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Tag: sickness

One of the many problems with chronic illness is…

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I have a tough time figuring out if I’m sick with something new, or if it’s a flare up of the same old, same old. Fatigue, upset stomach, head aches, nausea are all pretty standard fare around these parts, so anything new has to operate outside those bounds. I need to see a Fever, or rash, boils, or something visible to know right off the bat that I’ve picked up something new. And that isn’t the case. A rogue cough might make me sit up, but if I don’t immediately have a runny nose, or an audible wheeze it could just be a rando cough from dust or air quality. That’s no gimme. It frustrates me to no end. Rotten guts? It’s just a Tuesday. Fatigue? Well I did run up and down a ladder earlier today for 90 minutes, so could just be physically tired. Feeling cold? It’s a damp November morning. Head ache? I work on a screen for hours at a time, no surprises there. Like I said, frustrating.

But it could always be worse, so I thank my lucky stars I have symptoms that I know how to live with and work around. The malabsorption issue is tougher, as that affects teeth & bones, but that’s why I take the vitamins and such. Not much else to do there. Live & learn.

So it’s friday, the first Friday in November, and the EA (CUPE) strike has the kids at home for… the day at least, possibly a few week(s)??? Maybe? Who knows. If all of the unions band together it could work to calm the waters by showing unity, and a united front. I don’t know, I’m not a negotiator for anyone, and I have no inside information from our provincial PC government. Instead it could fan the flames and make both sides dig in their heels. You never know with some people. Especially those whose whole MO, is the shit on the little people, under spending to purposefully ruin programs, and settle into needless road building to appease the very wealthy construction donors. Screwing the little guy is what gets them hard. Or so it would seem, from where we sit.

Kids want to erect the Christmas tree this weekend. So now we need to figure out which furniture we’ll move around in the living room or dining room to make room for our seven foot tall tree. Has to be close to a wall outlet so it can be turned on/off easily, but not block too much of the room. If I get rid of some of the really young kids toys, I can push the couch back, and put it infront of the storage unit (newly built by me!) And have it roughly where it usually is. But that will restrict the kids ability to play there, and will effectively block off access to the toy box behind the couch. First world problems, that aren’t really problems.

Recipe for disaster.

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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!?!

Our children’s school currently has

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No EA’s in the building, and at least four teachers off sick. Oh! Who ever could have foreseen this happening? Uh, everyone!?! So we have that going for us. My youngest is off with a lingering cold (not covid – tested negative twice over a period of six days). Who would have thought that no longer wearing a mask in a building full of unvaxed four year old was a good idea. Not too mention the poor vaccine uptake in the five to twelve year olds. Ugh. So what’s next, a school closure because they don’t have the physical adult bodies to keep it running. Get all those consultants and board folks in here to keep it running. They were so keen on their political aspirations, and ambitions to find a cushy job later on, that they signed off almost immediately on dropping masks in schools, with very little push back, if any, at all. But they still work remotely because their offices are too dangerous to go to work in person. Must be nice to set different parameters for yourself, and leave the kids your jobs are centered around, out to dry. Very frustrating. If it was dropped for some, it has to be dropped for all. You made those decisions, now go wallow in your folly.

In other news, I have personally worked on two Ukraine Support gigs in the month of March. Which is cool. Raising money for displaced families via multiple micro breweries. Very different artwork for both ventures. I hope that they both manage to make a difference in somebody’s life for the better.

Hey! , yeah so yesterday I busted out the angle grinder, a cut off wheel and some angle iron to make my rigid router sled. After a practice cut where I was a full quarter inch shy, due to a wandering disk, I got two 6.5 inch cut offs made without maiming myself, or burning the house down from flying sparks. I wore my leather apron, gloves, goggles and ear phones, so I was most protected from a 10,000 RPM spinning wheel. Then I filed off all of the slag, rough edges, points and vein opening Shanks on both pieces. Then bolted it all together with quarter twenty bolts, washers and some nylock inserts to keep it from coming undone. Looks like I thought it would, and gives me just shy of 42″ inches worth of width to flatten slabs, or bigger chunks of wood. The aim was for a full 48″, but I forgot about my routers handles that stick out of the sides, and connect with the sides of the sled, impeding full coverage. But no matter. I don’t really have the room in my shop to work on slabs that are close to or over four feet wide. Three feet would be best, given the constraints of the space. Fine with me!

I had hoped to start in on my adjustable saw horses, but sick child #2 is home, so that’s a no-go today. And by the sounds of it, tomorrow as well. She finally reached the snotty expulsion phase, so we have another few days of this before it clears. Then I have the router table sacrificial fense to build, and the face plate for the trim router so I can mortise out wider pockets without it ripping downwards and gouging out uneven holes. So many things to do!