Carving their initials into my display unit.

Was tidying up around the fireplace and noticed something odd with a lone flat, laid out tissue (unused), so I picked it up, and what did I find you ask? I’ll tell you. The letter “H” carved into the top surface of our new display unit. In black ball point pen. Sunken into the wood grain. And some other random drawings, equally pushed into the wood surface. I was not impressed with the youngest. Not in the least. She gouged it in there good and deep. I am impressed with myself for not losing my shit. Not much I can do about it, without having to sand the whole top surface. Restain it all, and then add all new clear coat to it too. It is too cold for much of that to be done in my garage. And far too smelly to do inside the house. It off gases for so long. I left it outside for a few days after each step when I built it in September, and it still smelled strongly once it came inside for set up.

The youngest’s handiwork. Pitted and gouged up real good. Thanks random ball point pen.

Why it wasn’t done in pencil, I’ll never know. Oh well. That’s a 2023 downtime problem to solve. Or a spring cleaning effort come April.

Otherwise it is now Wednesday December 7th, 2022 and I don’t have much else to say today. I mean, I do, but it’s not kind. And doesn’t involve my marred table. So happy hump day. Oh, also we are now well inside the last ten days before I reach my 365 days of writing goal. I am very excited to finally see that big number, and know that i somehow managed to stick with it, even with the storms, illness, vacations, and hectic school/work schedules we all have. I wish i could say the same thing about my exercise plan, but that was always second fiddle to the writing. It is still important, now that i am getting into my near mid forties. Staying in some kind of shape besides round, or pear are of a higher importance to longevity, and general satisfaction when looking in the mirror. So perhaps i will shuffle my priorities in 2023, and put exercise first and writing second? I doubt it, but it’s a fun mental exercise to play around with. What would that look like. How do i monitor success? Do i have to go “buy” an app or Fitbit or membership somewhere? If so, count me out. 2023 should be a year of cheapness. Saving since you never know if things are going to tank hard, and leave you wishing you’d put more away for a bad year.

2022 may wind up being one of my better years for the business. No where as good as when i worked full time in house for another company. But good for me still. It can get real easy to fall into the trap of living up to your new found wages. If they slip, fall shy, or disappear you are pooped. So best to find your line, and live there through good years and hard. Keep it as simple as you are able without being a deprivation weirdo. You know the type. All boisterous about going without, but then secretly binge behind closed doors instead of using sensible moderation. But I digress. Take care out there folks. Ciao Bella!

The Black Pepper Society.

Have you ever felt like you used up one of your best ideas too early, for something or someone you later felt didn’t warrant such an epic idea? And as a result feel as though the idea you used didn’t get to reach its potential, and was otherwise stifled? Yeah – I feel that way an awful lot, and it’s most likely not really what’s going on. An idea in your noggin’ is one thing, the execution of said idea to bring it to life in the real world is another. If you don’t execute it with any kind of precision or skill it will feel wasted. But you have to know where that failure lies. Most likely it is with yourself. Rushing to meet a deadline, or procrastination about starting because you later realize the scope of the idea at 100% is well beyond you. That’s your fault. Gotta figure that kind of stuff out with pen & paper before you end up cutting corners, or justifying major changes to suit your available time & skill.

I don’t want to say that I’ve Dunning Kroeger’ed myself in the past, but I surely have. Thinking I’m better than how I actually accomplished a story arc, or character driven story vehicle. Frustrating. Although sometimes I’m in such a rush (read that as panic) to create content to accomplish my writing every day challenge I’ll write whatever is in my head that second, only to realize afterwards, I should have held that thought back to explore it in greater depth. But two or more posts back to back on the same thing seems… lack luster.

But then the Fair comes to town and I write about that four plus days in a row, so maybe I’m just over thinking things again. This isn’t a nationally syndicated column with gravitas and cultural weight attached to it. I’m just some schmoe who tried to write anything he could once a day, for a whole 365 days. That hardly makes me the pinnacle of anything, so the feelings of wasted ideas are silly. Foolish even. Get a god damn grip my boy!

So that is how I woke up feeling at 6:54 am today. Also, had an upset stomach, so that is what really woke me up, and as I laid back down in my toasty bed, I thought about what I wrote late last night, and how I should have saved that post for today. Not to get out of needing to write even more today, but so i could go over it, and expand on points i now feel i should talk about in more depth. But does it need it? Most likely no. It was just a feeling i had. Humans are weird.

I wonder if we’ve secretly had Covid in the last three years, because i feel, ever so slightly, around the edges that I’m getting dumber. Or something akin to that effect. I can’t quite pin point it, but there’s some obscured thing there. Like the boundaries of what i used to know a lot about are fuzzy now, like has my knowledge turned from things i know, into things i ‘think’ that I know? My memory of some things has gotten fuzzy, in the softest sense. Very strange. Forgetful. Losing a word in the middle of a sentence. Or no clue why I came into a room. Misremembered events from a book or movie. It’s not major, but it’s a softly misting haze at the outer edges. Weird. Could it be that I am merely experiencing the regular effects of aging like every body else? Or is it more. Don’t know.

And on that bomb shell shall we say ciao bella!