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Took in my car to get the axle replaced. And also the brake pads. I kind of winced at the price, but it had to be done. Upside, it drives much better now, so I'm not going to complain about the price.

I've discovered and it's very convenient to just drive it down early in the morning, leave it at the mechanic's, and then walk to work. Something to keep in mind the next time I need something done.

Also had my doctor appointment today. I am so fed up with my feet pain. Upside, he seemed to think it isn't something that can't be fixed. Downside, he didn't have a lot of suggestions. He thinks it might be a combination of things. My feet are slightly flat, and also they're different sizes, so I might need some kind of custom insole. Or at least different shoes with better support. But he also thinks I should walk less. Which... I mean... well, the reason I walk so much is that it's easy for me to motivate myself to exercise that way. But maybe I will try to reduce it to 45 minutes of walking on some days, and replace the rest with 15 minutes of bodyweight exercises, stretching, and yoga. That would probably be beneficial for me regardless of whether it helps my feet or not, because I have been finding myself more stiff lately, less flexible. So... well, I don't know.

Plus I've been meaning to do more bodyweight exercises and such anyway. (Where did that goal to work up to full bridge go... oh, yes, completely disappeared.)

There is only one podiatrist in town* so I guess I'll have to make an appointment there.

Man, I have been absolutely flat out lately. Here are some things I've done between the weekend and now:

+ On Saturday, I drove down to Anzac to attend an event. The local pride group was having a ~beach day~ at an outfit that does private lakeside events. It was my first time driving so far - I've never driven outside town, and this place is about 55km away. It's been about 25 years since I was last at Gregoire Lake, and I've never been to Anzac, and I kept thinking I'd get lost (and I did get lost once I actually got to Anzac, but I found the lakeside place eventually!).

+ The beach day itself was nice! The beach wasn't very beach-y, but the weather was good. I'm glad I remembered to bring a towel. I also brought my watercolour paints! And I sat there and painted and chit-chatted with some acquaintances. All in all, it was very nice, and I'm glad that I actually got up the nerve to go, because I'd been kind of 50/50 on it before that.

+ ...Anyway, I feel a lot more confident about my ability to, like, drive outside the city now, even if it was just brief. (And also it gave me some increased appreciation for T-sensei, because he comes all the way from Anzac to teach us, and wtf, that's such a long way to drive, especially in winter.)

+ As for watercolours, doing plein air stuff was fun and I'm so glad that my new palette works well - something with a cover is convenient for that, more portable than what I was using before. I did some works with plain watercolour, and others that also included watercolour pencils and gouache. I think I prefer the ones that include gouache over the plain watercolours - they're more vibrant. Though also I think I have a tendency to dilute too much and work too wet. IDK, I'm going to have to experiment a bit more.

+ On the Sunday I went to a talk about the various transphobic bills that are being implemented by the Alberta government. I took some notes and have some thoughts on it, but I want to make that its own post. Anyway, it was a good talk.

+ Worked a little on my IIBB fic. At this point it's just line editing. There's one separate scene I want to write and possibly post as a DVD extra, but that's unnecessary. Mostly I just reaaaallly want to get the line edits done because that deadline is looming, auuuugh. ...But this fic was written several years ago and I can't read it without thinking "ughhhh". It's pretty decent, but still, ughhhh. (I'm so sick of looking at it.)

+ But speaking of writing, someone recently posted one of the nicest comments I've ever received. It had something about appreciating that I trust the audience to pick up on subtlety. That felt really good.

+ Had my last physio appointment for now. I'm cleared to go back to judo in September. I'm looking forward to starting again, but I'm also going to have to try to take it easy on that arm. ...Honestly, I think last year, I may have been overdoing it. But it isn't so much that I want to do less judo as it is that I want to also have time and energy to do things that are not judo. IDK, going to have to figure out how to balance it better. Three classes per week might be too much for me.

+ Honestly, I've been feeling very flat out all week. It's like every day this week there has been something that needs to be done after work, some kind of chores or favours for other people or appointments or SOMETHING, and I honestly just want to kick back and read a goddamn book. But that will have to wait for a bit. :V Ah, well.

+ Yesterday it snowed. I was slipping and sliding all over the place in the slush. Today was my tire change appointment, of course. I dropped the car off at quarter to 9, was told that my work would be done by 12:30, but it wasn't actually done until 4. It's good that I didn't have any thing pressing scheduled for today, but I will admit that I'm kind of annoyed. They also charged me an arm and a leg, but I went through the invoice and it seems like they did everything that I asked for, so I guess prices have just gone up. Bummer, but nothing to be done about it.

+ Met up with Bea for coffee. That was nice. She mentioned that the Pride YMM general meeting is coming up. The more I think about it, the more I think I won't be able to make it. Like, it'll be my third day of work at my new job, and then the AGM at 6, and then judo after the AGM. I can't do all of that. ...So I sent in a proxy vote and will be skipping the meeting. I really wish I could make it, but uh, no.

+ ...Anyway, Bea is doing good. She's writing and stuff and it sounds like she's having a good time with it. I was kind of tempted to ask if she wants to do some writing meetups (like, NaNo but not NaNo) but I think I'm better off not scheduling anything in November. Ah, well.

+ I bought some new winter boots and am having buyer's remorse. Or rather, I'm not sure if these will be good enough for what I plan to use them for. If I were driving to work, they would be fine, but I'll have to take the bus, and I think these might not be grippy enough (nor sturdy enough) for the job in a Fort Mac winter. Luckily, I can take them back I think, but urgh. Will have to take a look at the receipt and see what the policy is. I'm somewhat disappointed that I won't be able to drive to work, but considering the location, it makes a lot of sense. I'm not looking forward to spending so much time in the cold, but at least I don't have any transfers.

+ I've been really busy. I need to slow down, but it's hard. There's so much to do, and so much that I want to do, and not enough time in the day to do all of it.

+ I kind of want to try using a planner next year. There are so many pretty ones out there. But I don't know if it would fit into my workflow. I guess I could always pick one up and see. I remember that when I was in university, I used one for a while, and it worked out all right. I think... it didn't have set calendar dates; you wrote them in. So even if I forgot to write things out for a week, I could still use it. Maybe I should try to find something like that.

I had to take my car in for service. It's been making some weird noise; we suspect it's a minor thing, but I wanted to get it checked out for sure, since it doesn't seem like something I can fix myself. Mom says I should consider getting a newer vehicle some time soon (ish), but honestly, I don't have the time or the patience to shop around, ugh.

Last night, I smacked my foot while getting into the tub, and now one of my toes is very purple. So, I'm going to try not to aggravate it too much for a few days; it hurts pretty bad. That means not taking my daily walk, which is an absolute piss-off. I might be able to do some other exercises, but frankly I don't like those much, and I'd rather just... be able to walk without being in pain. Fuck me.

[Edit]
It looked even worse later on. I'm starting to wonder if that toe might be broken. But there's not much you can do in that kind of situation, so the current plan of action is to tape it, ice it, and try to stay off it as much as possible. UGH, this is so annoying.
[/Edit]

And also work is still busy, and I feel very tired.

This entry is just one big whine, but that's pretty much how I feel right now.

☆ Wishing a blessed solstice to everyone, etc etc etc. I forgot all about it until this evening, per usual. (I'd probably remember these dates better if I were more plugged in to the pagan community, but that is... a subject for another day.) Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to the return of the sun, even if it's going to be rather, uh, incremental.

☆ My car was experiencing some issues, so I took it in. Surprise, it's going to require some costly repair! And another battery change. I wish I could say I'm shocked, but my car is a hunk of junk the kind of vehicle that would probably do perfectly fine somewhere warm like, I dunno, Calgary, but really doesn't handle our extreme weather very well.

☆ No response from my beta reader on that FTH fic. Starting to wonder if they haven't been checking that particular email. I'm beginning to feel the desire to just throw the thing on Ao3 and then edit it later if they ever do respond.

☆ I feel like my tumblr dash is conspiring to make me watch Columbo. Except it's just Tik posting a lot of it, so it's a one-man plot. If I had more time, he would have succeeded. ;V

☆ Just saw the trailer for The Tragedy of Macbeth. I had not heard about this until now! I'm super interested! It looks really artsy.

+ Finally took my car downtown to get the summer tires put on, but... we're predicted to get snow? Ah, well, you know what they say - until Victoria Day is over, anything can happen. ;p (Well, maybe "they" don't say that, but my family makes sure to never plant anything until after that date, since we can still get frost at the very least.)

+ Eurovision first semifinal! Hooray! I was able to watch/listen to it while I worked. Happy that Lithuania and Ukraine made it through; disappointed that Croatia didn't make it. Said "I kind of hope that Norway goes to the final - for the lols", and huzzah, they did! I suspect that the people who voted for them were thinking the same thing. xD

+ Did canon review for my Multifandom Drabble assignment. Very excited about this! Now if I could just... get my brain to settle down long enough to sit and write something.... (Oh no.)

Got into a fender bender in the dollar store parking lot on the 21st. Or not even. We were both parked, I opened my car door, it left a dent in the car next to me.

We exchanged insurance etc but man, it wasn't a good day. The lady whose car I dented was pretty mad.

Now [April 26] I got a call about the insurance claim. And my brain is catastrophizing over this. Oh, anxiety, oh you.

This kind of thing happens all the time, and it's frustrating and embarrassing and yeah, my insurance is going to go up. But it isn't the end of the world.

Mind you, I personally wouldn't have filed for something like a dent in a car door, but I guess it takes all kinds....

Regardless of what happens here, I'll manage. It'll be fine! In the meantime, I just feel kind of like there's someone over my shoulder freaking out (my malfunctioning brain), while I'm sitting here feeling weirdly zen about it.

The flood water has gone down, and most of the areas that were under evac order aren't any more. We're still under boil-water order. Post delivery is temporarily suspended, partly because our main post office was under water.

I really should get the snow tires taken off my car. But, y'know, pandemic. And the place that I usually go to for that was downtown, so of course it's closed, though I think it wasn't directly in the flood zone. ...Maybe I should see if my brother can help me do it.

My workplace called me and said that those who want to come in to collect their personal belongings can do that tomorrow. A lot of it is going to need to be thrown out; apparently the water was desk-height in there. Looks like I'm going to need to buy new office shoes when I'm back at work (whenever that will be). But I had some things in cabinets that will probably be fine to bring home.

My parents went to their cabin in Athabasca for the weekend. I can't say I feel like this is a good idea, but I can also say that it was nice to have some peace and quiet for a change.

Stuff I did over the last few days:
+ Scrubbed inside the dishwasher and cleaned the dishwasher filter. It was absolutely disgusting. Consider this your reminder to do it monthly if you have one.
+ Vacuumed and cleaned the inside of my car, and washed the car mats.
+ Hosed down my car. We don't have any car soap, so I decided just a rinse would have to do, and even that made it look way better, so I'm satisfied.
+ Touched up the paint on my car and fixed some nasty rust spots.
+ Rinsed the patio table and chairs so I can sit out on the deck.
+ Misc chores, cleaning, etc.
+ Started some indoor seedlings for vegetables and flowers for mom's garden. We're doing beets, tomatoes, marigolds, and cosmos. Also have a pack of beans, but those will be able to go straight into the ground later on. It's still too cold to plant anything directly outside yet.
+ Finished my fic for Nordipalooza and did a round of revs. Will still need tweaking, but if I had to post it today, I wouldn't be embarrassed by it.
+ Worked on an auction fic.
+ Blocked a pair of fingerless gloves.
+ Made pancakes for breakfast.

And that's all for now.

Maybe I'll make some muffins after I pick up my stuff tomorrow.

- My car wouldn't start this morning. Dad had to drive me to work, because it was too cold for me to take the bus (well, I COULD have done it, but it was -40 and we had an extreme cold warning, so...). We managed to boost the car, and it seems to be working now, but crapping out twice in the span of just over a week suggests I might need to replace the battery soon.

+ On the upside, it's supposed to warm up a bit on the weekend!

- I keep looking at my schedule and everything is so busy, I just don't want to do anything at all.

+ I have a ticket to see Frozen II on Sunday, so at least I'm going to do something fun. :D I've seen some vague mixed reviews, but since I've calibrated my expectations pretty well, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

- But if my car craps out again, I might need to walk down to the cinema (which takes about 60 minutes....)

So, that's that.

I'm just very tired in general lately. So, sorry if I haven't been very social. I do read every entry that you all post; I just don't have the brain power to respond most of the time.

Current status on writing projects:
+ SSSS advent calendar: Drafted. Need to fill it in/smooth it out.
+ Hetalia rarepair secret santa: About 60% drafted. A little bit unsure about it. The requests were very broad, but hopefully recip will like it.
+ Everything else: I have 2 things I'm actively working on, 1 thing I haven't touched for a while but do want to work on, and a very old wip that I re-read recently and was like WOW THIS IS GOOD, I SHOULD FINISH IT. All of them will have to be on hold for now. ;p ;p

Oh boy, was today ever exhausting.

( Cut for boring RL stuff )

Tl;dr: Today started out crappily, and I had to do a whole lot of calling around and far more running around town than I would have liked, in order to fix something that wasn't my fault. It turned out fine, but I was very annoyed.

This has been far too much Being Responsible for one day. ;) I treated myself to a chai latte, and I am going to do NOTHING for what remains of the day.