[Scaly Freak]

The view from the top of this small mountain is magnificent, and Scalyfreak enjoys every moment of the long lunch break she takes in the sun, while admiring the view. She especially takes care to admire the view of the road leading up to her mountain top, in case anyone was following her or just happens to travel in the same direction.

 

And sure enough, just as she's finished up her meal, Scalyfreak sees movement on the road. One solitary figure, moving on two legs... tall too, with a strangely familiar silhouette. It could be Procrastination. Hmmm. Scalyfreak glances over at her weapons, taken off for the meal, but kept within easy reach, and contemplates what to do. Wait for the creature and ambush it? Or finish her eating, pack up quickly, and leave before the demon notices her.

 

It's an easy decision. Life is difficult enough without seeking out battles against powerful enemies.

 

And so Scalyfreak quickly dons her weapons, packs up her gear and start walking swiftly down the side of the mountain, in a direction that takes her away from the approaching Procrastination, eating her last roll of bread as she goes.

 

 

 

Before diving into the “few and small” goals for this challenge period, here's a brief “intro” for anyone who doesn't know me very well:

 

Spoiler

I cheerfully approach all my challenges as video game quests, with boss fights and level grinding, I have re-framed my anxiety into pyromancy (specifically, the Pyromancy Flame of Anxiety), because it's very destructive when it flares up and gets out of control. But like pyromancy, if the chaos is embraced and can be harnessed, all that energy can be used against against my enemies. In fireball form.

 

Track record in my boss fights so far:

 

• Self-Sabotage drains levels and health, and heals herself with what she drains from her opponent.
  • Current strategy: Apparently it is to face her without my armor, while carrying a long needle.
• Procrastination is good at hiding and then hitting me with a back-stab when I least expect it.
  • Current strategy: Pretend to ignore and deal with her later, while secretly plotting to use the bullet journal calendar thingy to ambush her back.
• Self-Indulgence was gradually convinced it would be easier for her to reach her goals if we worked together. Before the alliance fell apart on its own, Self-Indulgence was viciously killed by a very angry unicorn, that has not been seen or heard from since then.
  • Current strategy: Dance on her grave
• Stress-Hydra spawns whenever too many things are happening at once, or when something really big and overwhelming happens, and cutting off one of her seven heads makes no difference because it re-spawns a replacement head almost immediately.
  • Current strategy: The Herakles Method - Ask for help

 

I'm currently dual-classing as a Warrior Druid, because meditation is a great way to quietly build Endurance and Resilience stats while figuring out how to make my need for sleep work with my need to make my body lift things and move and generally be active in a way that builds strength and resilience.

 

Since I know I'm going to have a couple of major disruptions during this challenge (visits from family members, as well as time off from work), I'm keeping it simple and continuing to do what has worked well in the past, while focusing on consistency.

 

Recover HP (physical health)

Continue with my Darebee program (Square 1 – super simple and low effort, which removes almost all excuses). The official goal is to complete one single set. Just one. That's easy. I can do one single set no matter what kind of day I've had.

 

Assuming I meet my goal of one set per day, I will finished Square 1 during this challenge. So my secondary HP goal is to select the program I'll move on to after completing Square 1.

 

Restore Mana (Mental Health)

Same goal as last challenge – meditate every day. I have a history of really struggling to remember to do this on days that are not work days, and I'm about to have two weeks of time off from work during this challenge.

 

Regenerate Stamina (emotional bandwidth)

Also same goal as the last challenge: Deliberately do at least one thing every day for no other reason than because I know I will enjoy it.

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I'm going to pick this thread to follow. 

[Jupiter]

Following.  

[Scaly Freak]

Recover HP (physical health)

Square 1: Day 17 was completed. Also walked in the evening

 

Restore Mana (Mental Health)

Meditated after morning coffee.

 

Regenerate Stamina (emotional bandwidth)

Family time  

[Harriet]

Darebee, meditate, regenerate. Simple but hopefully effective. Good luck!

[Scaly Freak]

Recover HP (physical health)

Sunday: Walked in the evening

Monday: Walked during the day, to many places the family wanted to see.

 

Restore Mana (Mental Health)

Sunday: Meditation

Monday: Not yet. Must happen soon though. Meditated

 

Regenerate Stamina (emotional bandwidth)

Sunday: Fantasy football season officially started!

Monday: Took the family to various stores they wanted to visit, to shop for books and board games.

[Mad Hatter]

9 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Monday: Took the family to various stores they wanted to visit, to shop for books and board games.

Any good finds?  

[Scaly Freak]

8 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Any good finds?  

 

I found this at the bookstore:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59517215-the-science-of-murder

[Scaly Freak]

Recover HP (physical health)

Walked again today.

 

Restore Mana (Mental Health)

Meditated in the afternoon

 

Regenerate Stamina (emotional bandwidth)

Walked with Husband and Happy Sidekick, just the three of us, for much needed only-you-and-me time.  

[Scaly Freak]

Recover HP (physical health)

Completed Day 18 of Square One.

 

Restore Mana (Mental Health)

Meditated by mid-morning

 

Regenerate Stamina (emotional bandwidth)

Dragon Quest XI has been completed, sort of. Story spoiler below:

 

Spoiler

Apparently the game continues with extra content after the end credits. This was a very pleasant surprise and I plan to enjoy it fully for the rest of the day.

 

The visiting family members left this morning to go visit friends a state over, for a few days. Happy Sidekick is bit confused about why they are not back yet.  When the visiting family members arrived, Happy Sidekick greeted them enthusiastically, because she loves having visitors, and when she saw her own humans hug the visitors and invite them to stay for several days, Happy Sidekick quite naturally assumed they were here to stay and begun treating them as members of her pack. She's going to be very sad when it's time for dinner and they aren't back yet.

[Jupiter]

Aw, poor Happy Sidekick. 

[Scaly Freak]

4 minutes ago, Jupiter said:

Aw, poor Happy Sidekick. 

 

She did mope quite a bit when it was time for dinner, but thankfully lots of targeted attention and conversations with her, appears to at least temporarily have made up for the lack of Other Humans. 

[Jupiter]

18 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

She did mope quite a bit when it was time for dinner, but thankfully lots of targeted attention and conversations with her, appears to at least temporarily have made up for the lack of Other Humans. 

 

That's good.  

[KB Girl]

It's a good sign that family time counts as regeneration

 

[Scaly Freak]

Recover HP (physical health)

Day 19 of Square One.

 

Restore Mana (Mental Health)

Meditated after lunch.

 

Regenerate Stamina (emotional bandwidth)

Evening walk with Husband and Happy Sidekick. Also continuing with the Dragon Quest post-game experience.

[Scaly Freak]

Recover HP (physical health)

Friday: Ummm.... forgot. Ooops.

Saturday; completed Day 20. Also looked at the other Darebee programs to try and decide what to do after.

 

Restore Mana (Mental Health)

Friday: Did remember to meditate.

Saturday: Will meditate after this post.

 

Regenerate Stamina (emotional bandwidth)

Friday: TTRPG day! We got ourselves into what appears to be a pretty serious situation and have until next session to try and figure a way out of it.

Saturday: Slept in, and decided to get comfy for a lazy day. Soft t-shirt dress, literally left my hair down, glasses instead of contact lenses, and lots of stretching. And tasty coffee.

[Scaly Freak]

3 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

Regenerate Stamina (emotional bandwidth)

Friday: TTRPG day! We got ourselves into what appears to be a pretty serious situation and have until next session to try and figure a way out of it.

Saturday: Slept in, and decided to get comfy for a lazy day. Soft t-shirt dress, literally left my hair down, glasses instead of contact lenses, and lots of stretching. And tasty coffee.

 

In addition to the above: Lunch was a bar of dark chocolate. I am now making tea, and getting ready to move on to my next book for the day. I need to take time off from work more often.  

[Scaly Freak]

I've been sharing this in lots of ways lately...  

 

 

 

[Captain Gilly]

Recharge is import - too easily burnt out in the world today. 

[Scaly Freak]

Recover HP (physical health)

Sunday: Forgot Darebee, but walked in the evening

Monday: Completed Day 21. Ruled out the story driven program types on Darebee.

 

Restore Mana (Mental Health)

Sunday; Meditated mid-morning.

Monday: Meditated with morning coffee

 

Regenerate Stamina (emotional bandwidth)

Sunday: Binge-read/-skimmed a super cheesy series of space opera cyborg romance novels I've read before, for reduced brain efforts. While sipping wine.

Monday: Planning a shower spa after typing this.  

[juliebarkley]

On 9/19/2022 at 2:29 PM, Scaly Freak said:

Completed Day 21. Ruled out the story driven program types on Darebee.

How many days are in Square 1?

 

Has flipping through the programs given you an idea of what you're looking for (or definitely not looking for) in your next one?

[Scaly Freak]

15 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

How many days are in Square 1?

 

Has flipping through the programs given you an idea of what you're looking for (or definitely not looking for) in your next one?

 

Square 1 is 30  days. I am looking for something that's very easy to be consistent with. There need to be a very low bar for getting that first workout done. I have a couple of candidates.  

 

Speaking of consistency, it's not happening today. This morning I woke up  earlier than I had intended, from sounds of Happy Sidekick vomiting up large tufts of grass and that set the tone for the entire day. I'll spare everyone the details of spending the morning dealing with intermittent dog vomit, but anyone who has, will understand why the day's routine is off and will remain off. All energy has gone towards monitoring the dog and making sure she's progressing from stomach illness towards stomach stability, while keeping all human emotions under control to avoid freaking the dog out by, well, freaking out.

 

Happy Sidekick seems to be doing much better now (it's been a few hours since the last round of dry heaves), and we are a lot less worried about her. She hasn't eaten large amounts of grass in over a year and this took us completely by surprise. She should be back to normal in another day or so, and in the mean time, we are watching her carefully and making sure she has access to clean water for when she feels thirsty again.

[Jupiter]

On 9/20/2022 at 4:11 PM, Scaly Freak said:

Happy Sidekick seems to be doing much better now (it's been a few hours since the last round of dry heaves), and we are a lot less worried about her. She hasn't eaten large amounts of grass in over a year and this took us completely by surprise. She should be back to normal in another day or so, and in the mean time, we are watching her carefully and making sure she has access to clean water for when she feels thirsty again.

 

Aw, poor baby. I'm glad she's feeling better now.  

[Scaly Freak]

On 9/20/2022 at 5:11 PM, Scaly Freak said:

Happy Sidekick seems to be doing much better now (it's been a few hours since the last round of dry heaves), and we are a lot less worried about her. She hasn't eaten large amounts of grass in over a year and this took us completely by surprise. She should be back to normal in another day or so, and in the mean time, we are watching her carefully and making sure she has access to clean water for when she feels thirsty again.

 

I spoke too soon.

 

Since I made this post two days ago, Happy Sidekick has still not eaten. Yesterday afternoon she lost interest in drinking water. She is at the vet clinic now, and they are keeping her at least for the day so they can rehydrate her via IV fluids and give her something for her nausea. The initial blood work has ruled out the obvious causes that would have been easy to treat, and they have progressed to stomach x-rays... specifically to try and find either a mass or blooding. There's a possibility this won't end well.  

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

That's really hard and not fair at all.