And coming in straight out of left field is…

A ruptured right ear drum, complete with a bloody, oozing mass from deep inside the ear. Wonderful way to wake up before 6:00am today. So far looks like no associated pain. Waiting for a potential fever, or any other signs of illness. Whee!

Today is Friday, of all days, so here’s hoping you all get those weekend plans you wanted. Whether that means they are cancelled, or actually moving ahead this time, is up to you. Your fantasy, your choice. Stay bundled up in bed in a blanket watching whatever you like with a cup of something in your hand, or out crushing it in a bar with bottle service, you enjoy yourselves.

This week has been a pretty good one as far as Summer Break 2023 is concerned. Visited a mine where we found all sorts of Amethyst crystals, went to the lake for a brief 3 day stay, swam in the lake, hot tubbed, went tubing with the kids on what ended up being the windiest and roughest day on the lake. Shipped off the wooden moose on Monday, and got that out of my shop after months of looking at it every time I went in there. Kids even went to the zoo twice this week. We need to pace ourselves a little better. Or else we will be run ragged by the end of week nine. Will need to nap all day the first week the kids go back to school if we keep this up!

In other news, I have started book #15 on my 12 book a year challenge. I was disappointed- again, by Mo Hayder. **SPOILERS AHEAD** The Treatment was well written, well paced, but the ending contradicts the first pages of chapter one, so I don’t know if she had written herself into a corner, or used the wrong name/character in the end to be the big bad, but it was a let down. I don’t understand why said big bad would go about trying to expose their own misdeeds. As it made no sense for the early iteration of the character, nor for the big bad version of that character at the end of the book. I don’t think that a very late stage admission of schizophrenia solves the problem either. And a split personality was not mentioned, nor played upon as a theme either. Sad. The Ritual was a bit anti climactic in the end also, so 0 for 2. Shame she’s dead, the author that is. There were loose ends I’d want to see tied off, but no such luck now.

But what do I know about writing eh? Not much. She made a living at it, had the book made in to what I can only assume was either a sterilized white wash, or a horrendous book accurate car crash of SA trauma by child predators of both sexes. Either way, no thanks. Not watching that.

Haven’t picked up my children’s book to finalize my last handful of drawings yet. I can feel the weight of the languishing project on the back of my shoulders. I fear it will take another 8 full hours or more to complete those last few pages. I need to break that into smaller chunks and try thinking of it as just a page at a time. Story is written, edited and finalized. Just being a slow hand with the artwork. I’ll post the pdf here once it’s done for all six of you to see. Ha. Or maybe I will add it, and Book 2 to my amazon kindle unlimited library, and see if I can sell one copy of each book to be consistent. Though I did scratch that itch when I wrote and published the first book of collected short stories. Far more people followed along and read them here for free than have done so on Kindle Unlimited. Go figure.

Things that I accomplished yesterday.

Can’t be resting on those laurels for long, so today we acknowledge what we’ve finished, and then we turn to face the front and keep on truckin’. I managed to finish book number eleven (11) of my twelve books in a calendar year challenge. Mo Hayder’s “Ritual”, which was… anticlimactic at best? A 400 plus page book about two or more adults who are unable to deal with loss, whether it was recent or from their childhood. And a sub plot about ghastly mutilation & murder. I thought there was going to be a bigger build up to pay off, but, eh! Not bad, not awful. I mean I finished it, and we all know I have no problem giving up on books part way in. But… a bit of a let down in the end. I think that is the third or fourth Mo Hayder book I’ve read. The others were far superior. This one was more melancholy than suspenseful. Tick it off the list. Book eleven is in the can! So I turn to another Richard Morgan book to complete the twelve. His 2008 novel “The Steel Remains”. More light hearted and humorous than “Black Man” or any of the Altered Carbon series. Let us hope it stays good so that I can complete my 12 book challenge. Although if I get enough pages between multiple unfinished books, I’d take the page count of what was read, add it up, and if it crosses 250, I’d call my challenge done. If I’m being honest. Cover to cover is the goal, but I’ll take partial credit for pages read in a pinch.

Second item on the list was to finally sit down and watch Sony Studios’ “Morbius”. Which felt much like “Venom”, in that it was ok. Obviously lower budget than standard MCU fare, but not horrendous. It wasn’t a Uli Boll film, so it wasn’t unwatchable. Slightly better than Venom 2, the Carnage one with Woody Harrelson. It even had one of the actors from Andor in it. I’ve had that dvd in my possession since Christmas, so I’m glad to finally take that off of my personal to do list. The kids had dance last night, and costume fittings, and dinner with Grandma, so I had an additional 90 minutes on my hands. Nearly three hours of free time to watch a movie, eat, finish my book, and shower in peace.

Also, I finished all the sanding on the Urn. Up to 800 grit with hand sanding using a rubber hand block. Buttery smooth. I used a torch to make the grain pop, and then needed to move through the grits again back up to 800 grit. No matter. Looks good. I’m happy with it. I even managed to get some Osmo finish on it, and buff it off with my polisher. Very nice! Today I want to add feet, and perhaps some spacers to stop the lid sliding around. We’ll see how we feel later on. But I can see the end of the tunnel on this one. Glad to put it behind me. I have since learned that the recipient is not sure if they want it anymore, so I may keep it for myself, for future use. I’m not afraid of that kind of preparation. Live and learn.

I have burgundy, yellow, emerald green, and this blue felt to choose from. Think HP House colours.

I’m also just about ready to rewash my resin kit in warm soapy water, to make sure all of the mould release is gone. I don’t want any part of this thing to peel or puckers or wear off prematurely. Given how much time and effort it takes to test fit, sand, and scribe lines, and fill holes, and pin together, and find work around for misshapen joints, I don’t fancy my expensive paints peeling off of it just hours after laying it down because I missed a spot.

So here we are, Thursday. Looking at the four day long weekend for Easter. By next Wednesday the temperatures supposed to reach above 20°C. That’s wild. I’d settle for three to five weeks at the 14°C range, and rains over night, and storms while we’re all sound asleep. As I understand Ottawa had an ice storm recently, with parts of the city without power. Yikes.

Oh in work related news, we managed to get just about all items off to the printers. Some items that require a third parties input were held up, but that’s honestly to be expected at this point. So yeah! Fantastic news. Ciao Bella!