Catching up (and other random musings): Part 2

You'd never know it, but I had intended to send this post out into the world about a week after the last one. Obviously that didn't happen. Apparently, I blinked and missed February. Even with an extra day this year the month seems to have come and gone before I could even register that it was here. I guess it's a good thing that I didn't have any hot plans for the month then, otherwise I might've been disappointed.

Originally, this post was probably gonna be about as long, if not longer, than the first one. But, for reasons that I'll get to in a second, it'll most likely now be more of an abbreviated version of what had been planned (lucky you!). I might've even skipped it altogether had I not already said that I'd be doing a second part, but I did, so here we are...

• I don't want to spend too much time on it, especially since I just touched on it in the last post on my card blog, but I did start off part 1 with some health talk so I might as well provide an update on that. The good news is that my suspected occipital neuralgia seems to have gone away. Unfortunately I'm still having trouble with my equilibrium. I don't know if the neuralgia triggered something else, or if this is just something that decided to get going about the same time as the neuralgia. And before anyone says anything, yes, I'll be going to see a doctor. This issue is really effecting how much time I can spend on the computer, as the act of typing seems to be causing the most problems as far as the vertigo is concerned; which I'm assuming has something to do with my eyes trying to follow the rapid movement of my fingers. At the moment, I can do about an hour's worth of typing in the morning -- which does cause problems, but nothing I can't deal with -- and maybe thirty more minutes at night. This has made it difficult to get very many posts out, and/or keep up with the posts from my blogging friends. And on top of that, a few of my normal issues have decided to act up all at the same time, which is a bit unusual, and that's made things a bit more difficult as of late too. But, as I just said in an email the other day, a lot of people out there are much worse off, so with that in mind I try not to complain too much. I'm sure that all of this will pass, I just need to continue to weather the storm in the meantime.

• A couple of days ago I opened up the patio curtain around dawn just in time to see a coyote cutting across the backyard, which isn't an unusual site, but it did remind me of a mildly funny encounter that occurred last summer. Most summer nights I go out and walk around the house sometime around an hour or so before it gets dark. Sometimes I have a reason to, like if something needs to be picked up and put away for the night, or in last summer's case it was often to just go out and talk to pair of friendly bucks (and by friendly I mean, didn't wig out when they saw/heard me) that were out there most nights, but sometimes too it's just to go out and get a few more minutes of fresh air. Anyway, on one particular night I was going to lock up the shed and about halfway there I turned my head to the right only to see a coyote approaching on a course that was sort of parallel to mine, sort of like we were working are way up both sides of an inverted "V". The funny thing though was that the coyote had been looking away from me, and didn't see me until the exact same time that I saw it. We both stopped when we saw each other. I'd say too that we were about 25 feet apart at that point, but would've been meeting at the top of our "V" pretty quickly had we both continued to be looking in the opposite directions. Right after we stopped, and my brain could process this odd encounter, I said "Where are you going?", which prompted the coyote to turn, go back about 10 feet and crouch down behind some slightly higher grass. I then said "I can still see you", the coyote then, after about five seconds, stood back up, and then turned and ran back into the woods. Aside from the unexpectedness of the brief encounter, I was most surprised by the size of this particular coyote, it was noticeably larger than the average coyotes around here. 

It's strange too, because when I first moved here, I'd hear large groups around the house almost every night. Now I only hear them maybe once every couple of weeks or so. On the flipside though, I've seen more of them, especially during the day, in the last 2-3 years than I had in the previous 6-7. I suspect I know why I've been seeing more of them, but don't have any solid proof; which leads me to my next bullet point...

• People are moving here in droves! It's been happening for the last few years now, but I've really only been noticing it since last summer. It's not good. My quiet rural setting is getting considerably less quiet, and seemingly more so on a near daily basis. You don't have to go far either to see this boom, just drive down any road, or the local highway, and you'll see multiple properties being built on. Of course too, even if you couldn't see where the homes are being built, you'd know that the population is increasing just by the amount of traffic that there now is. It's had to have increased ten-fold since I got there. Of course too, when it's just a steady stream of dump trucks, log trucks, and flatbeds carrying large earth movers of various kinds, that's a pretty big indicator as well. Supposedly Californians and New Yorkers make up the largest majority of these recent immigrants (I can't imagine why anyone would want to leave those states 😵), but former Floridians, Texans, and Virginians are amassing as well. I don't think it would bother me as much as it has been if it weren't for the already mentioned additional noise and traffic. Although, considering a lot of these people are coming from places that are all in on the global warming/reducing your carbon footprint thing, they don't seem to be practicing what they've been preaching once they get here, as it seems like the first thing these people do after buying acreage is to clear cut it and put up a big ugly house that people can see from miles around in all directions. Seriously, these houses are fucking ugly, and do not blend in with their surroundings in the least. To me, they're abominations. And I think my soul dies a little bit more every time I see a large wooded area being cleared. Of course too, this is obviously having a very negative impact on all of the animals as well, as they're being forced to move or adapt to areas that they normally wouldn't be found in. I know that none of these people care about that, but I do. It getting so bad, and apparently will not be slowing down anytime soon, that I've even been thinking of potentially moving. I moved here to get away from people, and their noise (and their craziness), and it was great for a few years, but now it's considerably less so.

I realize too that this might come off as a "only I should be allowed to move here" sort of thing, which it isn't, it's just me lamenting about all the wrong kind of people ruining my little slice of solitude.

• I've decided somewhat recently that I'd like to learn how to play the banjo. I couldn't tell you why exactly other than that I just like the way they sound. And supposedly, the banjo is easier to learn than the guitar. So, if I ever wanted to take up guitar afterwards, I'd already have a bit of a head start. I've also kind of been jonesing to try my hand at the violin. That would require considerably more practice, and the given the cost of even a slightly decent violin, I'm not sure how doable this particular interest will be to try. I do feel like I should give both of them a go though. And with the violin I wouldn't even care if I never got very good (ala Jack Benny the character, not the real person, who was quite accomplished) just the act of playing it would probably be enough. One of my great regrets is not taking up piano as a kid. I suspect that I might've been pretty good at it, but am not sure that I would've been able to stick with it, especially if it meant giving any playing time outdoors with friends. That was pretty important to me at the time, and looking back, the memories are even more so now.

• Here's a not-so-hot-take: I hate politics. I hated them before I was of voting age, and hate them even more since. I know a lot of people say this these days, but still end up playing the game, if you will. I on the other hand have never let myself get caught up in it, this being evidenced by the fact that I've never voted in any election, local or national. I know that some people would lose their mind over reading that, blah blah civic duty and so forth, but for me it's simple, I've just never been one to buy what politicians are selling. I bring this up because, while I try to steer clear of all things "news", I do occasionally listen to an FM station (music) that does a news update at the top of each hour; which I do, unfortunately, hear from time to time. Not surprisingly, most of that since the beginning of the year, has just been sound bites from the current president, as well as all of the various hopefuls. And every time I hear one of these all I can think is "I really dislike all of these people" and "Is this really the best we have to offer?". Now, to be fair, the latter is something that I've thought since reaching voting age. It just seems mind boggling to me that we can never get any better options, and from I've observed, are options continue to worsen every four years. This isn't a new thought, I realize that, but often times people who espouse such things will also say that they're voting for so-and-so because they're the lesser of two evils. Well, I don't cotton to that way of thinking. Give me someone worth a damn, or don't give me anyone at all. I have no interest in supporting less evil, even less so when I no longer even see a "lesser evil". I'm often quite thankful that my mom didn't give much creed to politics, and that after his time in Vietnam, my dad didn't trust anything that came out of a politicians mouth, so I was able to grow up in a politic-free environment. Of course, back then politics hadn't permeated everything like they do now. I feel very sorry for today's kids. I've got plenty more to say on this, but I know that you're all gone get a shit-ton of this kind of talk by year's end, so I'll spare you any more (for now).

• My mom mentioned the other day that my oldest cousin would be turning 35 today. I haven't seen him in probably 25 years, and it just doesn't seem like he could be that old already. I still remember when he was born (there's plenty of photos of us together when he was a baby), which to me, does not seem like that could've been 35 years ago already. I don't think I'm ever gonna get comfortable with aging, and hearing things like this just makes it worse.

I had a few more things that I wanted to get to, but I think that I'll save them for another time. It's taken me a few days just to get this far, and I'm really running out of gas. I went to McKay's about a month ago, and I think I'll cover that stuff in the next post. After these last two posts, it'll be nice to get back to one that's a bit more picture oriented.

Catching up (and other random musings): Part 1

Apparently it's been over two months since I last posted on here. Time flies, and so forth...

I'm sure that everyone else feels the same too, but there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to do everything that I'd like to do. And lately, blogging, and just internetting in general, have really taken a back seat to a bunch of other things; some of which I'm planning on discussing here today.

There's much that I'd like to talk about, and zero chance of me getting to all of it in one sitting, so I think I'll try to piecemeal the post over the next few days. Hopefully no more than three. 

I expect today's offering to be stupid-long; apologies in advance.

• As I sit here to start this post on Sunday morning, I find myself coming off of the best night's sleep I've had in at least six months. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I'm awfully grateful. I got about 7 1/2 hours, and didn't wake up once. I usually have to wake up, for whatever reason, at least 5-8 times every night, which ends up yielding maybe 5 to 6 - if I'm lucky - hours of sleep. I guess it's because it's been so long, but I'm just amazed at the clarity of mind that I feel. As opposed to the fog that I'm usually operating under. My energy level seems to be quite a bit higher as well. I almost feel like I've got the strength of 10 Grinches, plus 2. Needless to say, I will not be wasting much of this inevitably brief vigor on this post, or any other computer related thing today. A few more bullet points, and then I'm gonna bounce...

• I haven't done much posting (on any of my blogs) in recent weeks, and I haven't very active in my commenting either. This is mostly because I've been dealing with a bit of an issue as of late, which, going by all of the symptoms, I've self-diagnosed as occipital neuralgia. Trying to figure out what's ailing one via the internet is often iffy at best, but in this instance, I've got every single symptom of this thing, and am fairly confident that that's what it is. And let me tell you, if I'm right, and this is what I've got, you don't ever want it. It is the shits! If it continues to persist too much longer, I think I might actually have to break down and go see a doctor, as nothing I've tried to do to relieve it as worked thus far. I've never had this before, but one of the things that supposedly brings it on for some people is colder weather. And thinking back, I suspect that that might've been what did it.

A few days of Christmas, which is right around the time that the cold weather showed up, I spent a couple of hours working outside one afternoon, and it's been all downhill ever since. Now, me doing shit outside in the cold ain't nothing new, but on this particular day I was woefully under dressed. It didn't seem like it was gonna be so cold before I got out there, and I'm sure that some of you know how it is, you go out, find that's colder than you though, but don't want to go through the trouble of going back inside to put more layers on. Well, that was me. I ended up being outside much longer than planned, and despite the physical activity, never did warm up. I guess that's how you know it's cold. Anyway, later that night a specific spot on both sides of my neck (apparently where the occipital nerves are located) started to hurt. I didn't think much of it and went to bed. I then woke up about 3am with the king of all migraines, and the back of my neck going up into my head was incredibly achy (I don't get migraines in the back of my head, so that neck ache wasn't because of that). It took a while for the migraine to start to subside that day, but the side and back of the neck aches never did. It's a few weeks later now, and I've had even more headaches and migraines than normal, many brief instances of vertigo, nausea galore, two days of pulsatile tinnitus, and whole host of lesser, but not less fun, symptoms. Like I said, it's the shits. I just hope that this isn't another byproduct of my getting older, because while I hate the cold, I hate being stuck inside the house even more. I have started thinking about moving again (more on that later), but I don't think that I can get anywhere warmer for a few more years.

• It's Monday morning now. As expected, my great night of sleep was just an anomaly. I'm making do with five hours... and a headache to start the day. I'm also starting off a bit bummed too. There was an item ending on eBay last night that I really wanted, and didn't get. I was even went above my comfort zone when it came time to bid, but as usual, there's always someone who can, and will, go higher. It wasn't a one of a kind item, so it's not the end of the world -- but still, I'm a bit down over not getting it. Probably will be for another day or two as well.

• Like a lot of other folks, we got our first real bit of winter last week. 

We ended up with around 6-7" of snow, and a bit more in the driftier spots. I don't know if that was the official number, but considering it snowed almost all day Saturday, when the local weather was saying that it wasn't (and wasn't supposed to), I'm not sure that the official numbers would be very accurate. Along with the couple of days of snow, we also had some butt-cold thrown in for good measure:

I know that a lot of people had it worse, but I think I've officially had my fill of winter now. I think the thing that made this stretch so bad here, is that the (back) roads were not being cleared as much as they have been in years past. A couple of days were just brutal out there. I suspect that this is yet another example of the "new normal", in that plow drivers probably just weren't even showing up to work; knowing of course that no one gets fired for such things anymore, because employers are so afraid of not being able to find someone else to replace them. It's a fun new world that we live in, isn't it? Anyway, as of this typing, there's a blue car still sitting across the street from the driveway where it slid off the road sometime during the night a few days ago. I can't remember what night it was, but one of the days the road started to melt and then refroze something fierce that night. From the sounds I heard, it sounded like a couple of trucks went off the road and got stuck too, but none were still there in the morning. Hopefully someone comes and gets their car out at some point. I'm tired of looking at it.

It's funny too because in the days leading up to snowmageadon we had torrential rain that led to minor flooding, along with big winds to keep it company, and even local tornado warnings. And now this week, it's gonna warm up a bit and start dumping rain again, which will undoubtedly lead to more potential flooding.

Oh, and I think I mentioned it last year, but this whole naming of winter storms thing needs to go away. It's dumbfuckery of the highest degree. Whichever behind-the-scenes network psychologist came up with this idea needs to be hunted down and publically shot. And any civilian who goes around referring to a winter storm by name needs to be swatted with a rolled up newspaper. We've gotta stop this before it goes too much further.

• Despite whatever's been wrong with me, I've been outside for at least an hour each of these recent cold days, mostly to put food out for all of the various forest folk that get fed each day. Birds and squirrels are the primary recipient of these offerings, but deer get a bit during the winter too. Probably not nearly as much as they would want, but I figure it's better than nothing. I watched one fellow come out of the woods the other day who had a magnificent antler, that's singular; he only had one. I know the odds will be slim, because he could've lost the other one anywhere, but I decided upon seeing him that once all of this snow melts off in a few days, I'm gonna go spend an hour or two seeing if I can find that other antler. Despite all of my years of wandering around in the woods, I've yet to come upon any antlers. Fingers crossed that this'll be the time that I do. I've been interested in trying my hand at flintknapping, and really need a bit of antler to use for that.

Another recipient has been a lovely little raccoon, though she isn't all that little anymore. This little raccoon started showing up last summer, during the day no less, scrounging around where the doves get fed. After a bunch of days of this, the decision was made to get a bag of dog food and start putting a bowl out for it, as that would be more hardy than birdseed. Not surprisingly, the dog food was a hit. So much so, that it started coming around more than once a day. Cute as it may've been, only one bowl was still being put out. Fast forward about a month, and one day this little raccoon, the same raccoon, showed up with two very small babies in tow. Turns out she was a little mama. Nature's version of babies having babies. Anyway, the babies were adorable beyond belief, as raccoon babies always are. Fast forward even further, and she's been here pretty much every day since, though not so much during the anymore.

I've also developed a bit of a relationship with young squirrel in recent months. The younger ones are always more pleasant to interact with, as they're too young to realize that there supposed to be skittish. I've been on good terms with a few over the last year or so, but they inevitably reach the point where they realize that they're supposed to run away when a larger creature approaches. This most recent gal is different though, as she doesn't seem to be hitting the run-away stage. Of course, I knew that she was a bit different from the start, as she was already missing part of her tail by the first time I saw her. It seemed like a lot of the other squirrels were picking on her too, and actively trying to prevent her from getting any food. This didn't work out very well for them though, as every time I saw this, I went out, knowing that my doing so would scare the rest away, and made sure that she got her own pile of food. Things weren't looking so good a few weeks ago though, as she showed up one day with an eye issue of some sort. I couldn't tell if it was an infection, or an injury. Either way, she was obviously ailing. She didn't come back again for two days after that, and not only did it look worse, but she was moving very slowly too. After that it would be three more days before she came back, and sure seemed like her end was coming sooner than it ought to. I really thought that that was gonna be the last time I saw her, but she came back after another three-day stretch, and wonder of all wonders, not only was her eye looking better, but she seemed to have more pep to her step again. It's since healed completely, and I can now see that she had gotten scratched right above her eye, as there's a small scar that's now visible. She definitely isn't little anymore either; she's more like a baby Buddha. I know that I shouldn't get so attached to wild animals, but it's awfully hard not to when they run up to you every time you walk towards them. As I recently said to my mom, it's been a long time since anyone has been that excited to see me.

• An unplanned day off sees me back here working on this post during the afternoon on Tuesday. One of my other ailments, not related to the one mentioned earlier, got the better of me this morning. Some days it really feels like my body is breaking down earlier than it should be. Ironically, I've received at least a dozen life insurance offers in the mail in recent months, after having never received a single one previously. Is that normal? Is 41 1/2 years old the time when people usually start being flooded by these? Or, as I'm starting to think, do they know something that I don't?

• The snow is melting off pretty quickly now, it's funny how after just a few days of it coating everything, it can start to feel like it's never gonna go away. And someone, or someone's, came and got the blue card during the wee hours of the morning. It was a fairly nice car; I'm surprised that they left there for so long. Makes me wish too that I had less scruples, and could've gone over and seen if there was anything that I could salvage.

• I don't spend a lot of time on the YouTube (thankfully), but a few weeks ago I watched a video on Henri Metisse, the artist, and became quite interested in the collage work that he was doing while mostly confined to bed during his later years. Collage is not something that I've ever been that enamoured with, but I did some looking around after watching the video, and happened upon a form of collage that I had never seen before (very different from what Metisse was doing), and found quite appealing. I've just started playing around with it myself, and while I'm sucking big time at it so far, it's been fun. I have some thoughts on trying to change it a bit more to my liking, but I think I need to get the basics down first before I can start trying to reinvent the wheel. In a similar vein, I've also been spending some of my nights trying out a new (to me) style of drawing, which has been very different from what I usually do.

I can't say that I'll ever show any of this stuff on here, but who knows. I don't why it is, I don't consider myself to be an artist or a writer, but I write stuff for public consumption all the time; without any fear of public criticism, but can't seem to bring myself to do the same with art stuffs. I mean, if someone were to tell me that my writings are the worst thing since unsliced bread, I'd just say "yes, I know", and then move on. But, if someone were to say that one of my drawings looked like the after effects of eating a bad burrito, well, I'd probably up and leave the internet for good. It's nonsensical; this I know, too. I guess art things feel more personal. I really admire, and envy, those that are brave enough to publically share their artwork. And you know, I never envied anyone, for any reason, during the first half of my life. This latter half though, I find my self envying people all the time, and for many different reasons. I think I liked the first half better.

• I had planned for this to be just one long post, but I've still got five more topics written down to get to, and I think I'm already stretching the limits of people's possible interest in me-centric happenings; so I think I'll just retroactively add a "Part 1" to the title, and try to get everything else into a Part 2 sometime in the next week or two. If you made it through this whole post, thank you. If not, I understand.