It's certainly spring. Neighbors are mowing (I don't think the grass has started to grow all that much yet. My back yard is filled with trout lilly, which is just starting to flower.
When I say my back yard is filled, this is what I mean.
Here is another of my back yard.
You can see the bench that was in my background photo I posted a little bit back. The tree on the ground is an old apple tree that was standing dead when we moved in. I started to lop off branches, and when I got to this point, the weather abruptly changed and my chain-saw break engaged, even through my hand wasn't near it. Fortunately I took the hint and left the rest standing. It made a nice little platform for the birds to use out feeders, and I decorated it with wind-chimes and other outdoor baubles. I called it my fairy tree. When ever I was outside I would run my hand over all the wind-chimes. If I didn't, it seemed that bad luck would follow me until I did. It didn't last the winter, the stump has rotted out. Now my wind-chimes and baubles are looking for a home. As a side note, the one wind-chime which I felt a particular fondness for broke a week before the tree dropped. I also repaired that today (had to find all the chimes), so I think I need to find the next "fairy tree" to put it on.
All the windows are open and right now our fire department is off to something, running hot.
We have half our new shelves installed downstairs. Yep, we had another wall that just needed to have full size shelving units installed. We were hoping they would be in on Friday, but I guess their other install was going slow. Now they'll be back on Monday to finish. It shouldn't take them long.
We're making soap. It's one of those self sufficiency things. We use the SunFeather Soap Company's cold process (lye) soap kits. This one if lavender, so our whole house is now infused with that smell. Fortunately, I happen to like the smell of lavender. The soap itself it taking a damn long time to set up. If you've never mixed lye, consider yourself lucky. Not only will the fumes take you down, the damn thing gets really hot. I mean, really, really hot. As in the instructions say, "to avoid possibility of boiling over, use cold water to mix lye."
As you all know, I can't play much during the workweek. As I've told my friends, I don't have much privacy at my work station. Here are some photos to show what I mean.
That's my desk.
That's my desk from my boss's office door.
And since I'm talking about work. As I was uploading the photos I found this one. You may remember when I talked about gouging my hand. Here it is after the foam/glue dropped off.
It looks much better than this now, but it did leave a scar. A "V" shaped scar. That makes 5 scars on my hands.
Anyway. Just wanted to share. I'm somewhat productive today, so I'm feeling much better.
Last weekend's big "D" episode lead me to evaluate where I was at. I had regressed farther than I thought, so I'm back to being more active about breaking it. My friend Sheila (who is one of my lurkers ::waves at Sheila::) reminded me of The Artists Way which, among other bits of advice, talks about "artist dates" and gifts. That is to nourish oneself you should go and do things for you, but things for you. Depravity is not the way to feed an artist (yeah, yeah, starving artists, blah blah, know why those artists are starving, because most put their money back into their art instead of themselves). Well, I need to do more for myself. I'm not helping anybody this way.
5 comments:
::waves back at Steve::
I had forgotten about artist dates until I started to try a new budgeting system, which suggested setting aside 10% of take-home pay for fun and 10% for education. I found myself in the position of having to look for ways to SPEND the money. BTW it isn't the actual percentage you set aside that is important, but that you set aside a given amount on a regular basis.
I had been in such a habit of denying myself that at first I could not think of anything to do!
I started small. I bought theater tickets for a version of the Odyssey that had a Monty Python flavor to it and huge puppets to portray the cyclops and the sea monster ($10 a ticket, took my mother and she enjoyed it too!). Then I went to see a lecture/slide show by a climbing ranger who does rescues on Mount Ranier (also $10).
I decided if anything looks interesting and it is $10 or less, I should be spontaneous and call for a ticket immediately. That has worked well so far. I still have plenty left in the budget and am casting about for other experiences.
I decided to try something bigger for my education budget, so I signed up for a course on magazine writing basics. It costs nine weeks worth of my education budget, but the course is eight weeks long, which works out okay. I didn't hesitate and signed up right away, even though I have NO idea of a topic to use for my writing assignment.
The amusing part is that I wouldn't have even been LOOKING for things to do without having set aside the money first. Kinda like "Budget the money, and fun will follow."
I know what you mean about lack of privacy at work, I sit in a very similar set up. I have managers and higher ups cruising by my desk all day. Fortunately, I can still use the internet without getting yelled at.
I've taken to reading during lunch and for that, I leave the area and find a comfy chair in some common area. I'd love to bring in my MacBook and write during that time, but I'm afraid I'd get ushered off the HP campus for that. ;)
Sounds like you need a big batch of Korean Homestyle Chicken and a weekend writing workshop. Sorry to hear you're having a rough time. You know my number; I don't mind the drive. What are your plans for your birthday? Good luck on your recent submissions. Edits on 'Gerta' are going slowly, but they're going. Sry so scattered. Daijini!
Hey Sheila, yeah, I don't budget for things for me. That maybe part of the problem. Unfortunately, most of the things I want to do are more costly that $10. Although, $10 is a nice price, and I'd do more at that level.
Things I want to do include going to see the Arms and Armor from Imperial Austria Exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art. While the site shows a lot of parade armor, they're also supposed to have a good selection of the actual "let's go womping on the heathens" armor as well. Then there's Marcon which I may end up going to as Bette was also going to visit an Uncle down in Columbus. World Fantasy in Calgary is right out this year.
I heard about the Ranger talk. He sounded like he was a pretty good lecturer. Hope it was a great time.
Ken, well, my boss isn't so good about me looking at the internet. He believes that it's stealing time from work, although I would only look at it while applications were opening, files were distilling, copying, or I was printing out plates. So now I twiddle my thumbs. Ah well. I also don't get a lunch break (union negotiated it away many contracts ago). You could always commander an HP sticker and put it over the Apple Logo, or get a skinsuit for it.
Hey Leaf, well, I'm working our plans with Bette for the B-day. We'll probably make comfort food tonight, so that will help. Getting things done is certainly helping. Plus, I did a little change (in next post). It's symbolic, but symbolism helps. Thanks for the offer on Korean Homestyle (for the rest of my readers, he makes the best).
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