I’m still descending a little bit from the highs of the other days, but… I’m doing really well, still. 🙂 Granted, I’m not working, so the pressures of customers and deadlines, with things going “wrong” on a regular basis and whatnot aren’t pushing against me right now, so a proper analysis of where I’m actually at won’t happen until I get working again.
But… I’m doing really well. And despite those pressures on me, this little spiritual high was kicked off by pressures that to me personally are much bigger. So… I’m hopeful that though I’m very likely gonna retain some of my old struggles, nevertheless, I’m hopeful that there’s a new baseline normal for me (yay, for new normals 😋).
It’s been another positive day today. Happy. 🙂 Alarm went off at 4:55, I think, and it took me a few minutes to get out of bed, but I rolled out (partially motivated by the -15 degree weather outside, which might sound funny, but I’ve never felt -15 degree temperatures, so I wanted to go outside and feel it. 😁).
It was cold.
But it didn’t really feel much, if any, different than 0? I wonder if the human body is unable to differentiate lower temperatures after a certain point? I tried to learn if that was the case or not, but I couldn’t find anything anywhere about it. Everyone just talked about how much more dangerous it is but not the actual biology of what the skin can sense temperature wise.
Anyway… not really important.
I did notice that my body reacted to the cold much quicker, though. Whereas it had previous taken (and I’m guessing) maybe two minutes for the snot inside my nose to start to gel up or freeze, now I could feel it probably within my first 10 steps out the front door. 🙃
Yup. Cold. Cold. Cold.
I’ve not been working on the trails because it’s so cold I want to get back to the house quickly when I’m ready to go in, which is rather quick, since chainsaw gloves don’t do so well in the super cold, since my one pair of shoes lets snow in through the bottom, and my other pair of shoes lets snow in through the sides, and since I don’t have a mask or scarf, etc. Anyway, so instead of trails, I’ve just been trying to clear away the vines and the dead stuff on the east side of the driveway, which has remained relatively untouched by me to this point. The last few days, I’ve been cutting off all the dead branches on the lower trunks of the cedars and clearing away the vines. The vines in one section were so thick they were a forest unto themselves, and the trees were so filled with them that they were nearly completely choked out (only tiny bits of green at the very very top, and so many vines that it took cutting down three different trees to make it so they could actually fall to the ground because they were completely tied together. There were so many vines that the vines were wrapped around the vines several layers through.
Nutty.
I’m talking like one vine per two cubical columns of airspace. Some vines even inches thick, and these mats of vines covering fairly large areas, such that it took a chainsaw to cut through them back and forth.
Not sure if the imagery is sufficient to give an idea, but… yeah, vines upon vines upon vines. thick is dreadlocks, going 40-50 feet up in the air to the tops of the cedars, having pretty much completely choked them out. Cut the first tree down… leaned about… oh… maybe one foot. Cut a large one (base diameter maybe 18-24 inches? It leaned about 4 feet? Finally cut a third one, maybe 12-16 inches in diameter, and with that one, all three went down at the same time, still with vines stretched tight to still other trees.
Yeah. Nutty.
Anyway… that’s probably more lumberjacking story than y’all care for, but… that’s a lot of what I do here. 🙃 Worked on taxes today. Studied. Worked on my book a little bit. Worked on a gospel post I’ve been working on. Made some cornbread.
Oh! FYI, if you don’t already know (I might be new to the party), but if you use soy milk to make cornbread, it almost doesn’t crumble at all and still tastes great! I mean, really… it doesn’t crumble almost at all. It’s got nearly the same sticktogetherness as regular bread. Super cool. We made some the other day with oat milk, and it was super crumbly. Basically same recipe with soy milk, and boom. Exelente.
#1. I’m grateful I was able to get those trees down with getting myself hurt. Kind of weird to have multiple trees all read to come down at once, and me trying to avoid the power lines on one side. But… I got them all started the right way, and the vines probably even helped, as after getting one started the right way, then once all three were cut, the one made sure everything got pulled the same direction.
#2. I’m grateful that I have my cheap baselayer that’s actually super warm. I went out multiple times wearing just my garments, a pair of super thin running shorts and my baselayer long underwear, and I did great. Just the feetsies and fingerses.
#3. I’m grateful that while some people are dealing with electricity limitations, no natural gas to heat their homes, and whatnot, we’re the luck ones. Furnaces are going strong. House is warm. It was an 82 degree difference when I walked in from outside after doing morning servicise to inside the house (-15 to 67). Yeah. Wow. Can’t say that happens very… ever (for me, at least).
#4. I’m grateful that we’ve managed to keep Mindy safely away from the resident male who’s hoping to start a family with her (she’s in heat. Didn’t manage to get her spayed before she went in heat). Gonna have to work a little harder, though. I’m headed out shortly to shore up the makeshift gates I built.
#5. I’m grateful that I’m looking on time again. I’ll be a few minutes late tonight, but I’m doing decently well. It’s 8:46.
#6. I’m grateful for the fun phone call with my sister Heather. They’re looking for places to move to that are more up their alley, and it’s fun. I always like looking for property and all that good stuff.
Thought of the Day: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~ Thomas A. Edison
Lift the World.
~ stephen
Lift the World 