I would say things have been a little tumultuous emotionally lately.
But in terms of life situation, everything is great, wonderful even. It's awesome being in the new house. It's so nice having time to work on the things that seem important to me. I'm surrounded by loving friends and family, and beautiful nature (though the chiggers are vicious.) I'm making real progress on a lot of important projects, among them organizing the house and my office, and organizing my brain and how I work. I'm about to start on the counseling/therapy program that I'm looking forward to.
It's important to recognize, that life can externally be great, but if you're not doing well internally, it only makes a small difference. I think people forget that and fail to work on their internal state, undervaluing the skill of happiness, gratitude, focus, being the master of your mind (rather than the servant or slave.)
Not saying I've arrived or anything, but I consciously spend time working on that goal and it pays big dividends.
In any case, even emotionally, things are still good. But with hiccups. Perhaps you'd like to know more but I think it's a bit too personal for a blog, especially when others are involved. I may be ok divulging myself but other people have a right to their privacy.
Moving on, I'm feeling the approach of the masters program. August 23rd it starts with my orientation and classes start the week of August 28th. That is now less than a month away! And half of that time will be traveling. I am working hard to make sure my ducks are lined up in the various areas of my life before that time comes. I'm taking three classes this semester, which is the max they allow, and they say it can be up to 10 hours per class, including coursework. 30 hours per week is half-way between full-time and part-time work, so it's going to be significant. But now is my best chance to grind it out, while I have so few other obligations. Once kids come along that will probably not be as feasible.
Here's a list for you, because lists are fun.
House repairs:
-replace half-broken toilet seats
-replace broken A/C unit
-replace broken gutters
-fix kitchen pipe freezing problem (before winter comes)
-fix broken picture window frame
-put in fence so deer don't eat everything to nubs
-fix fireplace so it works (add energy efficient insert?)
There's probably more, but that's just off the top of my head. I'm not sure I'd call the house a fixer-upper, as it was move-in ready, but there sure were a lot of maintenance stuff that got deferred, along with some weird design decisions. The backyard patio is surrounded by not one but two a/c units, making it hard to talk when they're on, and there are three separate HVAC systems in the house. On the plus side, the redundancy is nice if one of them breaks. On the minus side, more things to break, and replace, and maintain, more A/C units outside, and more furnaces inside. I suspect it's not energy efficient either.
Is anyone else noticing that it's hard to get handyman/construction help these days? Even the people that other people recommend against are booked out, and many of the good people won't even pick up their phones. Maybe this is a small town problem? Thankfully Suzannah is a charming people person with deep connections from living here basically her whole life, so often she knows people personally who can help, and who are willing to because they know her.
OK, that's all for now. Let's see how much I can get done! 💪
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