Busy Daze...
I've been mildly depressed lately, but I've been trying to pull out of it. Doing something about it helps...
But it's amazing, after a 90° day how much my spirits are lifted through the simple reality of a rain fall at night. Cooling the air and the house. The sound of it on the aspens is nearly as amazing as the scent of water in the air.
Far more swimming and bike riding, and on the exercise bike I'm finding that it takes a minimum of forty minutes at a far higher resistance than I've been doing to make me feel good... plus swimming nearly every day in the neighborhood pool with the boys or with Jet's friends has really pushed my breathing meter further than it's gone before. So while the gain isn't quite as dramatic as last summer's, I'm still regaining a few more percentage points with exercise.
It eased me enough that we're looking into online prescription fulfillment for my drugs, and may well cut down more than half of our month to month costs on them. That plus the nurses being willing to hand me nearly $100's worth of drugs simply when I ask for samples, means that this year, we're probably going spend significantly less than last year. That was a cool thing to finally get the gumption to do. Plus my shots are only happening once every two weeks, not twice a week, so the shot costs have come down significantly as well, and we were surprised to find that the serum mix cost about 25% less this year than last.
I consulted for the artist two days this month. She called me and the first thing she said was, "I have missed having you in my life..." in a lovely dramatic voice and then went on with laughter to explain that she simply got more stuff done knowing that I was going to arrive. That she prepared more, and finished other things more quickly knowing that we'd get around her other road blocks together. It's been simple work, but satisfying because it clearly makes her life better and the efforts on my part are simple enough.
I have done a few writing things, though it feels like putting teeth. I've been going to Kit's Word Wars, and while I haven't published results, suffice it to say that I'm getting writing done that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to, so more kudos to her and her Word War crew. Sadly, I can't usually make the early morning sessions, luckily, there are a few ladies that are on in the Mountain Time Zone and I should do that more often.
Yesterday was one of those odd run around like a chicken with its head cut off days. The free morning movies are Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and at the very last minute I found out that it was The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. John was busy with Food Share, so Jet and I ran for the car and got there in plenty of time to get good seats, and we enjoyed the movie very much. While we were at the mall, we also hit GameStop and found the PS2 game for Up to be knocked down to $20. I guess the free movie ticket isn't worth that much anymore.
We went home, and Jet was too excited about finishing one of his experiments, so we did that, first. There's something mildly confusing about having an eight-year-old that answers rhetorical questions with, "Physics!" and the answer actually makes sense. At dinner, today, I was talking about getting worse wireless connections in the last couple of weeks, and Jet proposed that the reason really was solar flares. And when we asked why he gave a very succinct description of what a solar flare was and why the 'little atoms from the sun would knock apart the waves from the wireless' and showed that his understanding of the concepts underneath it all was actually quite good.
Anyway... at 1:30 I had a massage therapy appointment, and the two boys went off to go to a small party at someone else's house, but I was back by 3, and at 4 John went off to drink beers with ex-coworkers, so I got to pick up Jet from his party, and we went to the toy store and sat and spent nearly an hour there while Jet tried to decide what he wanted to spend his five dollars on. He picked really well, in the end, as he has a little Lego that makes three different things that all actually move differently. He says it's a Land Rover, diesel shovel, and a truck.
Then we went home, and played Up while Jet and I ate goldfish crackers, hard boiled eggs, milk, and carrots for dinner.
We've been playing the Lego Batman game for a while and Jet goes a little crazy in the game. He likes exploding everything with his penguins and stuff, and his attitude is odd in the game. During dinner, before we started Up, Jet said, "I'm really glad video games aren't real. If they were real, I wouldn't play them." Showing more discernment than some adults seem to be able to gather with respect to video games.
The things is that Jet loves Up the game. It's an E for everyone, and the whole thing is Carl and Russell trying to get somewhere or do something together. Every part of the puzzle really, truly needs both players and for both of them to cooperate fully with the other in order to do some of the simplest things. Jet's attitude during this game is great. We keep trying. The best ones have been the drifting ones, where both Carl and Russell are attached to the house, and if the two of you jump in perfect synch you get this beautiful gliding swoops to the next platform. And the scenery is gorgeous in one of those, as it's at sunset amid the rocks. During one of those beautiful glides, Jet said, "Now this is fun."
Of course, with all that going on I got no writing at all done yesterday and I got frustrated enough to work with John on getting me more focus time.
Plus, the HP desktop came back functional again, today. So I have to move everything over again, now that I've gotten things comfortable on the laptop, but it's good to have the machine back... I just need to back everything up again onto the huge storage disk I have, and then bring back the things I really care about.
It's just time and work.
I actually painted traditional watercolors and have liked the results enough that I might want to try it some more... we'll have to see, it really took two tries to get it as dark and colorful as I wanted it, but that worked out well. I've also started playing with chalk pastels, and got a small warning that I should probably wear breathing protection with them. Good idea, all in all, as the pigments do go to dust so thoroughly. And now that Jet's done a few rocks, I have his acrylic paints to play with as well. I'd bought them in artist's hues, with a quality that was good enough that I could use them on paper if I wished. So it'll be interesting to see if I can do something with some of the more controlled mediums.
One very interesting thing was finding one of my artist friend's treatises on art journaling, and the fact that watercolor is considered one of those 'out of control' mediums. It's very, very much something that's free form, not for those that want control in their art. I guess my other work and daily life is so tightly controlled that with my art, I had to go the other way. I keep sketching, but never get what I want... where as when I do watercolors, I never get exactly what I intend, but often get something that I *like*... which may be the whole point of it anyway.
But it's amazing, after a 90° day how much my spirits are lifted through the simple reality of a rain fall at night. Cooling the air and the house. The sound of it on the aspens is nearly as amazing as the scent of water in the air.
Far more swimming and bike riding, and on the exercise bike I'm finding that it takes a minimum of forty minutes at a far higher resistance than I've been doing to make me feel good... plus swimming nearly every day in the neighborhood pool with the boys or with Jet's friends has really pushed my breathing meter further than it's gone before. So while the gain isn't quite as dramatic as last summer's, I'm still regaining a few more percentage points with exercise.
It eased me enough that we're looking into online prescription fulfillment for my drugs, and may well cut down more than half of our month to month costs on them. That plus the nurses being willing to hand me nearly $100's worth of drugs simply when I ask for samples, means that this year, we're probably going spend significantly less than last year. That was a cool thing to finally get the gumption to do. Plus my shots are only happening once every two weeks, not twice a week, so the shot costs have come down significantly as well, and we were surprised to find that the serum mix cost about 25% less this year than last.
I consulted for the artist two days this month. She called me and the first thing she said was, "I have missed having you in my life..." in a lovely dramatic voice and then went on with laughter to explain that she simply got more stuff done knowing that I was going to arrive. That she prepared more, and finished other things more quickly knowing that we'd get around her other road blocks together. It's been simple work, but satisfying because it clearly makes her life better and the efforts on my part are simple enough.
I have done a few writing things, though it feels like putting teeth. I've been going to Kit's Word Wars, and while I haven't published results, suffice it to say that I'm getting writing done that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to, so more kudos to her and her Word War crew. Sadly, I can't usually make the early morning sessions, luckily, there are a few ladies that are on in the Mountain Time Zone and I should do that more often.
Yesterday was one of those odd run around like a chicken with its head cut off days. The free morning movies are Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and at the very last minute I found out that it was The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. John was busy with Food Share, so Jet and I ran for the car and got there in plenty of time to get good seats, and we enjoyed the movie very much. While we were at the mall, we also hit GameStop and found the PS2 game for Up to be knocked down to $20. I guess the free movie ticket isn't worth that much anymore.
We went home, and Jet was too excited about finishing one of his experiments, so we did that, first. There's something mildly confusing about having an eight-year-old that answers rhetorical questions with, "Physics!" and the answer actually makes sense. At dinner, today, I was talking about getting worse wireless connections in the last couple of weeks, and Jet proposed that the reason really was solar flares. And when we asked why he gave a very succinct description of what a solar flare was and why the 'little atoms from the sun would knock apart the waves from the wireless' and showed that his understanding of the concepts underneath it all was actually quite good.
Anyway... at 1:30 I had a massage therapy appointment, and the two boys went off to go to a small party at someone else's house, but I was back by 3, and at 4 John went off to drink beers with ex-coworkers, so I got to pick up Jet from his party, and we went to the toy store and sat and spent nearly an hour there while Jet tried to decide what he wanted to spend his five dollars on. He picked really well, in the end, as he has a little Lego that makes three different things that all actually move differently. He says it's a Land Rover, diesel shovel, and a truck.
Then we went home, and played Up while Jet and I ate goldfish crackers, hard boiled eggs, milk, and carrots for dinner.
We've been playing the Lego Batman game for a while and Jet goes a little crazy in the game. He likes exploding everything with his penguins and stuff, and his attitude is odd in the game. During dinner, before we started Up, Jet said, "I'm really glad video games aren't real. If they were real, I wouldn't play them." Showing more discernment than some adults seem to be able to gather with respect to video games.
The things is that Jet loves Up the game. It's an E for everyone, and the whole thing is Carl and Russell trying to get somewhere or do something together. Every part of the puzzle really, truly needs both players and for both of them to cooperate fully with the other in order to do some of the simplest things. Jet's attitude during this game is great. We keep trying. The best ones have been the drifting ones, where both Carl and Russell are attached to the house, and if the two of you jump in perfect synch you get this beautiful gliding swoops to the next platform. And the scenery is gorgeous in one of those, as it's at sunset amid the rocks. During one of those beautiful glides, Jet said, "Now this is fun."
Of course, with all that going on I got no writing at all done yesterday and I got frustrated enough to work with John on getting me more focus time.
Plus, the HP desktop came back functional again, today. So I have to move everything over again, now that I've gotten things comfortable on the laptop, but it's good to have the machine back... I just need to back everything up again onto the huge storage disk I have, and then bring back the things I really care about.
It's just time and work.
I actually painted traditional watercolors and have liked the results enough that I might want to try it some more... we'll have to see, it really took two tries to get it as dark and colorful as I wanted it, but that worked out well. I've also started playing with chalk pastels, and got a small warning that I should probably wear breathing protection with them. Good idea, all in all, as the pigments do go to dust so thoroughly. And now that Jet's done a few rocks, I have his acrylic paints to play with as well. I'd bought them in artist's hues, with a quality that was good enough that I could use them on paper if I wished. So it'll be interesting to see if I can do something with some of the more controlled mediums.
One very interesting thing was finding one of my artist friend's treatises on art journaling, and the fact that watercolor is considered one of those 'out of control' mediums. It's very, very much something that's free form, not for those that want control in their art. I guess my other work and daily life is so tightly controlled that with my art, I had to go the other way. I keep sketching, but never get what I want... where as when I do watercolors, I never get exactly what I intend, but often get something that I *like*... which may be the whole point of it anyway.