Bleh

I need to cut down on my internet usage. I'm finding it has totally killed my attention span. I went from reading books to reading blogs to skimming blogs to skimming headlines.

It's not all the internet's fault. I know my life is full of distractions. With three kids, including one toddler, one high maintenance kid, and one non-verbal autistic kid with sleep issues, it's pretty rare for me to have five minutes in a row to concentrate on something, much less an hour or two. If all the kids are asleep before 9:30, it's a small miracle. And since I have to get up at 5:30am, that doesn't leave much "quiet time".

I miss being able to get really engrossed in a book. I miss movies too.

I know those days will come again, more or less. It's hard to "know" anything about the future with kids, especially special needs kids. But in any case, right now, I could really go for my own personal snow day.

No snow here, though it's been unseasonably cold. Nothing we can't handle for sure, but we're looking at sub-zero wind chills overnight.

I haven't seen much of the chickens. I get home in time to shut them up for the night and bring in their water to thaw it out. I'd like to make them a bigger pen if we happen to get a break in the weather.

I have a work of fiction in my head that I may try to get down on (metaphorical) paper. Getting published as a fiction writer seems unlikely, but sometimes I just like to write. It's another thing I find it hard to do with all the distractions about.

As long as I'm on the negative rant, there's something that fascinates me about this recession/depression thing we've got going on. First, every industry is affected. There are few safe havens outside of the boardrooms of financial institutions or the halls of Congress. Second, nobody is buying the "green shoots" talk. I don't mean nobody in the know. NOBODY. I've run into very few people who don't believe the books are cooked, the numbers are BS and the recovery is underway.

But third, people are almost rooting for it to get worse. It's like people sense that this thing is just broken. The system has been warped beyond repair, and they want to see it crumble. They crave the chance to live through something truly historic. I fear they are right about the first part, but that the second part will be much, much less fun than it sounds.

Anyway, let me turn the page on the negative and get to some positive. I've got some much needed time off over the next couple of weeks. With the job change and the move and everything else, there's been very little time to get some stuff done, blow some stuff off, sit around doing nothing, stay up late and sleep in, and wear slippers all day long.

I'm excited that we're getting a wood stove put in soon. It's a Lopi Republic 1750. We've got a surplus of wood around this place, and heating with electricity is just Not Good.

We're also putting a steel roof on the house, leaving no penny unturned. Hopefully the wood stove and the roof will last for many decades. And if these guys get their butts moving, we'll sneak in under the wire for tax rebates on both.

We've been doing some fun financial gymnastics lately involving my retirement funds among other things, and I'm dying to see how our income taxes turn out. We may be beyond the reach of Turbo Tax this year. I hope my amateur accounting guesswork isn't horribly wrong.

Can you tell it's wintertime by the tone of this post?

Well tonight I'm the last man standing. We're all sick. Everyone else has wisely gone to bed. I am foolishly staying up too late. But in the words of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette: "You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiam."

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