It’s half past lunchtime on Sunday, and you find me hiding out in the junk room at home, listening to a singer-songwriter playlist. Randy Newman is singing that he thinks it’s going to rain today. He’s not wrong - it looks pretty miserable outside. Never mind. I’ll stay in the warm with a mug of coffee.
The last few days have been pretty relentless. I’m taking a day off today (apart from chores of course) - trying to invest a little in myself. Writing this blog post is a part of that plan.
I’m still flip-flopping between the various apps on the Mac that purport to help my organise the chaos a little. I’m still on the fence about switching to Things and Bear over Apple Reminders and Notes. I also found myself using Notion again at work this week, and reminded myself just how good it is. The only thing that stops me settling for Apple Reminders and Notes is the knowledge that they’re terrible at importing and exporting anything. Then of course there’s Obsidian…
In all honesty, I kind of miss using a paper bullet journal. It’s the reason I still do “rapid logging” in Obsidian at work - and it’s kind of its killer feature as far as I’m concerned.
See… even on a day off, when I’m supposed to not be thinking about any of this stuff, I end up thinking about it. I really am my own worst enemy.
(Three and a half hours pass)
My youngest daughter was struggling to make roast dinner on her own, so I had to get involved to go rescue her. Her boyfriend was also supposed to be helping, but his help seemed to consist of not being present for whatever reason while she struggled. We got there in the end, but not before my other half arrived back from a supermarket trip, discovered dinner was not on schedule, and started shouting at everybody.
Pretty normal Sunday then really.
I just finished washing up, and putting everything back away again - which entails discovering along the way that others haven’t put things away properly, so you end up pretty much emptying every cupboard you open to put them back properly (or wash things that have been hidden in cupboards without being washed properly).
I wonder how old kids get before they start to care? Or if they need their own house before that happens? I worry that our youngest will flounder badly when she gets her own place… Don’t get me wrong - she can do all the important things - cook, wash clothes, etc - but without somebody supporting her along the way, she’s going to find it hard.
I’m sure all parents have the same worries, no matter the age of their children. Life doesn’t have an instruction book, does it. I just hope I don’t turn into the previous generations that I see and hear all too often - complaining about the generations that have followed them rather than offering to help.
Don’t get me started about the “it was better in my day” crowd either - I’m firmly in the Louis C K camp - that we live in by far the best time that has ever existed. Sure, it’s scary at times - because change is happening faster than ever before - but just because the world is different, doesn’t meant mean it’s better or worse - it’s just different. There’s a wonderful TED talk on YouTube that applies a lot of statistics to the argument, and clearly shows that by any meaningful measure, the world is far better now than it has ever been before. Try telling that to anybody that consumes (and believes) the news presented to them on social media sites though…
Anyway.
Time to relax for at least a little of Sunday evening, before another work week starts. Who knows - maybe I’ll get the chance to catch up with one or two friends. I’m more than aware that I’ve fallen off the social bicycle in the last few months.