sarren

Yesterday, I got halfway through the basic tools chapter before hitting a reference to meditation, and deciding that sitting quietly was going to be more valuable right then than reading the rest of the chapter. And I was right - that five minutes of nothing was settling and helpful. Sadly, today, while reading, I got to the same spot, closed my eyes, and brain was all 'nope, don't need to, shaaaaan't' so no meditation happened.

Which does mean I got to the next page, and this lovely bit of insight. For reference, the morning pages are stream of consciousness write whatever, and it is explicitly stated that this can be complaining about things, disjointed, this is not so much writing as throwing words at a page. And the comment is

"It is very difficult to complain about a situation morning after morning, month after month, without being moved to constructive action. The pages lead us out of despair and into undreamed-of solutions"

I don't know that I'm going so far as to expect being led out of despair, but anything that has the potential to move me to constructive action has to be a win (and yes, I have successfully used this kind of writing for that before. It is also why I write the flights of fancy 'here is a thing I'm trying' in posts here, because putting it in words gives me a place to start).

Last week I didn't have the oomph to do this on Tuesday, Wednesday I got distracted, ditto Thursday, so I put it off a week (and yes, at least one of those distractions was an Important, Do It NOW task, but still distracted).

• work - I have been failing to apply for things, because I'm still holding out hope of the study option coming through for me
• craft - have started on the 100 days (mid year) which would start on May 1st. I've made a list of everything I might possibly work on; and some interim tasks. J's quilt has made progress, but only at the cutting strips that are going to be potentially cut further and assembled to make the binding. The next step requires numbers, and as every quilter knows, it is important to do this right. I have three shades of green, and maybe it will be fine if I just cut three lengths from each, and then cycle through the shades with somewhat randomised lengths, but I don't know what the lengths are (see previous 'needs arithmetic') .... I kinda know the math, except for the 'how much for the corner' (in that I know the total lengths I have, and each seam is 5mm off each side of each piece which means when I measure I'll know how many seams total, I just argh. Perfection as the enemy of progress).
• reading - I have been. I've read one of my thestoryinside books already, and started both of the others (one is emotionally hard, the other is visually hard being a graphic novel). I've got my current reads down to 9, although I haven't checked that I've got everything tracked. I'm going to stop the check of books read, because I've been tracking short stories, and that is throwing the numbers. I'm 400 pages ahead of expected, so I'm happy with that. I've just downloaded more books (mostly short stories) from Gutenberg, so my ratio read:unread of acquired this year is getting worse. I've added two challenges, both of which are this year's Hugo nominees; I've not looked at whether any of the rest have progressed.
• house library is getting closer to useable. Some storage boxes are now in the garage, the new/temporary bookshelf is 3/4 full, and I've started working out what was in the piles now that I can see them. I don't think I've made progress on the verandah in the last week, but it might be last week that I put the swing lounge frame out to be rained on (cleaned) and swept that half. Still have to gather things back, but not before moving the sodding heavy concrete planter out.
• music I think I've done Hanon's part one once or twice. I keep working on the Bach treble recorder solo, and it is less dreadful. I went looking for the bass recorder book I got for my birthday, but have done something sensible with it. I have committed to finding something viola to work on that isn't fledge music.
• learning other than reading non-fiction, nope
• family and social - Youngest's birthday gathering last Saturday went well; the place we went to did high tea really well, and handled the 2 * GF and 2 * no egg. Tonight I went to a Stats Society talk, and chatted with people.
• exercise and health - not walking as much as I want to be. Am reliably doing some physio exercises M / W / F, and am seeing some strength improvements. Continuing to keep this to roughly five minutes. Sleeping on the other hand is not going well, with me rarely in bed before 11am, and several post midnight / fail to sleeps.
• organisation still haven't finished any of the 11 goals. Tiny progress is happening, I guess?
• writing - I've moved back to 750 words, so I'm doing more 'free writing' and less 'offline journal'. Need to make sure to be doing both. I am, however, capturing enough here that I'm not too fussed by the lack of journalling. I have made progress on getting reviews on Neocities, which I'm kind of pleased about. I've done some poking at functions, worked out where the errors were. I've realised that I'm going to have to actually write a function that opens and parses my html files (because I have a complex process, wherein I write the individual pages in quarto, using functions that make sure that things are standardised; those are used to generate html files, and the index uses the existing files to create the index).
• garden still only have basil seedlings started; went to find the seeds for more today but got sidetracked. A has fixed one section of path.

We have rain! And thunder! I am wondering whether I should be checking on the chickens, but I'm typing this from bed with half the household already in bed and theoretically asleep, and if the chickens are appropriately settled I don't want to disturb them.

it's been a bitty busy day. two medical appointments-chiro and spirometry-and I think overall i'm better for the first and not as bad as i might be on the second; I'm just over the threshold for the outside normal range on inflammatory markers, but I don't know what the measurement range for abnormal is (normal is <20, I was 24; I don't know what was being measured). I apparently have 'somewhat large lungs', which woodwind player.

hugos: one category down, now focusing on podcasts, because it will take a while. Am <1 episode in to one I haven't heard before; I'm giving them three before I abandon them entirely.

I experimented with dinner. The available packet of basil at the shops was a) $5 and b) not enough, so I bought spinach for more green. I think I should have just gone with not quite enough basil. I put a cup of almonds, the remnant pine nuts, some olive oil, and the greens in the thermomix and made a lovely green paste. I also grated some pecorino to go on the side, so Youngest didn't have to eat it. I don't think sprinkled works as well as mixed in, and I think the spinach needed to be heated more (we just stir through after the pasta is drained, which warms it up and everything is good, usually)

I haven't been tracking this very well online; there is a facebook group that I've made occasional notes in. The plan mostly got ignored - more than anything I forgot that I'd made a plan.

Given that the overall goal was to empty the storage unit - we have made progress. I keep thinking 'another couple of weeks and we'll have space to move everything out' and it hasn't been true yet. I was tracking the item numbers and whether they have been dealt with - that worked for a while, and then we got to the ones where the older stickers had been used and half the numbers had fallen off, and I stopped attempting it.

But! having Middlest move out helped. Some of the craft supplies are in their old wardrobe, and some of the unsorted crates are in their old room. As is my desk, which meant that the table that was in the library has been moved.

In terms of the smaller tasks

1. two of the three fabric and yarn boxes have gone; the other is awaiting collection. done, kinda
2. repairs box triage - I don't remember which box that was, but I have a small pile of repairs, so maybe done?
3. assorted boxes of 'I have no clue' - there are fewer. I've gone through some and dealt with the contents. Some have been combined.
4. papers - nope
5. rehome tatting supplies - nope
6. itemise the craft projects - kinda. Enough that the next 100 days, which is 'make progress on WIPs' should go smoothly. Not all of them went in the craft space, but some did
7. rehome skates - nope; those are still in the storage locker
8. yarn swatches box - this has been sorted, and the pieces allocated to appropriate projects. Several damaged items have been frogged; there is one remaining.
9. furniture: the shelf that was in the storage room is now back where it belongs, as we aren't storing W's furniture there. The desk is to be rehomed.
10. trampoline - advertised, got no responses.
11. curtain rods - I know where they are going, but haven't done much about it. I have gathered all of the brackets, end knobs (what is the proper word?), and rings have been found, cleaned and put in a single closed box so that they can't get dusty again. Some need resealing, but basically I'll use the best ones first
12. Borderlands paperwork - not touched
13. slide projector - not tested
14. hammock - I think I found it, then put it somewhere sensible to follow up. Still not hung
15. thin the craft supplies - done
16. roller skates - have not used
17. dress up box - that which we are keeping is now hung up, the box has been repurposed, and I have a pile of costumes to rehome. in progress.
18. child table and chair - no decision made. I suspect the table will be set up as a coffee table somewhere, possibly in the library next to the bean bag.

• life has been busy, and I have neither been writing my offline journal nor making blog notes through the day, and I've rather missed it. Today, I'm back to it. (plus, the other things I capture in the same document are links read - which has been mostly happening; and tasks, which are colour coded by whether they have been done or not, which is a bit of a disaster). I didn't do All! The! Things! but it was closer
• Because I work well with very specific tracking things, I've set up a spreadsheet that is capturing a set of email and browser tab numbers, and the plotting each of those plus the total. So far so good--I've missed two days since 18th March--and the numbers are slowly coming down. I'm not sure what I'll do at the point that I actually have these numbers under control, but that is a question for Later Me.
• more digital decluttering, moving subscriptions I want to keep from the dying email to gmail, and unsubscribing from others. Once I get the new email up and working, it will be the email address for people and organisations I'm working with to use, and gmail will be the gumph i read when i have the energy.
• The weather is turning, and we've put the heavier quilt on; at this point I don't have an extra on my side. We've also stopped leaving the bathroom door open at night to keep the place cooler. This has gone with me absolutely not wanting to shower and get dressed each day, leaving me wandering around naked until at least midday. I have, however, started eating breakfast at the table again, and am thinking I should make some washable seat covers (I'm using a scruffy old towel, which covers up how scruffy the seats are).
• I've done on two walks this week! I won't be doing ParkRun on Saturday, because the afternoon is Youngest's 21st family gathering which is being done out in the Swan Valley. I will, instead, be sleeping in and conserving spoons.
• I have done more Hugo reading Stuff, including reading all of the short stories. I may or may not post that in the near future. It needs some editing because the links etc won't carry over, and I don't have the oomph for that at the moment.
• I have discovered a ridiculous 'idle' game that I've been slightly obsessed with over the last little while, called Cells, with the conceit that this is a 'create a simulation' setup. It has three relaxed levels - Primary (starts with proteins, goes all sorts of ways), Beyond (solar system; you start with the sun and some planets, and then each level you get more. Currently I have up to Jupiter, and am attempting to 'discover' two of the moons), and Mesozoic ('dinosaur' clades, with levelling up done by triggering an asteroid). It also has a sequence of short term 'simulations' and I'm not entirely sure on that. I'm finding those stressful, because they are time limited, but I want to know what it is that has been included. The current one is infection, and includes a timeline; the previous one was cheese.
• we have got about half of the library floor clear. It helps to have a shelf that the mess of books can be moved to. I've already identified a handful that I don't think we need to keep, and there will probably be others.