Day 195: Just another Garbage Day... Lawson woke me up at 7:30 DOH!!! OK we can still do this... Garbage and recycling out, check and check, Lunch made (pudding, kiwi, apple, cereal bar, 2 cheese on a bun things baked in the over to golden brown delicious... (that's GBD for those not paying attention) and a juice box... Check. Breakfast, french toast, butter, real maple syrup and a little milk to wash it down... a clean mask, backpack packed and out the door, 30 minutes. Sidekick shows up. He messages me from the driveway, coffee? Ya ya just come in you know where the pot is. Apparently when he took the truck in for a scheduled appointment to have a tire changed, they had forgotten he was coming. Ya ya stick a block of wood under the wheel so it doesn't roll off the jack and we can take care of that this morning. 8 big nuts holding them on... tork specs are really high... not something you want to do on the side of the road in the dark with that shitty like wrench they sell with the truck. I also found out that my weight on the end of the johnson bar only gets about 2/3s the force it use to get. We got the new wheel on and went in for a coffee. Wasn't a long visit, he needed to get back to work. Talked a little about a mini van he's thinking about picking up to add another vehicle to the company fleet. I eventually got back to fixing my resume, yes something else I was supposed to do this weekend that is just now getting done. Maybe I can get a job that pays money and not have to start on project Y LOL. The boy got home and went to the basement to watch some videos before hockey tonight. Dinner... wasn't leftover night supposed to be yesterday before garbage day... Oh man this is going to be a tough week. We had some buns Heather made last night... and some meat I sliced up on the meat slicer at 2:30 AM (I guess the report technically should have started with that), so I had a nice meat and cheese sandwich, Heather had hers with meatballs from last nights dinner and Lawson Had the rest of the Pizza and wings from the weekend. OK fridge is a little more clean now. Off to Hockey... we arrive with 15 minutes to get fully dressed in goalie gear and get on the ice. Not a problem, 10 minutes later he was lined up ready to hit the ice and I was out the door like Bobby Orr. Date night... Heather and I went to Timmies for a coffee. Made it back in time to watch the last 10 minutes of practice. He was literally just skating out of the net and taking the pucks away from the kids and shooting them in the corner before they got a chance to shoot... good lord I knew there was a reason I didn't want to come in... LOL, As long as he's having fun out there this year... pretty much the best we can hope for. A long ride home, and then a snack before bed... Lawson went, Heather went... yet I'm still looking for my blanky... can't find it, the wife doesn't share hers, hope the the furnace hold out the winter.

Day 194: Monday again... But today is a special Monday... Today Lawson and I get to go to the dentist... and it's Monday... Oh joy!!! We do the morning routine, Lawson put together his lunch with help, breakfast and out the door... Where the hell did he get that shirt from... it's way too small for him and I've never seen it before. He claims it was in his dresser but neither Heather or I bought it for him. On the front is a diagram of a hockey rink and in big letters over it it says: He Shoots He Scores! If this is yours PM me so I can get it back to you. No goalie needs a shirt like that... just wrong on so many levels. Got some more paperwork done and headed down to the basement again... I need 2x as much space or half as much shit... something has to give. Around 1ish I head over to the school to pick him up and head to Kirkland Lake. Heather got us a new dentist so we don't need to deal with doctor Mary the Cavity Fairy any longer. How did she pick the new dentist? Referrals? Advertising? A google search for the top dentist in the area... no. She pick them because they were the only ones that answered the phone when she called. Frankly I'm ok with that method. Heather met us at the office after she got out of work. Following the appointments we went out for dinner... a fancy place that had everything you could ever want breaded and deep fried. We had a salad... only thing on the menu that was remotely Keto friendly. Then we went home to look for a snack. Lawson got in just in time to do his online hockey training in the basement while Heather started a new knot tying project, as a matter of fact she started it several times. It involved counting and a grid that wasn't right. You know what they say, 8th time is a charm. I finally convinced her to put away the self torture devices, make nice with the pillow and get some sleep.

Day 193: Morning was easier today. There was something go to look forward to... Food! Eggs, sausage, toast, coffee... Ok then back to the workroom to get some paperwork done. Bills, argh... Took up the bulk of the day getting forms and info into the accountant. Seems the income is lower than the outcome Doh! I had to do something creative... New GoaliePow masks. Yes this is the world we now live in, we have come to the point where the species as a whole hinges on a paper face covering. COVID19 has been on a slow steady rise since the calm in the storm at the beginning of July. I hear they may open the boarder in November... So it should spike and finish us all off just before Christmas. Good thing the Xmas tree is already up, I would hate to spend my last dying days trying to get that together for a holiday most of us won't make it too... Speaking of which, looks like Halloween might be canceled this year. Did spaghetti squash, meatballs and garlic bread with cheese for dinner. Then I got stuck playing that online pool app I installed on my phone the other day... Seems like a bit of a waste of time but it's a distraction from the world crumbling around us. Once again it got dark out.

GoaliePow COVID Mask

BTW if you want a GoaliePow COVID mask let me know... I have yet to figure out a price gotta work on that tomorrow.

Day 192: Are you ready for the weekend? Ya me either... Plan was to get up and go to town for breakfast then drop Heather off at band camp. They woke me up at 9:30 and asked when we needed to leave... Oh about an hour ago... I took a shower, breakfast in town was no longer an option. We drove Heather into band camp and then head to Timmies for a snack to hold us over for lunch, Heather would be joining us again in 2 hours. Next stop, well before I left my phone binged at me informing me someone had posted goalie gear for sale... So the next stop was the bank for money. We picked up a set of pads and gloves in not too bad of shape, a little vintage but still modern enough to use. Oh look a garage sale... Heather wasn't with us, we stopped. LOL Lawson got a magnifying glass for 25 cents. We were actually looking for Melanie she lives only a few doors down from the yard sale. BestBuy... Next stop, I needed another screen protector put on my phone. Done, Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Walmart, now Heather asked us to get stitch counters and they had those but not the yarn we were looking for... Some pants for the boy... Shampoo... He wanted the sport shampoo, maybe it gives you super powers or something... I got the jumbo bottle of the stuff just like it other than it didn't have the word sport on it so this obviously it had no super hero enhancing abilities in the bottle, his heart was broken. Ok it's been about 2 hour, we go back for mommy and find her sitting in the side of the road with her sax. Seems she didn't get the memo that vivid practices are only going to be 1 hour long. Doh! We went for lunch, did some grocery shopping and head home, wait we stopped at the farm on the way to get so eggs and stuff on the way. Ok everyone was beat... Dinner was slow to get going. After which the big people watch some TV while the boy yelled at the video game all night.

Day 191: Up at 5am, what the hell is wrong with me. Between the wife, the boy and myself we finished the last of the eggs today, need to stop by the farm for more. After everyone was off and running, SideKick stopped by to see if I wanted to go to Kirkland Lake... Sure why not. While there we picked up a load of stuff coming back this way. We stopped for lunch in town, l might have eaten something I shouldn't-oughta. Meh, I'll live. Once back in Matheson we poked and pondered about the furnace and impending on the weather map... Might not make it through summer without snow. ICK. Lawson's friend came by after school and the went hiking feather than play video games so that was good. I broke out the pizza making flour and made some pizza for the boys when they got home. Later, Heather made it home from her dentist appointment about 6pm, by that time I had already. Heather and I just had leftovers for dinner... No energy for anymore cooking tonight. After which Heather started tying sting together again and I played some video games. It wasn't soon after people just started dropping like flies... Bedtime for Bonzo.

Day 190: Going to need those F'ing mittens today... 5am -3 degrees outside with a chance of flurries... Thinking about trying to get the furnace working again today. Heather headed off to work a little early to try and avoid the construction. I let the boy sleep in until 7... Filled him up with eggs (he's still on that scrambled egg kick that I thought wouldn't last long ). And he wanted eggs for lunch too... Did I mention we go through about a dozen eggs a day? Off to school. Man do I feel like a bag of dirt, didn't sleep last night, really feeling it... You know what else I'm feeling? Fucking cold! Ok down into the basement, something needs done. I dig out the ductwork that was stored against the wall... Then dig back to the far corner of the workshop to start hooking things up. Easier said than done, the whole wall was being used for storage. Boxes of books, bins of toys, Christmas stuff, a filing cabinet, totes of miscellaneous stuff put away and forgot about yeArs ago... Low and behold... Bottom box, far corner, deep as you for get in the tote, I find the tool to align the blades on the thickness planer... Must have fallen behind something and dropped to the bottom landing in the tote... Would have never found it if I wasn't doing the ducts. Sooo... I get to putting stuff together the way I wanted to see to done rather than how it was originally set up... and seriously WTF, are people who install furnaces just people who failed at doing body work on cars? What a mess, not even going to go into it... So I spent the day rebuilding parts of the furnace/ ductwork so things were joined proper, had screws holding the parts together, ran neatly through the joists, supported with hangers... Even got heat to most of the house now... Tomorrow I may relocate the thermostat, currently it's in a dumb place that fluctuates wildly in temperature and the furnace turns on and off more often than I blink. Lawson got home as I was cleaning up some. I made him dinner early since Heather had an unknown ETA, she was getting her COVID19 haircut after work. She eventually showed up and we had a rather unusual dinner that ranged from classy to 7-11 type food all on one plate, a bottle of wine to wash it all down. Boy retired to the basement after he ate to play games with his friends... Heather and I crashed in the bedroom, her tying strings together and me playing a game of pool I downloaded last night from the app store. I tried to talk my self into doing something more but my body wasn't having anything to do with shananagans like that... Been up for countless hours now... Hoping to pass-out soon.

Day 189: 5am... Got up to take the car into the shop and teach Heather how to shift gears in the Mazda with the screw driver, don't ask. Got gas and sent her off to work. The boy woke up and got an shower before school... Hind sight being 20/20 he smells like hockey now so it should have been a tonight thing not a this morning thing. Breakfast... Then lunch packed and out the door off to school. Ok, first thing on the agenda, take a break. Check. Sat down on the bed and an hour and a half magically disappeared. The phone rang... Dentist office called to remind Heather of her up coming appointment and cut short my much needed beauty sleep. Heather sent an email from work... I mulled over her proposal over lunch... Did a little research after lunch and pondered the feasibility of the proposal... I've done crazier things before, like project x. Lawson got home. He had hockey tonight so I made him a little dinner he could eat early enough to give it some time to settle. Who doesn't like bacon cheeseburgers? When Heather got home we went and picked up the Subaru... Brake job was finished. We then fed ourselves a little something Heather made while I was in the shower... After eating we got in the car and head north with a crap load of hockey gear piled in the back. New sign it procedure at the door... Sign this, answer the weekly question, sign that waver, review the rules... It was pretty quick. The boy geared up and was on the ice in a little over 5 minutes after entering the building... 4 whole minutes to spare. Heather and I bailed... Timmies for a coffee. As we chatted and drank coffee I filled in forms for hockey. I'm getting better with the phone... I was able to put the form on the phone, fill it out, add a photo of him to his player record and add a copy of his health card to the form and mail it back to the hockey association. Then the coffee was gone, we needed to pick him up for the arena. After acquiring the package from the arena and helping him pack his bag we stopped back at Timmies to get him refueled. As we approached Matheson I got a chance to test the new brakes. Yesterday had this happened there would be 1 less fox in the area and a lot more zip ties holding the front end of the car together... But the brakes we good now... Antilock brakes worked for us... Steering and braking all at the same time... I think it's what you call cool beans. Unloaded the car and packed it in for the day... Heather put the final touches on the new red mittens and then proceeded to make a list of things she didn't like about them... Maybe a she should take it up with the manufacturer. COVID19 report over and out for the night.

Heather's Red Mittens

Day 188:. Garbage day... But aren't they all? Garbage made it out while I was making breakfast. Eggs all around this morning. Packed the boys lunch, stuck it in his bag... He got in a video before heading out to the bus. What to do today? Paper work. Had to document some of the work that needs done on the house. Took about 50 photos and added descriptions... Ok now I know what needs done... Now I just need the time and energy to do the work. Argh! Lawson walked in... 3:30 all ready? Damn. Heather called to let me know she would be home late... Needed to take a phone call before she got home. I took the extra time to try and figure out what the boy is actually allowed to bring in his lunch... There are people with allergies in his class but I wanted to know more specifically what people are allergic to, so we don't kill anyone. On the 3rd email back from the school is was down to no nuts or fish... Which didn't help much. Fish or shellfish? I know Lawson said fish but had his lunch taken from him last year for having shrimp... Now the chances are good that if you are allergic to fish you should be fine with shellfish... One is a vertebrate the other isn't... They are about as closely related as a fly is to a hippopotamus. 2 totally different allergies. So which is it? Same with nuts... Are we talking tree nuts? Legumes? Fruit like the coconut? What about coco-beans? Or is it a "we just tell them all of those" so no one makes a mistake? I almost feel like they should register a doctor's report with the school and post it so the other parents know exactly what we can or can't send... Just a little help in keeping children alive, seems important to me. Heather made it home and put an end to my emails to the school. Time to make dinner... Ok maybe past time... I helped a bit but wasn't very useful... Still very sore, headache, sore eyes even... Could be the weather. After dinner we managed to squeeze in a movie before bed.

Day 187: Monday, got the boy up and got some food in him... Made him a lunch and then found the lunch Heather had made him possibly the night before... Sent him with the lunch I packed... It looked better. Lol  Well on to cleaning the stove... Half a roll of paper towels took care of the pool of oil, took a little while longer to clean out the burners so gas could flow through them... I got the bad grate cleaned and after beating on it for hours I had to go sit down. I took a few knives that needed sharpening to the table and worked on making them proper again. After that, even more burnt out I tried to start on dinner. You know how they say that you are more likely to cut yourself with a dull knife... They lie... Sure a sharp knife doesn't hurt as much and heals casters but don't let me cut things when I should be finished working for the day. So after stabbing myself 4 times slicing up a cabbage, I gave the fuck up before I bled to death. Lawson made it home and squirreled off into the basement. I went for a horizontal moment... Heather walked in at 5 and startled me. I had lost an hour some how. Damn we gotta go get ready for Lawson to do his online hockey training... I went out and set up in the garage. Tv, computer, cellphone for a network range extender... Like I was starting to get the hang of things. Heather stayed and made dinner... The crack slaw I had started and gave up on. After practice we ate and packed it in for the night.

Day 186: Heather went into work today to make up for the fire alarm issues last week so the day started around 5:30... I hate single digit hours in the morning on the weekends. Eventually the boys crawled out of the basement and I made them some pancakes. After which they played on the piano a bit... Apparently neither of them have had any formal training... I plugged my ears and pushed past it. Eventually so did they. They returned to the basement to play some more video games because the weather was crappy. I continued the epic tool finding mission I started weeks ago. I got the boys a plate of fruit and zucchini bread for lunch while they played... The weather cleared up a bit and they head out of the house on their bikes. Sidekick stopped by for a coffee... I had mentioned the wife was at work so it was safe to come over. Nothing new, just discussed some projects that needed taken care of, most involving transportation. Heather finally got home and scared people away, my friend left, Lawson's friend left, it was almost quiet. Tried something different for dinner, the chicken fingers we make with the flours we use has proven to foul the oil and at times overflowed the pot... Trying to improve on this was tragic tonight. The changes we made exasperated the problem and at 300 deg all the oil instantaneous bubbled out of the pan into the stove. Deep frying turned into almost pan frying and a gallon of oiled needed to be removed from the stove top... A job that will need to be finished tomorrow. We did get it cooked, tasted fine but good lord what a mess. A movie and bed was in order, which also involved the mitten once again... Apparently now she can't see the knots in this color so the mitten got once again made back into a ball of string. String #3 came out, Red... Leftover from another project, not soft or fluffy or warm but yes, it went through the new ritual and was knotted up into a mitten tonight while the movie was on... Pretty sure tomorrow it will be a ball of string again.