Fifty Years

Its been fifty years since JFK was killed, that just seems so bizarre.  I remember discussing it in school when I was a kid and back then it seemed like history.  Not ancient history, but historical enough.  Now it doesn't seem so long ago. 

The odd thing is that although being somewhat toddler like at the time I actually do remember some of the stuff surrounding this event.  I remember being at my grandparents house and watching the procession, and being bored.  I knew something tragic had happened but did not know what it was exactly.  So I can only imagine what it was like for people who were into their adulthood, perhaps something like 9/11. 

But November 22nd is also my dad's birthday.  He would have been 85 years old today.  It would have been nice to see what type of old codger he would have been.  I was pretty young when he died, but I still miss his quirky sense of humour, and his dimpled smile. 

Chilliness

Yup it officially feels cold enough to be winter out here in the sticks.  I took the hell hound for a walk this afternoon, the thermometer said -1, but the wind said it was a hell of a lot colder.  I walked three k out with the wind in my face and it felt frigid, then I walked three k back with the wind at my back and I felt warm...then my butt turned into an assicle.  Bad news is that when it thawed it was still as big as ever.  Good news is that there still isn't any snow and I am pretty happy about that. 

I finished the last of the wood yesterday...serious relief.  I actually had all the heating wood done a couple of weeks ago, but still had the "slabs" which have been out most of the summer drying.  The slabs are what we use to make our kindling.  And although we have had a lot of moisture this year some of it was actually dry...although some was so wet that one slab was almost too heavy to lift.  Win some, lose some. 

I put the first coat of coloured paint on the Wookie Cave, but I don't have enough to finish all the walls.  I keep going into Home Hardware to look for mistinted paint, but this time of year there are few and far between in that department.  Come on people!  A good inside project would be to repaint your house, mama needs some light pastel colours.  So I may have to "gulp" buy some, and pay full price.  That's just not right.  I did find a gallon for $8 bucks but it was dark grey, almost black...not exactly something I want to use for a studio.  I guess I will wait another week before caving to the inevitable. 

This afternoon was spent doing a little bit of painting, as in canvases, I usually love that but today for some reason it just wasn't doing what I wanted it to do.  I'm hoping that tomorrow things will behave themselves a bit better.  Nothing sucks like not being able to get the colours right.  (Well that isn't true, going to the dentist sucks worse than that.  Breaking a bone sucks.  Losing your favourite toque, getting a boot full of water, pulling quills out of your dog's nose, running out of gas...I could go on.)

Well I'd better go, I'm in the middle of critiquing a piece of writing and I still haven't had any supper.  So supper first, cause I can get pretty cranky on an empty stomach, and critiquing second.  Then off to bed because it is almost 8pm.  Yikes! 

Writing

The days are flying by in a blur or activity.  I am refurbishing furniture, painting pictures, writing stories, and hauling wood.  There doesn't seem to be enough time in the day, most especially because the days are quite a bit shorter then they were.  I turn into this giant pumpkin of inactivity when it gets dark outside.  My brain seems to tell me that it is time to "shut er down" even when it's early.

Mind you I'm not complaining.  I may sound like it, but I'm not.  I love it all, even the dreaded wood hauling ass workout.  I could do this forever, and I hope that I can.  Well maybe not the wood hauling part.  I'd really like that to be finished so it will free up some more time in my life.  Each load takes me about 3 or 4 hours from start to finish, and that is a LOT of time in a short day.

Of course because of all this stuff I've been doing I've been neglecting other aspects of my life...kind of like this blog thing.  But this is another one of those "things I like" and am loath to give it up.  And because there is nothing to say that I have to, I won't.  Hopefully I will keep on bopping in here every once in awhile so my blogging skills don't completely go down the toilet.  (Funny that...what the hell are blogging skills?)

Today I ended up sleeping in because I was up until 2am last night.  I have no idea why.  But when I did get up I managed to put a couple things on Kijiji for sale, repaint the top of a coffee table, bake some cookies, and write part of a story for this weeks submission to Life As A Human.  It needs work...lots of work.

Speaking of needing work...I'd better scoot and finish it up.

Asshats and Other Furry Creatures

As anyone who has a cat will know that they are asshats without having being told that.  My cat is a super asshat, most especially in the middle of the night.  Some nights she jumps onto the bed with us and goes into her kneading mode until one of us wakes up and threatens to do her bodily harm, other nights she charges around the place going from window, to door, to window, to door, down stairs, upstairs, and all around, still other nights she hides under the bed and when I get up to go pee will jump out and attack my feet.  Like I said...asshat. 

Then she has the audacity to get sick and lie around looking poorly and make me worried.  I often ask myself how it is that me, Ms. Dog Person, has found herself in the position where a) I actually have a cat, and b) feel emotions towards it.  Life can be strange when you have small furry creatures around you. 

But the good news is that Karson is okay, she was just feeling under the weather from an over consumption of fur.  So all I have to do now is feed her fur ball reducing cat food, fur ball preventing brown goop that smells and looks like shit, and brush her. 

WTF?  Having a cat is a pain in the ass, I'd feed her to the dog but the dog doesn't want her.  I'd throw her in the lake in a gunny sack but then I'd feel all traumatized and cry.  Dam!  Being all empathetic and emotional is taking its toll on my psyche and doing bad things to my reputation as a hard ass. 

August...Quit Shittin Me...It can't be almost gone already....

As time seems not to want to slow down I am hurtling quickly to the end of August.  I've come millions of miles since my last entry and feel somewhat guilt ridden about not keeping in touch with billions of readers.  (Yeah, I almost wrote that with a straight face.)  Thankfully this month has been nice and has been making great strides towards keeping the summer from being a complete bust.  I'm loving the weather, it has been in the mid twenties with a humidity which is beyond tolerable.  So yay us. 

The big trauma in my life has been my computer...gulp.  My hard drive bit the big one and went to the big hard drive dump in the sky, taking with it all my information.  It was enough to put me over the edge and weep quietly in the corner.  I've had an offer from my most favouritest people to see if they can retrieve some of the information for me.  I jumped on that offer like a flea going from a twig to a dog's leg!  Now every time I even walk by something vaguely wood-like I knock on it.  I have also been promising the god of little creatures that I will be much more faithful in backing up my information.  I may also send him/her/it a sacrifice in the wind. 

Well time has caught up with me tonight and I must bid adeau. 

Days Fly...

I cannot believe how the days are flying by, seems like only yesterday that I was sitting at my blog writing and feeling that I would absolutely get back to writing in it on a regular basis.  But here I am weeks later and feeling like the last thing I want to do is sit and write on it.  Summer just seems to do that to me, it drains me of all the energy I have for the stuff I usually love to do.  And I cannot blame it on good weather because frankly, this summer has stunk to the high, we have had rain, rain, high humidity, cloudy skies, muggy air, and more rain.  At least today the sun seems to want to make a bit of an appearance. 

So before I go off to the road and another bug infested encounter while I run I thought I would sit and do some quick catch up.  Well perhaps not catch up but a little bit of actual writing stuff in random spurts until I run out of steam.  (Steam is something I have a whole lot of, thanks to warm wet weather. 

Yesterday I actually ran two kilometers...yay me.  The hound and I walked 6 and ran 2, it feels kind of nice, not having to expend a shit ton of time to the suffering part.  I am hoping by the time I do get my mileage up to a respectable point the weather will have cooled down enough to kill off all the flying critters that make life not so much fun in the bush.  The kidlet and I are planning on doing a five k on October 19th this year, which means I have a couple of months to ease into the five k distance.  I'm glad I didn't decide on a ten k, just looking at it from this side makes me tired...and feel my knees protesting too loud. 

Twenty years ago today my suddenly passed away.  Twenty years!  Wow, so hard to believe.  One second he was here, the next he wasn't, and now he's been gone for two decades.  Funny how in the beginning I didn't think much about him.  Every once in awhile I'd tell a story or two, but now, it seems like he is on my mind a lot.  Dad was quite a mix of good and bad, like most of us I guess.  He was a great story teller, but had the worst of the worst for health habits, drank too much, smoked too much, and ate pretty much everything he shouldn't.  And was proud of it.  His ashes are floating around his favourite hunting grounds now, at least I know he would have liked that.  Giving back to nature where he enjoyed being above all else. 

Heat Wave Central

Man oh man, we went from 16 degrees to 37 yesterday.  Today looks as if it will be around the same.  Yikes.  I have an 8k planned and I think it may be just a tad bit too hot for that.  Maybe I'll do a 6k and finish off with a dip in the lake.  Which by the way, is up over two feet.  Two feet!!!!!  Now that is what I call a lot of moisture. 

Hubby is out putting a new log splitter through its paces today.  A neighbour down the road purchased a new 20 ton splitter and has been keeping it here, he told hubby to go ahead and use it if he wants to.  So now I have been given instructions to start saving for a new log splitter for next spring.  Sigh...one of us needs to get a job.