Entry tags:
Today was weird, the next two weeks are going to be busy.
I'm sitting here kind of in a state of shock. For today has messed with my sadly broken brain. First, after my morning shift, which went normally, I went to the station to drop off my time card and pick up my pay stub. I was also there to attend the Crossing Guard holiday party. Except that was yesterday. I put the wrong date in Google calendar. D'oh!
That got shrugged off, and I returned home for my usual inter-shift activities. Food, caffeine, poking the Internet. I was getting ready to go when I found myself in mortal combat with one of my uniform shirt's cuff buttons. I want to find the moron who decided that men's sleeves had to be tight at the wrist. Eventually, I won and cursed ever red light as I drove to my post, arriving two minutes late, at 1347hrs.
Get my chair set up, and start walking about a bit to stretch my legs. That's when one of the parents came up and informed me that school was released at 1322hrs. No one told me that today was going to be a minimum day! I called my boss' voicemail to explain what was going on, then about ten minutes later, after a second person told me the school was empty, I packed up and drove to the school myself. The post I had was in a place where I had no line of sight to the school. Sure enough, empty. Even the staff parking lot was deserted. Called in again, said I was heading home, and to lop 90 minutes of my time card.
So now I have 17 days stretching before me before school resumes. It's time to make some changes. First of all, I am establishing a gym schedule and sticking to it! No more excuses! The Drill Sergeants living in my head will see to that! Next, I'm reactivating my account at 750words.com. If I'm serious about writing, that means writing. Every day. Some of it will be utter crap, but it will happen.
I'm going to work with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kshandra to create a household budget spreadsheet. I really want to be able to see our income and expenditures, including cash on hand and what's in various accounts. I really think that if we use a tool like this, it will help us control our spending. I'm sure there are a dozen templates for LibreOffice and Google Sheets that we can use. The key will be keeping it up and paying attention to the trends. I think doing this will enable us to identify places where we can save. After all, our 30th anniversary is looming in 2021. I'd like to be able to attend the DC Worldcon with days on either side to see all the cool things in Washington.
But in the short term, I am going to be decluttering and cleaning. I would be ashamed for any of you so see the place right now. I am going to be without mercy as I deal with having Too Much Stuff in an apartment with no storage. Goodwill is going to love me. Or hate me, as the case may be. But I want to be able to walk around my home without tripping on crap.
The rule is simple. Everything needs a place to be stored. If it doesn't have a place, I'm tossing it. We still have junk that has followed for three moves and is never used or displayed. I also want to do a little furniture juggling to make our space a little more efficient. Right now, we can't open the door all the way. We also have a God-awful pile of shopping bags. I'd like to replace those with four or five good sturdy canvas bags.
This isn't just winter fidgets, although that is part of it. This is another expression of my ongoing stroke recovery. I finally have the focus and energy to deal with some things that I could not handle before. I'll still be pacing myself and using all the coping techniques I learned from Dr. Dahl when things start to overwhelm me. I'm much better at recognizing when I'm getting frustrated and angry, and how to refocus and find a calm center. It's amazing how well mental health care works when you listen to your doctor and practice what he teaches.
Which means that there will be days where playing Civilization VI or binging Netflix while eating way too much Ghost Pepper cheese sauce will be the order of the day! I'm on vacation too!
That got shrugged off, and I returned home for my usual inter-shift activities. Food, caffeine, poking the Internet. I was getting ready to go when I found myself in mortal combat with one of my uniform shirt's cuff buttons. I want to find the moron who decided that men's sleeves had to be tight at the wrist. Eventually, I won and cursed ever red light as I drove to my post, arriving two minutes late, at 1347hrs.
Get my chair set up, and start walking about a bit to stretch my legs. That's when one of the parents came up and informed me that school was released at 1322hrs. No one told me that today was going to be a minimum day! I called my boss' voicemail to explain what was going on, then about ten minutes later, after a second person told me the school was empty, I packed up and drove to the school myself. The post I had was in a place where I had no line of sight to the school. Sure enough, empty. Even the staff parking lot was deserted. Called in again, said I was heading home, and to lop 90 minutes of my time card.
So now I have 17 days stretching before me before school resumes. It's time to make some changes. First of all, I am establishing a gym schedule and sticking to it! No more excuses! The Drill Sergeants living in my head will see to that! Next, I'm reactivating my account at 750words.com. If I'm serious about writing, that means writing. Every day. Some of it will be utter crap, but it will happen.
I'm going to work with
kshandra to create a household budget spreadsheet. I really want to be able to see our income and expenditures, including cash on hand and what's in various accounts. I really think that if we use a tool like this, it will help us control our spending. I'm sure there are a dozen templates for LibreOffice and Google Sheets that we can use. The key will be keeping it up and paying attention to the trends. I think doing this will enable us to identify places where we can save. After all, our 30th anniversary is looming in 2021. I'd like to be able to attend the DC Worldcon with days on either side to see all the cool things in Washington.But in the short term, I am going to be decluttering and cleaning. I would be ashamed for any of you so see the place right now. I am going to be without mercy as I deal with having Too Much Stuff in an apartment with no storage. Goodwill is going to love me. Or hate me, as the case may be. But I want to be able to walk around my home without tripping on crap.
The rule is simple. Everything needs a place to be stored. If it doesn't have a place, I'm tossing it. We still have junk that has followed for three moves and is never used or displayed. I also want to do a little furniture juggling to make our space a little more efficient. Right now, we can't open the door all the way. We also have a God-awful pile of shopping bags. I'd like to replace those with four or five good sturdy canvas bags.
This isn't just winter fidgets, although that is part of it. This is another expression of my ongoing stroke recovery. I finally have the focus and energy to deal with some things that I could not handle before. I'll still be pacing myself and using all the coping techniques I learned from Dr. Dahl when things start to overwhelm me. I'm much better at recognizing when I'm getting frustrated and angry, and how to refocus and find a calm center. It's amazing how well mental health care works when you listen to your doctor and practice what he teaches.
Which means that there will be days where playing Civilization VI or binging Netflix while eating way too much Ghost Pepper cheese sauce will be the order of the day! I'm on vacation too!