Well, that was a year.
Things started with dental and optical problems, which remained an open issue due to pandemic waves keeping me away from practitioners.
On the medical front, I was vaccinated, second vaccinated, then third vaccinated. Each dose hit me hard, and we’re still cowering in place for fear of the plague. My overall health seems fairly static. I haven’t been able to ride my bike as much as I’d like, so I’ve lost some condition, but at the end of the year I started addressing that – before the borders opened, and plague came back.
My powered cooling suit continued to be an issue, as the supplier was unable to get spare parts. Speaking of cooling, we had a new air conditioner system installed, and most of the year was spent fine tuning the control system, which it seems the original installer didn’t set up properly. Eventually a guy, who was a professional fitter and servicer for the system we have, and who had contacted me via Whirlpool after seeing me post about it, came out and sorted it all for us. It seems to be working well.
This year I did a big project abandon – giving up on my studio in a box. That’s a difficult one for me, because I’m usually a person who won’t give up on things, even when they’re past saving. It’s sort of progress for personality, because my inability to let go of things has been a problem for too many things in life – so I refocussed on a smaller goal, which will hopefully be achievable. That project is to just build some shelves that can go in the hallway, and will let me roll my gear out to the carport, via the wheelchair access ramp I bought.
With the gear able to be moved in and out of the house, I resumed my welding practice, and am making some real progress on getting to grips with the gear.
Speaking of the house, towards the end of the year we looked at a new place, and even made an offer, but other people bid higher than us. It would have been a great one to get, but sadly not to be.
The major non-abandoned project, the project that’s consumed me for 20-odd years, was completely finished. Surfing The Deathine as a collected volume was done, and with it, my new fully independent Fastspring store was set up, so that I’m able to be completely free of Apple. It was a long complicated process, involving completely rebuilding my entire production pipeline, but it worked in the end.
Speaking of Apple, this was the year I really lost the faith. Not only did I lose interest in anything new that Apple is doing, I also lost interest in any media commentator, or content maker, who talks more about Apple products, than they do about Apple’s terrible labor practices, or abusive market tactics.
This year, the technology I rely on to work continued to be awful, but there was a bright spot – the technology I use to be entertained…
I bought a new games console. The XBox Series X is a delight of a system, and a joyous thing to be near. Its size, proportions, matte-blackness, it’s all wonderful.
So overall, it was a year of consolidation – of just trying to get by, of fixing and refining things, and of trying to snatch moments of normality wherever they were.
I expect 2022 to be worse.