Well, I finally saw the X-Mansion. No, seriously. It is a real place built by a famous coal baron and his family. They, the Dunsmuirs, built a lot of very cool stuff I’ve come across over the last few days. Makes me wish I’d been rich early in life–rich enough to be Dunsmuir rich later in life. nonetheless, I’ve done well enough for myself to put my kids in position to be successful–at the very least to get through college with minimum debt. That’s more than I can say for myself. That’s more than most of my generation can say for ourselves.
It has been an atypical day for me in RL. Beyond the X-mansion, I walked around for like half a day and wandered into a street festival and even saw a pretty good band performing outside. The thing is, that ought to be typical for me. I ought to live a life like that but I don’t. There are reasons. One being the level of attention and driving required as a dad to get my dudes to and from school. Another being the existential dread of being at home and waiting for a step kid to lose it and me to lose it right back, knowing what an endgame that begins and knowing I’m probably the only one out of that dynamic who cares. The other part is that I spend most of my year in a state that absolutely sucks. I’m there for the kids and the job, but it is a terrible place full of mean and vapid people. Sure, there are some amazing people there, but truthfully most aren’t that. Moreover, I think they know it.
The other thing is the writing. I’ve been struggling with it here, because I’ve yet to establish a real routine. I need to work on that with my partner. We need a plan that works and gets me through the work (and the new daily workout) alongside all of the wonderful living we’ve been doing. At least I need a plan for while we are here.
I don’t really have a plan for when I get back there.I know I ought to figure one out eventually.
Some Thoughts:
- So… Madden is not entirely terrible. They’re trying to fix the errors, and I’ll probably buy the dang thing.