yeah, right. 

I'm cross-posting a bit.

The best piece of advice I ever received: "Go to the people whose eyes light up when they see you." Well, actually, the best piece of advice I ever received was "Go home and pour the rest of the bourbon down the drain," but that's another story.
The second best piece of advice I ever received: "Place a cup of water in the area where you think your pipes may be vulnerable, if the water freezes, you've got a problem."
Both pieces of advice make life relatively simple.

My mom passed away 7 months ago today. There's a blanket of fluffy snow on the ground. The dog got a new bone. I randomly picked up a book on a bookshelf. The book was titled, "Life's Extras."  It was a short read. The gist was that it's not the necessities that give us hope but recognizing the extras, such as beauty and grace. Small things, like a flower blooming, or a bird singing can alter our state of mind. It was published in 1928, back when horse and buggy's were all the rage and when people settled arguments by shooting one another, so a couple of passages in the book reveal. You-Know-Who is totally cashed out after gnawing on his new bone for over 3 hours solid. The snow is still fluffy. I've been unproductive today. I hate saying, "I don't feel like painting," because for the most part, I don't think feelings should have anything to do with it. If I didn't feel like doing stuff, I can promise that nothing would ever get done. Yesterday I didn't feel like running. It wasn't even that cold. After 9˚, 37˚ should be considered downright balmy. I am a wimp for thinking otherwise. I ran anyway. I gave myself permission to quit after 20 minutes, but I kept running and made my goal of 3 miles. Obviously I'm in "Trick Me" mode. Sometimes, when I don't feel like I'm accomplishing much in the real world fast enough or to my satisfaction, running helps me feel like I'm doing something. It requires more energy than brushing my teeth, but less energy than staring at a blank canvas. My pace was 10:12. That's 4 seconds slower than the previous day's 10:08. I am annoyingly competitive. I've thought about tricking myself into training for a half-marathon next spring, right after tricking myself into painting large-scale again.