Middle March Angst

March is a transitional time of the year; rain falls, the sun comes out, warm wind blows, rain falls again, cold wind blows, repeat. It’s the same way at work. I was overloaded in February, and even working on proposals for neuromorphic sensors while on vacation in Hawaii. The stress was a lot, despite the tropical scenery, and then it all subsided into the rainy March gloom.

In the mornings, I go for walks around my Oakland neighborhood and listen to Hello Meteor or whatever else strikes my fancy. Then, I take my supplements, toss the cats some treats, and sit in front of my laptop to attempt some productivity. I want to meditate, to really submit some manuscript summaries to novel agents, but just haven’t quite worked up the motivation yet. I have submitted a lot of short stories, though, and some poems, which feels good.

Stock wise, my investments have been… uh… bad. Last year was really good. I invested in a bunch of space companies, inspired by my work, and everything was doing super well. Like I hit six figures in my investment savings for the first time ever. And then the new president got elected. Couple that with some poorly timed buys of shares… and my account is leveraged on margin for shares that have plunged. I know better than to invest that way, but good news was coming for the companies I’m most invested in, or so I thought. Even with good news, the tariffs tanked things, and now I’m paying off the debt, trying to do so without selling all my shares at a huge loss.

I’ve also been practicing karate quite a bit, and working on my old Taekwondo forms, which I had mostly forgotten years ago, though some of the patterns are still embossed in my brain. For a while, I was getting in really good shape, but then elbow tendonitis kicked in on my outer left elbow. Too many pushups, or too many punches? Who knows.

So now I’m doing some PT exercises at home, trying some acupuncture, and taking it a little easier, waiting for the late winter uncertainty to pass. It may take a while.