Curiouser and curiouser.

I am beginning to think I must start watching out for a white rabbit or a hash-smoking Caterpillar. I am sure that Alice is around here somewhere because things are curious. And they are getting more curious as time passes. The only significant difference today is that I completely avoided the news. And it looks like that might be what is keeping everybody on edge. I noticed that I am riled up for most of the day when I listen in the morning. Perhaps I bleed off on people. And maybe it is just the turn of the wheel, and tomorrow, things will go back to their normal, hectic ways.

There is that swing again.

The week started out with me on a downswing, and I think that I have hit the bottom. I am just in a horrible mood, and there is very little that I can do about it. Sleep does not help, and neither do my normal distractions. I just need to push through and see what's on the other side.

Possibilities.

I took what I consider to be a short day today, ending after 8 hours, and I had an impromptu interview with a record presser. The position is for sales, but it is an incoming sales representative. No cold calling, and they come to me. I took the interview, and before the end of the day, they wanted to make sure that I was OK to schedule the second interview. It could be interesting. I also have to meet Kelly on Sunday over near Saint Francis hospital to do some cat trapping. We shall see if I enjoy that or not. I get to play with the Kitty cats. Then, it was time for some downtime and the recognition that tomorrow is another day. I have not had the best luck on Saturdays, and I am hoping to change that tomorrow.

Much better.

The time at home, compared to the time at work, was a much better situation. I was able to push through my entire weekend list on a Saturday. It is a significant accomplishment, considering that I usually don't even start that until Sunday. However, the biggest win is that I am done with the garage project. At least the part I was trying to complete for the past couple of months. I now have an ample open space available when I need it. It is time to check that off of a list and move on to the next thing. Getting all this stuff done means I have opened up to possibilities tomorrow. I have no idea what I will do with that time, but if I waste it, that waste will be by design.

One of my biggest failures is that I have to work from models. They come out well, but they are not truly creative. I broke out the drawing tablet, and this is what I came up with.

Me time.

I had a day to myself with very few obligations. That does not happen often, so I took full advantage of it. I hit the gym and did my treadmill so that I can prepare for my stress test later in the month. When it comes to cardio, that is not a big concern. But my feet are giving me issues. I think that it is too long in sneakers during the week. Because when I walk around barefoot on the weekend, they tend to get better.

With the gym out of the way it was time to break into some creativity. I pulled out and configured the drawing tablet and then fired up Photoshop in black and white format. The above image is the result. Don't get too excited; I pulled up a tutorial to get this done. For the most part, it is a copy, but I think it came out pretty well. I think that next weekend, if I have time available, I will try it without the tutorial and see what happens.

But my big accomplishment for today was the violin. I have been trying to string that thing for months, and I finally got it to take. I don't want you to think that I am a complete imbecile, because I was not trying to string it every day. But each time that I tried I met with failure. I gave it three hours today and I finally got it strung and tuned. That is one hell of an accomplishment. At least from my perspective.

Finally, I wanted to do some editing, but I was honestly not in the mood to work on the novel. So I went back to one of my great fall-backs. I let my mind wander, and I came up with two short stories that I both started and completed today. They are only about a page or two long, but it was like a palate cleanser, and I think that I can get back to the novel this week. The two short stories are amusing. One is about a magical kitten, and the other one is about two young ladies in college who develop a relationship and are trying to figure out how to tell their ultra-conservative families.

With all of that out of the way, I sat down and watched the 1st and the 2nd Enola Homes movies. It was a very nice way to end the day period

Home again.

I worked a complete day today, and right down to the wire, and I barely made the goal. It was just not a good day. When I went to stop for fuel in Bartlett, the Murphy's, where I usually go, had their pumps closed down. I typically go there because they have the best prices with the Walmart discount. So I went to my second choice, the Shell down the street, and they would not accept my discount application, and we're trying to get me to sign up a second time. The first time that I signed up, it took more than an hour. So I'm going to go ahead and knock that one right off the list. It is not worth saving $0.10 a gallon to fill out an hour's worth of surveys so that they can gather information. I wound up across the street, at a place that I normally do not fuel, and their prices were decent.

I made it back to the house and it was time to relax. Today was an extremely annoying day. So I settled in for the evening, ate dinner, and watched the movie "Damsel". It is a pretty good movie about a kingdom that has to sacrifice three young girls a generation to a dragon.

I am trying very hard to get back into my studies that are outside of music and language. I fired up my 3D software and Photoshop and worked on the "Seduction of Eve". The main point of the lesson here was shadow and shading, but just for fun, I included some interesting elements. The character is Eve, but can you see the little nuances around her?

Pushing a bit too hard.

I am pushing a bit too hard right now and I recognize it. I was very irritated that someone changed my account without my knowledge or consent; even though it's a prestige upgrade, I wanted to know beforehand. In short, I can now carry riders that are at risk in one way or another. I will give more information as it becomes available. But it sent me almost 70 miles in one direction to carry someone less than a mile, and then 110 miles in the opposite direction to carry someone at risk. I am unsure if this is a good or a bad change in position. Only time will tell.

Once I got home, I was a little frustrated because of the day. I met my goal and I am up to date for the week, but just barely. I needed to relax. I put on a movie in the background after I did an art lesson. The results of the art lesson you can see above, and they result from Daz 3D studio, Blender, Hexagon 2X and Photoshop. And the lesson was very interesting, and right now the study is in shading and blending. Since the lesson was very common, I also did a second lesson on including different nuances to enhance a piece of art. The subject in the work is Eve, but if you look around her, there are different aspects of the seduction of the character. I don't know how many people will pick up on them, but I find them interesting.

However, I could not just fiddle with art or watch a movie. I took care of something that has been on my desk for almost 16 months. I finally called fidelity and spoke to a wealth management associate and got my retirement fund back in the system. Because: I've avoided this, thinking I could handle it myself after reading relevant books. Thankfully, my wife is a lot smarter than I am in many aspects and she virtually hit me over the head and said NO! Of course, she is right. I do not have enough skill or experience to properly handle that type of investing and we are going to leave it to the professionals. But I have been fighting with this decision for a very long time. While speaking to the wealth management associate, he suggested I create a tiny slush fund outside of the retirement system so that I can get to know the stock and bond market on my own. I could contribute to this fund periodically, and have some fun without risking a lot. It is something to consider.

That did not go well.

The plan for today was to work early, get off early, and get my new windshield installed. Things did not exactly go as planned. I arrived about 45 minutes ahead of time, and they pulled me right in. Unfortunately, they pulled me right back out and let me know that they were unable to replace the windshield because they did not have the clips that the car requires. These are a set of clips that always break when you replace the windshield. You would think that because I made the appointment a week ahead of time, they would have had this information and made sure they had this in stock. That does not seem to be the case. So I finished up there and went home to brood.

Too much, or not enough.

I was not in the best of moods today so I figured that I would take some time and try and do some artwork. I did pretty well until I looked at what I put out. You will notice that there is no new art for today. For the first time, in a very long time, I deleted my creation. It was too dark, even for me. I don't think that this speaks to a positive mental state and that is what I am trying to maintain. Maybe I will try again tomorrow. I spent a few hours on the project and when I looked at it, it was not a reflection of the good things in life. So I popped on Hulu and watched some silly shows until it was time for bed.

A bit of a lesson for me on the use of things like shading and accessories. In this case, the High-Heels are new.

What? Not again!

My mental state has been going into dangerous places so I figured that I would try and take the time and do something different. What brought me to a very negative place today is that I worked through the entire day trying to carry myself with optimism. The wind got blown out of those sails when I got to the auto glass shop and sat for an hour before they pulled my car in. Once again, they pulled it right back out. This time, they failed to check the glass delivered for my windshield. It was shattered and, therefore, unusable. I am not really impressed with this company at this time. They may be very good at what they do nationally, but their pre-planning is horrible. This makes 2 times that just observation would have avoided a negative impact on the customer. I kept my cool and informed them that I did not have time to waste another two hours to come to them. Said they are going to come to me next week. We shall see if the next time is a charm since it is the third time.

As a result of the escapades at Safelite, I was not in the best of moods when I got home. I fired up some of my more interesting art lessons, and I did what I consider a noir piece, which you see above. The two girls are standard models, and the shading is pretty generalized. The high heels are something new because I just received those in my weekly download. The overall tone is supposed to give an old gumshoe type of atmosphere. When I finished it and looked at it, I was immediately reminded of Nancy Drew. So that will be the title of this piece. "Detectives".

I did some extra yoga and exercise, but it did not help a whole lot. I tried to watch some cute movies, but that did not help either. Maybe tomorrow will be better because it is a new day.

Okay then...

I was able to get home just before the thunderstorms hit. They concerned me quite a bit because I was running a very long term 3D print as part of an ongoing project that I am trying to get completed. It is a paint carousel for my model paints and it should be done tomorrow morning. The problem today was that when the storms began, it was about 5 hours into an 8 hour print. If we had lost power I would have to start all over. But that did not happen.

While that print was running, it was time to work on the Sunday list, even though it was Saturday. I figured that I would do what I could to get ahead and that would leave some time tomorrow for fun. I did the normal things like updating my Daz 3D, and Adobe Suite. I finalized the bookkeeping for the week, and all the numbers are in line with where they were supposed to be. It took almost three hours, and I scoured the job boards, putting in about 50 new applications. I do not have my hopes up about those since I figured out that many of them are false ads. They're just there to gather information. I worked on my writing and I worked on my data. Finally, I put together a rough draft of what I had to do to make sure that the journals were up to date, and I went through the remaining magazines on my desk. Of course, there is another set of magazines that I have to go through, but I can do that tomorrow. I finalized the day by watching the new Lost in Space , episode 1. It is something that I have avoided for many years now. I was not ready to let go of Will Robinson and Penny Robinson, the insightful youths who blasted off into space with their parents. But I have to say that the first episode was decent. If you have not watched it, I am not going to issue any spoilers here, but I will say that I do not like Doctor Smith or the robot. If you have watched the series, you will know why. If you have not watched the series, you will be surprised. I played about 1/2 an hour of EverQuest while I was watching, then it was time for bed with another day behind me.

I have a plan to do some oil painting soon, and I want to do it without thinking about it. So I tried it in my digital landscape, and this came out. There is no theme, just the wondering mind.

Wasted days, and wasted nights...

This was a wasted day, and nothing wanted to fall into line. But I am not going to let that bother me. It was a day that was relaxing, and I will take it. The most significant failure of the day was photography. Originally, I was going to do some oil painting, but I was not quite ready for that. So I put together a little photo studio in the garage and even got the green screen into place. Then I dragged down all my costumes, if you want to call them that, and took about two hours to allow myself to vogue. Lesson for the future: always check the settings on your camera. Because I didn't, and they were wrong. But that's OK because I can just do it again right away, except that the battery died on the camera. Today, it is not meant to be. That's probably a good thing because my legs were killing me from the gym this morning, and getting into my boots and walking in them was a lesson in pain.

No matter, I can move on to EverQuest. Since I have been excellent this week, I figured I would give myself some extra time, but that did not work well either. I died 3 times in 30 minutes. Then, it was time to log off and work on my writing. Working on the novel went well, but I found some serious plot holes, and I had to rewrite a portion of chapter 4. But that is behind me now, and I think it is good to go. I will reread it this week and see if it's good.

Not everything slid down the negative path. The ladies are out of the house today, so I had time to break out the violin, the saxophone, and the guitar. I even spent a little time on the drum kit, which was enjoyable. I was in my rock band. It was fascinating.

I did take a nap in the middle of the day, but that was not a pleasant experience at all. Of late, I am plagued with nightmares, and I am unable to take them lucid. They are extremely varied and have little to do with real life, as far as I can tell. My nap time today was no exception. What I would not give for a good, old-fashioned monster.

To end the day, I read some more of the book on Lilith that I have been working on and did some more programming studies. The day did not go as I had planned, but I'm going to take it as a good day and move on.

Oye,not feeling it today...

I could hold back the negative aspects of the day until I got off work. Then, just as I got home, I got the headache and the spins. I had serious plans to take care of a few things, but those immediately went into the wind. I used the evening for some self-care and some meditation. Tomorrow is another day.

The big owie...

The big thing that is going on right now is that it is time for the flora and the fauna to exchange their reproductive stuff. That is a snarky way of saying that the pollen count is through the roof. It's making me stuffy, making my throat hurt and making me grumpy. I pushed through the work day without any significant issues, but when I got home it was time to medicate and sleep. Every year around this time, I have to put up with seasonal allergies. I usually adjust to it very quickly, but for the couple days that it takes, it is hell. So I will travel through hell.

Still down, but not out...

The workday was broken up today, but that is OK because I kept a promise to the daughter. I do not tell her nearly enough, but I am very proud of her for taking her life by the reins and leading it in her comfortable direction. I have to remember to tell her that.

I pushed through the morning, took care of the appointment, then did a little more. I still have to deal with the windshield later this week, but I am in a comfortable place at this point, and I think I have a chance. I'm still fighting these seasonal allergies, and they are making me miserable. As an added issue, the dreams are intensifying, which is not good. They're going off on tangents that I find disturbing. I do not dismiss the possibility that I always dream like this and do not remember them; my broken sleep is forcing me to remember them more. I know enough about dream interpretation to recognize some of the negative aspects of these dreams; I have no idea what to do about them. It requires meditation and self-centering. Unfortunately, that requires a significant amount of time. And I'm having enough trouble getting through the things I want to get done as it is. I have to see what path this will take. I don't want to wind up in a padded room twiddling my thumbs and toes; it's not that that would ever happen, but it makes for fascinating visualization.

Me time!...

The windshield is done and I was home early. I put together a plan to take advantage of time for this week. I medicated myself heavily so that I could get a nice, intense sleep with the thought of leaving out around midnight. The idea worked pretty well. These allergies are kicking my butt and I cannot wait until they subside because I cannot continue to medicate like this. I did try doing a piece of digital art, that I was just not into the thought and the idea would not flow properly. I also picked up the guitar, but my muscles hurt too much to play. I wound up watching The Simpsons and then heading to bed nice and early. The week is almost over.

A reflection of meditation.

Still down, but not out...

Even though it is Friday, I can take little joy in that because I am still fighting seasonal allergies. At least, I think that's what it is. I have a consistent headache, am stuffy, and go through periodic coughing fits. It will get worse before it gets better, and it does this every year. Because of this, I got home early, and I pretty much sat and was a bump on a log. I will run tomorrow morning, and then I will have about a day and a half down, and I will see what I can do with it.

Once I got home, I took some extra time for a little additional meditation and concentrated on the inner self. Once I came out of the meditation, I grabbed my drawing pad and put together the little piece of artwork you see here, which is a reflection of how I am feeling right now. I'm not sure if it does justice or is just limited by the medium that I chose to use. I will probably have to explore this later, but I wanted to get it into print for now.

To rest, perchance to dream...

The title of this section is a bit poetic, even though I am not feeling like a poet today. The near collision at work rattled me a little bit. Thankfully, my 6th sense cut in at the last second, and I was able to avoid catastrophe, but I still feel that it was a second too late. That's just something that I'm going to have to deal with.

Back at the house, I beat the sun home and got a kick start on my day. I have many things on my list for my time off. I do have the stress test coming up this week, and that is going to be uncomfortable. I know that there are going to be some issues because, physically and psychologically, I am aggravated and frustrated, but these things cannot be helped. I'm doing my best with my limited resources to bring things into line. I have been unable to go to the gym because of the allergies and the fact that they are touching my respiratory system. It makes any deep breathing difficult. But I hope they are on the mend and things will return to normal. Whatever normal is?

I worked on my novel for a couple of hours, and I took another couple of hours and went through the magazines that were sitting, which are all clear now. I organized the stuff for the storage project and I finally selected a brand for the storage media. Those are in the Amazon cart, and there should be enough money to cover them now, at least once money is moved around. I was finally able to find a YouTube video on my microphone and I was able to get the webcasting microphone repaired. This is a very significant thing. I have wanted to get the webcast up and running since last year, but there just does not seem to be the time or the money to get it done. Now that the microphone is fixed, the money is no longer a necessity, and all that I have to do is get my area set up and find the time to do the cast. I am crossing my fingers for tomorrow, but I have a hell of a lot on my plate.

Then it was time for some significant meditation. I am harboring negative thoughts, aggravation, and frustration, and I am continuing to work through this. These things creep in over time, and it isn't easy to see them coming. When you realize that they are there, they are deeply entrenched and have to be rooted out. But the best way to avoid a trap is to know that it is there. I can see these dark little shadows and I have my eye on them says that they cannot own me, and I will make them my bitch. The root of all this is many-fold, and the roots actually do not matter. This is one of the times when causality is not a distinctive requirement of understanding. Granted, causality is necessary to avoid a repeat of a situation. You must understand history if you do not want to repeat it. This is a lesson for this age. But in my case, the cause does not matter as long as I can deal with the result.

Now, they have been nice for a very long time, and I am going to say something here you can just let roll off your back if you would like, or you can embrace it and run with it. This is why the Internet is great. You can save or dismiss anything you like. Right now, in the highest political office in the land, we have a reincarnation of P.T. Barnum. He is the original grifter and he is doing so much damage to this country and the world on a daily basis that it is everything that we, the thinking people, can do not to cry. He has plans within schemes and schemes within plans. You can never see his end game because his other hand is always in motion. It is disgusting. I think it is very funny that the Book of Revelations of the holy Bible says that you will know those who follow the false prophet by the mark on their forehead. And people do not see that that mark has come. Granted, that is just a coincidence, but there is sure irony at play. I would say more, but I need some kind of Dewey decimal index to even track the damage that the man is doing right now. I believe that is the point.

A long time, but it is done....

A project comes to an end. It took my entire day off, but I finally finished the curtains in my work area. I tried to use the sewing machine, but there was too much fabric for the needle to penetrate, so I had to do the whole thing by hand. So I settled in with a needle and thread and rolled movies for the entire day while finishing it. But now it is done. I took a little time to plan out the week, considering my stress test on Friday, and I think I have a good plan to get things done. It will be a rough week and I am still not feeling well, but I think I have a handle on it.

Fighting my way uphill....

I did not sleep well, and I had terrible dreams, but I cannot remember the content. I only know that I woke up feeling out of sorts. It did not help that I woke up with significant allergies, and it took a while to get myself into motion. But I did manage to do so, and I pushed my way through work before coming home in the early afternoon. I did my best to try and concentrate on things other than my head and throat, but it was an uphill battle. I took myself to bed early and prayed for the best.

I see a world in pain. We carry that pain like a Bible and we are getting nowhere. (What do you think of my anatomy? I have been looking at quite a few anatomy for the artist books - I may have screwed up the hands, but I am going to leave them as they are.)

Still fighting, for now....

I pushed through the day as well as I could and I was able to make my goal, but barely. By the time I got back to the house my head was pounding and my throat was on fire. I shook out my hat and the pollen just oozed off of it. I cannot wait until spring is over.

It was way too early to go to bed after I ate. I did not want to watch another movie or even a TV show, so I dragged out my tablet and worked on an older piece you see above. This is a topic of meditation and reflection on the world around me. There was a study that I heard about by a Japanese scientist who had several students use bottles of water and lovingly talked to them. He also had students talk to another set of bottles in an angry manner. The water was then frozen and observed under a microscope. The water that was giving nurturing conversation had a very rhythmic and aligned cellular structure. The water that was treated to negative emotions was chaotic. Considering this, the human body is more than 70% water. Right now, we are surrounded by negative inflections. I looked at the image that I started about a month ago and finished today, and it is very negative. I wonder if I see the influence of the world around me. It is something to ponder.

Push on dude, push on....

I worked about 10 hours today, and then I headed home to try to relax. But that was not easy because my head, throat, and chest all had adverse reactions to the allergens in the atmosphere. I will be fine for 1 moment, and then the next, I am coughing like crazy. I could eat, but the coughing fit started when I got into bed. It did not make for a joyous day in any way. But I am pushing onward.

Feeling a bit better....

One positive thing about today is that I'm feeling better. I am not at 100% of my game, but at least I am not light-sensitive and hating the world around me. I am, however, moody as hell, and I have put off feeling well for so many days. At least I hope that is what the problem is. There is also the stress of my stress test tomorrow, and I am sure that that is weighing on the back of my mind.

I have been keeping a lot of the political stuff out of the blog and saving it for the webcast, but I heard something alarming today that has me a bit worried. There is a fringe group of both right and left-wingers that is talking about revolution. The implications of that are astounding. I do not believe that it could happen when all things are considered, but when people are pushed to the edge, sometimes there are no alternatives other than to strike out. I can understand where they are coming from because the current administration is a bit of a juggernaut. It pushes forward without worrying about repercussions and seeing how far it can push the edges. If those edges push back, that could be dangerous. The key reasons are that Donald is now saying that he will compensate the January 6th insurrectionists for their hardship. He's going to pay them for trying to take over the country. There is also talk of an invasion of Greenland. This is America. This is not Germany in 1932. We do not invade sovereign nations. It is getting out of control. I say that it is getting out of control, but it has been out of control for quite a while now, and nobody on the hill has the balls to stand up and stop it. AOC and Bernie Sanders are trying, and they have quite a following, but not enough action.

Anyway, I got to bed early and settled for a restful night's sleep. At least that was the hope, which seems to have occurred. Now it is on to Friday, the goal, and my stress test. Fingers crossed.

The rest of the day....

This was the big day for my stress test, and it went OK. I arrived at the doctor about an hour early, and they got me in about 45 minutes ahead of time. That was the big adventure for today, and I will have the results in a couple of days. There was a little confusion when I refused to pay a copayment, because I asked if the consultation would include the primary procedure. As soon as I said that phrase, the two receptionists looked at each other with wide eyes. The office has been double dipping for copayments when it comes to insurance. They will charge you a copayment for the primary procedure, and then they will bring you back two weeks later, just outside of the window for the primary procedure, and then they will charge you for a consultation. This is a common practice, and it is frowned upon. If you call them on it, you don't pay a copay. It was minimal, but it made me feel like a winner.

Once I was done at the doctor's office, it was time to go home and assess for the next couple of days. I am feeling a lot better, and even though I am getting some minor coughing fits here and there because of the pollen content, they're not nearly as bad as they have been. When I was ready for bed, my mood stabilized and my headache was gone. Spoiler alert, that did not hold because I was up again before midnight with the headache back and the mood back in place. But I chose to take advantage of it, so no big deal.

With work being done and the doctor behind me, it was time to start in on my pseudo weekend. I took advantage of the afternoon and caught up on my meditation and yoga. These are two things that have been severely lacking this week. I have been feeling so under the weather that I am out of my routine, and I am sure, beyond all doubt, that this is one of the things leading to my mood swings. I took care of that in the afternoon. Yesterday, the girls got Kentucky Fried Chicken, and I ate some of that for lunch and dinner combined. It was OK, but something about the potatoes was off. I know that they use powdered potatoes at Kentucky Fried Chicken, and they might have changed brands, but I was just not expecting it. It did not taste bad; it was just not what I had expected. Then it was time to settle in, preferring a nice spring sleep. As you read above, that did not go well. But tomorrow is another day.

I have been wanting some serious selfies for a while. And here they come.

Feeling okay now....

Physically, I am feeling better. I am not nearly at the top of my game, but I'm much closer than I have been. So today was all about mental health. And it came with a few surprises that helped. I was up before midnight, and that's because I was having some physical problems that led to some muscle cramps and other stuff. It took a few hours to get that straightened out, but in the end it was OK. And then it was on to the day. There was a power outage today, which put a little bit of a wrench into things, but nothing serious. I had two separate lists for the day, contingent on the rain. Of course, the rain came.

I was actually feeling quite a bit better, so I got the two photographs that you see here completed. I have had a few things on my mind for a while, and these are two of them. I think that they came out quite well.

But then there came a fascinating surprise. A couple of months ago, I lost an ancient pathway and triumph because I had a lot going on and was not paying attention. The services were not set to auto-renew, and for some reason, I did not get a notification that they were expiring. A local church swooped in and purchased all three sites from under me. They have never done anything with them, and when I approached them to try and get them back, they ignored me. But I got an e-mail today saying that at least one had been returned to my control and was in my Network Solutions account. I checked it out, and sure enough, it is there. It brings up a lot of questions, especially since it came from a blind e-mail, and they were able to add it to my Network Solutions account, which is locked down. I checked with Network Solutions, and the lockdown stops people from transferring things out, not transferring things in. Anyway, it is back, and now I have another project.

Besides that, I spent the entire day on mental self-care and think I've returned to a happy place. Maybe not a happy place, but at least a place where I do not want to strangle puppies. Not that I would ever do that anyway. I worked on my big list, pushed through a few projects, did my photographs, and rolled movies in the background. I just kept hitting next on whatever they were offering me, and except for one movie about the World War II female mail carriers, I don't remember a single film. I guess I was not paying attention. But that is OK because tomorrow is another day.

The theme for today is...

The theme for today is going to be writing and making mistakes. When I woke up this morning, I was still not feeling well, but I made the decision that I would spend the day on my writing. I'm very glad that I had a bit of focus to use because I made a significant error in Awakening . I had a continuity issue between chapter 4 and chapter 5. But I put the cart before the horse, so to speak. I had two of our heroes in West Virginia before they planned for the trip. I have no idea how I managed to do that, but I have reworked the two chapters, and everything is back in the right place. However, I now have to rewrite chapter 5 so that it flows properly.

Even though I was not feeling well, I tried some meditation and exercise as well as yoga, but that adventure did not go well at all. All three of these things have been eluding me for almost 3 weeks. If we take that and add the bad dreams, I think that my brain needs an overhaul. But that will come, sooner or later. I'm not a danger to myself or those around me, I am just a grumpy old man, and the world can deal with that quickly.

I did take the time to watch a few shows today, but for the life of me, I cannot remember what they were, so they did not really matter. I worked on my data project and a little on the new setup for Ancient. We are about to head into April, and I have absolutely no idea what happened to March.

Not feeling it...

It was all that I could do to push through work for the day. The wife is not feeling well, and neither am I, and it is all because of the trees. We are both getting hit pretty hard with allergies this year, and that season is not nearly over. I compounded that issue when I returned to the house because I had not even gotten a glass of water before I was out in the yard mowing for the week. We have incoming storms over the next couple of days that will cause some problems. The lawn was a bit out of control and I wanted to ensure it got taken care of before the storm set.

Once I got the lawn done, I rinsed off and then settled in for the evening. I went through a mental checklist of what is in the refrigerator and freezer, and we do not have a lot of quick meals left. Tomorrow, I think I will eat my last red beans and rice, and then all of my freezer meals are gone except for two things of BBQ that I don't remember making. I really need to sit down and put together a list of things like hamburgers, hot dogs, bags of rice and potatoes, and a few other things that I used to keep on the truck. But I have not had the energy to sit down and think about it. Once I was settled in and had eaten dinner, I just sat and listened to music. It was a good way to spend the evening.