What's Good In Life

Enough of the negativity already--I'm wallowing in it. Let's focus instead on what is good in life:

• The uber housesitter left Eddy's Slow Churned Peanut Butter Chunk ice-cream in the freezer.
• She also left lager in the fridge. (That's a good housesitter.)
• If you'll recall from this entry, we'd lost the general contractor for our cabin. However, Blair found a brilliant man with loads of experience who came recommended by the Stokes County inspection center. He met with him and feels really good about working with him. Bonus: His name is Dallas. Important, I think, for a contractor to have a rugged name...
• While I lost some valuable data in the computer crash, it could have been much worse. Since I'm not doing a whole lot of freelancing these days, there wasn't as much to lose. Recovering what I lost will be uncomfortable and involve some mourning (like for the half-finished article I wrote that's now gone), but it's nothing I can't bounce back from with relative ease.
• The cats appear ecstatic to see us. They sit still to be combed and purr and wind around our ankles. The first night we were back, I woke up at 2 am to find a tabby had curled herself against my chest and under my chin and was pressed up against me as tightly as could be.
• It's awesome to be home. There's just something about being surrounded by your stuff that makes you feel good.
• I picked up the car today with it's "new" engine with 12,000 miles on it. Long live the Camry!
• There is a red cardinal on the tree outside the window as I type this, staring in at me.

So you see, life is not all angst. I tend towards the morbid and dramatic at times (shocking, yes?) but all in all, life is good.

The End of the World...

That's what it feels like, anyway, when your computer dies. We returned from the beach yesterday to find our desktop computer glaring the message NT LDR NOT FOUND.  That means the entire loading system for the computer can't be found, so it can't even be booted.  After spending 7 hours on the road to get us home, Blair popped back in the car with the computer for the 45 minute drive to Best Buy's Geek Squad, to see what could be done.

It doesn't look promising. For $100, they will try to recover the data and for an extra $100 they'll try in 48 hours. Bet your a-- I ponied up the extra money for the fast turnaround. Good or bad, I need to know what I'm dealing with.

 This is most inconvenient as I have 3 assignments I told myself I'd work on "when I got home from the beach." Well, guess who can't access her work? The last save we did was on May 17th. (That wretching, sobbing sound you hear is me, trying not to barf.)

I've got my laptop, which is something. It doesn't have Outlook on it and all my e-mails, which is a big thing. Remote e-mail access is not my friend but I will try sucking up to it and see if we can get along for a few days.

The funny thing is, we stopped in the Apple store in Raleigh on our way home yesterday to look at Mac Books. Even before this incident, I had had it with PC's and their constant locking and rebooting. The plan was to save for a couple of Mac Books and ditch our desktop and current laptop.  With the new/used car going boom last month (we decided to install a used engine with 20,000 miles - about $2800) and the computers dying this month, the Harris' are going to be eating PB&J for awhile.

And I am going back to work.  Freelance work. I've spent the first half of this year doing some experimental writing and I've greatly enjoyed my time and am sad to see it go bye-bye, but it's time to bring in some money.

God only knows what will blow up next around here...

Weekend Work

It's Sunday afternoon, a little before 3 pm, and I sit at my desk, contemplating the same question I address almost every weekend: To work, or not to work?

On one hand, there's no reason not to. I only need a couple of hours to get on top of a project and it's not like I'm sitting around splitting the atom. Blair and I went for a run this morning, then cleaned house, read the paper, I took a 30 minute nap, and then plopped down on the couch to catch the last twenty minutes of Shakespeare in Love.  Blair is working upstairs and there's nothing preventing me from doing a bit of work and so starting the work week a step ahead.

On the other hand, I don't feel like working. And am not sure I should. It's the weekend. If I have spare time I should read or take a walk or comb the cats or, if I so choose, watch marathon back-to-back episodes of Neat Freak on Fit TV.  Even though putting in a couple of hours of work today would put me ahead for tomorrow, so what? Tomorrow isn't so cramped that--with a bit of focus and planning--I still can't fit everything in. Life-balance, right?  Monday-Fridays are for work and weekends are for relaxing, not racing to stay ahead.

Or is it all poppycock?

Okay, I'm a bit lazy. And the ironic part is that I know--absolutely know--that during the week I'll set something aside thinking, "I'll work on that this weekend when I have some uninterrupted time."

Which brings me back to my opening question: To work, or not to work?

I can't decide. What do you all think?

Daily Must Do's

I am a list maker. Whether it's for the grocery store, chores, or work-related items to tackle for the day, I make a list to make sure nothing is forgotten or overlooked or--gasp!--not attended to.

Along with this, there are certain daily habits I aim to cultivate. Things or actions that are important to me and that I want to make sure get done every single day on top of whatever might be on the list of the moment. The problem is, there are only so many hours in the day, I appear to have a limited amount of willpower upon which to call, and the list keeps growing.

For example, my current list of "daily must do's" reads as follows:

• Meditate
• Morning pages - handwrite 3 pages about anything first thing in the morning.
• 8 Minute Workout - This is weight training from George Cruz's book by the same title. I'm trying to get myself into the habit of working with weights now, so that when my running schedule picks up again, the habit is fully formed.
• Write 1,000 new words EACH & EVERY DAY on a new YA novel I'm working on.  The "each and every day" part must be stressed or else I'll do the "I'll write my 1,000 words tomorrow" trick and suddenly it's Friday and I owe myself 7,000 words!
• Stretch. Especially that right hamstring which still appears to be tightening instead of loosening.
• Drink 8 glasses of water (or thereabouts).
• Play with cats.

The almost daily activities include:

• Run - 5x/week
• Yoga - Would prefer 3x/week, but I've been doing two.
• Cook - 4x/week

There is more I'd like to add to the weekly list, such as a certain amount of time to spent outdoors, reading, focusing on marketing work, straightening the house, connecting with family/friends, etc.

When I look at my main list, it doesn't look bad at all. It's only 2-3 hours, depending on how long the 1,000 words take. So it just shouldn't be that hard to fit in. But somehow when I add in e-mail and work and runs and showering and phone calls and errands... things get set to the side.

I'm not really complaining. I love my life and the freedom that comes with it. That's probably part of my problem. I know I have "all day" to get stuff done and time just slips away. Plus, there is the teeniest-tiniest chance that I may be too regimented in my approach to life. (But just a tiny chance...)

What about you all? Any "must do's" on your daily list?