(Written on the 6th)
I don’t think I went to bed until like 5:00 a.m… not the smartest decision. 😅 So I didn’t get a lot of sleep before family festivities started.
First adventure on the block today was a pool party. With my shy, reserved demeanor, pool parties really don’t fit.
I don’t really know what to classify me as. Jordan asked me today, with the going in supposition that I I’m an introvert. And I think that’s definitely kind of true? 😆
Social situations with people I don’t know or know very little are often awkward and nerve-wracking and I’m easily embarrassed.
Yet, for much of my life in the public sphere, I was known as being the wild, adventurous, life of the party, quick witted, making everybody laugh a lot.
🤷
There’s that oftused phrase, hard to get out of their shell… And maybe that applies to me. I don’t know exactly what it is. I’ve always been a shy, nervous, quick to be embarrassed little child. But I’m also the same kid who was class clown in elementary school and Junior high and if you could get me out of my shell, would be a little crazy.
My own family didn’t see that side of me very much because the quick-witted role, As I perceived it, was my nearest brother Richard. So I was always reserved, from my perspective at least, in family gatherings, because Richard was the quick-witted make people laugh person in those settings, so I sat back. I played a different role.
When I get out of my shell, that I’m comfortably A person who can just go up to random people that I don’t know, talk to them, and not think a second thought about it. But it’s the lead-in, the build up, the anticipation. Nervousness. Anxiety. Pre-embarrassment.
🤷
Feel free to comment with adjectives or observations that more cogently describe what I’m attempting to communicate. 🙃
The swimming pool was a perfect example. I was there for probably close to 3 hours. And for the first hour and a half, or so, I didn’t even get in the water. I just wandered around from person to person chatting with them well there were lots of people, mostly kids, in the pool.
But when I finally got in the water and got myself going, it was the normal let loose kind of being that I also am. Water fights, goofing around, trying to do flips and tricks and weird things into the pool.
I tried to learn how to do a gainer, but I failed miserably. 😆
I did, however, managed to do a flip and land on a water donut and stay on the donut. Twice. 100% success rate. 😆
After the pool party, there weren’t any more official family activities until the evening, so I decided to just go back to my normal Haven Hill stuff. I aired up Jim’s tire because it was flat, but there wasn’t a key left in it, so I couldn’t find the leak that was causing it to be low, And they weren’t home, so I couldn’t get a key from them.
So then I went to the gas station to fill up on my way to buying the cattle panels, to get the last six or eight or so that I need to finish the fence around the pond.
Drove all the way to Wheeler metals, but apparently they were closed for the full 4-day weekend, so that was a no-go. Looks like I won’t be able to get the rest of the panels until Monday or so.
Darn.
After getting back, I got a burn permit and started the burn pile near my Greenhouse staging area on fire. Took a little bit to get it going, but once it finally started burning, it burned pretty hot, which was necessary because there was a lot of green wood from recently cut stuff in there. The stump I pulled out of the ground, and the sycamore trunks, etc.
I worked on cleaning up the area where all the trusses were in the woods. I locked off Vines and saplings and what not, took stuff to the fire, mowed areas that I got the saplings lopped out of. Pulled up plants and all sorts of stuff by the roots In areas where I felt that was needed.
Organized, cleaned, trimmed, cleared, burned… for hours, until it was time to go to the evening activity, food and talent show and dancing and all that jazz at the deck.
It’s nice to see people enjoying the deck area. I’m grateful that it’s been a hit for the family. 😊
speaking of areas that are appreciated, A Chatted with Zack at the evening party, And he was asking me about the trail system that I built through the woods. Years ago when I first did them, just before Chrysti passed, walking through the woods on those trails was one of the last memories that Jenna has of her mother, so the trails are important to her, something I wasn’t aware of. So Zack has been going back through the trails reclaiming them. They’ve overgrown quite a bit, but are still basically there and just need a little clearing.
Good good. Good fun. Chatting with lots of people. Getting to know MaryAnne a bit (step brother who passed in 2014 David’s wife).
I was pretty filthy from all the fire and working with the field clearing and brush clearing and organization and all that other stuff. At one point, my arms were black from the fire, and all I did was rinse off a little bit in the creek when I got to the shindig at the deck, so I was filthy and worried again a bit more about the poison ivy And poison other stuff, so I dug out my bar of biodegradable eco-friendly soap and took a real bath in the creek instead of just a rinse off. 🫧🧼
With my concerns about having plant oils all over my various clothes and vehicles and bedding, I washed the mattress cover that goes around one of my foam mattresses. Today was the day I put it back on, and boy was that a bit of a challenge. 🙃
I think there must be a little bit of a dyslexic bone left in my body, because sometimes orienting, especially lately it seems, is giving me a bit of grief.
It took me quite a while to come up with a functional way of getting that mattress cover back on the foam mattress.
But I got it, eventually, and somehow I ended up with a fitted sheet that I didn’t even know I had that I was able to put over the top of it it which will help prevent future need before washing the actual mattress cover.
It was quite a pleasant night in the van, temperature wise.
It’s more food. Ate some Tums because I had way too much stuff that wasn’t good for my heartburn issues. 😅
Did some nightly planning for stuff to do tomorrow, wasted a bunch of time on YouTube and online and what not, and then bed.
- I’m grateful to have been able to relax a bit these last few days. I could do that anyway, but it’s so hard for me to stop working when there’s so much to do. But it’s been a good reprieve with all the family stuff going on.
- I’m grateful for the progress I made at my Greenhouse staging area. I didn’t really make much progress for myself and my own situation, but I did make some nice progress on making it look better down there and having it be a lot more usable.
- I’m grateful Dad I have this wonderful Haven Hill Wright clan family. 😊
- I’m grateful to have multiple vehicles to do different things with.
- I’m grateful to have been able to get out of my shell a little bit more. It feels good to be getting back to being me a little bit. 🥳 Cross our fingers and hope it can continue. 🙂
- I’m grateful for the increased hope that comes with what’s been going on the last few days. 🥳
- Love and hugs.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 