Coming up for air.
January is pretty much the one month where all I think about is work, but I did get quite a few scenes written on the next "Adventure" story. Still, it was haphazard process, so I don't know yet how well, or not, those scenes fit together. Still have a few more to write before this story is finished. Probably a March publication date. Though a part of me is wanting to be well into the next story before I consider the current one over and done with, in light of story lines that carry from one to the other, in case I might want to tweak something in the current story, before it's "set in stone".
January 31st is the most difficult deadline for my work. It's when 1099 forms, which companies send to contract workers , need to have their official copies sent to the government, and they have to be postmarked by that date. I compile the data for those forms and print the forms for some 30 individual companies that I oversee. (It's not 30 clients, because some of my client have multiple companies.) As usual, there were some last minute hassles, right up to an hour before I left for the post office on the 31st to send a huge package to the Internal Revenue Service. Still, I've learned not to angst so much about all that. I can only do what I can do. If clients don't give me the information I need to process the 1099 forms by the deadline, then they'll just be late and get fined.
Last July, I started Nutrisystems so I could fit into my riding jeans by my September vacation to my friend's ranch in Montana. I accomplished that rather quickly. I stayed on NS another five months, without caring about strictly following the plan, mainly because I liked the convenience of the food being delivered. By the end of the year, NS was feeling like the "same old, same old" and rather expensive, so I finally dropped it. What to do instead for food?
I'm fine with cooking, but I detest grocery shopping. I get tired of buying the same stuff, but going for something different means looking up various recipes, trying to divide by four (since most are for four servings), and buying stuff that I'll only use once. So, out of curiosity, I started looking at the various meal delivery services and was shocked -- there's dozens! I figured they couldn't be cost effective, but I'm actually thinking that's not necessarily true, especially since most all offer introductory discounts. So, I tried a couple and was amazed. It's like a gourmet meal every single evening. So many unique flavors that I haven't experienced before. There's some that deliver refrigerated meals already made, and you just heat them up before the expiration date. But I've decided I prefer the meal kits -- where they send the ingredients for a meal, and you make it according to the enclosed directions. Such kits are for a minimum of two people, so I only cook half per day, but I want the ritual of cooking the food myself, as I appreciate it that much more.
So, for me, this has been a really great discovery in the new year. Suddenly, I'm enjoying my relationship with food. I'm eating less throughout the day, because the meals are so satisfying and filling. Hours later, I can still be thinking about how good the last one tasted. I've even made a point of eating dinner at the table, so I can focus on appreciating the flavors, rather than eating mechanically in front of the TV. I spent way less in January for food than what I'd averaged per month in 2019, and am enjoying it way, way more. And, according to my clothes, also shed a few pounds despite more calories. It's a win all the way around.
Early in the season we got a big snowfall of heavy, wet snow. So, while I can enjoy shoveling up to a point, that was too much for me to want to do. I took advantage of someone offering to do shoveling for $30 on my neighborhood website. Turned out, it was women and, while it was hard to tell in the dark (she did mine after already doing two others), it's unlikely she was under the age of thirty. She said she really needed the money and to please contact her if I wanted her help in the future. We didn't have another really big storm until the past few days. I texted her and after an hour hadn't heard back. Somebody knocked on my door, and it was a teenager with a shovel, asking if I wanted my driveway shoveled. I asked, "How much?" "Oh, nothing," he said. Huh??? So, he shoveled my driveway and walk. I tried to pay him ten bucks when he was done but he wouldn't take it. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Makes me wonder if he was in the dog house with his parents and they told him to go out and shovel neighbors' sidewalks but make sure he asks first. If that was the case, though, he seemed to be very cheerful for someone doing it as a punishment. Maybe he was just super bored and desperate for something to do.
My state made the national news early in January, because there were a lot of drone sightings, mainly in rural counties north and east of Denver. These weren't the ordinary recreational drones, but larger and more sophisticated, and flying all over. They weren't doing any harm, but the FBI joined local law enforcement in trying to find a source (which was expected to be an automotive vehicle in the vicinity with people controlling them), if only to put the public at ease. Then the "mysterious drone" story suddenly disappeared from the headlines, prompting some to speculate that the military was behind it and local law enforcement was instructed to abandon its investigation. My town is south of Denver, and a few days ago, a neighbor pointed out on the local website that drones were flying around. I looked out and saw a couple hovering in place for over 30 minutes, though I wouldn't have known they were drones, since they were just bright lights in the sky -- lower than stars, but much higher than a recreational drone that routinely flies around the neighborhood. One neighbor insisted that the lights were airplanes, since the Denver airport had recently developed a plan to re-route incoming flights to go near our region, and one can't tell that a plane is moving when it's facing their direction. Still, I don't think a light that was a plane would have appeared stationary for over half an hour. It doesn't really matter; it's just that I've read quite a bit about the 1940s Roswell UFO crash, and the buzz around this particular subject feels a lot like that. Some drone hobbyists think that the recent "drone scare" was manufactured, in an attempt to tighten laws surrounding drone use.
In other local news, my neighborhood is having a trash crisis. The trash company got behind, due to snow, and then the holidays, in December. There's been continual problems since, with trash pickup being late and sometimes skipped altogether for the week. The HOA (homeowner's association) is trying to get bids from other companies. Thankfully, I barely fill up one large trash bag a week, so it's not much of a problem for me, but some houses have multiple trash containers sitting in front of their homes day after day, and this area is at a high altitude that gets strong winds, so trash can be blown about. I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better, because other communities south of Denver that use the same trash service are also not getting picked up regularly, so they're also going to be looking for new companies to contract with, with the latter likely not able to fulfill all the requests. It would be a good time for someone to start a new trash company. Guaranteed customers.
Just past the midway point between the ending of Yellowstone's second season and the beginning of Season 3. Doesn't seem that far away now.
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