Tuesday, April 5, 2011

What I'm Doing These Days

A few people have mentioned being curious about what's going on with me these days, so I'll oblige.  It's just been so ... ho hum, that I haven't had the oomph to put it into a posting. In no particular order, here's the poop.

1. I've been working on making friends.  I joined a group a year ago, but hadn't devoted any time to it until a few weeks ago.  Some of them get together every Wednesday night for fiber-y stuff.  Last Sunday it was beermaking.  Every Thursday it's dance practice 5 minutes from my new house.  They're very active and I could devote a LOT of time to these folks if I wanted, but I'd rather test out a few "tribes" before I commit to one. I may prefer to be half-into a few "tribes" instead.  I'd much rather have one or two close friends, but I don't have a formula for that other than if you want friends, be a friend.

2. Speaking of tribes, I'm trying to settle in at the fire department.  I joined the department closest to my house, even though they didn't have a good reputation.  It's been tough.  The guys haven't been friendly. I dread drills and I've almost quit a few times.  But a few of the guys are getting a little nicer and this is something I suspect will work out well if I put in effort and time to show up and do my share of the work.  I have to earn respect.  Last night was the best drill yet.  We practiced search and rescue, on air tanks, crawling around a smoky house and "rescued" a baby (doll).  I was probably the worst performer, but I was in there with everyone else, doing the work.  Then we drove around in the fire truck and I rode in the back feeling like part of the team.  I felt great when I got home last night.

3. I've been eating low carb and reading up on the current state of research.  The engineer in me isn't satisfied with mainstream media's treatment of it.  I've recently realized that age is only going to make my current out-of-shape-ness worse, and if I want to be fully mobile at 60 or 70, I'm going to have to get into better shape, starting with losing a bunch of weight.


4. I've been researching midcentury modern design, decorating my house, and beginning to appreciate what's here.  I subscribed to a really cool magazine called Atomic Ranch where less than 10 pages into my first issue, I learned about the weird, round, push button light switches that are all over my house.  Current research project is my one-piece pink Sears toilet.  I was going to replace it, but now that my plan is to celebrate the midcentury-ness of my house, I'm going to fix it.  Of course the folks at Home Depot have never seen anything like this. They don't sell parts for this one.

5. I've been bringing pieces of the other house to their new abode.  Here's the hammock on the porch.  I may have shown you this picture already, but so what.  I brought over the patio table and chairs since then and put them just outside these doors.

5. NM and I started dating again, sortof.  It's much more casual this time, which seems to suit us both better right now.  Less time required, less drama, more fun.