the id, the ego, & the single misfiring brain cell

think of this as what you'd be subjected to if you lived with me. wait...you pretty much do

Come to think of it, what did y'all do for entertainment before blogs and Facebook let you step into my living room whenever you felt like it?

Anyway. I've been busy, and I should be busy now. I'll get back to it because I've learned that there's nothing so motivating as an immovable deadline, which is why I set them for myself. When it comes to Air Command and Staff College (ACSC)--my latest professional military education requirement--which I'm determined to complete before I embark for adventures abroad.

I'm taking ACSC as a correspondence course. The trouble with correspondence courses is that you just never seem to get around to them, y'know? Yeah, there's a deadline when you sign up for it, but c'mon. That deadline is 18 months in the future. That's all the time in the world!

I'm nowhere near that 18-month mark, but I'm ready to be finished with this stuff. The trick? Schedule tests. For example, I started reading Volume 3 (Strategy and War) last Thursday, so I scheduled the test for Monday. The reading is almost 500 pages, so you know how I spent my weekend. I passed that test, so I just scheduled the test for Volume 4 for Thursday morning. See how this works? The lack of alternatives clears the mind wonderfully. (The trick is finding a way to force your own lack of alternatives.)

I'm rather enjoying the 4th volume, by the way. Instead of theory (which the other volumes have been drowning in), it's about history. I like history stuff (even military history).

So this morning I took Seamus to the clan to the vet to get him clipped at both ends. That's right: he's losing his balls and his nose.

Nah. I'm having his front claws removed while he's still under anesthesia. I want the other cats and the furniture to have a chance. He yowled when I put him in the cage for the trip, then kept yowling halfway to the vet's office. He finally settled down and gazed at me malevolently, probably plotting his revenge. After I signed the paperwork which gives them permission to return less of a cat than I delivered, I picked up a couple of items at the grocery store then--on a whim--went to Auto Zone.

I've needed new windshield wipers for a while now, probably about, oh, a year or more. At some point, though, you just get used to driving while peering through a curtain and guessing where the lines on the road are.* And oncoming traffic, which might be why I find night driving easier.

* Even with a clear windshield, this is still guesswork in Colorado during the winter, where you're either contending with ice and snow or sand.

I picked up some de-icing windshield wiper fluid while I was at it, and filled the reservoir before I left. The Auto Zone dude clipped on my wipers for me. I drove home looking through a pock-marked but clean windshield, thinking...it's the little things. Today will be a good day.

For me. Seamus might have a different opinion.

I should have actual orders any day now, which means I can call TMO* and they can absolutely freak out because they now have almost no time to schedule the movers to come visit before I leave.

* Transportation Management Office

It is being a fairly hectic month. I still have paperwork to complete with Boulder, too, of course. However...I'm doing great.

Doing great isn't very exciting for most people, and it makes for fairly boring stories, I know. But it's been so long since I've felt so good so consistently that I feel it's noteworthy. I'm productive. I've been sleeping well. My concentration and focus is almost back to where I expect it to be. And I'm happy.

OK. Back to work. Y'all be good.

d