Patience

Working hard here. I try to crank out 20 sites most days, but the queues aren't always accommodating. The weather was wonderful-sunny most of the week, and today Khan (really, Weather Channel?!) is trying to make things slick. We're supposed to get snow, but I'm betting it'll stick to freezing rain. Good thing we don't have anywhere to go, really. I was hoping to get my 2nd check from the dotcom today, but I'm learning that living out in BFE means slower mail service. It sucks, but hopefully this is the only time I'll be dealing with money issues because of it...my direct deposit should kick back in next check.

And funny thing is, we don't have money issues, not really. Yes, it's definitely helped having Mom J. here again (she's visiting because we lost Dad J a year ago today, and she wanted to be anywhere else than home), because she's been cooking the last 2 nights and sneaking grocery runs in...but we would have been OK if she hadn't, so her kindness is surplus, which is sweet. I had just bought chicken breasts, and we have plenty of dry goods, so I probably would've tried some variation on burrito bowls this week. I need to do that anyway, so that the lack of Chipotle in my life doesn't make me twitchy. Gods, I love that place!

The job hunt is daunting still...really makes you feel valued when not even the crappy retail sales positions are calling you back...but not much choice than to keep trying. My "cold calls" - where I send my resume and snazzy cover letter to companies without warning - have produced another potential freelance opportunity, which certainly helps keep hope alive here. I feel like I don't know how to gather work myself, because it's such a new prospect; and then I realize I really do have the basics down. Put yourself out there, period. Worst case scenario: they don't call or email, you lose nothing in the bargain.

My gods, the money we/I wasted living in the city! I look at my money coming in and my amply stocked pantry, and I'm able to earmark a little cash for organic potting soil, to transplant the aloe and get the herbs going. That's money that was never really there in Jacksonville, because I was eating it...at McDonald's, at Starbucks, wherever I could get a quick fix. Here, the fast food is only 5 minutes away, but why run up there when you've got sandwich stuff at home? Sad that it takes moving into the semi-boonies to make me less lazy about finances, but with the pay cut I took, my mind is always in a different area now..."if we buy that, will there be enough for gas later in the month?" and it breeds responsibility.

Yes, I'm 43, why do you ask?

::sigh::

I hit that path back on Tuesday for walking/exploring purposes, but alas it doesn't run long. It opens up into a clearing, where the path extends way up a steep hill, but when I got to the top, I realized I'd be walking into someone's backyard basically, so I hiked back down. Under the heading of "you can't take the packrat out of the girl...", I found an old hood from a vintage VW bug back in those woods, which I carried home and am thinking of cleaning, spray-painting baby blue, and using as one end of a hoophouse once I start planting out front. I think the hood will need daisies painted on it too. This is what happens when I go exploring after reading about the River Arts District in Asheville. When I'm worrying about book proposal ideas, I'll take whatever creativity rears its head.

Happy Friday, y'all! If you live in Khan's wrath path, stay safe!