Do you ever stop and look at your current self and choices and wonder how you managed to get here…now? Or perhaps I am just weird, since I seem to do that on a pretty regular basis.
In the past week or so, I have noticed that I am more efficient, that I am clearing old projects that have been sitting uncompleted, and that I am calmer (less angry and anxious).
I have posted over the past several months about using background smooth jazz and blues in my home. Since some of those sessions are labelled as Relax & Heal…or similar words, I wonder if they are partly responsible for the calming effect. That thought occurred to me last week when my TV (source of the YouTube music) suddenly died. For a couple of days, I was without the music and experienced a strong feeling of loss. This really surprised me, particularly since I had only incorporated the music into my home’s background sound over the past couple of months.
Anyway, I sorted and collected items to be donated to a local church’s yard sale. That led to a decision to go through a stack of 5 boxes that had lived for months in my dining room. (Before that those boxes existed in my computer room since forever, or so it felt like.) Image my surprise to learn that only two boxes held electronics that I needed to sort for a recycling donation. One box held CDs, which I had thought I no longer had, and two boxes were other things: papers and collected brochures were in one and the other had office supplies like pens. Neither of those boxes were full.
The CDs were some Indian flutes and drums that I particularly liked, but I no longer had a CD player. That led to replacing an old boombox with a new one about half the size, which had a radio and CD player combined.
Anyway, I just have to sort that last electronics box to identify the items in it, match them to the things Green Disk will take, and ship that stuff off. Whatever is leftover will probably go to the dump’s electronics bin.
Another project that I wanted to get done this year was the raking and burning of pine straw around my yard and parking pad. I have accomplished the yard raking…and, although it was a bigger than anticipated chore, I have raked up all the accumulated straw at the side of the parking pad and edged it. Now I can see the full dimensions of the paved area.
I also had started working on my trailer. I wanted to clear the roof of piled up pine straw even under the solar panels. I have accomplished much of that, although there still may be some toward the back of the solar panels yet to clear. Also, I want to wash the top with the hose since some of those leaves and straw were in process of becoming dirt. Perhaps next week, I will finish that part of my project as well as getting the exterior washed.
In the process, though, I found that an old antenna on the roof had broken sealant. It became clear that I would need to clean the old away and replace it before heavy rains. With help of a Home Depot worker, I was able to identify the correct way to handle that and felt fully accomplished with the job that I did. I did note that the antenna is broken on its tip. At some point that might need replacing.
Those are some of the major ways that I have noticed a change in me. There are smaller ones to be sure…like talking about making a blueberry crumble with last year’s frozen blueberries. Finally did it yesterday. The sticking point was buying a lemon just for zest…a teaspoon, at that! But, I did give in and was surprised at the zest flavor. Such a small amount for the 9×13 pan and yet such flavor!
Followup:
Storm Isiais came through and the antenna repair seems to have held. I will climb up on the ladder tomorrow to be sure, but no new water was found in the trailer…although there was evidence of past water marks under a folded plastic tablecloth on the counter. I cleaned that up and wiped the counter down. I still have the outside to wash and the top under the solar panels to hose down.
