Funk

I’ve been in a bit of a funk the past couple of months. Lots of stressors have contributed to this, including a lack of whine (poor planning on my part but a batch is on its way, perhaps three weeks from drinkable), some medical issues, being stuck IK since November because of further poor planning, not being able to walk the dogs in the mornings because of a large pack of aggressive feral dogs stalking the land, and being super busy at work.

I’ve posted before about my “method” for the blog. My method requires time for me to first ponder the stories I want to write about and then to sort out the language that I will use to tell them. Of course I have dashed off the occasional post on the fly but most of the time I have most of a post worked out in my head before I sit down at the keyboard. Being so busy at work has cut into my pondering time.

But back to the funk. It has specifically cut into my ability to live in the moment and find interesting stories to tell you. Not that interesting things aren’t happening around me. I live in Saudi Arabia after all, smack in the middle of the Middle East. Plenty of stupid, amazing, infuriating, awesome things going on all the time. Unfortunately, the funk is causing me to focus on the infuriating more than the entertaining and any story I start to tell quickly turns into a rant.

Another interesting corollary of living in Saudi Arabia is that ranting online is a particularly stupid and rapid way for you to lose your job. Heck, ranting in public will produce the same result. You even have to carefully choose with whom you share your rants. You certainly don’t want to go further and leave a public record of them.

But the funk is clearing. I’ve got a nice leave coming up in May with a good friend—you’ll hear plenty about that when I return.

And my dogs still love me.