the april update: fourth edition

What a busy month, holy cats. So busy, in fact, that it bled into May and now I'm three days behind on posting this.

I'm not usually that person who stops and looks around and goes, "Where did the month go!?" but I found myself doing that the last couple of days. What with housework, traveling both domestically and internationally, regular work, and continuing to pound the pavement for my YouTube channel, it just vanished. And now I get like... sweaty tits from nervousness regarding all the yard work to be done that I suddenly feel like I don't have the time for. How does that happen? Three weeks ago, I was all, "You've got the whole summer ahead of you; look at how much you will be able to DO!" and now I'm a bit more "Let's hone it back, sweet-cheeks because time's a ticking and the bank account's a drainin'."

April started with a snowstorm in Wisconsin, which isn't an oddity by any means, but it really took the wind out of that saying for March, "in like a lion, out like a lamb," because it was the total reverse. The glory of snow storms in April is that the residual snow is gone within a couple days. No harm, no foul. The DOWNside, though, of spring arriving so early, is that it only contributes to the mentality that summer is going to be over sooner rather than later. This isn't necessarily true; I just think that growing up in the Midwest taught us that Spring doesn't really strike until the middle of May or maybe the end. Just seems to get earlier and earlier every year now.

The global climate crisis has nothing to do with that or whatever.

Me and Sally

A week into April, Andrew and I took a road trip down to Indianapolis to visit my aunt and to take in the sights of the total solar eclipse. On the ride down, we stopped outside Chicago for this Titanic exhibit I was treating Andrew to for an early birthday present. The less I say, the better, because the exhibit was a joke, a waste of money, and a total loss of time. Precious time, too, might I add, because the traffic from Chicago to Indianapolis was insane and stupid, with people (like us) driving in for the eclipse.

The normal 6-hour drive took close to 8, which was... frustrating, to put it mildly. Mainly because it was raining a good portion of the way, and that was just a pain in the ass to deal with, but also the stop-and-go traffic that kept occurring for no visible reason. 

I digress.

We eventually reached Indianapolis and picked up my aunt, went and had some bomb-ass food, laughed our asses off for a few hours, and then dropped her off again before we were off to the hotel. And similar to the Titanic exhibit, the less I say about the hotel, the better. Suffice it to say, it was hands down the worst (dirtiest, grossest, smelliest) hotel I have ever stayed in. And it was $240 for the night, so needless to say, my review was scaaaaathing.

Andrew waitin'

The next day, Andrew and I were working remotely, so we found this great shared-workspace type building where there was a huge warehouse, and inside of it, there were a couple dozen smaller businesses (coffee shops, restaurants, bars, shops) with a significant shared common area. We got some coffee and just vibed there for a few hours before going to a shitty gay bar for lunch. Then we went to the north side of Indi to be with Sally and watch the eclipse from her backyard.

All within 15 minutes

It was singularly one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed in my life, and for what it's worth, I think I've been privy to some pretty cool shit. The minutes leading up to it were odd; it just felt like twilight setting in faster than expected. Animals got quieter, porch and street lights were flickering to life, and then, before you knew it... you could look at the sun. Which was remarkable in and of itself, because up to the verrrrrry very last second, that was impossible as usual.

There was this weird stillness that just sort of washed over everything, and you could hear people hooting and hollering down the block and in the distance, fireworks going off. But staring up at the sun with the moon entirely in front of it... that was just the absolute tits. It was breathtaking, really, and it truly puts your life into perspective. Also, though... ya kept sort of waiting for the world to explode or death rays to start raining down from space, but that didn't happen this time so we just went along on our business. 

But then it was done!

As quickly as it started, it was over. The moon passed, and the sun glared out, and within 15 minutes, the light was normal and we were on the road to try and beat the traffic back to Wisconsin. 

This was probably the most laughable thing of all because it took us damn near 10 hours to get home on the return trip. But it is what it is, and I don't regret going because it was such an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime thing for me to witness.

Arranging stones from around the house to make beds

Work on the house, as ever, continued in April. It actually sorta "resumed" in April, because March was just me poking around at some stuff but not really getting involved. What I mean by that is I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew, but still wanted to feel like I wasn't a worthless terd. 

So I did some yard work! 

The stones you see above were mainly buried around the opposite side of the house as some sort of garden edging. They put them in, probably in the 60s, and then never moved them again. My goal with the front of the house is to elevate and amplify what I've got, so moving them up there was the first step toward achieving that.

Now I need to order topsoil to be delivered so that I can fill in behind the rocks and have a place to plant all the things. But I'm starting to think I'm going to need to shovel up all that lava rock, and I would just rather die than do that. It's funny; yard work is great until you actually have to do more than just mow the lawn, because then you realize you're inching closer to 40 and everything hurts just from thinking about it.

Stairwell preview

I also worked on the stairwell, a huge undertaking from October that I probably... I'm just gonna say that I probably underestimated it. My dad has been my savior in this, cutting all of the necessary wood for me to climb around on scaffolding and a ladder to install it. In these pictures, you can see the OSB backer boards, which were necessary for the "original" wall to be at the same surface level as the sheetrock (the angled green). With it all installed, I could attach the hardy board panels, and then where those have seams, cover them with trim. It'll look like board and batten when it's done, but DAMN is it a pain in the ass to accomplish.

Hopefully, That work will wrap up the weekend, but don't quote me on it. There's a lot to do between now and "finished," and sometimes I just don't have the drive to do it.

Cancun with Katie

The other "big" of April was flying down to Mexico with my best friend and celebrating 25 years of hanging around each other like a couple of crustaceans on a moving ship. The world passes us by and we remain the same, naturally. We spent a week in Cancun, which was... interesting, lol. The hotel was pristinely clean, so at least, there was no repeat of Indianapolis, but there were just a few "blah" things about the week. The food was "meh," Katie took a hard hit to the back of her head on a water slide, and we had fire alarms going off through the resort at 1:30 in the morning. 

The company was good, though, and that's what matters, right? Also, I didn't get burned too bad, and my tits looked great all week, so I'm not gonna complain.

Sunrise over the gulf

But, uh... that was April. Work is progressing nicely on the YouTube stuff, I purchased a website that'll be going live in the next couple of weeks, and I'm finally in the last stretch (forever?) of talking about the Manor. It's been interesting going through my first house and rehashing everything because, in a way, it feels like I'm finally putting it to bed for good, y'know? There won't be any more reasons to organize the photos, look for any that I missed, and panic about where they are stored. They (and the stories that go with them) now live on through video. And that's awesome... and it's sad, too... but eventually, it would need to end. 

I knew that.

It's just that it feels like saying goodbye to an old friend one last time.

So what else happened in April? Got the downstairs bathroom ready to the point of needing plumbing to proceed (this is a big deal), actually got a stamp from Mexico in my passport (didn't know anyone still did stamps), and went to this weird shitty shanty-town between Appleton and Steven's Point with friends (and got a delicious butterscotch whiskey, go figure). Got sick yet again, made scalloped potatoes for the first time ever and nailed it, and started tearing my backyard apart. Hurt my back, spent a fortune on paint to *hopefully* have enough for finishing the outside of the house this summer, and ultimately, struggled to handle living for the future with scripts for my videos which are essentially each an entire blog written three at a time. Bring it on, May!

Ciao for now (c: