my folks used to play on endless repeat. I have a photo of it somewhere. Ah yes, here it is:

One of the few Holiday albums that we played over and over again. There was a cassette tape that my brother Steve had too, with Kenny Rogers on it, which is forever burned into my psyche aswell.

Hard to over state exactly how much of my memories of Christmas is entwined with this old vinyl LP. I did scour iTunes to locate some of the songs individually, but it isn’t the same recordings, or we had our record player set differently… either way, it’s close, but not the same.

Holding on to useful, old things.

November 7, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

I’ve had the exact same beach towel since I was a little kid. I was given it on a trip to florida one year (though this part is kind of foggy), and I have held on to it for three plus decades or more. It went to junior high as a gym towel, and then high school and my OAC year in the same capacity. It still retains the rusted hook stain on one broad side from hanging in my lockers. The edges are fraying, and the colours aren’t quite what they used to be, but once it is no longer a viable beach towel, it can become a shop rag, and finish out it’s days wiping down oily hands, or buffing off finish from a piece of furniture. Not certain of why I’m so attached to it, other than it has been a part of my life for thirty odd years (roughly). After all the moves, and changes to direction of my life it has been there to add one small sense of continuity and stability. I’ll be sad to see it go when it finally gives up the Ghost. At this point the fabric weave owes me nothing. Thanks for hanging around Sail Boat Beach Towel (SBBT).

Last year my wife purchased the family all new giant beach towels, and somehow they have less absorbency power than a single damp napkin. Not sure how they managed to manufacture fabric that won’t soak up water, and yet still fails to help wipe it off your body. The mechanics of such a tool are beyond me. The colours are vivid, the fabric is soft, and yhe overall size of the towel is huge, so you’d think it would be a slam dunk. But you would be wrong. Damn wrong. So very, very wrong.

Today would be another installment of Domestic Duties Monday, but due to the strike both kids are home, and since teachers haven’t gone synchronous on-line yet, my wife is home too. Will we go stir crazy, or will the afflicted parties negotiate sooner rather than later.

A stroll down a musical memory lane…

November 5, 2022November 5, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Turns out I can remember a great deal of silly lyrics even after a few decades of changing musical tastes. I saw that the movie “Weird” is out on Roku now, and went to my CD collection to listen to a bunch of my old Weird Al Yankovic albums. And instantly I was in my early to mid teens listening and singing along to Al’s hits on an endless loop. Though I don’t recall the song names & titles, once he starts to croon the words come falling out of my memory and spill from my mouth. I wouldn’t have scored a 100 on any karaoke leader boards, but the majority of it came back, unbidden, and in larger and longer stretches. With head phones on, I bet I’ve listened to the handful of Al albums I had several hundred times. Bits like “One more minute with you“, or “You don’t love me anymore” just exploded out of me full force. I loved those tunes. Along with “Slime creatures from outer space“, and “Like a Surgeon“. There are so many that I kept on a loop for ages. I don’t remember why I stopped listening to it. Great stuff. Although now that I say that, I picked up the guitar at 15/16 years old and turned to Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Joe Satriani for musical fulfillment. So the parodies, while exceptional, fell out of favour. Then along came the likes of Wolfmother and The Blue Stones, and I just didn’t go back. I did like “Amish Paradise”, “White and Nerdy”, “Tacky”, and a few other more current tunes, but it didn’t linger like it did way back when. I also didn’t have access to the depth and breath of music I have now with iTunes, Vinyl, cassette tapes, cd’s and YouTube deep dives.

Pretty amazing what both smells and music can do for your memory. The first hint of cool air after a rain, makes me think of England, or my walk to school in Scarborough. Certain Status Quo songs make me think of falling asleep under tables or chairs late at night, when my parents held their raging house parties on Baronial Court. I still recall the odd scratchy softness of that mustard-yellow brownish semi-shag carpet in the dining room/living room. The split mirrors running vertically up one wall showing sweaty people dancing, drinks in hand. Or hangovers the next day with Dire Straits playing on the family stereo. Ah, memories. Could be faulty, could be my imagination at this point. Who knows!

We’re off to dig up potatoes. Or the others are, and I’m taking the car to get an oil change. So I best eat something, and go get the vehicle sorted out. Have a birthday party to take the kids to, so I’m on a schedule today! Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Seven years ago today…

October 19, 2022October 19, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

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.

September 23, 2022September 23, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

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.

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!?!

When Covid comes to town, round seven.

August 3, 2022August 3, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Earlier this week we learned that my wife’s great grandmother, who is 94 years old, has Covid for the first time in the nearly three years it’s been around. Not only that but at least one farm hand in his seventies has it too. We suspect the second farm hand, also in his seventies has it as well, but is such a heavy smoker with heart issues and a permanent cough/wheeze , that he just hasn’t noticed it yet. How could he, inbetween smokes all he does is cough and wheeze and shake like a leaf in the wind. He’d never know anything was wrong until he woke up dead one morning. He’d shrug and say “Could have been anything?” And float off on his merry way, oblivious to actually being dead. What a guy! But in all seriousness we are concerned for the 94 year old former nurse who grew up with a pet bear, and worked in a mining town for ages before getting married and going to med school. Lots of interesting stories wrapped up in that one believe you me.

Years ago, before I got married, I used to cut grass on the side of my full time job, and one of my clients was in Locust Hill. A brash and harsh old lady, I was told by everyone who knew her. A widower, her former husband had struck it rich by being the guy who built a machine, or series of which, that could consistently dye wool in any colour you like. Their house was huge, set back on an acre or so of lawn, with massive old growth trees. A shed full of relics, and a house stuffed to the tits with art and sculpture. When i met Barb, she was the cold and scathing witch i had been warned of, but as i kept coming back week after week, she started to open the door to chat, then poke a head out of a window, then settle on the porch, and after a month or two she’d invite me in for a meal and we’d talk at length about medicine (i have Crohn’s disease after all) so i don’t shy away from over sharing, or gruesome details. Anyway, in Barb’s youth she worked as a nurse in the sexual reassignment wing of a Toronto Hospital. Went in to great lengths and detail on how they could turn a penis into a vagina, and collect the meaty parts of a vagina and reconstruct a working penis. It was all very interesting and shocking. This was stuff they were doing in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, and into the 90’s after all. I don’t recall when she retired, or under what circumstances, but she was a hoot, a real riot. Couldn’t cook for shit, but was generous with what she made me, and as a side note she didn’t know how her kids would survive after both of them attended Harvard and now ONLY earn $700k a year as of 2006. Ha. I fucking wish to be a $700k pauper. Her husband was a good looking dude. I saw many black and white photos of him in Jeans riding a motorcycle like a stud. Classic striped down low riding bike too. Old style seat with the coiled springs at the back two corners.

Barb died a while back, and I didn’t attend the funeral. I felt bad about that, but I spent a long time thinking about her that weekend. Had a drink in her honour as well, as I recall.

Really makes me sad that neither of my grandpas are around anymore. I really could have picked their brains on my furniture building projects. They both worked making furniture as a skilled profession for decades in Britain. I remember our house used to be stuffed with things they had made. Chairs and tables alike. Shame I can’t get access to all that experience now that I enjoy doing it myself. Details lost to the wind, like the sands of time passing between our finger tips. Books and YouTube will have to suffice for the moment.

Not too much going on today

December 19, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

So here is a photo of our former pup Alfie Francis before he past away in May. This is the first Christmas in twelve years without his wagging tail knocking ornaments off the tree, or his snuffling nose tearing through wrapping paper on gifts under the tree. He was a good looking boy, and though his last yea to year and a half were challenging, he was well loved.