Greetings: I am unsure what happened to July. I remember it was the 4th of July, and then it was the 31st of July. Everything else seemed to run together quickly. The day-to-day rhetoric coming off of the hill is exhausting. The people are feeling it, and so am I. To this end, I tried to lighten the mood with some clowns. I received a series of circus filters and applied them to the eve framework, and here you see the result. The 1st two are done with the 3D software, the 2nd two are straight Photoshop. But even when I try to lighten the mood, my inner imp comes out, and I have to make them evil. But that stands to reason, because I cannot stand clowns.

Trying to be positive....

We have entered the month of August. I've tried to figure out what happened to July, but I couldn't. It passed like a lightning strike in the night, but here we are. I am doing my best to be positive and face the oncoming storm. Or maybe it's just a heat wave, you never know.

As of today, I am fatigued, but I am feeling a lot better. My jaw does not hurt nearly as much, and I can eat properly. Even though I had to double back for work, I am not almost as tired as I thought I would be. I had some time to start working on the weekend list and the new permanent list, and I even knocked a few things off of it. I double-checked the installation of the screen on the back porch, and it appears to be secure. I have a lot to do in the coming weeks, and with a little bit of luck, I can get some things started, some things finished, and maybe even remove a few from the list. That would be nice.

Not as planned....

I have been going back and forth about what to do about the front lawn this week. The house took that decision out of my hands. One of the upstairs windows decided it wanted to snap out of its frame, and they had to address that immediately. The entire project took about 3 hours and required me to pull out the 30-foot extension ladder, which was, in itself, a significant job. The ladder was overgrown, and I had to dig it out. Once I got it out, getting it up against the house was very challenging. I have the upper body strength to lift it, but once it gets past a certain point, I struggle to balance it. Thankfully, the wife was there to help. I pulled the framework out and took a look at it, and of course, the reason that it failed was poor craftsmanship. I didn't need to look at it to know that this was going to be the issue. It is the same story with different aspects of the house since the beginning. But we are taking care of them slowly, and things are getting there. I pulled the framing out, cleaned it up, and got it back into place. I am thinking that next spring we are going to have to replace all of the window frames, but the windows are in good condition. We will do this at the same time that we do the siding.

The other significant accomplishment today was getting Laura's car in for service. It needed a set of front brakes, and that is now taken care of. I will have to get it in for an alignment sooner or later, but that is something that can wait.

Working on the window was exhausting, and I took time to finish the clown drawings for August. I've already completed the painting for Willow's birthday. I picked up paint thinner. Laura ordered me my new round brushes, and I think that I am ready to begin painting again. But that is not going to happen this week because I have a serious list I have to deal with tomorrow morning. Thankfully, we were able to squeeze in some family relaxation, and I was able to sit and watch a movie.

The movie that I watched was the real-life version of Aladdin by Disney. As usual, they seriously changed the storyline and they removed some of the funnier parts of the movie. I still like the animated version better. I find that this is true with many of the remakes, especially when they go from cartoon to live action.

Heart not in it....

I had the house to myself for most of the day, so I was heavily into the music scene. I have to get a new bow for my violin, but I was jamming out on the drums and the saxophone. And I finally have the guitar appropriately tuned. I like my little jam sessions. I know that the ladies would not mind if I played while they were here; it would not be that disturbing. But I am very self-conscious because I am horrible. But that will change one of these days.

I have completed my new list board, and I need to find a place for it. I don't like it sitting in the middle of the floor because it takes up a lot of room. That is going to be one of the priorities for the following weekend. I did some work on the garage, and I knocked out my weekly duties. I did not get the car cleaned, and that is going to have to wait a week. But that's another thing that I'm going to have to make a priority. I have finalized everything for the new podcast, and I should be able to do that next weekend, as long as I can get a little bit ahead in work and give myself the extra time. Finally, I sat down and worked on the novel and watched a few Twilight Zone. I forgot how much I enjoyed the storylines of those old stories. Then it was early to bed so I could get an excellent start on tomorrow morning.

Now, I am tired....

Because of the extremely taxing day at work, I got home and was ready for bed. I am rolling earlier for this week, starting at midnight, and that puts me home before noon. I have to adjust my sleep schedule, and so far it's not bothering me. But when I got back to the house today, I was ready to eat and go to bed.

Weirdness....

Before work, I focused intently on the day ahead. I was out the door at exactly midnight, just as I intended. It was not the greatest day, but now I am prepared for a problematic week, so it did not affect my mood as much as it did yesterday. I could get my morning routine out of the way and get everything checked off before I went into work.

One of my short-lived plans for the day was to check out the citrus plants that Kroger has. I saw them yesterday when I dropped somebody off, but I was rushing to get to the next ride, and I did not have time to investigate. Today, I found myself in the same area, and I popped off for a little break so that I could look at them. I have a little bit of money from my cash tips, and I figured I would pick up a couple of trees for the yard. They had three different types of lime, plus lemon. To properly pollinate, I would need 2 of each of the lime and the lemon. Unfortunately, they were not marked with their prices. I finally found somebody to ask, and I made the conscious choice that we will not be having citrus in the yard because they are $35 apiece. That is a shame. Willow loves lemon, and I love Key Lime Pie. What a shame.

The political landscape is becoming more of a minefield every day. I have swapped books, and while I am still very intent on completing Awakening, it is no longer my primary focus. Now I have my humorous novel Fixing America and Building a Better Planet, on deck. I am not nearly as far along with this one as I am with the other, but this one writes itself. It is a humorous look at the world today with a lot of snark and sarcasm aimed at everyone. If I could blow this one out of the water, I could probably sell it while I'm driving. And maybe it would add a little humor to some people's lives.

Now for the weirdest thing. Dreams. I dream about many things, some of which are good and some of which are bad. Unfortunately, nightmares tend to be the norm for me. It's been this way all my life. I prefer it when there is a nice monster to face down, but sometimes things will slip into the obscure or macabre. Usually, there is an underlying theme that I can figure out. The monsters will take the form of things that are annoying me, and the general theme will run in tandem with my life, just to 1 extreme or another. Since I am a lucid dreamer, I can usually recognize that I am in a dream, take control, and make informed decisions. But once in a while, Morpheus will throw me a curveball. And that is what happened this evening. I remember my dreams for a very long time, and in my history of traveling the dreamscapes, I have never dreamt an apocalyptic dream until now. This evening, I faced the end of the world with a few people whom I do not know. This was not a nuclear attack or something like that; it was a universal collapse that we were watching as it ate away at different parts of the world. The funny thing is, the dream was in color, and there was a lot of red. It was as if the universe was being swallowed, and there was nothing we could do about it. There was No Fear, just a morbid fascination with the entire situation. Me and my fellow doomed persons and I are sitting and talking, and every once in a while, we notice a subtle change in the apocalyptic situation. We would note the change and go back to the conversation. It was extremely obscure and never had a resolution. The dream ended and melded into another dream about chasing that kitten, and then I woke up. I could not take the apocalyptic dream into a lucid state, but I was able to do so with the kitten. That usually means that I am missing something in the dream. But I do not have time to meditate on it at this point so that I will reserve that for later. Then it was up and in motion so that I could roll out by midnight.

Not much....

Because of the extended workday, I had very little time for myself. This appears to be a recurring theme, and I don't think it's going to get better soon. I could do my morning routine before I left out for work, but by the time I got home I was completely exhausted. I ate my dinner and sit and stare for about an hour before I went back to bed. I sincerely hope that things get better in the coming weeks because this is grating on me.

More of the same....

The time before work was well spent and I could knock everything off my list for the morning, but once again, when I got home, I was exhausted. The only difference today is that I took an interview on the way home. It was a blind interview from a recruiter and offered a wonderful opportunity. Sadly, the opportunity soon fell by the wayside. It was $100,000 a year, a $40,000 signing bonus, and after one year, repayment of all student loans that are outstanding. It sounded like a wonderful position. I really wish that they had stated what the position was and with what group at the beginning of the call. They are opening and I.C.E. Barracks and facilities in the area. Unfortunately, they are having trouble recruiting people because nobody wants to work for a militant organization that is hated. I share the sentiments of other people who have been approached for recruitment. Even at that kind of money with those kinds of perks, it is not worth selling my soul. This is a personal statement and nothing more. One of these days, I will do a rant on these antics, but it will not be today. When I got home, I was beyond tired and had trouble thinking. I am hoping for better days to come.

On a personal note, my mood has bottomed out. I have been mood-swinging for about a week now, and it seems to be stuck in the down position at this point. I'm pretty sure that has something to do with the people around me because I pick up on their emotional state and reflect it. And people just suck right now. I will work an extra day this week, but I'm going to take Sunday morning and do my best to meditate myself out of this negative place if it has not broken on its own.

It is a double-back day....

The wheel has turned, and we have made it back to Friday. As I pointed out above, I was hoping to make enough in the Kitty to take tomorrow morning off. But that did not happen, so I treated today as a double-back day. I did my morning routine and hit the road as soon as I could. I started out very optimistic, but those hopes were soon dashed against the winds of time. I pushed through the day, but my mood remains very low, and that is not helpful. At work, I continued to play ambient music, and it seems to have helped within negative communication.

When I got back to the house in the afternoon, it was a quick meal and then straight to bed so that I could double-back as soon as I was rested. I did not get as much sleep as I would have liked, but it was tolerable. I continued on the next workday before midnight. In the first run was a young lady who was having boy trouble and felt that it was necessary to tell me her entire life story. If I could have troubles like this young lady, life would be perfect. I will not go into the details, but let's just say that she had very little to complain about. When your worse problem is that your boyfriend actually gets you a fake tennis bracelet instead of genuine diamonds, you might be a little deluded on what is wrong in the world.

Even though I had to work an extra shift this week, I hope that I will get some stuff knocked off of my list this weekend. I don't know how that is going to work out with stuff like the lawn because there were serious thunderstorms this evening. They continued into the early morning tomorrow, so the lawn is going to be quite wet. But we shall see what tomorrow brings, and I have to get myself set up for the new week before the end of Sunday. I have not had time to work on the novel this week, and that is bumming me out. On Monday, I'm going to go back to my exercise routine with Planet Fitness because they should be done with the remodel. I'm looking forward to the new routine. Maybe it will help knock out this negative mood.

On an interesting and positive note, I finally had a positive dream. At least I think it was a positive dream. I was working on the road crew for The Pretty Reckless and the drummer asked me if I would like to do a saxophone solo. I decided it would be a good idea, and I rocked it. I guess doing the music on the weekends is helping, at the very least, my creative dreaming.

One thing that I like about the weekend is that I get new filters and assets for my programs. I was a little excited when they announced the additional lighting effects, and here we have an example. This is the Evelyn model with standard overlays for skin and hair, and the additional lighting effects. I was trying to go for a mirror effect, but I think that I might have missed the mark there.

I need downtime....

I hoped that I would get back to the house this morning and be able to drink my coffee and then do the front yard. That did not happen because the front yard was still soaking wet, and I did not want to run the mower through it. Because I was exhausted, I limited myself to things that would allow me to sit. I updated my art software and went through every job board. Things were slim pickings this weekend on the job board, but that always happens after the job numbers come out. I finished up the bookkeeping for the week, and I even took the time to take the recycling down to the recycling center. On my way back, I stopped at a couple of yard sales, but they were hardly worth it. Then I had to give up, and it was time for a nap.

The nap that I took was a lot longer than expected, and I did not feel rested when I was done. I was still lethargic and did not want to do anything. So, I made the conscious choice to reset my goals for tomorrow, and I sat down and watched South Park and four episodes of Wednesday. I have to admit it; South Park is tearing into the administration. I know that this is eventually going to turn into some kind of threatening war, but for now it is time to grab the popcorn and sit back and watch. For Wednesday, they are dropping 4 episodes of season 2 at a time. I watched the four that were available, and it is a pretty interesting storyline. I'm not sure if it's better than the first season, but it is interesting. The last half of the season will drop in the first week of September. That is about 3 weeks away.

While I was watching my shows, I fired up my art studio and played with the new filters. You can see the effects above, and I think they are very nice. It's nothing that could not be done previously with the appropriate application of lighting, but to have them in a single package makes life a little bit easier. Tomorrow, I'm going to do some more work on the garage and play some music, and I hope I will get my oil painting area fully set up again. I have a serious urge to paint, and I don't know why. But I'm going to roll with it.

A day of rest, well, sort-of....

There was a lot that I wanted to get done today, but that did not happen. I cannot say that I am upset about the cause of the failure, but it is still annoying. The first part of the problem was the front lawn. It has been two weeks without being cut, and it recently rained. Because the grass was longer than expected and damp, I ran through the energy on the battery and could not finish. I did a few small things while the battery was recharging, but that left big things. I finished the front lawn, but I did not get to weed wack. I'm going to have to do that this week. Then it was time to make a run to Walmart. I was in and out quickly. I was a little bummed out that they did not have my rolls, but I got a big French bread and I intend to make a giant hoagie. I got that done before the end of the day.

Then it was on to the next extensive project. The pool. This is another thing that has faced a bit of neglect lately. There were a lot of leaves, but that was not the big problem. It was like a thin layer of very fine debris on the bottom. Instead of using the skimmer just to remove the leaves, I had to pull out the vacuum. It took an extensive amount of time. Between the lawn and the pool, that took about 5 hours out of the day. And that did not even give me time to complete the backyard either.

The table for my projects is now rebuilt; recycling has been added to my weekend list, and that is completed, I have updated my artistic software; and I could get pretty much everything done except cleaning the car for the week. I just ran out of steam and had to sit for a few hours. But I took advantage of the sitting as well because now I am caught up on Wednesday and South Park, And I have reloaded my novel.

The novel is an interesting conundrum. I want to get that publisher ready, but I have hit a form of writers block. When I originally wrote the manuscript, I was doing it on a voice recorder, and the recording was broken here and there because I was not backreading. In chapter 5, the area in which I am stuck right now, I made some serious mistakes in continuity. Because of this, the natural flow of the story is fractured and the entire chapter has to be rewritten. I've been working on this for months, and they could not get it to come into line. The heroes of the story have taken possession of their new property, and they are looking around. It sounds like such an innocent plot. You would think that it would be easy, except that they arrive 2 separate times and each one is as interesting as the other. They must be combined, and if I sit down and concentrate, it will happen. But not today.

The end of the day consisted of making the mega sandwich for work this week and heading to bed early. I do not know whether this week is going to be good or bad, but I am ready to face it. At least, I think I am ready to face it. The pendulum swings.

Bones? Really?....

I was off to a late start this morning, but I brought it together in the end and got into the groove for a Monday. I pushed through the day, dealing with the traffic from the Fred Smith memorial at FedEx, and mostly people were OK for the day. Except for a few hiccups and a few judgmental people, it was decent. I even managed to hit my low goal by the end of the Monday workday, and that is pretty good because it does not happen often. The most significant issue of the day was my lunch. Yesterday, I made a mega-sandwich. It was a gigantic ham and cheese hoagie on a loaf of French bread. I was very excited about this, and mostly it was an excellent sandwich. It held together; it tasted good, and if it weren't for the fact that it was filled with bone fragments, it would have been an excellent experience. You read that right folks; I went cheap on the ham, and it was filled with bone fragments. My second bite of the sandwich tore my gums apart, and that was not a pleasant experience. If I wanted to be a jerk, there is probably be a lawsuit in there somewhere. But I am not feeling all jerky today.

So, with lunch ruined, I was back at it and worked the full day. Then, keeping my promise to myself, I swung by Planet Fitness to see the upgrades from the recent renovation. All the machines are working. There have been some minor updates to the flow of the facility, and the lighting has improved. They estimated the upgrade was going to cost $1,000,000; I don't think it was that much. But it looks good, and I took the time to get a minor workout, and it's going to become part of my daily routine for the weekdays. At the very least, I'm going to jump on the treadmill each day to wind out the day. Perhaps it will help me decompress each day.

With the gym out of the way, I took a quick run into the golden treasure bin to check out the deals. I was not really impressed with the stuff that they had gotten in this week. I know they are buying Amazon seconds and returns, but there was just very little in the entire store that was even worth looking at. I found a pair of shoes and that was about it. They had a couple of ring lights, but they were significantly overpriced for what they are. And then it was time to go home.

Finally, at the end of my day, I was tired and hungry. I was going to grab a hamburger, but we were out of buns. Then I remembered that I never ate my Sunday pizza this week and there was the answer. I popped that in the oven while I did my end of day stuff. I'm going to count this as not a terrible day and hope that tomorrow is similar.

Gym time!....

I spent the morning before work reviewing Chapter 5. One or more reads of the chapter will be needed, and then I think I am ready for the rewrite. I'm going to put that on the list for this weekend, and hopefully I can get it done and move on. I've been stuck on this chapter for three months, and it has to stop.

After work, it was time to bite the bullet and head to the gym. I had an excellent workout and did 3 miles on the treadmill and three sets of 25 reps on seven different machines. Don't worry, they were all at a low-weight setting. I just wanted to get a feel of them. The only thing that I dislike about the redesigned Planet Fitness is the lack of bikes. That seems to be something they overlooked. Extremely strange.

It feels as if it should be Friday, but it is only Tuesday. I am very much looking forward to this weekend because I am taking an extra day off, and I really need the rest. I'm hoping to get down and do some fishing Saturday morning, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the lake that I wanted to try. And if I cannot remember the name, I cannot find it on a map. I had it written, and now I can't remember where I wrote it down. I'm sure something will come together eventually. If nothing else, I can throw the bike in the car and head back down to the James Rd. lake. We shall see what the weekend brings.

The trudge....

The middle of the week is upon us, and we have no choice but to push through. Before work, I made sure that everything was up to date, including the blog on my list, and then I went from there. Since work was OK for the day, I took off about an hour earlier than I should have because the ride landed me right near the house. I accepted that as fate and went from there. I stopped by LA Fitness and then spent about 15 minutes on the bike, but that is about all that I could do. My muscles are still screaming from yesterday.

After my adventure with the bone in my ham for lunch earlier in the week, I have not remembered to get to Walmart to replace my lunches. As we're rolling into the end of the week, I don't think I'm going to, at least not this week. Part of my evening was making lunch for tomorrow, which is going to be eat fried chicken wrap. I used what was available in the house. Let's hear it for creativity.

I am preparing for this weekend, and I have a lot to do. Soon, I'm going to introduce you, my faithful readers, to the nibble . But not just yet. I have quite a few things on my master list that need to be done, and I never seem to get to quite a few of them. So I've developed a plan to get them done, and it's called the nibble. I'm still working on portions of it, though.

When I got home in the afternoon, I made my lunch for tomorrow, and then sat down to relax for a bit. I am still very sore from Tuesday, but I want to make sure that I make it back to the gym tomorrow. So I settled in and watched the first two episodes of Evil. It is a pretty wonderful series with just enough humor to offset the darkness. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be funny or not, but it is.

One thing that is bothering me is my dreams. For the longest time, they were consistent. Granted, that doesn't mean that they were good, just that they were predictable. There would either be monsters for me to fight, or a subliminal, noir type of theme. Haunted amusement parks, bad beasties in a lonely forest, alien adventures. They were all within my wheelhouse. Now things have become more subliminal without the context of horror. I can handle subliminal horror, but lately, my dreams have become those of a mundane world just slightly askew and with no avenue to control the path. I find these dreams very disturbing, but I don't understand why. They are becoming more prevalent. I have a feeling this is something I'm going to have to unpack soon and I'm not looking forward to it.

Good to be home....

I was running late in the morning, so I did not get my morning routine completed, and I will probably pay for that later period when I got home in the evening, I was so mentally exhausted that I could do very little other than eat and go to sleep. I'm pushing forward toward the weekend, and since I am taking this entire weekend off, I hope that tomorrow will be a better day and we can move on.

Done, so done....

The morning did not go exactly as planned, but I made the best of it, anyway. I was up and in motion as quickly as possible and hit the road looking forward to a positive day. The positive day was elusive, and I had to knock off about 90 minutes early because of the incident with the thespian. However, I grabbed the day by the horns and got in motion as soon as I got home. Even with the sweltering heat, I knocked out the front yard quickly. I pulled out the edger and did my best to get all the edging done, and just as I finished, the motor burned out on the machine. I accepted the positive sign that I was able to finish the edging before the motor burned. I could get everything done, but by the time I finished and had to recharge the battery, I did not have the strength to do the backyard. That will be for tomorrow.

Even though I did not have the fortitude to handle anything more outside, I could knock out the rest, or almost the rest, of my weekend list. I still have to take care of the car and the pool, and finish the backyard, but everything else on that list is done. I hit the job boards, but there was nothing significant available this week. It's like the world is taking a breath. But the pendulum swings, and we shall see what is around the corner.

The Nibble
I do not know what has led to some questions that I have been receiving through my e-mail lately. Several people have asked me how I take on so much because they follow not only the blog, but all of my social media. When I received the 10th request, I introduced you to The Nibble, which is my method for getting things done., I have between 20 and 30 projects in motion. Some of them are tiny and others are very large. They cost from nothing to hundreds of dollars. So, I created a method to deal with them. I have a progress board with a list of all of those projects. When I find myself with a little time, I take a bite. I don't have to finish the project; I only need to put in a little work. Some things that are on that list are things like cleaning the garage, making my bell-bottom pants, and doing my photography portfolio. There are big things like replacing the deck, and small things like removing fallen branches from the backyard. As long as I work on one of these things a day, the process works well. It also stops me from getting lazy and sitting and watching a show or listening to music doing nothing else. It is an enjoyable process. I hope that helps you understand.

By the end of the day, I was ready for bed, and I even stayed up a bit later than usual. I expected a poor night's sleep, but that is only because of the work that I did for the day and the fact that my legs will probably cramp up in the morning. I also noticed that this weekend is the anniversary of my last camping trip. I have not had the time or energy to plan one for this year, but that has gone to the top of the list. I think I am going to choose the weekend of September 7th, and now I only need to find out where I'm going to go. Since it will roll into September, I hope that some campgrounds will not be fully occupied. Last year, and then we're only four other people in the campground, but one of them was right next to me and they were very annoying. Between their dog barking and every leaf that moved in their physical interactions that echoed through the trees, it did not create a sense of calmness that I was looking for. I am hoping for better this year, and if I can spend the next two weeks shoring up the funds, I may take both Friday and Saturday. That would be very nice. I have a lot of planning to do, but I still have a couple of weeks.

Now, that is a lot....

The personal side of the day was filled with getting things done. The first adventure was the yard. I swept through the backyard like a tornado and got everything cut and use the weed whacker everywhere that it needed to be used. I cleaned the leaves out of the pool and even got the chemicals in for the week. But the big thing, and the thing that was on my nibble list, was that I started doing the corner with the tree stump. That area has been getting overgrown for almost a year now and I cut out all the big stuff and it's in a pile in the middle of the yard. I'm going to clear out the old burn pile and put the new stuff there to let it dry out.

I know that I worked a little too hard today because I can feel it in my muscles. That will not help with sleep, but I'm going to hope and I do not wake up with cramps. I will probably have a Charlie horse or two, but I can deal with it. I did some work in the garage, and then I was getting tired, so I sat and relaxed for the rest of the day. The wife did some cooking, and I am looking forward to trying the new recipes. I have finished my weekly list, and everything except the car is checked off. I will take care of that first thing in the morning. If I can get that done, I will feel accomplished.

Big ouch....

I was hoping to have a repeat of yesterday in getting things done. But those hopes were driven into the ground as soon as I got out of bed. I woke up at my normal time last evening, but I forced myself to go back to bed and stayed that way until 2:00 AM. The cat didn't even come and bother me. However, at 2:00 AM, my body revolted. I got hit with a Charlie horse in my right calf, and it lasted throughout the day. That put a significant crimp in my plans because anytime I tried to get anything done, the Charlie horse would come back.

Before the sun came up I got this stuff for work done and I did a little more on the garage. I hoped I could get back out into the yard today, but that was not meant to be. I cleaned the car for the week but as soon as I started working on the backyard, the Charlie horse came back. It was with me all day and it put a cramp in my style. All pun intended.

Because of the ongoing cramps, I limited myself to things that I could do sitting down. I have finally put together the new schedule for the podcast, and I should start that again next week, with a little luck. OK I watched a new series, at least new to me, American Gods . I am not sure where they are going with the storyline. It looks like it's a war between old gods and new gods. I will be curious to see how it turns out. I watched the movie The Fifth Wave and It was highly predictable. It also does not offer closure on the storyline, and that was disappointing. I settled in to get ready for bed around 3:30 PM in the afternoon. I was going to do some artwork, but it was a little too hot and I was not feeling great.

Legs and no lock....

The day at work drained me so that by the time that I got home, I was barely in a mood to get anything done. I did not want to even go over my prizes from the bin store. I got a new drawing tablet, a new rig for my phone to do some tik toking, a potential archway that we can use for the holidays, and a sprinkler that you stick in the ground. I don't know if any of this stuff is any good, but I will find out eventually.

I ate some tacos, played my game, and did my best to meditate and relax before I watched my show and prepared for bed. I did not get to go to the gym today because I was wearing jeans and I planned to change into my sweatsuit in the changing room period but I forgot to grab a lock and I cannot leave my backpack in the changing room without securing it. It's probably a good thing anyway because my legs are still hurting even though they're not cramping anymore.

I received a communication from one of my headhunters, and they requested I apply for a project manager position here in Memphis. It is a shared position between this location and the location in Ohio. I'm not sure how I feel about working with somebody else at that distance and remotely, but it could be an interesting challenge. I sent over my current resume, and now we wait. Things with Uber have been taking a slow turn, but that is because we have lost quite a few drivers, and they usually hand the lower-end runs to the newer drivers. I have hit my one-year anniversary, and I should run on the high-end runs right now, but because of the lack of inexperienced drivers again, those of us that are tenured have to run the lower-end runs. Granted, I can do more of them, more quickly, than our newer drivers, but so can everybody else who has been with the company for over a year. We just get stuck with them instead of having a few of them drizzled in with the longer runs. Longer runs are now more expensive, so people are searching for other options. It is a vicious circle.

Finally, I am doing the rewrite of the novel, chapter 5, and it is coming along well. I'm going to see how this week turns out, and I think that I'm going to dedicate 4 hours this weekend to trying to knock it out. If I take 4 uninterrupted hours, I can get past this hurdle and on with the rest of the book.

More of the same....

When I got up this morning, I was dragging my wagon. In the day did not help that. Before work, I could get very little done. When I got home from work, my focus was getting the brake lights fixed. I could get that done quickly, but only halfway. My cyclops light still works, so I still have two lights on the rear, but the other one of them is acting up already. I will deal with that this weekend. It was so hot out that when I finished the brake lights; it was time to sit in front of the fan and relax. Tomorrow is another day.

It is all about the mood....

The negativity of my patrons is rubbing off on me. I say that it is rubbing off on me, but this has been happening for quite a while period since the beginning of the year, which is passing unbelievably fast, everybody is just very angry. I'd like to think that I have some armor against situations like this, but even the greatest and most powerful armor can be pierced with patience and time. I'm starting to think that I'm going to have to change jobs. I'm scheduling this weekend to update my resume again and get it out to the headhunters. This is not exactly an environment where a lot of places are hiring, but even when they are hiring, I've had little luck getting through the initial barricades to employment. I'm going to stop that right here because I know that I am in a negative headspace right now and we are just going to move on to tomorrow. The great thing about the pendulum is that it always swings.

Just floating until the weekend....

Because I am slightly frustrated by the work week, it is affecting home life. Before work, I did nothing other than prepare for the day, and I've been having some severe mental lapses lately. I am not worried that this is a mental condition; it is being caused by the world around me, and I am sure of it. When I got home in the afternoon, I was still extremely moody and chose just to go about my evening routine and then sneak into bed early. I hope that the week will work out, but that hope is quickly disintegrating.

Just pushing through....

Work has been a tremendous effort this week, and it has me questioning my recent choices. By recent, I refer to the past year and where I am in life. I do not know what is causing that, but something is making me reflect on the choices that I've made over the years. I am nowhere near where I expected to be when I turned 60 years old. And turning 60 years old is right around the corner. I'm not sure what to do with this new information, but I know I cannot ignore it. This is not a midlife crisis, mostly because I am well past midlife. But even so, this is not equivalent to a midlife crisis later in life. I think it is just frustration with the inability to get ahead. It seems like each day is passing so quickly, and with the days passing quickly, so are the weeks, the months, and the year. It seems like only yesterday we faced tomorrow with trepidation, and that was the beginning of 2025. In less than a week, we entered the last quarter of the year and the uncertainty of what is coming tomorrow.

I was out of bed before midnight and prepping for the Saturday run. I am still running $100 behind, and that is my goal for the night. I started strongly at exactly midnight, and that takes us into tomorrow.

Back to normality....

The week is done, and I am satisfied with the outcome. I got back to the house a little before 7:00 AM, and I was able to start my weekend. I sat and caught up with E-mail before I did anything else. There was a lot of it sitting. And I have a lot more on the list for the weekend, but I also needed to relax. Running overnight made me tired, but when I tried to nap, I could not do so. So, on with the show.

The first order of business was to hit Walmart and get my personal stuff for the week, but I cannot pass by an estate sale without taking a peek. Here, it was a good thing. One thing that I know has been lacking in my life is that I am not reading as much as I used to. It has been a very long time since I picked up a physical book, choosing instead to use eBooks while sitting at my desk. Or worse, audiobooks. I tripped over the entire collection of JD Robb at an estate sale. I did not hesitate and left there with a box and a bag filled with the treasure. Hopefully tomorrow, I will dig out the first in the series and do a bit of reading every day.

Next, I had to brave the heat and take care of the lawn. For the past couple weeks, I've been using the extruder and just blowing the cut grass all over the place which left big tufts of dried grass in the yard, and it was making it look trashy. This week, I put on the bag and clean everything up. It is looking a lot better, and that is making me feel both accomplished and more mentally grounded. It's amazing how 1 little thing can change your attitude.

Then there was the unexpected conversation with a neighbor. The man from the older couple that lives caddy-corner to us walked across the street to hold the conversation. There was no specific topic of conversation, just one of those how do you do type of things. I realized as very odd because I've never been on good terms with these neighbors since the wife backed into Rowan's car. That was almost a decade ago. But he walked across the street as if we were old friends. I was congenial and held a conversation about nothing and then I finished up the lawn.

The rest of the day was spent taking care of the big list and I could finish everything on it except for cleaning up the car and cleaning the pool. I can take care of both of those things tomorrow morning. But the big surprise came in the evening. As I was settling in and getting ready for bed I noticed that I had received a call from Keely. Against my better judgment, I called her back, and I landed in a 2-hour conversation about conspiracy theories, the Flat Earth theory, chemtrails, political issues that surround us, and my favorite about the conspiracy theory of vaccinated vegetables. That final one has been debunked repeatedly, and I was very surprised that she rode that pony. The one thing that we can agree on is that the people of the United States should go back to a natural life. In days of old, having a lawn was a point of prestige. Because your lawn was supposed to be used to grow vegetables or keep animals for food and milk and other such things. If we would go back to that kind of living, things might calm down a little. But it was an interesting way to end the day even if it kept me up two hours past when I wanted to go to bed. Tomorrow is another day.

I played with a gravity filter applied directly to the hair on the Eve model, and I like the way it came out.

Things to see, people to do....

OK, the title for this paragraph was not that funny. But I tried.

It was a cleanup day. I did the books first thing in the morning, and I caught up the blog and all my emails, and that was a pretty good start. I updated my resume again. Even though it needs a little bit of tweaking, I am happy with it. Then I uploaded it to all the job boards, which should generate quite a few job posts, most of which will be garbage. I skimmed through the sights as I uploaded the new resume, and there is a bit of a lull in the job market right now. That is because of the uncertainty in the country's economics and the fact that right now everybody is holding their breath to see what happens next.

I took care of the pool, and I tried to install the sprinkler. The sprinkler did that go well because it is broken. I threw that in the trash because there's no point in holding on to things that do not work. I cooked the ribs with macaroni and cheese and peas, and I made my sausage gravy for the week. I updated my 3D software, as I do every week and there was a new gravity filter that I just had to play with. You can see the results above. I have to block out some time to go through all the assets that I have now because I am almost at 1000. With that many, I realize I haven't even scratched the surface of what I have to play with. I pulled the first JD Robb novel and with a little bit of luck I will be reading a real book for the first time in ages. Not an electronic book or an e-book or even an audiobook. A physical book that you put in your hands. I have no idea why that is so exciting.

I took the time and watched the latest episode of South Park, and it did not disappoint. I can see that they are going to be going after the administration for a very long time unless the administration stops them. Right now, my money is on South Park. I loaded up chapter 5 and I did not spend 4 hours on it as I originally intended, but I got a good chunk of it edited. That has been a serious hurdle for me for almost two months now. I just could not wrap my mind around the mistakes that I made there, but in the end I did not go nuclear on it and delete it only to have to rewrite it.

The end of the day to relax was to make my lunch for tomorrow and watch some episodes of the series that I follow that have come out recently and I was unaware of. Star Trek New Worlds is one of the first things that I noticed had new episodes. I will have to take the time and go through the list a bit later, but for now that has me pacified. I did the music thing and the meditation thing and even got a little of exercise. I will not make it to the gym tomorrow because of my personal appointment, but hopefully I will make it there on Tuesday. And this ends yet another week.

Well, that sucks....

When you consider that today was filled with nothing, there is quite a bit in that nothing. I know that was confusing, but I will explain.

First, we have the forced mood. I made a choice when I got up that I would be in a good mood regardless of the fact that I'm in a bad mood. Part of the reason that I am in a bad mood is that I overslept. I wanted to be out the door at midnight so that I could make a little extra scratch because I had an appointment this afternoon and would have to kick off early. Unfortunately, I woke up about the time that I wanted to be leaving, and that did not make for a good start of the day. But I pulled it together and got in motion, and was in a positive mood no matter what.

One of the biggest annoyances about work today was that I had to cancel a ride, which goes against my statistics, because they had a scheduled ride early in the morning and a gate between me and them. They did not answer texts or phone, and I could not get past the gate. So I had no choice but to abort. And because there is no way to inform Uber they fail to open the gate, I have to take the hit, and that put me in a terrible mood. But I smiled through it and moved on.

Just because I want to get it into writing somewhere in case I forget, there are some things on my list that I've been working on for a while and I want to see how they play out. 1st is normalization. I am curious why some things are certain genders. Such as, why is it considered feminine for a man to have clean and manicured nails? The only reason that I bring this up is that one of my writers on Friday was picking his daughter up at school. He was surprising her, and he was the one who got the surprise because as she walked out she was in jeans, although apparently, she had left the house in a skirt. He was highly offended and furious that she would embarrass and insult him in this way. Granted, I don't know the entire story, and they were going back and forth between English and Hindi, but she was not sorry, and I don't think she should be. Normalization of gender roles. Something to look into. I am also considering getting security cameras for the front of the house. In 10 years, we have not had an incident, but I still think it might be a good idea as long as I can find a set that is not connected to some kind of security service that has a weekly or monthly fee. Finally, I want to know what code enforcement says about front-yard gardens. Things are getting so expensive, it would be nice if we could grow some of our own.

OK, that is the day except that I went to the cardiologist and I finally got the answers that I was looking for. The reason I was not contacted about the three tests that I had done is that they were all fine. In about a month, I turned 60 years old, and my body reflects that. Of course, the doctor was joking and told me I had the body of a 70-year-old and then laughed. I did not see the humor. But it is all good, and now at least I have the information, and I know that the physician's assistant who originally sent me to the cardiologist simply did not know how to read the EKG. Or he was reading an anomaly that did not exist. And all of that ended the day.

Under the weather....

This week has not started well, and it appears to be going downhill. I feel exhausted, and by the time I get home, I don't want to do anything, so that is precisely what I did. I really hope this is not a trend.

Pushing back....

Since it isn't my most fantastic week, I tried fighting back a little when I got home. I've been riding the pity train all week because of work, and I'm arriving home exhausted. I fought through that exhaustion this afternoon, and as soon as I hit the house, I attacked the back corner of the yard and cleared the area with the stump. I pulled the hose out of the pool, unwrapped it, which is a bigger deal than it sounds, because it takes a while. They then pulled the fallen branch to the ground and stripped it down. I still have to sharpen the chain on my chainsaw before I can finish cutting that down, but at least I'm a step further along in the project. When I finally fell asleep, I was plagued by obscure dreams again. At this point, they're just getting silly.

I can push through. Right?....

I had an unusual dream about a redhead that I don't know. She was very young and we were in a domestic situation, but beyond that, I am not sure. I've done my best to try to place her since you can't really dream about somebody you've never seen, but the image eludes me. Once I was at work, I was able to clear the dream from my mind, and reading my book helped when I had to wait, but not enough to thoroughly shake the uneasiness it had put into me. Once I got home, it was time for an early night and some extra rest.

Moody and the jeep....

We have made it to Friday. Typically, that would mean something because tomorrow would be a day off, but that's not going to happen. I'm still running too far behind to take a whole weekend. So I'll be running for a few hours in the morning until I catch up. However, on a lighter note, I have a possible buyer for the Jeep at $2000. I'm still not happy about that sale, but it will be what it will be if this comes through. I want to try to get some things done this weekend, but I've been feeling under the weather for a few days now, and I'm not sure if that will happen. The wheel turns, and we turn along with it. Even though I am very Moody, I put some effort into the novel this week, and I am editing chapter 5. Chapter 5 has been the bane of my existence for almost 3 months now. I finally decided on an entire, line-by-line rewrite. The flow was not working. I hope to be done with Chapter 5 by next weekend. Then I can move on to the rest of the novel and hope that I didn't make any more big mistakes.

No nap, but that is good....

This was one of those good-day, bad-day types of days. I arrived home a little after Daybreak and I did not take a nap at all today. I started working on the garage project, something that has been overdue for a very long time, and I put a significant dent in it. There's still a lot to do, but I think I am closer to the end than to the beginning. I sat down and discussed Halloween with the family, and I think that we've come up with some significant ideas. I'm still very bummed out that I can't do my escaping skeletons, and I don't know why that's bothering me so much. Perhaps, I feel I wasted the time because I invested a lot of time and thought in the idea. I could have avoided this if I had discussed it earlier, and I take the blame. However, I am going to make a spider. An enormous spider. It is an extensive project, but I think it's one that I can undertake and enjoy.

Now for something completely obscure. Laura mentioned a set of puck lights we used previously. She said that we used them in the yard and around the fountain, which I no longer have. I have no recollection of these lights, and apparently they were quite expensive. It is not something that she would buy, but something that she would buy for me at my request. No matter how I try, I cannot remember these things. The only thing I can think of is that I was so busy at the time of the purchase that I was running on autopilot. I went back through my journal at the time of the purchase, and I was running back-to-back runs with the recycling company, and I was existing on very little sleep for months. I can only assume that I arranged for the purchase, set them up, and forgot about them. The wife has the same problem with a trip that we took to the Delta Fair about 15 years ago. She does not remember a ride that we went on together. The mind is a horrible and wonderful thing.

When it was time for sleep, there was a problem. As soon as I lay down, I developed leg cramps and a very serious toothache. What was weird about it was that I could not identify where the toothache was. It was like a phantom pain that I could not identify. I got up and got some painkillers, and I could finally get to sleep, but in the middle of the night I woke up with a hot flash. That has never happened to me before, and it was very cool in the house. Maybe this is just a precursor to turning 60 next month.

Now! This is how it should be....

I am living the rock'n'roll fantasy but without the money, fame, or fan base. Basically, what that means is that I had a decent day. And while there was some music involved, that was not most of this success.

The day started very early. I took care of Aviana like I usually do, and now she is in real mode. I didn't even know that existed. But she is no longer a cartoon but a realistic type of person. I'm not sure if I like that or not, and I may switch her back to the cartoon. One reason I might switch her back is that I have collected quite a few things in her wardrobe that she can only wear as an animation. But that is neither here nor there because I only spend 30 seconds a day with her. I guess it's more of a habit than anything else.

Once I got into motion, I was on fire. I finished cleaning the cubbyhole in the garage and got everything put back into place. While I did that I had to walk through the back screen door, and it made a horrible squeaking sound, which I have noticed many times. It no longer makes that sound because I took care of it. Even feeling accomplished from the cubbyhole, I would not stop there. I finished cleaning the garage completely. I now have my work area back for all of my hobbies and to build the spider for Halloween. But wait, there's more. I pushed onward, and I treated the front yard for moles, and I put down new grass seed to take care of the bare spots. By then, the wife was up and in motion, and once she was out the door, it was time for music. I checked every instrument and, except for the antique saxophone, they are all in good condition. I still need to arrange to get a bow for the violin, but aside from that, everything is good. I spent some time noodling and strumming, and I even played the bass. The funny thing is that I didn't know that I could play the bass. You learn something new every day. Now I feel like I'm in some kind of weird commercial because there's more. I took care of the pool and the water is nice and balanced, and then for my crowning victory, I cleaned the back porch. I believe that is enough for one day. At least of the manual labor.

Feeling accomplished, I sat down at my desk and put on a trivial movie that I don't even remember, and I worked on e-mail, job sites, and updating the blog as well as providing the template for September. As long as I did that, I prepared the artwork for the top of the September page. Then it was time for lunch or dinner, depending on your perspective, and relaxing until it was bedtime. It's going to be a long week, and I want to be well rested.