Achieving Better Life Balance

Hello everyone. It's another sunday morning. I've been up since six. There's a potluck lunch today and I'm doing some of my potatoes. They're smelling quite good at the moment if I do say so myself. Haven't wrecked a batch in a while but there's always that unhappy possibility. I've also never had these sit for as long as they're going to before being eaten as they will be today. Guess we'll see how that works. Either way you slice it, these lunches are always enjoyable.

Last evening, I went out with Mark and Wendy to a local pub called Lion Heart. A little on the pricy side but the food was quite good. I'll be seeing those two good people in a couple of weeks when they bring me back home from my week's vacation at Lake Joseph. They're absolute treasures of friends. Mark took a look at the sound card inside my computer as the headphone jacks weren't working well. He left thinking he had failed to acomplish anything but seems to have manage to unwittingly fix the problem in splendid fashion. We were all a bit too full to embark on a walk around the lake after supper but I've been doing that a lot myself lately. I went out for such a stroll yesterday morning and ran into a fundraising event for Parkinson's sufferers. I had the chance to chat with one of the organisers and got some information to go over. I also at last got around to exploring that fenced courtyard and pool area that I always pass while going out to the path around the lake. Met a nice woman in charge of a couple of little ones and had a pleasant talk. I've been running into more people out there these days. I guess that's how it all starts. Over time, more people will begin to have a sense of who I am. It certainly helps me feel less cut off from everyone. While I still hope to find some way to volunteer locally somewhere, I don't have the same urgent drive about that. Now that I'm plugging away at Enchantment's Twilight again, I at least feel like I'm keeping up my end of the bargain. One day, I'll say the right thing to the right person who'll actually have a more immediate need for my gifts and unlike everyone else, I'll be available. Meanwhile, I've still got Sandy to consider. He's starting to feel like learning to do more with his computer. His poor health and sensitive nature plus the robbery have all conspired to make things slow to a crawl. I just taught him for the second time how to use Kurzweil to read his mail. I hope he sticks with it and it becomes a habit. He spent hours ripping all of the CDs that remain to him in case this mysterious bandit returns. It must have taken him hours of mindless drudgery to go through that even if it's only a fraction of the hundreds he had collected over the years.

I went out earlier this week with a bunch of people from church. Joseph just got a tatoo of Scrabble tiles of his initials. He seems to be happy with the result. It was good to enjoy an evening like that. Those sorts of things do a great deal to build my sense of belonging. Everyone was able to just relax for a couple of hours and actually converse. There's a growing sense that I'll eventually truly hit my stride and achieve a more lasting life balance. Hopefully, that will sharply decrease the chances of such long patches of creativity blockage as I've experienced.

Thank goodness! The potatoes turned out roughly as I had hoped. They weren't rendered rock-hard or anything so ghastly as that would have been. The lunch went quite well and my potatoes disappeared quickly. I'm home for a while listening to the Mosen Explosion on
www.muchroomfm.com
as I sip a delicious cooler with ice. It has a strong cherry flavour. Later on, I'll be heading out to dinner with my family. The kids are coming over also.

It's now monday afternoon. I found myself quite tired after returning from last night's dinner and went to bed early. Consequently, I got up rather early. The two munchkins were up to their usual cute and chaotic antics. Amia is starting to grasp that I'm blind. However, I don't think she quite understands yet that I can't see anything at all and never have. She looks forward to going to school. I'm not certain Ava is quite as keen on education but she'll doubtless hit her stride in the new school soon enough. Dan's working much closer to home now in a Keg in Hamilton. That should help free him up and cut down on whatever commuting costs.

I've had an excellent afternoon and evening. Most of it was spent outside. I walked to the mall and back twice. The first time was to try withdrawing money by myself from one of the ATM machines using earbuds and their speech capability. It was very easy. I accidentally went into the basket ball area and thereby met a nice young fellow named Justin who helped me back over to the path. I had just finished talking with Sandy after returning from that walk when one of the two Shirleys I've met called to see if I wanted to go for a walk. It was a great day for it and she's always interesting to talk with. They're still doing construction out there but that hasn't been much of a bother so far. After a nice long chat on one of the more shady benches, I went to Symposium Cafe to take advantage of the burger and beer special on monday evenings. Been meaning to do that more often this summer but just never got around to it. The burger was excellent, the beer selection was sadly lacking, and the chocolate mousse cake and special coffee I ordered completely obliterated any savings on the main course. Cesar came up to say hello. First time that's happened when I've been there alone. It's certainly good that there's at least a slim possibility that I won't always end up eating alone while there. On the way back, I met a couple who have a blind nephew. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. I've no doubt I'll be hearing from them again soon. Days like this make up for a lot of dull and empty ones. That's for certain.

Over the past while, I've added a bunch of new music to my instrumental and pop song collection. Hilights in the pop department include Charlotte Perrelli's album Hero. A number of nifty songs there including You're Never Alone, Show Me A Mountain and Adicted. FM, a band from the eighties, coughed up an excellent song called Does it Feel Like Love. For my instrumental collection, I purchased the Ladyhawk soundtrack as well as several albums each from Michael Gettel and Zen Garden. The stuff I've heard so far from them sounds great so I got impulsive and splurged on those two. Nice to have at least one area in life where I can actually afford to be a bit impulsive. On that note, I believe I'll get this posted and, get some sleep. Catch you later everyone.