April 2018 Daily Stepping

[Lynx]

Hello April & more Days for taking Steps!

Check-in, share, question, vent, whatever it takes to keep moving—put it up here. We'll hear you.

[Creating] is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. E L Doctorow

Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

Happy Easter!

Just got a huge help with the taxes. Tom - husband - wanted us to use an accountant in Pasadena. He's a friend of a friend. We do need an accountant to help with other money matters, but i was hesitant at this late date to be sending tax stuff to Pasadena. So, when I couldn't find his social security form, and another form, I suggested that we take a trip to H & R Block instead. He agreed. Yes! If there's a problem, we can take care of it right away, and there's no problem of losing paperwork through the mail and then having to scramble to get back up.

I think I hate taxes so much because, lately, there's always been some major hitch. Each year, there's been some new problem I've never had before. Tom does not worry about taxes. He has no problem filing for an extension. Before we were married, he was two years late in filing his taxes. (I got him an accountant for Christmas.) Anyway, he doesn't worry, so I have to worry for the both of us.

Nanowrimo starts today, and I'm hoping for great text conversations with my virtual cabin mates. We have USA, Canada, Wales, England, Germany and India represented.

[Elaine Glimme]

A sluggish morning, a much-needed nap, and I got 4000 words done in the afternoon.

[Lynx]

Hi all,

Go Elaine, it's always that puzzle of when the winds will arrive.

Things getting very much into complexity mode as one of my projects will be simultaneously translated into Spanish. Materials need translations into Spanish as well. Some new stuff created (by moi) for translation.

Dropping any other plans that I dare to make room both on the calendar & in my mind and body. There's a background of emotional work that's draining, so I need to be respectful of my commitments and leave time to zone back to myself.

L

[Elaine Glimme]

Go Lynx. Good luck on your project.

Me - I'm just plugging along.

[inspiresuccess]

Hi Steppers,

I'm back for a visit. Thought I'd say hi before the thread gets too long and it's too overwhelming to get caught up with people's goals.

Me:

starting a garden for the 1st time in 15 years.
signed up at YMCA for 1st time in 15 years. haven't gone yet.
taking some 6-week classes. One is about Leonard Cohen's music and poetry. The other is Intro to Opera.
enjoying my cat, Dancer, who is my first pet in 15 years.
my credit rating is healthy for the first time in 15 years.
Yes, there is a 15 year theme here. I hope it continues. I'd like to reclaim all of the parts of my life I lost 15 years ago when my life fell apart.

still at my healthy/perfect weight, which I've maintained for at least 1.5 years now. I celebrate my waistline every morning when I get up! No fooling! I do!
what else? Hmm.... new therapist. saw for the first time last week. hope she will work out.
the weather is perfect.
reading some good mystery novels.

Actual goals for April

YMCA at least once this month. get started. I actually enjoy exercise. It's just after 15 years of not being in a gym, I feel a little intimidated. Once started, I'll love it.

garden -- keep working at it, especially the design aspects.

That's it for now.

Best wishes for everyone's April goals!

Inspire

[inspiresuccess]

Elaine and Lynx,

What are your specific goals for April?

[Lynx]

Hi Inspire,

Wow! Waking up after a 15 year nap, stretching and getting back into the swing of Living.

Hm, this could be a great theme for a short story. Keep at it and keep up informed. Don't bother with keeping up with us.

Yes, Elaine, me and everyone else who lurks by ... post some Goals. C'mon folks, more engagement makes for a livelier thread.

April:

finish taxes (Done)
Have a terrific gig out of town on my main project and source of income (up for April 16).
Continue to develop friendships to replenish those I've lost the past several years (on going, & going well)
Rest enough
Take a trip later in the month
Finish out a project with my mom on the 14th. I took Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues he set out to nourish in his youth as a 20 y.o. One per month (sent the Franklin virtues and what he wrote about it (usually brief) along with 2 or three quotes on a post card. Sent the card around the Full Moon, and we talked around the New Moon.
Recognize how tiring my life feels due to the Emotional Work of leading a complex project with complex and conflicting motives among 15 people, me included. Just today admitted I need to mantra that I am in the midst of a complexity and most likely not doing as well at Other Life Tasks as I delude myself that I am. This means, talking more out loud so I hear myself thinking through daily steps and activities.
Reading up on Emotional Work of Leadership
Playing bridge at least 3 times (on the 3rd, 10th, and 24th).
Ordering a pile of things long on my mind to get: All done ... bike lock, bike seat cover, new spinner luggage for my partner (as a gift), new Saucony walkers in black, and a late buy of a book on emotional work in organizations. These are dribbling in.
Speaking directly with my postal carrier about my out of towns plans with the hope that he/she will not try to overjam our mail box or leave something valuable for thieves to take. Ah, when I complained over the summer (after a month away the box was jammed, though I'd submitted the form 3 ways — online, on their paper form, and left a note in the box. The person who finally responded said, "I spoke with your carrier. He said he was sorry." What!? It's ain't the carrier's problem, it's their system's problem, meaning the boss's problem!! But I'm taking them at face value and going to call back and arrange to meet the carrier in person. Geez. Like I have time for this nonsense, but I don't have time for their nonsense if I don't. Is there a Catch after 22?

Some things I'm ungoaling ...
Working on anything complex that requires tracking and notetaking.
Less civic engagement till this project is completed.
Less attendance at art shows and performances.

Plus something to daydream about: getting to the Korean spa for a full day of pool bathing, various gem rooms, and generally hiding out and recovering.

Oh, not much more than this!
Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

HI, Inspire,

Lynx, I read your goals and got tired just reading them. Wow! I Googled Korean health spa. It sounds a bit too demanding for me. I'll just go to the gym. Please tell us about it when you go.

Me - my goals: I'd like to spend two hours each day on my writing. With maybe a day of rest on Sunday. At least on days that I don't have any other big commitments. I'm doing Nanowfrimo for April, so my goal for that is 50,000 words. My other goal is to write the first draft ending. Alex and WEasel are done. I have Vivian, WAlly and Austin to finish up. I'm being cryptic, I know, but I don't want to give away the ending. Most of the book is close to final draft. So a lot of the 50,000 word goal will consist of editing. Had a lot of fun at my writers' group yesterday.

My other goal is to make my back yard a fun place to spend time in. And a place that will not get all weedy every year. Nature is helping with that one. During spring - rainyi season - oxalis (sour grass) wild onions, and Jack-in-the-pulpit grow so well that they crowd out almost everything else. ANd they're beautiful. They die off around May and a once-over with the weed-eater takes care of a lot of the other weeds. ALso, for those who don't know - I now have a bionic hip. THat means that I can do a lot of things I couldn't do last year. Amazing concept! I hired a gardener to prun my trees, and hate what he did with them. So I got out my trusty chainsaw, and I"m working on fixing the mess he made. Slowly. But last year, I couldn't have used a chainsaw. Fortunately, the trees that he wrecked are weeds and will survive both what the gardener did and what I'm doing with the chain saw. He pruned them to encourage them to grow very tall and to spread out. I want them compact and shorter. He's pruned branches to be fifteen feet tall and bare except for the top three or four feet. I'm taking out these branches - a few at a time - and letting the tree replace them with new growth that will become branches of a more reasonable size for my back yard.

[Elaine Glimme]

Taxes are done. I was expecting trouble. It was worse that I expected.

[inspiresuccess]

Hells bells, get out the way! Elaine's been let loose with a chainsaw! Yikes! Good luck on the yard!

I'm glad to hear how much progress you've made on the book. Can't wait to go back and read from the beginning. I haven't read any of it in a really long time.

So wonderful to hear about your hip. I know that type of operation can go either way. I'm glad for you it went in the right way. Congrats!

[inspiresuccess]

Lynx,

Lots of interesting stuff going on with you. Good to hear so many things are done/going well, etc. Sounds like you've got a good handle/good approach with the challenges of the big project.

RE: Korean Spa.

I love spas! I haven't been to one in years (another 15 years ago thing). I live near Calistoga, CA where they have their famous hot springs mud baths. I used to do that on a regular basis years ago. I love massage. I love whirl pools. I love saunas. I'm definitely a "spa girl"! I'm glad you mentioned that. It reminded me of how much I used to love that type of thing. I'll have to give it some thought and some financial research to see what I could afford. Thanks for the reminder!

Good luck on all projects. Remember what Inspire always says, "Remember to breathe"!

[inspiresuccess]

I posted my own thread for gardening so I don't bog this thread down with all the minute details of my garden project. I really love gardening and I will enjoy going on and on about every little step I make.

[Elaine Glimme]

My latest gardening story - I have a log abour two feet long which I converted into a beautiful planter. It has three holes which I filled with plants. So yesterday evening, I'm admiring it and noticing a moth enjoying the planter. Ah, nature, turning dead wood into something which another living creature can enjoy! Wait a minute - something is wrong. Is that really a moth? And why is it so interested in the stump????? It's a stupid termite!!! Not something I want twenty feet away from my house.

Inspire, I didn't want to take away from your posts, so I entered this here.

Happy gardening.

[Elaine Glimme]

13,000 words so far.