Tidy Husband

Eligible for the seniors discount and the Happy Meal deal at the same time.

  1. On Old Photos

    We’ve spent the snowy weekend playing with our new toy.

    New TV? No. Computer? No. Puppy? Oh God no.

    We bought a Photo scanner so we can forever remember how nerdy we looked earlier in life:

    They airbrushed my face.

    This has been on my to-do list as one of the last things to do in regards to my deceased father: sort through and scan his photos and above is one of the gems I found.

    All total he had about 500 to scan which only took me a few hours

    The problem is? What the heck do you do with them once you scanned them? I’m a bit OCD about losing photos so I have them saved to all the clouds and then some. I really don’t need to keep the originals.

    But what about the original photos? Do you keep them? It seems silly now as I now have them all digitally preserved six ways until Sunday. But somehow, I can’t seem to toss them. I am not talking about a lot of photos here. It’s a shoebox so I figure one day the child will find them in the basement and wonder who the heck the guy above was?

    Some photos are of course a flashback and I am glad he kept. Others? Not so much.

    Nothing says cool like chrome and big white TV. Also, velour. Lots of Velour. We opted to NOT have the sunken living room when it was an option. I would so love a sunken living room today.

    There’s a few photos I am glad he kept.

    I was just starting my photojournalism program and we went to Black’s camera and he bought me a brand new Nikon F8008 SLR camera and probably a crappy zoom lens – didn’t matter, I had pro gear. It was over $1000 way back then.

    We then went that weekend to a transport truck race. I forget how/why we thought this would be a good idea but off we went. And it turned out that I grabbed a few good photos:

    vroom vroom.

    One of the photos was of a truck crashing through a wall and so I called the local weekly paper in the small town where the racetrack was and they ran the photo on the front page. I was a published photojournalist even before I started school.

    Of course, the front page is long gone and so is the photo to match but I think this is why I take so many photos of the child. I want to remember and she grows up so fast it’s easy to forget the little moments:

    spring better come soon.

    So yeah. I’m keeping the box. Maybe she will want it and maybe she will not, but that can be her decision when the time comes.

    Besides, when she’s older I can bring out the box and show her how cool her old man was.

    The photos I kept. The hair I lost.

    RIP Dad.

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  2. Canada Had it Right All Along

    It’s been a long winter so far. Sure, we’ve seen some snow and ice and as I write this I am kind of snowed in – but I am not talking about snow. For whatever reason this winter has been long. Like really long.

    It could be the news. We’re really fucking things up over here and the best is yet to come. I don’t have to tell you what – because you see the news. It’s not good.

    Maybe it’s the egg prices. Or the looming bird flu. Or even the fact that we haven’t seen much sun this year. Or Elon.

    Whatever the reason the mood is not sunny.

    It’s not just me – almost every person in my back seat has stated that this winter has been long even though the snow hasn’t been that bad. But there’s something off this year. Things seem gloomier this year than in other years.

    If only we had a bit of a break.

    A break in mid February sound awesome, no? A Monday off where you can sleep in, or work on your hobbies and turn off the news for a day. The world can stop turning for a day, right?

    Well….it depends.

    President’s Day in the USA

    Here in the US though it’s pretty much business as usual unless you’re a federal employee (assuming there are any left) or like my six-year-old: on winter break.

    Until the late 1980s, corporate businesses generally closed on this day, similar to present corporate practices on Memorial Day or Christmas Day.[46] However, after having been moved to the third Monday, most businesses remain open with many offering sales and other promotions.

    I have to ask: What is the point of having a holiday if you have to work?

    I don’t have much experience in the corporate world but I do know enough to know that if you are at work it is not a holiday. Or at least my kind of holiday.

    Family Day in Canada

    During the Ontario provincial election in 2007, Dalton McGuinty (Liberal Party) promised that, if re-elected premier, he would establish a provincial holiday in February. On October 12, 2007, the provincial government established Family Day on the third Monday in February, to be first observed on February 18, 2008. Its creation raised Ontario’s number of statutory holidays to nine per year

    If I’m understanding this right, Canada actually added a holiday, but in the USA things trended the other way and what used to be a holiday is now just a day where you can buy a fridge on sale on the way home from work.

    Of course, I will be claiming my sovereign right as a Canadian to nap on the couch this Family Day with my family all around me.

    You others? You can go to work. It’s not the 1980’s any more – so off you go. Just don’t forget to pick up your fridge on the way home.

    At least it will be on sale. You’ve got that going for you.

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  3. Funny about Money

    For Valentines day the little one received a card in the mail from her grandmother and inside the card was five crisp new one dollar bills.

    We called Abuela and thanked her and she suggested we go out and get a donut or something but the child (not so little any more) decided she wanted a “thing” with her five bucks so I fire up Amazon on the phone and we go shopping.

    There’s not a lot of things you can buy for five bucks on Amazon. A lot of the stuff seems to be priced about 10 bucks and up so it was hard to find something under five dollars. I tried to tell her that she cannot have anything and it has to be under five dollars.

    We searched for a bit and a lot of the stuff was more than five bucks. There were a few 7 dollar items I was going to let slide, but it turned out I didn’t have to as she found something for five dollars:

    Ya. I have no idea what this is all about either.

    She decided on a LOL Surprise Mermaids Baby Sisters with Color Change Tail that you see above. I had no idea that these existed or what they do – but she did and was excited to get it, so that’s all that matters.

    Remember those old Leggs Nylon Eggs your mom would always have? Fast forward to 2025 and take the egg and add some crappy toy made in China and voila! You’ve got what every six year old girl wants.

    She was so excited to get this. When the doorbell chimed that someone was at the door she was so excited to open the door and rip open the package.

    It was her first Amazon order. I am so proud of her

    This toy has surprisingly been not a horrible deal. There’s already been a few hours of playtime with it today so it’s already paid for itself. The one downside is the water thing. You see, the tail on this mermaid changes color if you put the tail in water. Want to know what is dangerous thing? An unsupervised 6 year old with a bunch of water. You know it’s bad when you her the clinking and splashing in the bathroom.

    Today I learned about LOL Dolls. Of course, this is just one of a set and then before you know it we will have 18 of them with backpacks and houses and cars and a college fund set up for them all.

    Then she will be on to something else. But for today: It’s all about the dolls.

    LOL.

    An update on the flu status from yesterday:

    She will survive. She has a mild fever when the Tylenol runs out and she had a 2 hour nap for me today so that helps. It might take a day or two but thanks to the vaccine and a bit of luck it looks like we will survive the flu scare of 2025.

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  4. Flu Season

    We saw this coming.

    Besides her beautiful artwork:

    she brought home a few other things we could do without.

    The first was a warning all week that as per the school guidelines that somebody in her class was exposed to the flu. The paper then went on to explain what the flu is, how to deal with it, etc.

    “We’re good” we said. We have our flu shot. All of us. We have nothing to worry about.

    Monday – no flu
    Tuesday – no flu
    Wed – no flu
    Thursday – flu

    We have a lot to worry about.

    I am pretty sure when we realized what was happening that BW might have said another word that starts with the letter F.

    We have had the flu before. It’s no fun

    This came out of nowhere. One minute she came home and was her usual happy self and then the next minute I was downstairs and BW was working upstairs on her laptop when we realized we hadn’t heard from the child in a bit and there was not the usual noises associated with kids.

    We found her in her bed. She had put herself to bed and lo and behold she had a fever.

    She came downstairs at dinner and I fed her a light dinner and she drank a lot of OJ because you need liquids when you’re sick. She took her Tylenol without a fuss and went back to bed. I had to go in for a bit to get her to sleep and I haven’t heard a peep since.

    I’m writing tonight from the kitchen table as I want to keep an ear out in case. I also plan on going to bed as soon as I hit publish here because I have no idea how the night or tomorrow will bring.

    Please, don’t let anyone else get the flu.

    This is your PSA to get the flu shot. It’s not too late. Flu season is still here.

    Get the vaccine while you can.

    Nobody wants the flu. Especially a six year old girl that will miss her first valentines day at school ever. She was so excited today that she had 2 backpacks on this morning. One regular one for books, and one for all the valentines cards she was set to hand out tomorrow. I feel so bad for her that she will be missing out on the fun.

    She’s ready for valentine’s day.

    But not to worry little one. We will make our own party here if you’re feeling up to it.

    Wish us luck.

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  5. Smell My Feet

    Tonight while I was helping her get into her braces for the night I got a whiff of cheese. Turns out the whiff was coming from her feet.

    It’s not bath night but I guess she’s been in her hot braces and hi-tops all day and add some melting snow and you have quite the recipe for stinky toes.

    She was already in her nightie, so I told her she could just wash her feet. She looked so confused and a little afraid. What is this guy talking about – just a bath for me feet?

    It took some convincing but I managed to get her into the tub and just stand there. I turned on the warm water and told her to swish her feet and make some bubbles when I poured some body wash.

    She swished for a few minutes and that was more than enough time and she had nice clean toes. I grabbed a fresh towel and dried them off and took my life in my hands and had smell. Much Better.

    She told me that this felt great and that she now wants to do this every night!

    As she left the bathroom she bounced downstairs and looked for Mom as she had to share:

    MOM! Smell My Feet!!!

    BW did not want to smell said feet (can you blame her?) so I herded those rose smelling toes upstairs and tucked them into bed.

    We also read this weeks library book. If you want to know all about the planet Neptune I am now your man.

    Lastly, we had our fancy new garage door installed today to replace the 1973 version. I don’t have a pic as there’s a snowstorm out there but it looks pretty similar to this one:

    It compliments our windows and front door so now we are done with the home improvements for a bit anyway.

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