merry christmas!

and to celebrate, our three-and-a-half-year-old hide-and-seek champion of 2018 had us all running around in circles and saw my brother-in-law get his hands really dirty-deep into the garbage, because he decided that hiding our car / house keys would be a fun thing to do. he even pretended to help us look for them!

i started today early, but not early enough to get everything done before meeting time; it was fine, though, and although it was a bit of a stressed morning i completed an important chunk of work by lunchtime before we headed to my sister's for christmas-eve lunch (is that a thing?)

the only real irritant of the day was that the handyman - for the second time - didn't pitch and didn't bother to get in touch to let me know:
professionalism: it's not just about doing the job well, and doing it on time. it's also about communicating properly with your clients. if you can't make an appointment, or you can't meet your deadline, and you don't let your client know in advance, it doesn't matter why you couldn't.

why is it so hard to find professionals these days? is there so much work going around that nobody needs the money anymore? i'm beginning to suspect that working as a handyman is far more lucrative than what i've been doing.

i must admit that i felt a wave of bitterness on arrival, not only is it unpleasant that nobody can be bothered to cater for the vegans and that even the basic things that should be safe for mr smear (who's deathly allergic to dairy) need to be checked again and again, but a couple of cousins were straight-up making fun of vegans and the sheer audacity of wilful ignorance is particularly frustrating when it comes from people you care about.

mr smear passed out just before we arrived but woke up on contact with the bed, and it took a long time (presumably when he hid my keys) before he was ready to come out and play. eventually i convinced him to get into the pool, though, with the help of my great-nephew's infectious water enthusiasm, and mr smear had so much fun that after however long - and we were in a long time - i had to drag him out fighting because he was shivering with cold.

the ride home was lovely, a beautiful sunset (at least, it was with my rose-tinted glasses) and the whole family screaming along to foo fighters hits, a peaceful evening and gd turning a potential online fight over identity politics into a really positive human reconnection.

i've spent some time trying to find an alternative to patreon - it seems subscribestar.com is the only real option - then posting this while deliberating over whether to crash early and wake early or try to make some more progress tonight. i'll probably crash.

the sudafed helped me with my sinuses all day, but wore off soon after getting mr smear to sleep (gd read to him about steve irwin and stephen hawking, it was really fun watching his eyebrows rise in wonder just before he dozed off).. still struggling...

anyway, all in all, it was a magic day. merry christmas!