#236 - Wrexham and Cherry Juice

Man, I love sleeping past nine.

I got out of bed around nine-thirty. Made some toast and an Earl Grey. Robyn was out the door early to get her police clearance for her personal support worker job.

There was work to check in the approvals folder, and I got to work. The painting was one I had started and passed off to another artist as I was tasked with other work. The artist had done a great job finishing it and on its own it would have been just fine. But it needed to work the others in the series. This episode was in a desert with cliffs at sunset. Pretty imagery. All I had to do was adjust the sand dunes in the shot. The artist had painted it a bit to dark and flat to match the other paintings.

I added in some bounce light and lightened the colour of the shadows and BAM! It was good to go.

By the time I finished a couple of revisions, it was time for lunch. With us both working from home, there was no question about where we would be going for our walk. It was off to the provincial park to hike amongst nature protected under the tree canopies.

It was a great day for a walk. The temperature was cool and the sun was out. The canopy was noticeably denser than the last time we were here. It was another walk that made us not want to return to the house to continue working. There were no dogs or cyclists today, which was odd. Usually, I am assaulted by dogs who seek me out and by men on bikes who don’t know how to use their brakes.

God forbid they are made to slow down.

We returned glad we went and sorry we had to come back home so soon.

I continued to work on a painting I had started last week. This was the first time I was able to get back to it. Things had changed and there was new information available since I had started it, so I had to revise my own work to make it work with the approved background paintings.

I kept at it until 2:30 p.m.

At that time, I had a meeting with our layout team leads, the paint leads as well as our designer leads and art director. This our chance every week to get on the same page and air any issues. We also get to talk about things we need for up coming shows and make strategies and plans to ensure our success. It was a productive meeting and things were made.

Afterwards, I was feeling drained. I find that when I am sick, it comes in waves. And by three thirty I needed to lie down for twenty minutes. I set a timer and tried to recuperate. It worked for the most part.

I returned to my desk and worked until five. There was no working past five today for anyone at the studio, as our IT guys were shutting of the power in the buildings to replace some back batteries and some high-powered electronics for the entire weekend.

Not going to fight when the fates end my workday at a decent time.

Robyn and I had the same idea about what to do at five.

Take a nap.

So, what if it’s my second nap of the day? Don’t judge me. I’m sick.

Robyn wanted her nap before she left to do her support work for an hour and I just love napping. We got about an hour and fifteen minutes, and then she was up to get herself ready.

I watched some YouTube videos, happy that there was new content from my favourite channels. After satisfying my video thirst I put on a new episode of Criminal Record and halfway through, I grabbed my laptop and did some writing, stopping when I realized I hadn’t posted my blog writing to my site last night. I was too excited to get to bed, apparently.

It’s a constant theme in this blog: my quest for rest.

After that, my mom had posted some photos from their trip to Spain, and I took second to see how their vacation was going.

Then back to Criminal Record and writing.

The kiddo and Robyn went for a walk after their shifts, so I had time to get some work done and to watch any shows that I am only interested in seeing.

I watched a video about the medieval learning systems, one that Shakespeare would have gone through and why it should still be taught. The main complaint about modern teaching methods is that it doesn’t teach people to think. It’s more about regurgitating facts.

The old way had two parts. The first taught you to use your mind and only then could you go on to learn about subjects. I downloaded a paper on the idea and will likely talk more about this idea another day. It’s something I’d like to examine a bit more.

Robyn returned from her work and a long walk after ten. We settled into bed and watched an episode of Waiting for Wrexham, followed by the Daily Show. That got us to about midnight, and Robyn flipped over and went to sleep.

I have plenty of writing to do so I whipped the laptop back out.

One of the videos I watched today focused on ways to get a better night’s rest. Three of the things mentioned were things you could consume near bedtime. One was tart cherry juice which has natural melatonin and other compounds that can help you sleep. Another was eating kiwi before bed for the same reason, and the third was to take 400 mg of Magnesium Glycinate which is said to help you fall asleep faster.

I ordered some tart cherry juice, because I love cherry everything and I love sleeping. And I got some of the magnesium glycinate tablets as well. We’ll see about the kiwi, I might pick up a bag tomorrow.

The person in the video said these items wouldn’t be effective if you didn’t limit your light exposure before bed and watched TV or played games that stimulated your mind to much.

He offered up reading half an hour before bed, or even better and hour before as a good way to wind down for the night.

Another thing was to get some morning sunlight to set your circadian rhythm within the first half an hour of waking up. He also started using an eye mask to limit light at night from all the various sources that could disturb your sleep.

Another thing was to keep your bedroom around 65 degrees F.

I’ll start with the cherry and magnesium as well as the reading before bed. All things I can implement fairly easily.

The guy I have been following that lives on a solar boat finally put out a new video. I think he took a few rest days as well as doing a project upgrade to his boat. Can’t blame him for taking some time off to recharge the batteries.

The video was interesting and a bit disappointing. I was happy to see that he had added trimaran pontoons to the side of his boat, but they looked a bit small and janky in their construction. Mind, he did all the add ons while in shallow water. Given that he did it on those conditions I can’t be to hard on him. He also has plans to add more buoyancy by adding some foam to the pontoons later.

All in all, I am impressed that he his willing to drill holes into his boat just to see if the pontoons would make his boat safer and more comfortable to live in. He is definitely living his best version of his life.  It’s clear that he is enjoying himself.

Another YouTuber I watch, who hasn’t posted much also put out a video today. He is a younger man who built a cabin with his father who passed away a year or two ago. Work on the cabin and outbuildings continues. I like the content he makes, and I like to see people creating things I don’t have the time or resources to do.

Glad to see these creators getting back into the swing of things and still making good content and videos.

I realize all the effort it takes to keep making videos while also creating the things the make is no easy task.

I think the cherry juice is kicking in because I am more than ready for bed.

I hope you day was amazing.

Until tomorrow.