Apparently if Caroline is out of the house, the mosquitoes have picked me as the next open buffet. The one that is on my right index finger is driving me rather ‘round the bend. To add insult to injury, I was bit twice in that area.
Caroline is having fun and getting work done. She has finished three of her supplemental essays for the colleges she has applied for. She has also made s’mores over a fire which I think is one of the best ways to make them. You can get the marshmallow right the way you like.
Today we have to run some errands and I have a project I am a third of the way through that I want to get done and out by Saturday.
It is hard to keep a grasp on the day of the week since they are blending together so much right now. In a week we will have some school structure to pace it out.
The house next door is being beating into shape. There is a lot of loud banging this morning as they put things in place. It needs to be done but it is still noisy. They are keeping to the village noise ordinances and not starting before 8 AM.
First, I would like to wish Ariel a very happy birthday. Hope the day is good to you kiddo.
I woke up, tried to go back to sleep, couldn’t, and got up at five.
Allergies are kicking up and the right half of my face feels swollen and painful. Might be why I couldn’t go back to sleep.
Hard to believe that my birthday is in a week. I will be fifty-seven which is an odd number in my head. I am closer to sixty than fifty.
Then in three weeks Peter turns Sixty-four.
The cats settled down without any spats.
It is cloudy this morning with a set of showers that came through about half an hour ago. That seems to be the theme for the day.
I want to get things done today. I think I am going to go where my whimsey takes me rather than schedule anything.
I think I am going to start in the living room and do a quick clean up.
Then move onto the next project.
I had to pull out my previous laptop to get some information off of it and I liked the keyboard a heck of a lot better. I think I may need to couple another keyboard to this computer so I can type on it. I have a Bluetooth one that matches pretty much the old keyboard. Now to see if I can get them to talk to each other.
I am grateful for sensible people doing what needs to be done.
If this had been a normal year, we would be driving down to DragonCon 2020.
I would be worrying about the puppet slam and going through my head with a punch list of what is left to be done and figuring out when we can rehearse.
The first DragonCon puppet slam was in 2011. I participated with a piece I had done originally at Shoreleave that year entitled “It’s OK to be Takei.” We had a sound issues, but it all worked out and we had fun and got the audience to laugh.
From Shoreleave 2011. I used the same puppets and a couple of friends at Dragoncon.
(For the VI: From left to right there is a Star Trek red shirt puppet with green skin and pointed ears based on the Character of Nicky from Avenue Q and a blue skinned Andorian puppet with a blue Star Trek shirt based on the Character of Rod)
The next year was one of our best I think which was “For a Lord of Time” using the Billy Joel song “for the longest time”.
(for the VI; This is a photo of Doctor Who versions 1 to 12 (Matt Smith) with puppeteers faces peeping out.)
The next one was “Get Loki” based on the Song “Get Lucky by Daft Punk. I assembled the Avengers and had three Loki’s in the mix to pull off the gags. That is the biggest set of puppets I have ever built for one show.
(For the VI: From right to left the three Loki’s, Colson, Black Widow, Iron man, and Captain America) Not pictured Thor, Nick Fury, hawkeye, and Maria Hill
We did a bit of a turn the next outing by taking one of Peter’s unpublished works entitled “The Cad in the Hat”, a parody of the Cat in the Hat. Maurice LaMarsh did a wonderful job of reading the poem as Orson Wells and I will always be grateful to him.
(The Puppets from left to right Scream 1 and Scream 2 (white body, blue hair, red shirt with a white emblem that says Scream 1 and Scream 2, blue wings and horns, an orange fish, the boy with black hair, white skin, and a red shirt, the girl with her blue dress and hair bow in blond hair, and the cad with a nerf gun)
The most recent one was Hellmo’s World which I have been wanting to do for years.
(From left to right Crowley puppeteer Gina, Supernatural Lucifer puppeteer John, Lucifer from Lucifer puppeteer Paul, Hellmo puppeteer me, John Constantine puppeteer Cherlyn, Aziraphale puppeteer Jamie and Caroline extra hands and props.)
I did have a great one for this year but that will go on the back burner until next year or I might revive Lord of Time for the 10th anniversary of the first DragonCon puppetslam or do both.
I am grateful for the DragonCon Puppet Slam and all the fun I have had with it.
It is the last day of August. In a little over a week, it will be my birthday.
I am still trying to wrap my brain around that. I swear we just entered August.
This week was a little harder than last week. I am feeling fatigued with no end in sight.
It is the unknowing that is getting to me right now.
There are things that are clearer to me like how Caroline’s school day is going to work and how we are going to get her there and back.
But there are other things that are still really murky and scary and some getting more so.
The Y is now open but under restrictions that I have to go and sort out what they are because they have contradictions within them.
I think I am frustrated because we still have no idea what is going to happen next.
I do know that I am getting a flu shot this year.
I did get things done this past week, but I don’t feel like I did enough. I keep telling myself that whatever I get done is enough, but it is not sticking in my head.
Part of it may be mental fatigue affecting my body. Part of it may be physical pain causing mental fatigue. It is like a snake eating its tail. My mind/body connection is not being kind to me right now.
I am going to take a step back and regroup. I can tell where my mind is at and I need to do some self-care to get myself back to normal or whatever passes for normal these days.
Peter is taking Caroline to visit her cousins in Connecticut for a while. They have a camp site and camper they are living at right now, so I am sending my child off to summer camp. The house is going to feel different now.
Today I am finishing up Friday Night Workmanship contest judging. Then I will get onto the next thing.
This is probably the first day since this whole thing started that I have a full day of things to do that aren’t the regular things I do.
I have some meetings online. I have to finish up my workmanship judging for DragonCon. That alone will take up a chunk. Then there are a couple to things that need to be done to keep the household together.
Apparently, there is a competition between the fire departments on the training field down the road because I have seen four different companies come by with their vehicles. I expect to smell smoke later today from their controlled burns.
The cats have breakfasted and are now settled down for their naps.
And the shaky hands are back. I hadn’t been having an issue with them rather than the usual but this morning it is a little hard to type as a finger might tap a random key or miss one. That tells me that I need to be careful picking things up so they don’t go flying out of my hands. Fortunately, my head tic is taking a break.
My feet are feeling better. My plantar fasciitis decided to make an appearance in both feet, so I am trying not to limp on either foot. That is a bit of a trick. My podiatrist is doing his best to keep me walking. I have new bone spurs that have developed over time.
