What a wonderful story!
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And submitted. That’s manuscript 7 for the year.
I need to find some way of turning off my brain better, though. Haven’t been sleeping well.
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Sever my synapses, that’s impressive.
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I have grant release right now, so I have more time than usual to spend on research.
This is the first real semester I’ve felt in control of my shit since the kids were born, though. I’m proud of that.
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Well, the property taxes for 2017 are paid, and so are my last month’s (two months’, in some cases) utility bills.
And the lady who called me lazy wanted to know why I unfriended her - oh Caucasian, pleez!
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Our house is 115 years old, at least the main part is, the bathroom and kitchen were added in the 1950s, when they got indoor plumbing.
The office is the oldest part of the house, and it is obviously hand made. Like the joists were hand sawed from local trees. It’s great, but also 100 year old wood gets tired in damp places. We’ve had a sagging spot in the office (where I spend like half my life) where the joists were bad. It turns out one of them was completely broken!
Today, the workmen finished shoring it up. I can jump up and down, and it’s solid. Woo Hoo! It wasn’t cheap, but it was a lot less than I expected (I figured on 5 grand +)!
With a house this old, the work never stops, because if you stop, it rots into the ground. I’m watching the old barn out back decay into scrap. It’s not ours, we only bought a small part of what was once a huge farm and orchard, and the barn goes with the acreage where they grow soy and hay.
It feels weird to be celebratory over spending money, but making this house last my whole life is WORTH IT! I might have another 35 or 40 years if my ancestors are anything to go by.
Next up, the kitchen. I’ve been saving for it for 10 years, and I hope that 2020 is the year I spend it on getting myself into a proper kitchen. The workman who did the work under the house is a jack of all trades, and I think I’ll be hiring him to help with that also. He’s kind of a weird guy, but I’d probably be described as weird also, and his work is solid. I can even jump up and down on it!
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Wonderful news, truly!
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I tied for third at my very first pinball tournament. Even more exciting, I got the 4th highest score on Wrestlemania. I just started playing that game and it’s so much fun.
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43 million⁉️
How long did that take?
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Not that long. There’s a serious point inflation on some games. I think my score on Star Trek is in the billions. Highest scorers are in the trillions on that game.
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I hear you can carry them around in a wheelbarrow.
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Respect.
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Sadly someone claimed my 4th place title and I didn’t even get to see my name in lights again yesterday when I went. I have to get back on the board. Fame is fleeting.
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(In Rod Serling voice)
If you reach first position in this game, you will meet yourself as a child and permanently injure your leg. Then you will realize that everyone else in the bar is actually a mannequin, and you are living in a terrarium on a planet as-yet unnamed. So, have fun.
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Lol. If you tilt this machine Rod (or rather, an impersonator of him) says, “Dance with the devil at your own risk.”
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I need to celebrate a little victory in my move toward small business financial success. My business is really still in that taking off stage where it could go totally south but so far it’s hobbling along. Up until December I was getting unemployment checks, which helped out a ton. But now I’m really doing it for myself.
This week I started out with checks bouncing like crazy and I had this one dormant checking account I keep trying to close and then some random payment will hit it and the fees start piling up, and I can’t close it until it gets to zero, so I was easily owing $300 in fees alone between that account and another account that was having autopays draft against it. I felt quite desperate about whether I’d make it through this week.
I am super proud that I actually took in enough cash to dig myself out of the hole, to close the account that was problematic, am all set to close a second problem account, took all those autopay bills off autopay so I don’t have more bouncing checks, and … well, I made it! I made a ton of sales. I paid off all the pressing bills I owe.
It made me feel so competent to make it through this, that I do know how to find my customer and make a sale. It feels more and more like my business is really going to be able to support me and that I won’t have to take on some awful consulting work to get through.
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That’s terrific! 
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Thank you!
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Passed my mid-tenure review. Drank a beer in the shower.
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