Smouldering out there

           Happy Canada Day! Life in a pandemic and there's more fun promised to come. Is this for real? Doubtful kudos to the dude who first proclaimed, "May you live in interesting times." I doubt he would have taken his curse back even if he'd had the chance, however. Good riddance to the future, amirite? However, while my worries by day are exceedingly great, my dreams have been weirdly interesting. I guess my subconscious mind is calmer and more at ease than its conscious cousin.

           So today is Canada Day. Best advice? STAY HOME!! Our numbers are lower than those of our southern neighbours but a few massive gatherings today could cause devastating spikes for us. I shiver at the thought of July 4th in the States. Too many people are going to cling to the letter of the event and this could lead to the dreaded super-spreader. Woe betide both countries and the spikes to come. Okay, enough fear and dread. I attended my staff lunch yesterday in the sauna that is the gym. At least it was a bit cooler than outside. The A/C is busted at the school, apparently, and the second floor was hellishly hot. Perhaps even hotter than it was outside. At least the food was good and the speeches were even better.

         Not a dry eye in the house when we said au revoir to our principal and vice principal. They had to build École Ness from the ground up and now look at us. I'm a late-comer to the party but I've worked for Jordana and Cheri in the Golden Gate days and they are magnificent leaders and people. The board office and Heritage are getting great assets and our school division has to be the better for it. One of our resource heads is moving on to high school and our choir teacher accepted full-time at another school. Tears but a lot of laughter as well. Vous me manquerez.

        Now, my PlantSim family moved to Starlight Shores recently. Farewell, Twinbrook! However, I still have pictures from the Twinbrook days and, by gum, I'm gonna post'em!

BYE.

In the Balance

       I thought at first that my dishwasher was going to join my washing machine. There's a spatula in the way, so no big deal. How much do dishwashers cost anyway? In the 600-700 dollar range, eh? Oogh. Not like I can afford that right now. However, my dishwasher lives still and all is well. I may need to get a credit line one of these days. Look at me being all adult! Anyway, there is hope on the school front. Who told the education minister to only let the kids come back after Labour Day? I guess Pallister did not get his way. No word from the superintendent as to when the EAs and I can go back in the fall. I guess it won't be until late August like always.

      I hope what little I have pulls me through. Anyway, mustn't let my GAD take over and turn me into a quivering mass. I finished reading 'On writing' by Jorge Luis Borges yesterday. Apparently, I read it back in 2014 but have no memory of doing that. I guess I should check my diary from 2014 for more information. Oh, and the WPL's doors are open for book exchanges again! Ooooooh, so tingly! 😍  I went yesterday and picked up the only book that was waiting for me. Poor little thing's been waiting for months for me. I brought a few books back and will bring the rest when I have another book waiting for me. That's just how I roll.

       My plantsims moved from Twinbrook to Starlight Shores recently. I downloaded and installed the Tempest mod from NRAAS and man, do I love not having all those blasted leaves and leaf piles everywhere in the spring. I also like not having so much mist in the area now. Twinbrook is beautiful but lousy with gloom. Anyway, I will post pics of the new Reardon digs once I've taken enough of them.

      Now for some generic shots of my sims. Tell me you weren't expecting this!

BYE.

Haz insurance?

       When I moved into my own apartment, it was insisted upon that I get apartment insurance. When I moved into the condo, the insurance 'went condo' as well. My insurance company gave me a discount because I'd gone ten years without a claim. Well, I am going to crush that perfect record. I developed a leaky faucet (which I got replaced today) but now my neighbour below has a lovely water stain on her ceiling. It was at the back of my mind that this might happen but my insurance should cover this... right? Well, I have to get in touch with the condo corp. before I do anything else. I took pics that I'll be sending along with the email.

        The timing is great, eh? I'm on EI right now and will be until the schools open up. Money is a question. The current active cases in Manitoba stands at 8 and restaurants have begun to open up to dining in (maintaining social distancing, of course). The school year will hopefully start up early and I'll be able to start early too. Anyway, that's what's going on with me. On the sims front I have a few Plantsims (first time ever!) in one of my games. I love not needing to make my sims cook. I also love when my Plantsims insult their plants. Flirting is also pretty cute.

       Davy, my first Plantsim, was brought into being by this extraordinary mind. Dr. Quinn Reardon at your service.

Though it's doubtful anyone would want his services.

    That's all for me. BYE.

Introducing the Sadist!

WARNING! THIS IS NOT SIM-RELATED!

          I have kept a diary since the earliest days of 1993 and will probably be buried with my most recent incarnation of it (currently on #15, by the way). I started keeping a blog (not very often, as you might have noticed) back in 2008 because why not. Thanks to the Sims I've done much more with my blog of late. This blog is only going somewhere if Blogger dies. I'm not often very personal in this blog because I save that stuff for my diary but I got back from my doctor this afternoon and was amazed at how happy I felt. I usually feel pretty good after a chat with my M.D. and I think it's because I talk with her. One can write in a journal for pages and pages and one can talk to a cat for hours and hours but it's always going to be no more than a one-sided discussion.
           My family already knows about what I'm going to write here but their experience with this matter is very limited. I'm writing about this because I know it's more common than I once thought. The two or three people following this blog might know someone (especially if that someone is themselves) under a similar cloud and might have some suggestions for me. To be blunt, there's a little sadist living at the back of my mind. Periodically (every few days) he pokes his head out and whispers darkness and doubt to me. Once upon a time I thought I was merely a common worrywart. Now I know this matter - this little sadist - has a name. I've begun to call him the GADabout but most people would call him Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
           I have a history of worrying - going back to my teens - but it only became noticeable when I moved from my parents' house into the Great Unknown. I had a panic attack in 2010 which made me start wondering. I attended a conference on stress in 2012 (if I recall correctly) and learned that stress was the cause of more than a few illnesses. Something else to worry about. I'm not the only one in this world that's worried about worrying. Probably one of the nastier vicious circles out there. It wasn't until 2015 that I really began feeling the presence of the sadist. It's the physical symptoms that really got on my nerves.
           Nausea, insomnia, palpitations, and other completely wonderful horrors to haunt my days. Okay, it's not nearly as bad as I make it out to be (mountains out of molehills - the story of my life) but it was enough to finally send me out doctor-hunting. It didn't take her long to figure out what was really going on within. I took an anxiety test and answered a bunch of questions and now we know I have a mild form of GAD. It doesn't keep me from going to work (although there have been a few times I've had difficulty going into the grocery store because of my gag reflex - TMI, amirite?) but it's been a great deal of frustration.
           There's not much else to say. I'm keeping watch over my worries in my journal and dueling with the sadist. Things are all right today but I may spend next week sleepless and stressed. Now I put the point out to anyone reading this. Are you in the same boat? How do you steer your boat? Thank you for reading and have a wonderful evening.