Sunday, February 24, 2013

Just the usual brain spew

I think I really have to figure out a way to make this freelancing thing work.

When the dotcom gave me their rate list, first thing I tried to do is negotiate. No sale; it's a carved in stone sheet that probably won't change until the next incentive adjustment, and those occur once every 2 years if we're lucky. I wasn't sure how we could live on that, as their rates are below-market-unfair-abysmally-low and a couple of other adjectives I'll refrain from using here...and truth be told, it's only now that I'm working my bored-silly-at-times tail off that I'm seeing that it might be possible. We still need to get medical insurance, and there's little-to-no savings right now; but we're also not spending nearly as much as we did when we lived in the city. We've indulged in the local pizza a couple of times, and grabbed novelties for ourselves once or twice, but we're mainly eating at home and making do, and it shows. Feels rather fantastic too, being frugal, and seeing just how much money we've wasted over the years (well, that part sucks). That shit comes home when you're facing new brakes on the car and want to start saving for land hunting.

So today, being Sunday, I allowed myself a bit of a lie-in. Woke up around 9:30, made coffee, puttered, and watched the L&O repeats that were a weekend ritual for me in Jax. Practically the first time I've watched the weekend repeats since we moved; I'm usually working or attending to visitors or something. Dicked around on Farmville, read a little. When the shows went off and it became apparent that there's wasn't enough on the tube to hold my interest and justify leaving it on (and we're talking while there's an NCIS marathon on USA, folks!), I turned it off, threw on real clothes, and got moving on household tasks, clearing away dishes, folding laundry.

Realized I was really awake and feeling good. Went outside to assess the weather and our front area. Was hoping to get to mulching this weekend, but it might wait. I'm learning patience. I desperately want to start seeds, but I'm recognizing that it may have to happen outdoors, because we plain don't have the room inside to do it, even with rearranging furniture and boxes. I have ideas for making that work before real Spring (which I won't babble about here, because it's fodder for the article I'm writing). But I need to get past the threat of snow every week or so, and that's fine. I was thinking of 2 harvests for summer, but we'll play it by ear. Spring is all about grandiose ideas for the gardener, and my delusions of aptitude extend well beyond my knitting.

Since there's not much to be done yet, still, on the gardening, I came back inside to the 2nd bedroom, and determined that I did need to examine the possibility of moving furniture. I'm not a chess player, unfortunately, so this proved more difficult than it had to be.....measured the bed to determine how much space it needed, but didn't factor in the room it would need while it was being moved. Imagined my dad's head flying off its axis while I worked...he probably would've been an awesome chess player, now that I think on it, because his brain always measured things out further than right in front of him. I inherited the "oh, wait, that won't work, huh?" from Mom.

Now the bedroom's more cluttered than before, and I need to go thru boxes and do another purge, but I love where the bed is. So it's all good.

But what struck me, is that after all that, rather than continue relaxing, I wanted to see where the queues were at, for my work. Sure enough, there's a couple of ecomms and plenty of regular sites. And I'm thinking I'll work for an hour or two, and then tackle the boxes, because I'm finding the weeks easier to tolerate when I get a jump on the sites.

Which circles back to my original thought, that of wanting to continue down this freelancing road, because the freedom it allows me in the planning and execution of my days, and the fact that I don't have to deal with office politics or social contracts.....that's seriously sweet. I may have to get back to office work eventually, and I'll certainly take any opportunities that will afford me to increase our incomes and keep me in the biz (example being the hopeful SEO work I have coming up in a few weeks), but in the meantime, being able to interrupt my work to do laundry and think about my writing is pretty priceless.

Image from here.

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