8 March 2024

We made it to the end of the week and for my house it’s the end of the quarter, my wife starts her new job new Monday. At the beginning of the quarter, before last Christmas, she received a job offer. Since then we found a new house, moved, sold our old house and visted Disney world to celebrate. Only time will tell what happens next, I’ll be alone with the baby more and will have to take care of the fallen tree in my driveway. As Spring begins I’ll need to spend more time mowing the yard, my dad helped diagnose that my lawnmower should only need a new battery. I’ll begin life with a tractor and will likely do more mechanic work on that. The tools and strength that a tractor opens me up to will feel like a new beginning. My other fresh start is the podcast, Thursday is a recording day and yesterday I was able to get a lot of my chest. The week before I was having technical difficulties with limited internet, now that everything is up, I was running. One of the co-host’s microphone wasn’t working yesterday, but I was unphased knowing that I had a lot to say and could fill the time speaking nonstop. The avid reader might wonder how I have more to say when writing this blog everyday, well having to type out my thoughts is a bottle neck. When I started my first podcast Being Chris Cooper the premise was that my brain is constantly moving at a fast pace, so I would remove the barrier between brain and body, speaking as fast as I can think. Since then I’ve gained a lot of life experience and feel like I have something of value to share. I’ll share the links to the Spotify and Youtube channel below to my new podcast Wrecking and Rapping. New episodes Saturday morning.

https://www.youtube.com/@drawingmylifeaway124

7 March 2024

We drove back from Disney yesterday, by the time we were home it was too late and I was too tired to write. Today I figured I’d go through all the pins I’ve got on my suspenders, for the record Disney sells lanyards with their pin starter kits, I got the idea for suspenders mostly because that’s what I thought the kits were selling. Going from the top left down then up the right side we first have Peter Pan’s hat, the boy that never grew up and he can fly. Then there’s Donald Duck, growing up my siblings and myself would pick characters so that we’d each have our own Donald was left for me, I like his boisterous attitude and his short temper. The big 50 I got while visiting during Disney World’s 50th year anniversary, there were a lot of different characters available and I liked the chipmunks most from what I saw. The Minnie pin came when my sister said I needed one and the silver ribbon looked nice, I had a silver Iago I traded it for since it looked similar and I wasn’t much attached to him. The orange flying car is my most recent addition, I don’t know what it’s from, but it looks cool enough. The end of the left side is Wolverine, a favorite of mine most of my life, he’s short and tough which doesn’t appear to apply to me except when I started liking him I was shorter than all of my brothers. Going up the right side is Snow White because my daughter likes her, she also wore that dress. My dog is named after Winnie the Pooh and I’m Christopher too, so when I got a couple Pooh pins I decided to try for the whole cast. The American Mickey is for my love of American memorabilia. The Master Sorcerer award was the first pin I got that made me want to collect more, it reminded me of Army medals except fancier. Finally is Gaston who I’ve already written about, I then put the crown on his head to show him some appreciation. 

5 March 2024

Hobbling back to the car, we’ve completed our trip to Disney World, a day and a half is all we could handle. Baby girl had a fantastic morning wearing the cowgirl boots she loves and got to ride her first choo choo train. Mom and dad are very tired and ready for a nap, thankfully the baby is napping on schedule. I got some more pins for my suspenders and was able to get a bag of backings for the ones that lost theirs. The train we took led to an animal conservatory and petting zoo, we got to see lots of goats, sheep, and even a cow. Some rowdy goats were butting heads while we were visiting. For breakfast we went to a buffet where the Disney characters walk around, Mickey met with the baby and while she was getting her diaper changed I got to meet Donald, he hit me with the slickest move in the book. After the photo I thanked the duck and went to shake it hand then it pulled it away and slicked back his hair. I’ve never felt so foolish in my life, he was laughing right in my face. Donald is my favorite of the mouse gang so I let it pass. Other than that there was a lot of walking with some pretty pictures, now I’m going to unpackage my new pins and add them to my collection.

4 March 2024

We made it to Disney World and got through our first morning, we’ll be going back this afternoon when the baby wakes up from her nap. There were parts to Disney we’ve never gotten to see before like the baby changing area, it felt like having a baby butler. Time moves fast and we go slow, that’s alright it’s all about enjoying the time we have here. Today we’re at Magic Kingdom and tomorrow we’re going to do Animal Kingdom, I mostly wanted to get shopping done this morning and in the afternoon we’ll be getting some photos. There’s an adorable Snow White dress we have picked out for the baby, I’ll be wearing the same old suspenders with pins. I’ve gotten into the trading pins the park has available, I also added a Snow White pin to my collection in honer of my darling. Other pins I’m after would be the Winnie the Pooh gang as I already have Pooh and Piglet, I got a Minnie Mouse because my sister said to. The Pin disaster from this morning was that the first pin I traded for had a bent point so the backing didn’t go on all the way, of course it fell off right away. The pin was recovered, but I’ll have to replace the backing. I told my wife it’s a marathon and a sprint because we aren’t going to slow down until we leave, then when we’re in the park it’s go go go. The baby was very tired by the time we were heading out, I’m hoping this will get her to sleep in tomorrow morning since she’s been waking up early the last couple days. Things have been hectic for a good quarter of a year, so that’s to be expected. She’s great and so is my wife.

1 March 2024

We officially have fiber internet, we’re back on the grid and it couldn’t have come at a more necessary time. Last night I tried to record the podcast with the bois and the signal was so bad I kept getting dropped from the meeting. My rap got recorded and a little Shakespeare before I decided to call quits on the rest of the episode. At this point my biggest concern is us getting together every week to establish the habit and here we are at the end of another week. We got some good work accomplished, hopefully I’ll get my tooth taken care of this afternoon and if so I guess it’ll be a perfect week; minus the bill. Now that we’re established in the new place it’s the perfect time to leave, Sunday we drive to Florida, Monday and Tuesday we’ll be in Disney World, then Wednesday we come back. Then another recording next Thursday and the wheel keeps on turning. I was looking into portable sawmills yesterday as a way to deal with the big tree in my driveway, there are also several downed trees in the back woods that I’ll have to clean up eventually. There’s a lot of research to be done on lumberjacking and I still have to get everything together for bees. The bees arrive April 4th, my wife goes back to work towards the end of March. There is no stopping, only a chance to look back making sure we’re clear to move on. When I walk the woods I can see what will be, it was the same at the old house, I bought a mess and turned it into something of value, that was nice since some of that value will be turned into money, but I’m in it to eat homegrown food.

Leap Day 2024

Of course since I said something about it not looking like rain we would end up getting rain later that day. There was a nice storm and I enjoyed watching the rain, my sitting spot was not as protected as I would have liked, improving my surrounding is part of the fun. The fun I’ve been having today is getting my recording setup together for the podcast tonight. I finally have a desk together to work on. The first episode was shot in a shed with my stuff sitting on a small ladder, and the second episode I was using moving boxes in a closet. Because we’ve yet to unpack everything I have to hang blankets to dampen the echo. I can’t quiet say when things become fun, it’s more like hard things are fun after they’re accomplished, even then I’m just happy to be done and on to the next one. In learning I like to apply the 80/20 rule, it takes 20% of the effort to learn 80% of the material and then 80% effort is spent learning the remaining 20% of material, this also works with creating. In a short period of time the rough cuts can be made to give shape, then the majority of time is spent polishing for the finished product to look presentable. I mention this because by the end of all that polish, all I want to do is move on to a different project and never see what I’ve created again. Another point I’ve been teaching my brother with on the podcast is the details that matter to the creator are likely to be missed by the audience, that’s why it’s not always best to bring attention to something we notice, maybe that nail that stands out will never be seen.

28 February 2024

No rain yesterday and while the weather looks like rain with dreary clouds and blowing winds, I don’t think we’ll see a drop. Usually rain comes in my life at times of relief and we’re not there yet. There were some issues with the buyer’s inspector not being able to find the septic tank, our realtor was nice enough to go out there and take a picture of it. The inspector wanted to pull a toilet out to run a snake and find it, it’s a ridiculous request that still has me worked up. My initial reaction is to contact his employer because I’m certain they aren’t insured for that as inspectors are meant to inspect, not deconstruct. I try not to get involved in most things because once I am I’m going to make aggressive decisions that make everyone uncomfortable, not my problem, I didn’t want to be involved in the first place but if everyone wants to play incompetent than I’ll straighten them out. Enough of that, I’ll release it. The record player got unpacked today, I had three moving boxes of records so being able to empty those creates space in the house. We also have beautiful music and decorations on display. We’re chipping away at the mountain of boxes, the secondary mountain is my library of books, some cleaning is required to get the bookshelf in place then the books can be unpacked and there’s not much left after that. We might get land line internet on Friday, that’s exciting, then I don’t need to be conscious of my data usage. We have plenty of data available, but knowing there’s a finite limit makes me think before I click. The internet also serves as a valuable educational tool, I plan to start learn photo and video editing for the podcast.

27 February 2024

My tooth ache wasn’t bad as I thought it was though it’s still bad, I have an infection that’s causing the pain and antibiotics should help. I’ll still need surgery to solve the root of the problem or it’ll continue to get infections, I know that’s true because this happened already years go and I ignored it then. I’m happy to be at a point in my life that I can take care of myself and the dentist said everything else looks great, not bad for not having seen a dentist since 2012. There was also a strained muscle on the other side of my body that I was able to relieve by sleeping on a heating pad. Now I’m trying to rest as much as possible, of course I was doing some unpacking this morning that I probably shouldn’t have. I’m excited to unpack, but am limited by my body’s capabilities or “the spirit is willing but the body is weak.” Other than that I’m mostly walking around the land to get a feel for it while teaching the dog his boundaries. We don’t have a fence like we did at the last place which means there will always be a danger of him running off, he’s a hunting dog and if he gets focused on a critter there’s no calling him back. We accepted the offer we got on the old house and are under contract, there will be an inspection today, that’s likely to be the only possible hang up. Hopefully all goes well and the buyers are equally motivated as us for a fast closing. Today might be my first rain at the new house, I’ve alway loved watching the rain and the new house has a lot of good options for rain watching.

26 February 2024

We made it through the weekend, of course now my body is letting me know every pain I’ve been ignoring for the last couple weeks. There’s a tooth ache I beat down years ago that’s reemerged and now I’m going to have to see a dentist about it. Other than my body needing to recover, everything is good. The big tree in the driveway is fine to stay there for awhile since we have another entrance. We’re going to tour a new daycare today and hopefully be enrolled soon. On Sunday we’re going to be driving to Disney world to celebrate a successful move and somewhere in all this I’ll try to get more rest in. I suspect the tooth will need some serious work which could result in me being on bedrest. Our old house got it’s first offer and it seems like a good one, so unless a better offer comes in the next couple hours we’ll accept that one. We’re most concerned with being rid of the old place more than trying to get any deal out of it. We’ve got a new place we call home, I’ve even got a new jacket. Years ago an Army friend gave me a flannel jacket to say thanks for helping him. I’ve worn that flannel almost everyday and now it’s fallen apart in some places. My wife bought me a new jacket just like the old one except a new color, I think it’s nice to have a new uniform for a new location. The uniform also serves as something like power armor for me, I’m imagining now how the Power Rangers had different colored outfits. The second episode of the Wrecking and Rapping podcast is now out on Spotify and Youtube, so please check those out to learn more about the project.

23 February 2024

We’re back online, sort of, we got some sort of hotspot device that people would use while camping or travel to provide internet. The connection is slow, but we’re working with what we’ve got. What I got when I arrived at the new house was a fully grown tree had fallen across my driveway. If these was my first house I’d be more upset about it, by now I know this is the order of the universe and I thank God for the opportunity to overcome this hurdle. There are a lot of hurdles ahead of me, I’ve nearly tripled the size of my previous land. After we sell the old house I’ll have money to buy a tractor and that will help lighten the load. My lawnmower won’t start, it was transported on the truck and my fear is that some gasoline rattled into somewhere it shouldn’t be, I didn’t know the tank was supposed to be empty. With moving there were so many moving parts at once that decisions had to be made, the truck filled up without all of my stuff on it so I had to decide what we weren’t taking. When I arrived at the new place both the movers and the delivery of the new fridge arrived at the same time, while dealing with those two teams I got a call about my daughters health insurance. Again, if this was my first rodeo I would have been freaking out, but this is how it is. We’re in the new place now and we’ve established a basecamp, it will be a long time before we’re fully unpacked and yet things will continue to get better. The worst is over, that is something to celebrate. I don’t really know what my next move will be, for awhile I’ll be trying to rest as much as possible. I did manage to record the second episode of the Wrecking and Rapping podcast, check that out hopefully tomorrow.