Pic failures and, well overall failures (but some stitching)

I had another few days off around Halloween with the specific purpose of taking a trip to the beach and downloading Lightroom so I could get my trip pictures taken care of (it is taking FAR too long trying to do it with Apple Photos). But fate, as per usual, had other plans. First off, we had two days of heavy storms, and then, my bosses decided to have an exec meeting and I'm the only person that can start the Zoom meeting for them, which meant that I could risk being on the road and potentially not being in a location to be able to start their meeting, or not going to the beach at all and making sure their meeting was able to be started...so I stayed home for their meeting because I'm a good little girl (a stupid zombie).

As I sat fuming over my missed beach day, logged in 10 minutes early knowing full well that they would be at least 10 minutes late, I gave them another 10 minutes past their usual lateness before I texted someone to find out why I had been sitting there for 30 minutes with no one but me logged in..."oh, they cancelled the meeting!", is what I got back! Seriously? I gave up a beach day to sit there all day on stand-by, just to be told it was for nothing? Apparently they cancelled it that morning and didn't bother to tell anyone but each other. Wow. Good to know how important I am. Am I shocked? No. Should it change my attitude about how I approach work? Absolutely. Will it? Probably not.

"Well", you are probably saying to yourself, "at least you got to work on your pics, right?". Wrong. Also, during all this "fun", my heater once again went out like it has so many times before, only we were in a freeze warning. My glorious new roof? Well, they didn't seal up around the vent to the exhaust, and it leaked down into that circuit board that already had issues (I believe I've mentioned in the past that it has been replaced three times before). Since the last time it has been replaced, it has now been discontinued and they couldn't get it anymore, which means I needed to get my entire heating and cooling system replaced...the furnace on the inside, the air conditioner, the whole shoot-and-shebang (even the thermostat).

Wanna guess what it cost? Ten thousand dollars...yes, that's $10,000.00. I've cried a lot in the past few days. I had to take out a loan because I didn't want to put that on a 21% interest credit card. My stupid trailer isn't even worth 10g's! But that's how much I paid after three days of freezing to death with just our cook-stove and an electric blanket to keep us warm (and it was going to be $12g's, but they took pity on me because I'm a long-time customer and I cried quite a bit).

It means I'm not moving anywhere for the next 3-5 years (at least), because I now have a loan to pay off. For the first time in well over a year, I haven't spent all my free time on Zillow looking at real estate (because why?). Even now, if I say $10,000 too many times, I start to tear up. So there is no Lightroom in my future, no anything extra. I will probably be eating ramen for the next 3-5 years.

Granted, the new heater/air thingee is plastic, very loud, but hopefully it is more energy efficient. You'd think for that kind of money it would at least be built well and quiet. But at least, I only set on 72 when it used to be set on 78 for us to be comfortable, so maybe that's a good thing. I'm really trying hard to see the positives, it' just not so easy right now. We're back to sleeping on the couch because it's so loud and blows so hard throught he vents it sets the whole dynamic of the house off and it freaks me out. Although, in fairness, it doesn't take much to send me back to the couch. Everything considered, what's a couple hundred more dollars to get a new couch? At least I could sleep in a bit of comfort instead of chronic pain, right? Why make that easier too? Just suck up the pain Keebs. Between my vacation expenses and now this loan, I'm in worse shape than before I had all my credit cards charged up to the max! UGH! WHY! Granted, they aren't charged to the max, but add in the new loan and I'm getting there. Focus on the cards, THEN new couch. Change of subject now...

I did stitch some (believe it or not). I think it was more out of trying to keep my hands busy so they didn't freeze off. And, even though it's actually several hours worth of work, it's pitiful. You can tell it's been forever since I stitched! I worked on the Bride Dollmaker, one I apparently haven't touched since 2020! I mean, really? 2020? Has it been that long since I stitched? Geez! I ended the first couple of rows back in Sept of 2020...

And, as you can see...pitiful...I mean, look how dirty the canvas is (and the pic isn't really even clear, geez)!

And my ORT jar was completely empty...I'm not sure if I just haven't stitch this year at all, or I've spilled it at some point and they got lost (although I'm leaning on just not having stitched at all). We'll see if I keep up the momentum. There were several days of my time off when I just stared at the TV. I couldn't deal. And my stand will not hold the frames anymore. I'm not sure if it's the frame though or the stand. But right now, I will NOT be buying a new stand, so I either deal with it, or stop stitching. We'll see.

As for the vacation pics, they are going to take some time. I took a couple of thousand (I really hate that word now) and I've only edited a couple of hundred. It's hard when you have to open them one at a time, decide if they are worth saving, edit it however, save it, rename it, and move to the next one. I've gotten where I really hate computers now, so I do NOT touch mine when I get home. My iPad, yes, laptop, no. So, anything I do is in my freetime at work (which is rare). I'll get there, it's just going to take a LOT longer than I wanted it to. But hey, at least I can do it in a warm house if I do it at all? Positive, right? Geez.