Out with the Old, Managing the Process for the New

I had big plans for this blog as I rolled out my website and holiday sales. And not just plans, I had a real desire to engage with this format again.* I still do.

The house got in the way.

I've mentioned that we have a lot of housework going on. It was rough enough while the remediation and subsequent testing was underway. Then came the juggling of HVAC people (needed to clean up our unit and install a purification system to continue to combat mold) and the dry wall repair, managing painting on our own so we could free up time for the flooring install to be done. Also scheduling and planning out the remediation of my studio, coordinating with insurance folks, getting everything figured out for the kitchen repair/remodel, and a bonus of pest control because some critters found all the household and garage upheaval ripe for scavenging and infiltration and general mayhem.

All of that amounted to basically a full-time job for the past several weeks.

So I found the things I could manage, like daily posting on BlueSky for the #ArtAdventCalendar feed. This has been a smaller way for me to stay engaged with my art and a community and even grow one. I've enjoyed it, and it's gotten me in a good daily posting habit that I look forward to maintaining into 2025.

Otherwise, I've taken advantage of the household discombobulation to organize some areas better, purge some closets of things that haven't been needed or wanted or thought of in years, and box up some other things for longer term storage in the garage. I actually took great delight in boxing up those old journals. I learned from past mistakes about destroying them or losing them (i.e., the lost puffy locked diary with my first work of fiction) because there could be something I decide has value in there at some future point. But, oof, there's a reason I purge a lot of that stuff from my brain onto the page.

I noted above that my studio will be undergoing remediation. Yes, alas, we found clear evidence that some Water Event affected a wall in the room underneath me, and was obviously coming from the wall above it. So next month will see me displaced to elsewhere in the house for a minute. On the bright side, I'll emerge from the process with the hardwood (i.e. vinyl) flooring I've wanted in here instead of carpet.

I do want to blog more, and I'm working on a plan to do so, even with housework juggling. The timing is such that I can bundle this concept into the usual task of winding down one year so we can spin up another one and see what improvements can be made. It's a good thing I boxed up those old, purged feelings. That weight can hang out in the garage with the other things that need minimal access.

*Speaking of old journals and big feelings, I once had a blog that petered out around fifteen years ago. I made the mistake of reading a few posts, but it's a cringe-fest I won't inflict on y'all here.