You may have noticed that things have been mighty quiet around here lately. There is no nefarious reason for this. I have not joined a secret society, entered witness protection, or become trapped under a very large piece of furniture. I also have not been recruited by a low-budget cult, though I understand the scheduling on those is apparently quite flexible.
The truth is much less exciting.
Things have been quiet because a lot of good things have been happening in my life. The downside of good things is that they tend to demand your attention… and ignoring them usually brings those same good things to an abrupt end… and sometimes introduces the opportunity to spin up bad things and in the worst case scenario… REALLY bad things. So you understand why I might be focusing on these at the moment.
For starters, I began a new job this spring. The strange thing about this job is that the people there actually need me… and appreciate what I do. As a result, they keep expecting me to show up and contribute. This takes considerably more time than my previous job, and dramatically more time than being unemployed, which, despite its many shortcomings, offered a level of scheduling flexibility that frankly no employer has matched since.
On top of that, my girls recently turned seventeen. So… this summer has been filled with driving lessons, which have prematurely aged me by somewhere between five and fifteen years. Scientists have long studied the effects of stress on the human body, but I maintain they have failed to adequately research the impact of sitting in the passenger seat while your teenager approaches an intersection and says… “Oops.”
There has also been the need to shuttle family members to internships, activities, appointments, errands, grocery runs, Diagon Alley, and all the other responsibilities that seem to multiply when nobody is looking.
The real challenge, however, is that one of the girls’ internships requires an on-site arrival time of 6:00 a.m.
This means my daughter gets up at 5:00 a.m.
Which means I get up at 4:00 a.m.
Which means I am awake at an hour normally associated with bakers, dairy farmers, and the odd vampire. This year, apparently, that last category includes me.
Unfortunately, I have reached the stage of life where I can no longer survive on three hours of sleep, a Mountain Dew, and pure stubbornness. Consequently, I now find myself crashing around 9:00 p.m. like an elderly laptop with a failing battery… and a suspicious whirring noise it never used to make.
The important thing is that all of this is good.
In fact, it is great.
The problem is that it leaves substantially less free time and even less energy. There simply is not enough of either available for the sort of lengthy “Let’s Build” videos I used to produce.
So I put a pin in that project.
Besides, after enough years in the modern economy, I have developed the sneaking suspicion that no matter how busy I am today, there is always the possibility that tomorrow I will suddenly and involuntarily have far too much free time and begin reorganizing the garage out of sheer boredom.
In the meantime, I have started a completely different and largely unrelated video channel.
The nice thing about this new project is that I can work on it in tiny chunks of time. Five minutes here. Fifteen minutes there. Three minutes while waiting for water to boil. Seven minutes while wondering why I walked into a room and what important task I was supposed to be doing before I got distracted.
It adds up.
So that is what has been going on with me, in case you were curious.
Life is busy. The job is good. The girls are growing up. Sleep has become a treasured and increasingly scarce natural resource.
And somehow, despite all the chaos, things are going pretty well.
Take care and God/Creator bless.