My goodness, I am a bit of shit sometimes. One of the problems with setting up WordPress through Softaculous is that it sets my username and password for me. I promised myself that I wouldn’t lose my login information and I would write it down in a place where I could keep it safe… and then, of course, I promptly lost it. I’m still not used to the simplicity of WHC’s dashboard, so I couldn’t find where to access Softaculous, and it took a little bit of finessing to finally get the link to open (no shortcuts, no links – I’m still not sure what I clicked on to get it to open). And yes, I did try to reset my password from the login page with my email, but those emails never arrived in my inbox (or spam). Thankfully, I decided to click around and not rage delete everything.

Rest assured, there are now several post-its hidden around my office with my login info so that this doesn’t happen again.

So, what has happened in the last month?

Nothing too much, to be honest. I did end up completing my practicum successfully, and I graduated from my transcription program with merits. I received my transcript, but I am still waiting for my diploma to show up. I’ve decided to take the summer off before pursuing my side hustle. I might consider writing my RHDS exam first to get my credential before looking for a job, but that still is something I am going back and forth on.

Aside from that, I’m just been working and trying to rest. The weather has been crazy, going between scorching heat and thunderstorms and rain, and it’s been detrimental to any yardwork. I thought I could get ahead of the rain by getting out early in the morning, but I just ended up getting eaten alive by mosquitos before I could get any work done. The mosquitos this year are different, and the bites that I’ve gotten had morphed into these awful blisters that refuse to heal. I don’t know if I’m reacting/allergic to them, but holy shit, dude. The worst is that they’ll stop itching for a couple of days and then all of a sudden, they’ll get so itchy that I end up almost in tears from the discomfort. Their favourite spot seems to be my elbows and the back of my knees. They’re not phased by deet either. I did manage to get my youngest daughter’s room in order, though. Six giant diaper boxes of clothes to donate, and some toys. Uncovered a lot of stuffies that I thought were lost and found her stash of sippy cups (thankfully they were all recoverable and not nasty). This weekend I will be focusing on my own bedroom, and work my way through the mainfloor by the end of August.

That’s the plan. Fingers crossed.

I was going to make a post dedicated to this band, and I still might, but I need to share this band that I found – To The Grave. They came across my Instagram reels the other day, and I have been obsessed ever since. Vegan deathcore from Australia. Absolutely delightful, fucking brutal, and filthy.

Obviously, trigger warning for violence/gore/et cetera. I am so in love. And the fact that they already have a good catalogue on Spotify for me to work through… *chef’s kiss.*

Now that I’ve gotten my login information back, I am making plans to post more. Getting some content outlined and ready to go… it feels good to have some creative juices flowing, now that school is not occupying the entirety of my free time.

Blessed new moon in Cancer and blessed Deipnon.

Welcome to Trash Bat.

There is still a lot of work to be done around here, but the bones are finally done.

Feeling pretty good about this new space, and I am feeling excited about posting again. Things are starting to wrap up with my transcription program (in the middle of my practicum right now – then I have 2 more exams to do, and then I’m finally done), and I am going to be so happy to be done with it and finally graduate. Once that’s done, it’s going to free up a lot of my time and hopefully lift a lot of the mental/creativity blocks that I’ve been having.

I have to say that I am not enjoying my practicum. My facilitator is… difficult, to say the least. No positive reinforcement at all, kind of passive-aggressive and very quick to point out how I am pretty much doing everything wrong. I dread handing in my hours because I know I’m going to get one of her very long emails telling me how much I suck. The email I got last week almost made me tell her where to go and how to get there, but my Charlie stopped me, reminding me that I’d be throwing away 2 years of hard work when I was almost at the end. So… 2 more weeks to go and I just need to keep reminding myself of that.

The weather here has been swinging between its-so-hot-I’m-going-to-die and my absolute favourite, rain with a cool breeze. I wish it would stay the latter, because I don’t do well in heat and the more rain we have, the less concern there is for fire. Considering that I am surrounded by forest, fire is not desirable. Fire season has already started, though. Sad to say that it’s getting earlier and earlier every year, and it dominates everything going on. I had wanted to set up a little fire pit for Beltaine and have a night of merriment and dance, but our area was slapped with a campfire/personal burning ban almost immediately. I hope one day I get to have a fire at Beltaine without the fear, but it’s not worth the authorities getting involved or possibly setting my yard on fire.

Hoping to get outside this weekend… mow the lawn and do some clean up. The backside of the property has re-wilded quite a bit, which I love, but I need to clean up. Lots of rotten poplars that need to be taken care of, and there is a lot of cleaning up from the deer and the cows that wander through that needs to be done. I also have a massive ant hill that I need to take care of, and I haven’t the slightest idea how I am going to do that, simply because of how big the ant hill is. If it were in the yard or in the back of the property, I would leave it alone, but it’s right where we park our vehicles, and I don’t want my car to be full of ants or the hillside to collapse.

Esoterik put out a new song a little while ago, and I’m pretty obsessed with it, so I need to share:

I really love the new direction that they’re going in, and I can’t wait until their new album is released.

Anyhow. Going to head to bed. Going to continue working on things here, and I am hopefully going to get some buttons and whatnot designed. I downloaded a graphics program… I think it’s called GIMP? Something like that, anyhow. I opened it up, and it took me right back to my Jasc PSP 7 days. Giant kick in the nostalgia.