Hello August. Feeling pressure. Next month » D-day. I'm normally good at handling stress, but this has been relentless .. like white-water rafting for weeks, or months. Actually, it's been years (plural). And here come the rapids.
Pressure. Tension. Stress. (Long-term)
If you listen carefully, you can hear things starting to crack. Tension. Makes life interesting.
Told the Dog yesterday, "I just want to be bored for one day. One day. Is that too much to ask?"
The dust won't settle 'til next month, but today was the first time I actually felt an air of victory .. like uh, that ol' dog ain't gonna bark no mo'. The writing is on the wall. (Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting.)
This ain't to say I've emerged unscathed, or without scar. No. But we do what we must. Right? And victory here is defined narrowly as » not losing.
The Bug's Digital Milestone.dev
In related news .. I'm pleased to report a major developmental milestone » the Bug has mastered both point-n-click, and the click-n-drag.
Kid's software program at the library lets him click on a variety of colors (using paint-bucket palate-tool) and apply color to a picture by clicking on things such as » clouds (white), sun (yellow), trees (green), and sky (blue).
With click-n-drag, he can create rectangles or ovals, depending on the tool selected. To the ordinary observer these skills might seem trivial, but (as a certified geek) I recognized the development as a significant milestone in the digital age.
••• today's entry continues here below •••
Few months ago, seemed he was helpless. Now -- all of a sudden -- seems like there's nothing he can't do. He even pulled the ol', "Dad, you *promised* .. "
.. calling me on a promise I'd made.
"You're right,"
I said , "I *did* promise to take you to the park. Let's go,"
I said (with a jerk of my head). Honoring promises is crucial to trust (developing / maintaining). And trust is what it's all about. No?
I've been pitching tennis balls (under-hand) to him. Using my racketball racket, he drilled one that left a red-mark on my chest.
Nostalgia from a Dusty CD (Pinback)
On a nostalgic note, I dug out a portable CD player from storage today that Miss Julie gave me. I was gonna listen to an audio recording of Dylan's Chronicles (narrated by Sean Penn), but the player contained an old Pinback CD she made for me. (The girl had a knack for finding good music .. way out of the mainstream.)
Funny how music has such a powerful ability to transport us (Presto!) back to a previous time and place .. complete with emotional memories. Surprising. Disorienting. Took a stroll down memory lane (listening to Pinback), reminiscing. Used to tell friends, "Seems too good to be true."
Virtual Machines (are Rad)
In more-technical news, I been learning lots about virtual machines (very cool - I can run both Windows and Linux at the same time), and also data recovery (not so cool) .. after the bug somehow deleted a bunch of files on my laptop (photos).
The D Word (Bummersville)
Lastly, a good friend's wife left him last week. He is (naturally) in a bad place. I feel for him. Nobody saw it coming. They had so much in common. He wants to try to work it out. But she has already moved on (literally). Today they put their house on the market. Gotta be the worst time to try to sell property. (Many scavengers.)
