Coming off a week of vacation — new mini-daybed is doing just fine, thank you for asking — and as always, am exiting with a certain sense of clarity about why I’m so stressed. Breaks are good.

I’m not feeling rested, but I am feeling removed, which is a good point to take stock from.

The priority, getting back to work on Monday, is going to be to rebalance my time and obligations, and start setting more reasonable expectations for what I can accomplish. Starting with myself — I set very high standards, and I need to manage those first.

Volunteer stuff is next — again, I’m taking on a lot of responsibility because I choose to, and that’s something that needs to be worked on. Accomplishing stuff is good! Burning out is bad.

Sunday, tomorrow: no particular plans. A good day for mapping out the next few months.

 

Keepin’ on keepin’ on with staycation week; the big walk yesterday was lovely, the day bed is coming along nicely, I polished off this week’s coursework and read the new Grady Hendrix novel.

Bunch of fiddly life stuff today — frankly, I’m amazed I can even hold a job, with the amount of things that seem to need getting done in my life on a vacation week…

 

I’ve got three days free thanks to vacation time, and I gotta get out of the house! Like, GOT TO. Yesterday was a great day of furniture-making, for the most part, broken up with a trip to the vet and some evening volunteer work… today, I have some coursework to do, then finishing laundry, then I have to get out! Go for a run, a walk, something. My terrible tendency is to homebody things.

 

I’m committed to this being a build-a-day-bed staycation, a smaller version from the upstairs one. Yesterday was wood pickup and starting to work on assembly; today is sanding and more assembly, Thursday more sanding and staining, Friday more sanding and staining, Saturday more sanding and staining, and Sunday it should be good to go.

Still on an exercise break, due to back pain, and let’s face it, vacation! I know I’m setting myself up for disappointment on the scales, but I’m excited to get this one big project done this week, so I want to really focus on it.

What else, what else… food is good, I’m sleeping well, and I think having the week off and something to show for it will do me some wonders.

Yesterday was a good day of chores and food projects — canned broth, set up a podcast for the volunteer project, caught up on some coursework, did some other things and even relaxed a bit with the new Doctor Who.

Settled on the vacation project, which is more building: I’m’a make a smaller version of the upstairs day bed, which combined with relaxo and exerciso will make for a full vacation week.

So I’m off to buy wood! There’s probably a dumb joke in there somewhere.

Computer problems resolved, after a late night wrestling with components and some help from a friend. With a new power supply and new graphics card humming away, I think I’m back in business, computerwise, and it feels nice.

First order of business today is to figure out my next five days: it’s vacation, baby! My wife also has some time off, and we’re probably gonna tourist it up a little, but I need to pick something that makes me feel like this vacation was a good use of time and not just random-ass gaming…

* Learn how to use my little MIDI keyboard and sample packs to actually make music

* Make another piece of furniture

* Get on top of and ahead of the online course I’m taking

* Bear down hard on this radio station volunteer course

All options. Plus, get back on exercise! It’s been a bad few weeks for that. This time last year I was way more on top of being in shape; work madness and volunteer business have kept that from being a priority.

 

One last up early with my wife, and another morning of PURE CHORE, setting up a crazy number of things to get done before easing into the rest of the morning. Still no hard vacation plans. I may need a nap!

I’m wiped out! On vacation for the next week, but I have no plans, which sounds refreshing but this is the least “vacationy” I’ve ever felt before a break.

Time to vacation-plan, I guess… I have the show this morning, then some volunteer stuff, then I should probably figure this out…

Not much to say this morning! Up early — show prep for WAFFLES! tomorrow, and again, back to bed.

Up at 3:30 — bathroom, then cat, then my wife was up at 4 so what’s the point. I’ve admittedly been not great about exercise recently, but this was a good morning for chores: dishes, washing the stove and stovetop, two loads of laundry, prepping the upstairs for Mr. Butlertron…

…oh yeah, we got a Roomba, which we have named Mr. Butlertron. I was not in favour, secretly, but supportive… now that it’s here, though, I freakin’ love Mr. Butlertron. It’s pretty amazing how nice it is not to have to sweep every day — it really had to be a daily chore, in a two-cat house, and now we just drop Butlertron off on a different floor every day and let him have at it.

Anyway — chores done, and it’s time to head back to bed. This is, again, a weird way to go about things… but it’s working for me so far.