• The spark of creativity has fizzled. Which is fine, as I've come to accept that it comes and goes.
• It does leave several projects I had in progress or wanted to work on up in the air.
• These included a new backend for this site (considering going to Statamic, and a completely new website dedicated to electronic music.
• Instead of productive creativity, my brain is currently absorbed by slither.io. Talk about a fruitless endeavor. It is fun though, and not every moment needs to be filled with being creative.
• These are lessons I've only really come to understand here in my mid 50s.
• Mid 50s. Fuck I'm old.
• In other news, the wife and I spent three nights out last week. For two people who tend to stay within their comfort zone, this was pretty amazing.
• We went downtown to see Sarah and meet her boyfriend. We had dinner at Georgia Brown's. In a word: divine.
• That was Monday. Tuesday, the Mrs. and I were back in DC to see the Nationals lose to the Rockies. Had a really good time and given how easy it is to get downtown now, we've decided we need to try to get to at least one more game before the season ends.
• Wednesday we went to a brewery for their "One-hit Wonders" music trivia. Again, great time, and gave me ideas for my own music trivia, which was on...
• Sunday, I hosted music trivia for the wine club at the winery the Mrs. works at on weekends. It was the first time I've done music-related trivia (I host trivia in a non-music format twice a month there), and it went over like gangbusters. From the patrons to the staff, I had nothing but compliments about what a good time they had and even praised my music selection. I'm very much looking forward to doing more music trivia type events.
• This probably should've been a regular blog posting and not a list, but oh well.

• Driving around the DMV has gotten worse. People are not paying attention, feel more entitled, or too absorbed in their phones. Every time I'm out now, I witness something ridiculous; people running red lights, not stopping at stop signs, swerving all over the roads. Every. Time.
• Been playing bachelor this Fourth of July weekend, as the wife has gone back to AZ to visit family and friends. Her mom messaged a few weeks back saying her dad wanted to see her. Her dad is in his 80s and when someone that old wants to see you, you go.
• As no one's around to tell me what to eat, the first day she was gone I had three bowls of cereal. That's pretty much all I ate that day.
• I took Friday and Monday off so I'm enjoying doing pretty much the same old thing, but for a long extended weekend. Today will involve vacuums.
• Took my drone (no affiliate link) up and watched some of the neighborhood fireworks that way. Was pretty cool to view the bursts from "eye-level". Will do it again next year.
• Work is essentially back to normal. No more "unassigned" tickets in the backlog. I think we can finally call that monster of a project that ate up 4 months of my life done.

My dad preferred to use the term "Frugal" as opposed to being "Cheap". After my parent's divorce, his frugality escalated, with him not wanting to shell out for things he deemed "unneccesary". When I was in high school he didn't want to pay for a yearbook, nor a class ring. Getting him to help with money for band trips was a chore. He also took to buying the store brands of everything he could. Some things would make sense; bleach, for example, I get. I mean, bleach is bleach. One time he bought the store brand version of Velveeta, but it was so bad even my dog wouldn't eat it. But that didn't stop him from saying "We can't buy Velveeta until this one is gone". Needless to say, chunks of that "Processed Food Loaf" (literally what is was called) disappeared when he wasn't around. In the garbage, over the back fence, etc.

I tell this because I, unfortunately, have some of the same tendencies. I have a hard time spending money on things not only do I deem not necessary, but things I actually want, but feel like I can either find alternatives to, or flat out don't deserve.

Recently, say over the past 6 months or so, I've made a conscious effort to not be so miserly. The wife has a subscription to a food delivery that shows up once a week, with all natural, organic, locally grown vegetables, eggs, butter, etc. I know that's not cheap, but I'm managing to not stress about it.

When shopping, I was buying the store brand flavored seltzers, even though I discovered I really liked the cherry version of Bubly water. I finally told myself it was ok to spend a little more for something I enjoy.

As a web developer, I've used VS Code as my IDE of choice for years, which we also use at work. It's free, and to be fair, it's a great editor. But as the saying goes, "There's no such thing as a free lunch". Microsoft, which owns and distributes VS Code, has a bunch of data collection in how their app is used. So, like Facebook and Twitter (yes, I'm deadnaming), if it's free, your data is how they make their money.

I've long admired Panic as a company and used Transmit back in the day. Sometime back, they released Nova, a native Mac code editor. I really liked it, but only used it as long as the trial lasted, because it was $100 bucks. This past week, I downloaded it again, and after just two days playing with it, paid for the license. It just feels good to support the smaller code shops. Kind of like shopping at local bookstores, as opposed to simply ordering something online.

The culmination of all this relaxing of the purse strings, was a new Mac Studio. I've had a 2015 MacBook Pro as my personal machine since, well, 2015. The Mac Studio is the first computer I've purchased for myself in nearly a decade. And while I hemmed and hawed about it for ages, I finally took myself over to the Apple Store and purchased the base model. There were arguments for getting the Mac Mini, but I'm hoping to do more video editing, and still am doi...

I think my desire to post here waxes and wanes... but more waning lately than waxing.

Pretty much, life is the same. Work is work, but at least I have a job. I’ve been wrestling off and on (again, more off than actually on) with Drupal in trying to get it to work the way I want it to work with a new site I’m attempting to create. Kids are back in school and seem to be adapting well. The oldest is keeping on top of things, which is good, and the youngest is enjoying middle school and all that entails.

I bought a truck back in August. She’s a 2006 Tacoma Double Cab 4WD Long Bed. I named her Rosie.

I have plans for her, new equipment, new wheels and tires, etc. Naturally those all cost money, which I don’t have enough of at the moment ’cause I just bought a new truck. Vicious circle.

Gail’s off to Ireland this Friday. Assuming she can kick this cough-bug-flu-bronchitis thing she has. Whatever it is. She doesn’t know, doctors don’t know. Hopefully she’ll be OK to travel, ’cause she’ll kick herself if she doesn’t get to go with her ghost hunting group to Ireland to visit the castles and such.

Soccer’s back in season, but I’m not coaching this year. Had originally planned on going back to school, but can’t afford that so now I’m looking at getting a part-time job to get on top of these bills so I can go back. We shall see.

And that’s how my world is turning, in a nutshell. Exciting, no?

It’s entirely too nice to be sitting inside, in my drab corporate cube, staring at this screen.

July has been odd. Yesterday the temps were only in the upper 70s and the humidity has been very tolerable. Today we’re in the low to mid 80s. I should be on my bike heading west, into the twisty curves of the some nice roads along the Appalachians, or down into West Virginia. It’s simply gorgeous outside.