I'm enjoying some Coconut Body Butter from the Body Shop that my daughter gave to me. Fragrance sure can get the day off to a good start.
I'm packing all my goodies for 2 days of photography and painting on a ranch. They apologized that they couldn't pay me for house sitting and I said, "I'd almost pay you to be here just so I could have 3 peaceful days in the country and get out of Anaheim for a while."
I'm also taking a good book or 4 and my journal, and other projects. I still had my project bag packed from my trip to my daughter's art gallery last weekend so packing was a breeze. However I still have some library books due on Monday and a prescription to pick up before I can head on my mini vacation. So I'd best get cracking.
Here are some photos of my daughter's art show from last weekend and me with my grandson. Enjoy.
It is hard to focus on reaching goals when I'm not in good health. I'm going back to the Dr. on Wed. for my monthly check-up. He never seems to be able to help me much though.
Despite it all, I'm still taking a stab at making each day matter. I'm continuing on with art projects, making a little progress each day. It's humbling to have big dreams and have no chance at making them come true. I'm going to miss my favorite archery event for the second year in a row because my body doesn't do well camping. I wake up so many times during the night, that I'm too tired in the daytime to even enjoy the camping event. Most of the time I end up sleeping sitting up in the truck before the night is through. An archery event isn't much fun when you can't go hiking and shooting. My friends are going to be there and I feel really sad that I'm missing out. After the Gene Foster shoot I pretty much decided that my camping days are behind me unless we can get a camper some day. And with current finances, that's not going to be any day soon.
Right now I'm updating my online articles. Google Adsense changed their algorithms again and Hubpages took a big hit in traffic. I think my views were down 20%. Everyone keeps saying we'll bounce back as Adsense works on eliminating content farms. The problem is this go around they threw the baby out with the bath water. Just in the nick of time Hubpages implemented their own ad servers, and I was selected as one of the writers to test out the beta program. As is typical in my life whenever I gain an income source I lose an income source so it's hard to get anywhere.
Fencers at an SCA event I was at on Saturday.
I'd best get back to work. I can't complain that I have no income if I'm not even trying to earn any, now can I?
I'm feeling much better today. Yesterday's cabin fever has passed. The weather was better today so we got to go deliver some arrows, and I got to do some retail therapy and go to the craft store for the parts I needed. We got some yummy things at Trader Joe's too. When we got home Guy made a strawberry pie. It's the first time he's done that and he used real whipped cream. It was supposed to chill for 4 hours but we couldn't wait. So it didn't hold it's shape but who cares? It was fantastic.
Yesterday morning I was pondering how much better life would be if people just slowed down a bit to be more patient and kind.
Then in the afternoon I pulled into a gas station for fuel. Normally I would drive on through to the second pump, so it would be easy for someone to use the first pump, but as I got closer I could see that the second pump was out of order, so I stopped at the first one.
An older woman was behind my pick-up in a little car. She started laying on the horn trying to get me to pull forward. As I was getting out she tried to cut around me. I gestured for her to open her window, so she rolled it down on my side. Before I could even explain she remarked, "Well, you are not very bright, are you?" I just smiled and said, "The other pump is out of order." She looked crestfallen. Realizing that it was her that was none too bright, not me, just took the wind out of her sails. No point making her feel any worse so I just said, "You couldn't see it from where you were."
She looked embarrassed and went on about her business.
Today I got a notice from my bank I've long been expecting. I had two free checking accounts at Wamu and a savings account that got bought out when Wamu folded. Chase assured me nothing would change and my accounts would be free. But every time I go in there they hammer me to set up a direct deposit. Even if I wanted to I couldn't. If I get ten checks a month they come from ten different places. That is the nature of the beast when you do freelance work for a living. So I wasn't really surprised when I got a booklet from the bank today explaining how they are going to start charging a monthly service charge of $10 (per account). There are a few ways to get around it, all which demand $500 per month lump sum of a monthly deposit, or a large minimum daily balance, or some other things that don't apply to me. I have until Feb. to decide before I start getting dinged with fees.
The reason I left Bank of America in the first place is that I was sick of paying $120 a year in monthly account fees.
Right now I'm leaning towards Wells Fargo bank. But they also charge a $5. monthly fee. It's half of Chase so I may go in that direction, and their daily minimum if I want the fee waived is half what Chase requires.
As I was researching banks, I came across something called 'move your money'. That lead to the video embedded here. It truly is scary to see how big banks have us in their clutches. I wonder if there is a small community bank I can trust in the Anaheim area. I've never had a lot of trust in big banks anyway, but I have even less now. I'm about to start sticking my money under the mattress and hope the building never catches on fire.
One thing is for certain, there is no way I'm staying with Chase.
It seems like Thanksgiving has been going on for ten days. Will it never end? At least I begged off spending the day with relatives. But it kind of backfired because I was too depressed to do anything I had planned. I just stayed home, felt disgusted at the news reporting that even Black Friday wasn't soon enough, and that stores were staying open on Thanksgiving too. Now I've worked retail, and those poor drones need a holiday just like the rest of you, but now they are stuck in the stores Thursday too. Is no one else disgusted by this? Like they can't drain our wallets of money fast enough.
I'm protesting Black Friday. Instead I'm going to sponsor a woman in Africa through the Women For Women organization. They teach job skills to women in war torn areas so they can better support their families. I used to sponser someone but then the economy took a dump and I had to back off. But now I want to get back to contributing to the welfare of others, even if it's a personal sacrifice to do so. There's more to life than buying a new sofa.
The crickets are partying tonight. One confused fellow was chirping about 5 PM. We are having a mini heat wave driven by the Santa Ana winds. After the rain last weekend, the heat wave is just rather confusing. I had to come back inside and change into a halter top.
The main noticible thing today is not what is there, but what is not there. Namely, all the political ads are gone from the TV, Facebook, radio, and other media. I had about worn out my mute button.
My Dr. read me the riot act about gaining more weight. It seems the harder I try the more I gain. It makes me feel like not trying at all. What's the point? It just stresses me and everyone else out. On top of that my boyfriend's mom is losing weight so it's all she talks about. Points this and points that and on and on. I'm glad she's feeling better but I just don't want to hear it anymore. It's rather like a man who has been blind but can now see sitting in a room full of blind people and going on and on about how great vision is. My Dr. is convinced that exercise has nothing to do with weight loss; that only cutting calories will change your weight. I think he's daft. The science museum in San Francisco has an excellent display showing how fast you can lose weight if you combine diet and exercise, compared to either diet or exercise alone.
At any rate, people are bored to death about hearing how bad obesity is. I'm bored. I'd rather have a different problem, instead of this one all my life.
