Thursday, August 29, 2019

So Wot's Gitkikka Bin Doin', Den?

Good question. Been a while, my dear imaginary viewers!

Unfortunately, I have had a crapton of things come down in life over the past few months, and they have kicked my desire to paint right out of me. Truth be told, I have started at least 4 different projects, but I ended up stalling out on each of them. Part of the problem might be the fact that I am now using readers to paint, and it's not been easy to adjust to them.Hopefully, there will be a noticeable improvement in my finished products, but as usual, I'd just be happy with decent jobs done quickly.

Now, if this was the only issue, I'd have shamed myself into finishing at least one project, but when it rains, it pours. My job (Radiologic Technologist, a.k.a. X-ray tech) is kind of kicking my ass these days. Over a month ago, my ankle started aching to walk on - still able to walk, but had to limp. With a brace and a doctor's unhelpful advice of "Keep off of it!", I persevered. At least until all the limping caused my hip to start aching too.

Lovely.

For the past couple weeks, I have been taking it as easy as possible, meaning no sitting at a desk for too long, and keeping my hip rested and happy. Of course, my three 12-hour work days would roll around and mess up the process all over again (that, and I'm incapable of sitting idle for too long. I managed to install the flooring and baseboards in my bedroom at the beginning of the month, as well as move and reassemble all the stupid, heavy-assed furniture that my wife insisted that we needed. That was an agonizing few days...)

But, I pushed through. Things are healing and feeling better. Realizing that I'm not so young any more, I finally started the process of applying for MRI school, which should keep me off me feet better than being a RadTech. Seriously, this is my day for 12 hours  - take X-rays in the ER. Now run upstairs with a portable and x-ray some fat-arse's pelvis and risk destroying my back. Now back to the ER. Now run up to surgery and stand around for a few hours, taking shots for the surgeon. (truth be told, surgery is my favorite part of my job. I wear about 10 to 15 pounds of lead gear for protection, which strains my back, but it beats giving barium enemas any day).

But my life isn't all whine-worthy. Certain unbloggable things are changing/have changed in my life, one of the results of which is that I finally get to take over the front office room in the house as my hobby area! Yaaaassss. Now that I'm feeling better physically, I'm slowly moving the stuff out of that room, and moving my stuff in. Unfortunately, the office was being used as general junk storage for a year and a half or so, so it's going to take a while (so an even longer interlude from painting. It will be so very worth it, though...

Where Da Swamp is now.

Looks cosy, ya? Sure, except I am standing in the kitchen to take this picture. The white door leads to the garage, and to the left, out of frame is the back door to the yard, and the living room passage is further left from that. In short, I'm in the middle of everything here, and don't get the peace and quiet I like from a work area. Plus, being wide open like this means that the cats are constantly fucking with stuff, as well as getting hair all over my work table.


Where Da Swamp is going.

This used to be my wife's office area, mostly needed when she was a massage therapist. She let that lapse when she became a full-time nurse, so this lovely little space (which is really about the same size as the current area, it just has 2 more walls) was being misused as crap storage. She always does her paperwork and bills at the kitchen table, so this room wasn't even used for that. So now dis old troll is swooping in. Of course, I'm not being helped by anybody so it's going to be a while before I'm up to production speed.

Hopefully a faster speed than previously...

Now, if I could really have my way, I'd leave TX entirely, but that's getting into the unbloggable territory. Gotta take those victories where you can!