(no subject)

[glitch25]

Howdy peeps.

It is difficult to want to "encourage" you all to post when I'm not posting nearly much myself. I've been having difficulty wanting to commit things to the page. Particularly when it isn't just spewing frustrations about the state of things.

So to cope, I've been keeping myself busy lately.

I do find it interesting and difficult when I'm in a situation where I see someone I haven't seen in a while, and they ask, "How are you? What have you been up to?" and my knee-jerk reaction is to say that I have been busy. But busy with what? The same can be said when I'm talking with people I just met who want to get to know me better, and ask what I do.

Work always used to be the default answer, but in truth, work doesn't take up nearly as much of my physical and emotional bandwidth as it once did. I totally find that to be a vast improvement over past, and I'm happy that work things seem to be moving in good directions over all. I've never wanted to consider my identity or my "output into life" to be particularly focused on my work endeavors. I think work has always been a means to an end and not an end unto itself. I've frustrated many a boss by not being willing to work my way up the corporate ladder because I have been unwilling to part with personal time to do large leaps in my career.

So what ties up the rest? Well... for those that get to see in a little deeper into my life, you know about the relationships I have with three lovely ladies. My time with them ties up the largest part of my personal time. Between outings and dinners and adventures and homemaking and talks and sometimes just time spent on the couch enjoying catching up on media, we spend our time well. Sometimes we craft together. Sometimes we have long talks about all sorts of things together. Often we go out to see shows and music.

Up until very recently, I was recovering from my second cold of the year. I started out January carrying over a cold from last year. And with less than a month break, I caught a second one. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm out from under it. Unfortunately, Spring has decided that allergies are a thing, and as I get older, I find I am more susceptible to pollen counts and other things. But I don't have the chest involvement I did before, which is fantastic!

So what else has been keeping me busy? Lessee. The carousel has begun turning again. I'm in the midst of a lot of little projects, and making progress on some bigger ones.

With regards to the ever-present productivity in the household arrangement, we've been making big strides in improving process and making adjustments to make every day chores and such easier. I've also been trying to get caught up on the lag from the winter slumber and get some smaller projects moving forward. One of them continues to be the organization of the music room. It is getting much much closer. I need to find a new home (recycle) of an old desk I have that is taking up space that is no longer in use. It had a tempered glass top that shattered some years ago, and I intended to replace it with a nice plywood work surface, but never did. Now, I find that the desk is unneeded, and I really need the space where it sits. hoping to find a recycling event which will take it. We've also been re-arranging things in the kitchen to make better use of the space. This has resulted in a little bit more work space, and better organization of some of our larger kitchen appliances.

We also have a 6-foot folding table that we don't really need anymore. Anybody interested?

On the music front, I also have been enjoying my mini ukulele bass and have been learning more and more. I have arranged to have it out in an open space so it is easy to pick up and play around with when I have a moment, and that has succeeded in getting me to pick it up more often.

Piano is on the cusp again. I have some things I really need to make time to learn, and I also have some arrangement and writing tasks ahead of me.

I have also been spending time and money working on our media server. We have a linux-based media server that serves as both storage and a back-end to Plex Media Server, and we access it via the web or via our Roku devices. It has been fun to get that up and running, and I'm in the process of tweaking the hardware to make it run better and to expand storage. Last year, I got us up to not quite a terabyte and a half. We're already over 2/3rd through it with some blu-ray additions and several TV show season additions. And there is a lot more to add!

Finally, I am also getting the artistic itch again, and have some book-binding projects that I plan to engage. I want to perfect my basic coptic binding style, and then I want to get into Japanese stab binding. And one of these days, when I'm bored, I should continue work on my t-shirt latch-hook rug. :-)

So aside from all that, and the usual things that never seem to end like.. laundry and dishes... You know, for what amounts to a household of two, it's amazing how much laundry and dishes we generate. :-)

What things have been keeping you busy?

Comments

[mlerules]

Nice getting a slightly more in-depth account of your "busy-ness." Good stuff, all that! May you feel 100% again soon. (I, too, am suffering more this year from allergies than usual.) How to you keep track of all your ToDo's (and Done!'s)?

I've been keeping bizzy learning how to become (and learning how to be - and being) a Real Estate Broker licensed in Oregon. (Elsewhere we're called Real Estate Agents, or simply, Realtors ;-)

Also recently working on getting my garden ready to plant. Planted some seeds Monday, and more'll go in today. Will start tomatoes once I can get some starts. (They say after Mom's Day is the Right Time to plant, but I'm ready to risk it NOW.)

I've been getting in some reading as well, both candy (DiscWorld and Anne Perry's Charlotte & Thomas Pitt novels) and non-fiction (ex: http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/03/23/521199308/a-cultural-moment-for-polyamory).

For more of an idea of my Fun Times, check out my photo albums (1 pic = 1,000 words, they say): https://www.flickr.com/photos/8146112@N06/albums

[glitch25]

Now that I've also descended into my third chest cold for the year, another thing to add to the list is figuring out whats up with my immune system.

For the daily to-do's, I use a website called Checkvist. It is similar to some others, but this one has some really nice features. And the pro subscription is pretty cheap.

Yay good learning. Hope you find that you get what you desire as a Real Estate Broker. :-)

Yes planting.. That is also on the list, but I see it slipping from my grasp. We'll have to see how it goes this year. Usually I do my own starts, but I'm a little behind this time. Perhaps I'll just have to muddle through this year.

Thanks for sharing the fotos! :-)