Trading Sideways

I spend a lot of time looking at the financial markets. I do some investing. I do some options. With options, you hope the market trades sideways so they expire without being called… and you get to keep your money. The market has been going mostly sideways this year.

I feel like my weeks have been going sideways too. I’m not making the advancements I’d like to make but neither are things going poorly. I had hoped to land my “whale” and have an excellent client. Alas, the client has gone on vacation for the next week or so and so nothing will happen. She didn’t have a chance to review my proposal, so I don’t know if it’s likely to be accepted or not. And so we wait. I’ve been reaching out to other clients… but so far, nothing exciting.

In the meantime, I wrote my 9 articles for the HVAC newsletter. It’s due shortly after I get back from the reunion, so I wanted it out of the way, if possible, before I go. My marketer for whom I write the newsletter finally landed his “whale.”  So in the next six months there may be a trickle-down effect. And I’ve been talking to an interesting person about start-up companies.

Tom decided to go to his 50^th high school reunion in October so we will go and visit Mom in the beginning of October. Then I will fly out on the 13^th to go to my copywriting bootcamp. I got the tickets for that flight this week.

I have a new counselor in my Relief Society presidency. She is very nice. We decided to drive to the temple together—the 4 of us: President, 2 counselors, and secretary—on Wednesday. It was a long day as I live the farthest away and had the most dependable car so we took it. But we had lovely visits on the way up and the way back and a nice session in the temple. One of the counselors drove a good percentage of the way home, which was a big help to me.

Thursday I finally went back to Marian’s to do some pottery. We always have such fun and varied conversations. She’s a great teacher. I had made a large crock out of dark clay. Last time I was there I glazed it. When it fired, it got a crack on the bottom. So it could be used for a planter… but not a crock. Alas, the glaze turned out differently on the darker clay, and it’s pretty ugly. When you want to see how clay and glaze will work together, you typically make a small “test tile” that’s an inch or so big. Marian said, “You made a really BIG test tile.”  Remind me next time to start out smaller.

So while we were there, I went back to my favorite white clay and imprinted it with Queen Ann’s lace and created another crock. What I like about Marian is that her pottery is all useful. She was telling me about a garlic and chocolate grater made of concentric rings on a plate. She said people knew about it on the east coast and west… but not here. Apparently the two best enzymes in the garlic for your health blend together when garlic is grated, but not diced. Who knew?

Tom got stung by a wasp on Thursday and he hauled some vines and tree debris on Friday. Between the two of them he has a rash on one arm that's spreading to various places on his body.  It doesn't look like poison ivy... but it's a rash and it's red and spreading.  Poor man.

I don’t remember if I told you about a group of us going and singing to Walt, a member of our ward who was in failing health. That was apparently one of his last good days. He passed away on Tuesday. It was a yours, mine, ours family and 8 of the 9 children and their families came to the funeral held on Saturday. July 4^th was one of his favorite holidays and they celebrated his life by holding the funeral on that day. Tom needed to be there to officiate and it was lovely to see all the family come together and enjoy one another. It made me wonder what mine or Tom’s or Mom’s funeral will be like.

I mentioned a lady visiting our ward who makes lace necklaces. She volunteered to teach me. So I checked with the RS president and then invited other sisters from the ward to come and learn with me. I announced it at church today and showed them some of the lovely necklaces. Now we need to find the 11.5 crochet hooks (about the size of my index finger) to make the necklaces.