Thursday, June 04, 2020

June Sweeps - Day 125


Well, I'm home again, and about ready to call it again.  One thing's for sure: twenty-four hours (of thirty, in today's case) is just not enough time.

I woke up a lot later than I usually do when I'm at the cabin (last year, I remember stumbling out of the bedroom and it was still completely dark outside).  Today I opened my eyes and thought, "Oh jeez, half the day's gone already.  Why did my alarm not go off?"  But then I looked out the window, and the sun was still low in the sky:

I'd awakened about two and a half hours before my alarm.

I am the lunar opposite of a morning person, but the cabin does something to me, I suppose.  I got up, splashed some water on my face, ate a donut, and began my day.

I got some writing done right away, and then the computer crashed and I lost it all, and got some reading done while it restarted.  One of my favorite things to do at the cabin is to sit on the back deck in a folding chair and read.  There's pretty much only trees and a ridge out there, and birds often land in front of me while I'm reading.  Last year, a deer walked past, and I was kind of floored that it hadn't noticed me.  I sat completely still as it sauntered by, eating some plant, and eventually, it perked up its ears (either hearing me or smelling me), looked over, and took off like a shot.  I found that pretty cool, and look forward to reading several books in that spot over the summer.

I got quite a bit of reading done this trip as it stands--enough to have gotten sunburned again.

I spent a big part of my day editing Abbie Hilton's audiobook.  It wasn't that big of a project, but the editing still took forever.  One thing I have to get through my thick skull is that the second I start falling asleep during a recording, I need to quit and regroup another day.  Once I started falling asleep the first time, the writing was on the wall.  Some lines I did eight or nine times, about ten minutes of recorded lines were pretty much useless, and I missed one line altogether.

I found a spot on the floor that wasn't particularly painful to do sit-ups on (it's all wood planks, but there's a run beside the couch, and I could stick my toes under the couch to anchor me), and I did as many as I could throughout the visit.  Unfortunately, it did leave a rather unsightly mark in a rather unsightly place, so the floor wasn't quite as soft as I'd have liked.

Something that I have always done, long before there was a cabin to go away to, is pretend I am not alone when I go somewhere alone.  I will role play, I will have imaginary conversations and arguments, I will practice Spanish, I will do voices and accents, I will come up with elaborate scenarios where I am with another person hiding out from the forces of evil or something.  It is something I've done to feel less lonely for, oh, my entire life.

This visit, June of 2020, was the first time it occurred to me that this was probably not at all healthy, that me imagining scenarios of human interaction instead of actually having human interaction is the mental equivalent of chronic masturbation.

And upon that particular epiphany . . . I briefly went blind.


I'm really a lost cause, kids.  No point in even trying to change now.

Anyhow, an alarming number of deer milled around the cabin all day long, eating and at one point, scraping away at the rapidly-diminishing pile of snow with its hooves.  I'm not sure why.

As you know, Bob, if you've read my blog or listened to me whine, audio editing is so overwhelmingly tedious, I can waste four or five hours on it and still only be half done with my projects (I'm looking at you, next episode of the Rish Outcast).  And video editing is, oh I dunno, a thousand times worse.  I recorded a reading of a short story last week, and it would take a normal person an hour to get it all ready to go, but if I had to guess, I'd say it'll take me around a month.

A hummingbird flew into the window while I was editing.  Thump!  Still not a fan of Elton John, are you?

I watched the movie Marshal and I are reviewing next, knowing that it would be absolutely awful.  But it wasn't.  And that kind of disappointed me.

Sit-ups Today: 166
Sit-ups In June: 516 (.17 of my monthly goal)

Soon, it was time to start getting ready to leave.  I didn't want to, but I also didn't want to wait so long it would be dark while I was driving through the canyon.  It made me sad to take off so quick, but I reminded myself that it's always better to leave 'em wanting more.

That's why I never fail to--

Words Today: 905
Words In June: 4471

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