It’s been 5 months since I left my former employer. I had been there for just shy of 24 years when I got the “Would you be interested in a buyout?” email. The payoff for leaving, monetary and otherwise, was good enough that my decision was made within 24 hours, and I left just after Christmas. Since then, I’ve been making my part of the monthly budget using that payout, and can continue to do so for quite some time.

Since then, I’ve been catching up on sleep, cooking, baking, house care, and little projects. I’ve gotten a little bit of writing done, and it’s getting easier. Somewhere around 2016, things got too crazy and I started running a consistent deficit in excess brain capacity, so writing shut off like I had turned a switch. It’s coming back, slowly, but it’s nothing like it was a decade ago.

It’s a cliche to say this, but the mind is a muscle. It requires regular exercise. I’m at the stroll-the-mall stage of redevelopment, but should be up to speed sometime this summer. I have a couple of Boogieman stories I’m working on, and those darned Romans started talking to me again, so I’m going to at least get them off the Arabian peninsula this year.

I spent the first couple of months just decompressing. I didn’t know how on-edge and tired I was until I looked at a picture I took in December and compared it to the man in the mirror in March. Things had definitely gotten out of hand, but I’m on the upswing now.

I did a bit of travelling, read some books I’ve had on the shelf for too long, and baked way too many desserts and treats. I’ve discovered the simple joy of starting a podcast or a lecture, putting on hearing proection over my earbuds, and riding the lawnmower for a couple of hours.

I’ve been looking for a job, but the Venn diagram between what employers need/want and what I am looking for in a new employer isn’t exactly a circle. I can’t wait forever to get a new job (the payout wasn’t that generous), but I also don’t have to go grab the first job I can find just to keep the lights on. There have been a few nibbles from recruiters, even an interview or two, but nothing solid. It will eventually come, and I’ve been considering getting a part time gig somewhere just to get out of the house a few days a week.

I joked the other day that one sign of my improved attitude is that I’m cussing in foreign languages a lot less. Spewing f-bombs out loud was frowned upon at my former employer, but nobody ever raised an eyebrow when I muttered to myself in Finnish, German, or Russian. OK, one time I made a guy from Smolensk spit out his tea, but he laughed about it. Now, I don’t even need to curse a lot in English, which is something I haven’t experienced before in my adult life.

So, overall, I’m doing OK. The family is still secure, we’re not losing the house or anything anytime soon. I’m rested up and starting to get back to being who I like to be instead of who I have to be. Irish Woman has not had to tiptoe up to my desk and tell me she’s worried about me since Thanksgiving, and we’re figuring out how to be boyfriend and girlfriend again.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a detective having to deal with some otherworldly stuff that needs my attention.

• It is telling that the highlight of my week so far has been having someone come out to empty the septic tank.
  • In related news, it is never a good thing when the septic tank guy knocks on the door and says “Sir, I’ve got some bad news.”
• Note to self – Cutting up serano chilis is an awesome way to make your arthritic hands feel better for a few hours.
  • Secondary note – It is a good thing that you wash your hands immediately after ward.
  • Tertiary note – Normal hand soap will not remove all traces of capcaisin from your hands the way strong dish soap has in the past.
  • Quaternary note – Nothing clears out sinuses partially stuffed up from seasonal allergies like macing yourself by touching not only your nose, but also both eyes after washing your hands with soft soap after cutting up chilis.
• Kentucky has gone from unsasonably hot and muggy to “We need to get some gopha wood before the animals start to show up” raining to unseasonably cold and windy and then back to hot and muggy several times in the last week or two.
  • The arthritis I mentioned above is demanding answers and wants to speak to the manager.
• It’s May in Kentucky and the trees are screaming. I feel their pain, after waking up in Kentucky and wanting to scream every morning since 2001. All I can tell the cicadas is to be strong.

• Note to self – When barefoot and handling lit charcoal in the smoker, make sure to account for each and every piece of charcoal.
  • Unrelated note to self – The ice maker in the refrigerator is frozen up again.
• Any day you can work with your chain saw and go to bed with the same number of digits and appendages is a good day.
• Note to self – When your wife says she needs to get some chemicals for her pool, it is not humorous to ask if she means Rid-X.
  • She also will not think it’s humorous when you call it an ‘above ground septic tank’.
• Making your wife a bacon and egg breakfast on Mother’s Day, accompanied by new jewelry, won’t get all of your sins forgiven, but it helps.