Done This Week

Ah. So. We've swung all the way back over from "collapsing in fatigue" to "banking off the walls from boredom." This is not what I would call an improvement, exactly, and I wouldn't say that I ~feel better~. I just have more energy. Whatever, I'll take it. Cleaned ALL the things!

Lewisia: 3 new pieces written

Gratitude journaling: 35 new entries

Tumblr queue: 35 posts added

Day job: 31.5 hours

Cooking: Instant Pot rice for the first time

Cleaning: scrubbed down bathroom counter, reorganized bathroom shelves, vacuumed house

Gardening: more repotting--it's like I looked out one day and realized absolutely everything had outgrown its pot--and pandemic garden club

Reading: finished Sabriel, started re-listening to Neil Gaiman's View from the Cheap Seats as a palate cleanser

Today's Keyboard Smash

Huh. I'm not sure what message the universe is sending me. After yet another crash that deleted my podcast library, I broke down and started doing proper research into buying a new iPad. I had looked into it casually the last time this nonsense happened, and I didn't love the prices I saw. This time, I found some reviews and spec breakdowns that gave me a sense of two models that might be good options, both of which were slightly cheaper than what I had seen last time.

I'm not going to order anything today. For something this big--I'm looking at a range of $500 to $900, depending on which one I ultimately pick--I'll want to mull it over a bit longer. I am, however, resigning myself to this being necessary. I use the tablet in much the way normal people use their smartphones. While I, obviously, would not die if I stopped having a tablet, it would be a significant blow to my lifestyle. No more podcasts while commuting. No ebooks and fanfic while at work. No alarms to keep me on track throughout the day. No convenient writing medium and no convenient camera. No source of sleep aid sounds at night and no app for tracking my sleep habits. It would be a problem.

The current iPad is over eight years old, which is a pretty decent lifespan. I expect at least ten years from my desktop computers, and routinely get that or better. So the tablet isn't exactly a disappointment. It's the first and only one I've had, so there's nothing to compare it to. But I can't suggest I haven't gotten my money's worth in the last eight years.

None of that is the weird bit, though. The weird bit is that I received my federal tax refund today. I...honestly had forgotten it hadn't arrived yet? It is a not-insubstantial amount of money. Like, even if I didn't have the funds on hand already, I could now afford to replace the tablet. While I'm not happy to have to spend that money on a new tablet--it could have bought more plants or pots for plants or video games or fancy cheeses, for example--it's an unexpected reassurance to be handed unlooked-for cash at this particular moment.