Friday

We are 10 days into the month, and this is only the second blog post. I’m not quite sure how that happened. Once upon a time I would have found the time to write every day. Somehow the universe has a habit of dumping on me from quite some altitude on an unerringly regular basis at the moment. Perhaps “at the moment” isn’t an accurate term any more - more “since before I can remember” might more apt.

I’m still sick, if you’re wondering. After confidently going out for a run last Monday, I woke up the next day with a head full of snot, and I’m only just beginning to win the battle now. Today is the first morning in nearly two weeks when I’ve been able to breathe through my nose.

Maybe this is what getting old is all about? What you would have got over in two days in your twenties or thirties suddenly takes two weeks.

My eldest daughter woke up the other day with a stiff neck, and then seemed shocked at our complete and utter lack of concern - hilarity even - that she couldn’t turn her head.

“Is this what getting older is? Suddenly waking up one day, and you can’t turn your head, because your body is falling apart around you?”

“Pretty much”

While reaching behind the television yesterday to pull the plug out of it - because it had crashed in the most mysterious way possible, and apparently it has no reboot option in any of it’s labyrinthine menus, my shoulder started hurting like hell. I winced. My other half saw me wince.

“What’s up?”

“My shoulder hurts - it’s been doing it for a while”

“How long?”

“I don’t know - about a year?”

You should have seen her face. If thunder clouds could have formed around the house, they would probably have sparked fork lightning.

I really can’t complain though - apart from my eyes slowly going wrong (I now need glasses for distance, and for reading), and my shoulder occasionally hurting if I stretch at unusual angles, I’m otherwise relatively ok. I don’t have to take any medication for anything - never have. I don’t have any conditions, diseases, or whatever else - as far as I know (and obviously, apart from being a huge nerd).

I’m luckier than many.

Oh - I’m red/green colourblind. Does that count as a “something”? I know it’s very common in men. I wonder why that is sometimes. Perhaps women historically needed good colour vision to see bad food maybe? To protect children?

Anyway.

While emptying my head into the keyboard, a work project is spewing debug code across the screens of several monitors - I’m half watching it while writing - half expecting it to crash and burn at any moment. I’m SUCH an optimist these days.

A recurring conversation that keeps happening with friends is how long I think I might keep at this software development lark - the day job. I really don’t know any more. I’ve been tempted to go full time at the whole content-creation thing online for a while, but I’m probably the most risk averse person I know. Having a “day job” really means “having a dependable income”. I’m more than aware that I’m surrounded at work by a legion of career minded folk - that are always striving for the next thing, and the next. I’m not really that person any more.

We’ll see.

Perhaps by the time FlightSimExpo rolls around again next year, I’ll have made my mind up. Perhaps not. Something has to give though - working all day for “the man”, and then working most evenings for myself isn’t sustainable forever. I have a mountain of unread books. TV shows to watch. Movies to go see. Friends to visit.

I wandered out onto the green outside our house the other evening to say hello to a few friends that were sitting on the grass together. I feel like I’ve become a bit of a stranger over the last couple of years. I don’t know how to fix it either.

As always, the first thing to do is probably to go for a run (as soon as the weather stops trying to incinerate us). That way I’ll have these conversations inside my head, rather than writing them down and boring the pants off everybody with them.

I just realised - it’s Friday - and you know what that means - tomorrow is Saturday - and probably breakfast at Wetherspoons - and another blog post (maybe).

We made it through another week, didn’t we :)