I’m glad to see June out of here, and the 2nd Quarter of 2024 out of here, and the first half of the year over and done with.
It’s tempting to look forward to the 3rd Quarter and declare ”Well, at least it can’t get any WORSE!” but I’m refraining from that because my experience is that things get ”worse” far more readily than they get ”better.”
Lessons Learned!
I suppose some of that was a lesson learned, back when I had my store (for 13 years, God help me!) and things getting ”better” was a rare once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence.
Heck, even the weather has been ”worse” this spring, resulting in many of the plants in our vegetable garden experiencing stunted growth, or even outright withering, rotting or just outright dying.
I suppose the ”good” thing about that is that the predicted summer water shortage due to weather patterns does not look like it will come to pass.
But enough about that!
A new month begins, and maybe this is the right time for me to pick up and get started on something that was a part of my life a long time ago: Actually writing some kind of ”Daily Observations,” instead of focusing so solely on writing ”article like” posts.
Not that I intend to stop writing article-ish posts, mind you. But I run out of interesting material, after a while.
Anyway, going to give the Daily Blog Community a spin… we’ll see what happens. I often have lots of good intentions…
Seeking the Good!
I typically go through the exercise of looking back and finding the things that were good about the preceding period. At the moment, I am stuck at ”I’m upright and breathing on my own.” And I’m only being slightly sarcastic, here…
Well, one of the things that was good was that we were invited — pretty much out of the blue — to participate in the 2024 UFO/Paranormal Summit at the beginning of May; myself with my painted stones, and Mrs. Denmarkguy as a featured speaker at this 3-day event. Not only did we get out of the house for a couple of days, but we also managed to make about $1,500 in otherwise unexpected income.
Which is definitely good, given our eternally precarious financial situation!
I'm going to have to think about other "good" things, because otherwise it seems like a quarter of death, broken things, financial calamities, illnesses and unexpected expenses.
Accounting and Bookkeeping…
The dull part of life is that the end of a quarter also means that I get to spend the first few days of the new period working on accounting and bookkeeping.
Just part of the ”fun” of being self-employed!
I spent a good part of today just number crunching, which was a bit of a depressing exercise because there was lots of red ink flowing in all directions, and I am not just talking about the Cryptosphere… although the fat that Hive is so thoroughly and pervasively in the toiled is not helping my mood.
Just being honest…
Artsy Stuff
We’re less than three weeks from our road trip to Oregon, which is also an outing to ben vendors with our artwork.
It is largely camping out in nature and hanging out with some (hopefully!) interesting people at this festival. It’s the first time in a very long time that we are going to vending at a festival rather than an arts and crafts show our indoor conference. I’d like to think I can at least get a little relaxation in… although our objective is to sell at least enough stuff to pay for the trip.
I'm not really keen on festivals, but Mrs. Denmarkguy really wanted to go... I'm far more of a solitary sit-by-myself-in-the-shade sort of person.
Regardless, this means I really need to get on the ball here and create some more of our small ”impulse items” that are usually very popular at events.
I’d thought about also doing some writing while we are there… but since there is no electricity (aside from the generators for the main stages) we are reliant on battery power. Means I need to research not-too-expensive solar powered chargers for our phones and tablets.
Seems like there are always ”hidden costs” when we take on new kinds of events.
”Being poor” in the USA in 2024 really wears you down after a while.
Of course, we’re not really ”poor,” as such, we’re just caught in the same situation as many people with the costs of living rising much faster than our incomes… and we get caught in the squeeze.
Just a couple of days ago, I could see how our home insurance rose from $108.00/month to $181.00 a month with the policy renewal. Same house. Same coverage. The formal ”excuse” from the insurance company is ”property values.”
Ironically, in our minds our home is ”worth” precisely what we paid for it, because we LIVE here and don’t look at it as an ”investment asset,” unlike most people… or so it seems.
OK, so that was ”Daily Musings, Volume 001.” Time for me to get back to the process of living life, rather than just writing about it.
Till the next one!
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Created at 2024-07-01 18:40 PDT
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