Latest developments

Let’s see:

Yes, my old car is totaled. Still, the insurance process is moving quickly, and they’ve decided that its value is (shhh!) about the same as I paid for it sixteen months ago, so I should be able to get a replacement in short order.

Susan is back from China, and back to work this week (she had an additional week off to decompress after she got back). She’s still talking about retiring and moving closer to our granddaughter. Now we’re discussing Malaysia: still not quite on the same continent, but very low cost of living, and a four-hour flight (instead of twelve) that costs a couple of hundred dollars (instead of somewhere around a thousand). I thought my adventuring days were over; am I about to become an expatriate in the exotic Orient?

I got my first comprehensive review at my new job (new in that I’ve been there less than six months). I was scored a solid performer in all categories … and, now that I know what I’m doing, I can focus on actually improving, with the potential for advancement. (And I qualified for a bonus, which will show up in my next paycheck, plus a pay raise, likewise.)

I’m back at work on a story I started a few years ago, and have kept in the background while I addressed (and mostly finished) other stuff. It’s fighting me, and progress is slow, but it is progressing. We’ll see. My output has slowed lately, but I think that’s a matter more of my having fallen into bad habits than of a problem with creativity. (Right now, I feel like what I’m turning out is uninspired hack-work … but I recall that feeling from times past, and have learned it’s not a sign of actual impediment.)

Tomorrow is March. “In like a lion …” We’ve made it through the worst of the cold weather, and I can look for things to get gradually better, just as the days are already getting gradually longer. (At the extreme before Winter Solstice, it’s possible to go to work before sun-up and drive home after sunset. That period is past, thank God.)

Oh, and I’ve lost 7½ pounds since returning from China. Let’s do some more of that!