The days are gradually getting shorter and the colder weather is slowly settling in. That means I am hoping to get back into the swing of things and start blogging again! I really can't explain my absence, other than I just got sick of writing. Apparently it happens to all writers at some point in time - it just happened to be my time. As for the future of Luke's Ponderings; I have decided to go back to the random blogging subjects instead of coming up with "themed" days. I think in the long run, that will help me to churn out more blogs. So, for those of you who looked forward to reading what I had to say prior to my hiatus, I am hoping to make a big return.
In one of my previous blogs, I had mentioned a health problem that I had been experiencing that was nagging me. It wasn't anything overly serious, but it was a problem that needed some attention. After doing some research, everything pointed to it being an anxiety problem. After dealing with it for well over a year, I decided to take the first step and consult with a doctor. I have been prescribed some medication for it and all in all, I think it has helped. Initially the medication was giving me some side effects, such as light-headedness, nauseousness, and feeling sleepy, but I think I have acclimated pretty well to the medication and am feeling much better these days. Every now and again, the anxiety symptoms do show up in certain instances, but it's not nearly as bad as it once was. So that it definitely one good thing happening these days.
The summer was a busy one for myself, as I helped with projects not only at my house but at my dad's as well. The big project at my house was the installation of a basement entry door. The topography slopes away from my house in the backyard, so it made it ideal for an entry door into the basement. My brother-in-law owned a Case skid steer loader and brought it out one day and started mucking out a path to the new entry into the basement. Where I live, the soil composition is all sand, so it made the digging fairly easy, although it was also easy to get stuck with the loader, too! Needless to say, it took more than a couple of days to get the pathway sloped away from the doorway just enough so moisture getting into the basement wouldn't be a problem. Eventually, my dad and a friend of his came over to cut out an opening in the block and installed the new door. So far it has proven to be an excellent addition to the home! I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to bring things to the back of my house and into the new entry door instead of hauling it up and down the stairs of my house. All that is left to do on the project is to complete some landscaping and it will be 100 percent finished. But that will have to wait until the spring now.
As for the project at my dad's, we've finally wrapped up phase three of a project to install new siding on the house. All we needed to do during phase three was re-side the remaining four walls of the garage and house and installing three new windows. It took us a good couple of months to be finished with the outside of the project, which was wrapped up yesterday. And it wasn't like we had lots of days to work on it; we had to schedule the work around our days off. So there were plenty of gaps in between times when we actually could work on the project. Thankfully, we wrapped up that project before the cold weather really settled in. My dad has some inside work to do, including installation of new trim around the windows and finish one wall that he had to tear down. Other than that, it's another project that's closed to being finished.
So as you can see, I had a couple of projects that kept me pretty busy during my days off this summer. And it's no wonder than the summer flew by. Now, with the cooler weather settling in and winter not far off, it's time to settle inside and begin to work on the blog again! So don't be surprised to see a few new blogs pop up every now and again. I won't promise a bunch of blogs right off the bat; I think I have to slowly work into it. But in due time, it'll be just like the old days.
