As I wrote a while back, Mrs. Denmarkguy and I both came down with a pretty severe case of the flu right around the time our daughter got married, back on November 11th.
Although I feel fully recovered... I also don't feel entirely recovered. There's still an occasional dry cough, and there's still my periodically "goopy" eyes, particularly in the morning.
Which left me reflecting on the fact that one of the signs of aging seems to be that it takes us longer to fully bounce back from illness... this sort of thing I would usually have been gone completely by now, during earlier years of my life.
Concentration has never been my strong suit, and one of the other lingering remnants of the flu is that I am struggling to stay "on task," which is actually rather important, given that the holidaze are right around the corner.
I spend far too much time just staring at the wall. Well... maybe not the wall, but certainly the blank screen in front of me.
Maybe you're just not feeling inspired...
Quite right... I am not feeling inspired, at all. In fact, I can't remember the last time I felt inspired to do much of anything... might have been sometime this summer or fall, when it was still gardening weather.
Which isn't to say that I haven't been doing things; I just haven't felt very inspired while doing them. Which brings up the whole issue of whether or not we actually need to feel inspired, in order to live a functional life. It's certainly nice to feel inspired, but is it necessary?
Meanwhile, I'm feeling grateful that our application for energy assistance to help pay our heating bills this winter was approved! Being poor definitely sucks (in so many ways!) but if you know what you're doing, there are quite a few resources to help people, even here in uber-capitalist USA. We managed to qualify for a $1,359 discount on our electric/heating bill for the coming year... which is certainly very welcome, given the cost of everything, these days.
It's somewhat ironic, I suppose that my "American Dream" — as an expat European coming the the US — has turned into (in part) a journey of applying for grants and assistance, even though I am a productive member of society and pretty much work my ass of, every single day.
I suppose all I can really do is remain philosophical about it and say "it is, what it is." Hopefully, better times are ahead... or maybe we can somehow create our better times.
And with that thought, I think I will put this last week to rest and get to work on what's to come this week, which will conclude with the final Arts & Grafts show of the year, this coming weekend. Lot's of work to be done!
Thanks for reading, and have a great week ahead!
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Created at 20221204 21:28 PDT
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I am sorry about you and your wife. I hope that you both get better quickly even if you're already better but you haven't recovered yet.
I am sorry that it seems like the American dream is not working out but you don't have to lose hope everything is going to be fine
please get some rest and do as little as you can and leave the rest
Yup, can relate to the taking forever to recover bit, as I have long Covid, since January....
Being inspired, well, that's rare these days. Plus I am in the middle of one of the dreaded "anniversaries" that will culminate with Christmas (when he died). So very little inspiration to do much, but I just haul my butt up when I can and try to get what I can done...
I've been waiting since I sent my application in on Sept 27th for a determination. I actually went into the office 3 weeks ago. They said applications were taking 48 - 60 days to process. Well, today is 60 days and I've not got a result yet....
I think this year I will have it, last year I lost out by being $78 too much in income.
I could sure use it....