Happy Birthday, Timmy!

Today is Timmy's birthday!!! Timmy is one of my neighbor's dog. I believe he turns 10 today? I wish dogs understood us celebrating them...hehehe But I also think it is great that they just live day to day. I could learn a lot from dogs...LOL I think I'll be looking for a dog toy this weekend to give him. I'd also like to get something for Lavender. But I still need to ask her owners if that is okay. I've already talked to Timmy's owners and they consented.

Today's devotional was on humility. Once again, very timely. I was humbled about something yesterday. It was something I somewhat mentioned in the first paragraph of yesterday's journal entry. It can really cause my heart to ache sometimes. But that's okay. It is part of the growth process. I don't always like the process. But I do love the results. My heart has transformed in ways I never would have imagined. These past six months have been especially heart transforming. Sometimes the process hurts. Not always. When I grow from the process, though, I have Peace.

My parents will be here late evening a week from today. They still haven't nailed down all they plan to do. They still need to talk to my sister. I honestly don't know how often they get to talk to her. I rarely get to talk to her myself. So, perhaps they have just as much trouble getting a hold of her as I do? I'm currently on a weekly cadence of calling our parents. So, we typically get these sort of things figured out quickly. Since my sister is involved, it isn't so easy...LOL Fortunately, my work is flexible enough for me to be able to plan, or change plans, last minute.

I'm hoping to get mom's painting finished this weekend. Last weekend, I finished the digital proof. I still haven't painted it on canvas. I also thought about going to Disney this weekend. The weather is supposed to be okay. I think it will be hot. But not peak hot. I haven't checked out this year's Food & Wine Festival yet. I'm not quite sure what I'll do this weekend...LOL I do want to visit Erica at Zen tomorrow. We'll see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow...LOL

Tomorrow is the best day to go to Disney. I sometimes wish I could work on Saturdays so I could go to Disney on a weekday instead, though. Sunday isn't typically a good day for me to go. That leaves just Saturdays as the best day...LOL Which is a common best day. I'm not really sure how busy the parks are these days. When I went on a Thursday night last week, it wasn't busy. Weekends might be different...hehehe Social media isn't the best gauge for how busy the parks are. I've been there on days when I saw bloggers talking about how busy it is and posting photos of crowds...yet I was there too and had low wait times and didn't see any crowds whatsoever...LOL

I've been having some interesting dreams lately. Nothing I've been writing down when I wake up. But interesting enough to wonder what it might be an indication of. Dreams don't always mean something. But sometimes they do. I've been cutting off my food and drink consumption early enough that it shouldn't be impacting my sleep in a negative way. It could just be some of the things I'm dealing with? I've never kept a dream journal. Perhaps I should start a dream journal and see if I see a pattern?

I've been enjoying the increase in responsibilities at work. I enjoy being busy. I even enjoy busy work...LOL I've had so many times in this job in the past when I didn't have a lot to do. There is always something I'm doing. It just didn't always feel all that busy...hehehe

After my afternoon one mile walk, I think I'm not going to Disney tomorrow. It actually is hot. It isn't unbearable or anything. It just isn't worth being outside on concrete most of the day...LOL When it is hot, the parks are that much hotter. The day I went for Corban's birthday was a really nice day. It wasn't hot and the humidity was pretty low. I'm looking forward to those days again. Hopefully soon. I may change my mind again by morning. The evening looks like it might be nice. So, perhaps a mid-day arrival and stay through the evening? LOL

I've only been out on the water once this year. Have I talked about this before? I don't miss the water. I do enjoy the water. It just isn't anything I feel motivated to do anymore. I still go by the sea as much as I can. I am motivated to see the water. I just don't go out on it. It's weird how my interests keep shifting...LOL

My new book on prayer just arrived...let's see how it looks!

The book is setup as a twenty-one day devotional book. It also sounds like there are three breaks aside from those twenty-one lessons. Although there are scriptures, a devotional related to those scriptures, and guided prayers to go along with each devotional, there aren't any reflection questions. I can see myself journaling a little about each. I'm not sure if this book on prayer lends itself to be a fellowship devotional, though. I had wondered about that when I ordered it. It may just be a personal one I do on my own.

I took a brief nap. I had some weird dreams again...LOL One of them was about the Dodgers. It was like I was on the field behind home plate watching the action. But I could also see the computer graphics in front of me as if I were watching the stats on my phone. Weird. I also had one with a pond and some lily pads. There was a man arranging them on the water to lead my eyes to a word he had spelled out. I couldn't make out what it said. Weird. And as I was waking up, I could see numbers falling sort of like in the Matrix with those green characters on the screen. Except they were all grey and they were going across my ceiling. Weird.

On my evening walk and jog, I pushed myself a little harder. I walked at a faster pace for the first mile, jogged the second mile, and then split the third mile. For that third mile, I did one walking lap at the earlier fast pace, followed by a lap of jogging, and finished with a cool down walking lap at a leisurely pace. On the jog mile, that second mile, I was able to wish Timmy a Happy Birthday when Sam was out walking him...hehehe After my exercise, I dropped by their apartment to sing Happy Birthday to Timmy...LOL Jan joined me on the singing ❤️

It was quite hot on my walk/jog. But I noticed it was only hot in the sun. In the shade, it was quite pleasant tonight. The humidity wasn't very bad. I wonder if that is how it will be tomorrow. If I can stay out of the sun, it may not be all that hot. What I'm thinking about now is doing Zen for lunch and then head over to Disney in the afternoon. As long as I stay out of directly sunlight most of my time there, it might actually be a pleasant experience. Again, I may evaluate in the morning and make a decision. I live like Timmy...hehehe day to day...LOL j/k

I had an idea for my Instagram and Facebook stories. I think I'm going to take a photo or video most days and post it to my story. I won't force myself to do it. I'll just do what I'm inspired to do and have some fun doing it. Today, I took some videos of lizards and spliced them together. The videos...not the lizards...LOL I put the song Take A Little Time To Smile with Peggy Lee to it...hehehe It was fun. It will expire after 24 hours. For those who get to see it in that time, yay!!! If not, that's okay. It was fun to do...LOL

My new approach to social media seems to be working. I'm evolving as it evolves...LOL It isn't like it use to be. Prior to the pandemic, I was very casual on social media. It seemed more laid back then in general. As of the pandemic, it has gotten less laid back. But that doesn't mean I can't be...hehehe I've locked down all of my accounts. I'm no longer public on any of them, I think. I've already noticed Twitter is giving me a list of follow requests now. I think I like that.

There's still a chance I'll leave Twitter. I'm already connected on other platforms with most of the folks I typically interact with. I've already started to see some of the same junk on Threads. But it is easier to ignore there. I don't follow nearly as many accounts on Threads...LOL I've started to un-follow accounts on Twitter to try cleaning up my feed there. People be peopling out there in the social void. But I can set boundaries...LOL

Something else I've been doing lately is taking a thing or two from my journal entry for the day here and posting it. That has been fun too! It's kinda funny how this happened. I use to take something I posted on socials and then expand on it here...LOL Now I'm doing the reverse by taking something from here and cutting it down to a quick thought to share with the world...LOL Like I said, fun!

I'm watching Star Trek: The Next Generation S2E3, titled Elementary Dear Data. It is my favorite episode. I used to own a copy of the script for the episode...hehehe The plot is about challenging Data to a mystery on the holodeck that is based on the Sherlock Holmes stories. Data has all of the Sherlock Holmes stories memorized. So, his shipmates programmed the computer to create a completely random mystery for him to solve. What ended up happening is the computer created a self-aware villain based on Professor Moriarty. This self-aware, computer generated character, figured out how to control the computer for the ship...LOL It is one of the best stories from all of the Star Trek universe. There was a second episode later in the series where Moriarty comes back and tries to become a real person in the real world...he was defeated...LOL

Today was another good day. Even yesterday was a good one in spite of that brief moment I began my journal entry with. That was only a moment. Overall, I've been having good days for several days in a row.