Smallsteps has got unfortunately ill with a runny nose and a cough, so she is unable to go to daycare tomorrow and as a result, I will be home with her. It is going to be interesting as I have deliveries on Tuesday and Wednesday that I can't postpone, nor have someone else take, and my wife is starting her new job this week - Looks like it will be a bit of a mess.
It has been a month or so since we have been in this kind of a situation, so I guess we were due for it.
For the rest of the night, it looks like I will be sleeping on the couch to serve as blocker in case my daughter wakes up in the night, so she doesn't wake my wife up. It is kind of funny how all of the timing works, it is also funny what we end up doing in families to look after each other.
I think that one of the benefits of having a family is having a constant reminder of obligation and responsibility. For many, this might seem restrictive and constrictive, but it is actually quite freeing to be comfortable enough to be able to give to others, even at personal cost.
Not everyone will understand this perhaps, but we tend to have a scarcity mindset and we are often not overly charitable with our time. In a family, it isn't charity of course, it is duty and we feel bound to do our best for others and the reward comes from the sense of fulfilling our duty toward them. It gives a purpose to something external, but is also intimately linked to who we are.
Of course, there are other ways to experience this, but for me at least, the value of having a family has been enormous and while I have always had a pretty decent work ethic, it was nothing in comparison to what it has been since I have had people counting on me.
It has also made me think much further into the future and connected me with times where I am unlikely to even be alive, as I want to build the kind of world where my child can be happy and her happiness is going to be affected like mine, by the happiness of her children, if she happens to have any of her own.
This looking into the future has many facets to it and a lot of uncertainty as to what will arrive, but in general, it requires change from the current conditions to increase opportunity. While I might focus on the opportunity of my daughter personally, it also requires increasing opportunity across the board, as she will operate in an environment of many people, and her opportunity is going to be tied to the entire ecosystem in some way.
As they say, everything is connected, yet I also feel that a lot of the society we have set up makes us feel we are disconnected from everything. It is hard to find ground to cling to when we feel untethered, it is hard to connect our activity to anything of substance when we are floating.
For me, family is grounding and it is also empowering and uplifting, as it is a daily reminder as to why I do the things I do in the way that I do them. I am pretty sure that if I just had to look after myself, my tendency for procrastination would overpower my will to work eventually and I would end up doing the bare minimum to survive, rather all I can to thrive.
Life can be long and there are going to be plenty of ups and downs along the way, with a lot of average in between. But, a life without people close to us, people we want to share things with, makes the ups bland and the downs unbearable. No matter how much we have or what we are able to possess, the relationships we maintain is what is the most important indicator of our contentment in life. We are social animals, no matter how much we try to innovate our way out of it.
Anyway, This might give you something to think about or could just be a ramble in the dark, but whichever it is, I am going to put my head down on the couch now, as it seems that my daughter has fallen into a deeper sleep and I might be able to catch a couple hours before she wakes again.
Even though we try to hold it to one, life keeps no schedule.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
awww get well soon little one, it's important to take time out, granted, many of us have had to stop, but it's very different to wanting to stop, wellbeing is so very important especially now.
We've just fully started up reviewing over the last month or so, and it's extremely hard to operate at the same pace we used to, it's slowly improving but it's taking time.
Hope you get some well earned sleep, on that note we're off to bed too.
She is sick enough to be home at least - it is worse than it is just a runny nose caused by allergies and can't go to daycare because of Corona.
How long does it normally take to review?
Yes these are trying times, Annabelle is high risk therefore we've had to be careful which events we attended, the challenge is knowing what to do for the better, especially with a little one.
The reviews take quite a while, we have the vehicle for 7 days, and on the first day we do a quick live first look and take some photos, we then move onto filming pans, closeups etc then To Camera shots, quick intro etc then styling, practicality and a driving section and finally a voice over Final verdict.
Each vehicle review we try an make a little different, if it's a pick up we find some greenlanes, sporty car a nice back drop, with a hot hatch a back road with it spattered in mud.
Editing takes 3-4 days with around 500 clips inc overlays and reshoots, then it's rendered that takes around 3 hours.
This is it in a nutshell, we have our first VW arriving on Thursday a Golf GTE - very exciting a little daunting too, all our cars come from the manufacturer too rather than dealers.
This is what I keep telling everyone and also about how the seasons give less than zero fucks about our calendar, and yet people continue whining about time is getting away from them and how it's been the hottest this or coldest that or driest other thing or wettest yet other thing on record and I'm like hello it moved how are you not noticing XD
I highly doubt that you would ever do the bare minimum in anything for any reason XP If you didn't have the family I think you'd still be working your arse off doing the best you can do but it's possible you might not have discovered hive (or maybe but might have put off investigating til later, crypto is a scam after all) and might still be spending your downtime mostly gaming and watching Netflix instead.
Does she just sleep if sick? Mine will usually just sleep for hours til they're better so even if we're stuck home when they're sick I can still usually get stuff done because they're sleeping anyway. Hope the lurgy buggers off soon and you're able to cram in sleep and whatever prep work you need to do for your thing, and if it persists when you need to do deliveries that you can do them from home or alternately that wifey's startup is intelligent enough to realise that sometimes stuff happens and let her work from home while you're delivering.
Every year seems to arrive earlier than the last and leave earlier too. It has something to do with age and percentage of life lived. 1 year for a 10 year old is 10% of all life, for a 40 year old, it is 2.5% - each year becomes less relevant in the grand scheme.
I would likely be gaming too much, dancing too much or most probably - flirting too much! :D
She doesn't sleep much unfortunately, but she is a pretty good sick kid and it is when she is probably the easiest to look after, as she becomes sweeter :)
Wife's work would understand, but my wife doesn't want to (understandably) put too much pressure on it now, as the early days of onboarding are pretty important to get up and running. It sets a base for the future. We will manage, I will just have to use a disclaimer at the start of my sessions. I dislike delivering from home, but after the corona thing at the daycare and subsequent quarantine, I grabbed a dock and a couple screens from work so I can do it relatively comfortably. I miss having a lift desk though, as I like to stand while presenting.
Sounds like a good excuse to get one...or get work to get you one for work reasons XD
I hope she was/is able to sleep for a bit. Rest and water sometimes can do wonders. When I was single it was all about me, I didn't really slack at work or anything but life revolved around one person and that was me and my dog. Survival and toys, the only reasons to work. Married life changes that, it suddenly is not all about you there is someone else that means more, so we change adapt and grow. Perhaps just a spring allergy thing and she will be fine in a day or two.
She got a bit of sleep and I was able to grab a few hours at that time. Will be a long day though, as she tends not to nap, even when sick.
When I travel for work, I get to eat in some nice hotel restaurants occasionally - the food never tastes as good as when in good company. Even crap food is okay in good company. A lot of people these days don't seem to acknowledge that life is better with people you care about - so they make choices to be "unattached" without knowing what they are missing.
I think a lot of it over the last 30 years has also been people not putting the effort into the relationships and then other young people see the bitter divorce side so they become gun shy. While working as a single person, most of my coworkers were either bitterly divorced or on the second or third marriage. I myself like being married, dining alone was always like I'm done give me he check I'm out of here, I think that is why I learned to cook a little bit.
Perhaps part of it is a fear of failure, which drives a fear of commitment. It is hard to get into something when only thinking about the potential for loss and suffering. Relationships are built on a type of trust and requires openness.
Oh brother, I feel for you . I think I went for at least 10 years without normal sleep. I had three boys within five years and I was asses and elbows for some time. So draining, but time passed quickly and they became best friends, hence learned to play together and leave mommy alone to just observe. Do not fret. Just love her and do your best, that's all that counts. Those babies know when they are loved. Then they grow up and always have your back.
"asses and elbows" :D I have never heard that before.
I like being with her and we have a lot of fun together whatever we do, but it is also a bit suckful when there is still other work to take care of in between. Hopefully one day, I will be able to hand some of the work off to others.