Journaling

I finally have some framework for what I think I want to accomplish before I leave. Good, since it is the 3rd day of the 3 day weekend. So, I start laundry and then put on shoes and go out to start bringing in the pieces of the second shelving unit. It's too heavy to bring in without unpacking it and just carrying the pieces in. On the second of what will take a dozen trips the nice overcast morning turned into a hard rain storm. So, I'm back on the computer.

I'm feeling somewhat bored with the journals I currently read, and bored with my own. So, I started going to some of the ones listed on Madcap Mum's journal sidebar. I went to 3, and all of them have not posted since the end of the year. That is 5 or 6 months. A couple of them even admitted defeat. One, a fourth, was pulled and not even available anymore. Is this journaling harder than it looks, as I've found? Or a phase that the internet and society have gone through that is waning? Did the people not find what they thought an on-line journal would provide, fill a need they thought they had, provide a solution to some set of problems that continued even after dutifully journaling?

I am seeing it in some of the hikers on the AT, too. The start of the hike begins with hope and promise and the newness, a chance to reinvent who and what they are. Then, after awhile it is just getting up every morning to eat a boring breakfast, find water, and walk. Always to walk. So, the talk stops being about what is seen on the trail, the people and places. It becomes the miles walked that day, and how many more to go, and when they might finish. Not across the board with every hiker. Some leave the trail because of injury, some family pressures, some boredom.

So, I'm feeling the restless boredom also. Things are going well. I'm in the middle with no new issues for now. This should be good. However, I'm feeling weighted down by the familiar. The shifting and sorting through the things that have been piled on corners brings up uneasy emotions. To get rid of? It seems like I'm turning my back on my past, but is that all bad? To keep? That seems stagnant, heavy.

The rain is slowing. I need to get up and get moving. My thoughts today seem as dark and gloomy as the weather.

Day 2

Yesterday I put together one of the shelving units. Understand, I've drooled over these things for years at Sam's. At $80 a set they were way out of my league. But they just look so SUBSTANTIAL and they have wheels on them! Obviously if I just had some of these my life would magically organize itself! Reality: they are a bitch to put together. The materials are solid and heavy, no problems with that. The method of attaching the shelves to the legs is awful. Cheap plastic sleeves that the shelf slides over and holds via friction. The idea is ok, the execution is where the issue is. The sleeves are 2 halves, and they didn't snap closed over the leg. So, when I lowered the (heavy!) shelf onto them, most of the time they popped off at least one of the 4 corners. I persevered and I have one unit built and loaded with my computer geegaws that have been packed in a corner of the living room.

Today I want to get out to the shed and clean it out and move a lot of the stuff in the living room pile out there. The first idea was to use the second set out there. Now I'm thinking I'll use it for the stuff remaining inside. Guess I make that decision as I get into the process.

Shiloh called last night. He's about 160 or so miles from half-way on the AT. He talks more about when he will finish than about the trail now. I'm taking notes that somewhere around Pearisburg, VA the experience of the trail seems to change. I think it's called the Virginia Blues.

I may update on my progress later this evening. Knowing I need to report here may keep me more on track today. Maybe.

Ok, Ok

I've been bad again about not updating this journal. I got home fine, and have had no re-occurrence of the chest pains. That was what was so weird about the pains, I've never had anything like that before, and haven't had any since (knocking on wood).

Since I've been home I went out and spent my 'tax rebate' and my expense check from the trip on new appliances for the house. I was tired of living with a hot plate to cook, and a dorm size fridge for the 2 of us. Sooo, Lowes got the majority of the money. I have nice, new kitchen appliances. A friend of Mom's was selling her new(ish) washer and dryer for cheap enough, so I bought them to replace my (still working sorta) set. I'm giving my old ones to a co-worker for her daughter who just got her own place and has a kid.

I bought some large, rolling shelving units last night at Sam's on the way home. I'm planning to have one in the house to organize all the crap... err, stuff I have piled in a corner in the living room, and one in one of the outdoor barns so I can move a bunch of the rest of the crap... err, cool stuff that doesn't need to be in the house at this point. That is the goal for this 3 day weekend.

I leave again a week from Monday, gone for 3 weeks, back for 2 weeks, and gone for 3 weeks yet again. I really want to leave a house that is clean and organized. Hope I make it. Oh, and I've paid off over $5K in credit card debt since the first of the year. Another year and a half, if I can keep the rest of my expenses low, and I should have it knocked out. However, if I have to get a new car, or many of the home improvements needed... I just keep paying as much as I can while backfilling on the stuff that I let go for so long from not having any money.