(written on the 14th from notes taken yesterday)
Up later today again. I haven’t gotten up early enough to see Heather off in… a while. 🥺
Nor have I been doing any physical therapy 😬 (which maybe I’m remembering a little more right now because my spine was definitely angry with me today from everything I did to it yesterday 😅).
Cory, gratefully, keeps reminding me about my physical therapy, noticing that I haven’t posted about having done any, and even with his reminders, I keep… not doing it. 😬
[Wow, I just, for whatever reason, had sort of a cross between a flashback to New Zealand and a longing to return. 🥺]
🐿️
[sigh]
I think it was actually this morning that I noticed a friend of mine had posted on her blog again, so I read her latest post. I think that’s two posts in the last two weeks after a multi-year hiatus.
It’s crazy: She’s had two more kids since the last time we actually spoke. Good golly how time flies.
I miss being able to talk with her.
Unfortunately, we’re too close and our bond too strong to maintain a connected friendship without it causing problems, because… well… she’s married. 😅
Most of the time I have no idea what’s going on in her life, as (like with this last time) years might go by, so new posts are both priceless and challenging.
They’re priceless, because I care about her and want to know what life has been and is like–lowlights, highlights, what she’s feeling, what she’s thinking, her challenges and struggles, her hopes and dreams.
[And if said friend is reading this… the above isn’t code for anything. I support you in doing whatever you feel is best–always–regardless of how that might or might not affect me. 😊]
And challenging because… well… lots of reasons. 🙃
Nice to be able to read and catch up a little.
…
Anyway… once again, I had plans to work on my book a bit today, but I ended up spending a good chunk of the day answering questions for JustAnswer. With the near continuous shrinking of my bank accounts, it’s nice to make a few dollars back, even if I made only a little more than enough today to cover my mechanic data membership costs. 😅
I was grateful that there were actually questions that were reasonable to answer today. 🙏
When I wasn’t answering questions online, I was working on my journal catch-up efforts, having fallen behind yet again. 😅
I think often times what happens is I don’t write for a while, and then I burn out in my catch-up efforts, and I take a “day off,” and that day turns into a week, and then I’m right back where I started. 😅
Oh well. I’m trying.
I didn’t really leave the trailer all day today. I just worked, journaled, and veged.
I continued answering questions online even after Hans got home before finally stopping and heading outside after dark to try to make some progress on the home front.
I got out the laser level and started mapping out the front yard grade, pounding steaks into the ground, measuring the current slopes, and marking where the actual slopes needed to be for proper drainage.
It’s a lot nicer to be measuring slopes after the sun’s gone down and it’s not 100°ish outside anymore with the sun beating down on you. 🙃
It’s also kind of fun to see the bright green laser overlaid on the house, dirt, ground, plants, etc. It looks pretty cool in the dark. 😁
Sadly, I didn’t think to take a picture. Oh well.
I spent a good little while doing that happily finding that multiple of the areas that I had carved down were pretty close to exactly the level they needed to be without having meant to get it so close. 🙏
After doing a bunch of measuring, I nommed the horses and headed to Rover for the night to continue journaling and veging before calling it a night.
Heather worked a super long day, and hadn’t even come home by the time I finally shut everything down, probably around midnight? 😶
Loooooooong day.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 