This has probably been the longest I’ve went between updates. I don’t feel much like posting lately because of my freakin ear problems. I don’t like to put my problems down in a journal, for all posterity, because I don’t like to dwell on the negative. I was reading through my old post and I got to one about previous ear problems and it was like a gut punch. I’d rather just post positive news and forget my problems ever existed. But journaling is a good exercise for active thoughts too and it can be therapeutic. I just wish I had my state-of-mind (and health) when I started this blog. Life was so great that I had to write it down and preserve it.

I did see the ENT again on Friday. She is going to schedule an MRI and CT scan for me. That makes me happy! Like I know the static/cricket type of tinnitus is all mental. I can deal with that. In fact, it’s rather pleasant. It’s like having my own built-in white noise machine, 24 hours a day. And I don’t mind wearing hearing aids because I can hear all the high end sounds that I couldn’t even before I had all these issues. What gets me is the constant pulsing on the left side of my ear. I know that that is something physically wrong, like it’s not in my head (mentally). It’s hard to focus and meditate when I have this Chinese Water Torture that demands my attention. And it sucks when I wake up and my ear is pulsing. I’m asleep, the most calm a person could be, and I still have problems.

Ok so enough negativity. The wife bought me a good book for our 16th anniversary called The Wealth Money Can’t Buy. It started out as a fairly breezy read, with most chapters only a page or two long. But it’s insightful enough that it brings things into perspective. I should really jot down everything that I’m grateful for someday. I think that would be a life changing post. But most of the time I feel that I’m grateful for everything I have. When my ear stops pulsing, then I feel like I’m in my right mind again and sometimes I’m overcome with joy. It’s the world’s worst roller coaster lol.

So we went to Branson after Christmas and had a great time. We went to Dolly’s Stampede again, went down a mountain sled ride like we did in Colorado, and drove golf carts for a couple hours up in the hills. We stopped at Bucc-ees a couple of times. It’s so busy there. I prefer Wally’s because it’s basically the same place as Bucc-ees but not as busy. Plus I like the signage and characters better at Wally’s. I still can’t believe they only have two locations.

We spent New Years Eve at the AirBnB playing Hallmark Christmas Bingo while watching Hot Frosty. This is really all I ever wanted out of life, seriously. Just to be happily married and spend time with our kids, either sharing some fun experience or sitting around watching TV. I love each and every minute of it and cherish it.

January was cold. We didn’t really go out and do anything, like we didn’t go shopping very often either. Elsa played volleyball and Jack wrestled hear and there (junior varsity). February is cold too, but the Wife, Laina, Elsa and myself went to St Louis yesterday to stock up at Costco and Trader Joe’s. I went to Micro Center to see that they expanded their 3D printing section. That’s good, it’s a sign that more people are getting into the hobby. There’s still room for more hobbyiest and others in this space. After a year of having my own business I’ve found that the business model is the same as T-Shirt printing. I think each town will have their own little 3D printing shops that create local items. I’m still selling medals and charms at a decent rate as well, all over the country. I’m at a point where I’m happy with the amount of time I’m spending on the business. I’m not rushed to see all the kids’ after-school activities but I’m still making real money on designs. I also discovered a fix to a major problem I was having in my design program, a problem where I would have to spend a whole weekend tweaking a design to get it to print correctly. There’s a setting I found in the program that fixes all this for me. So that is a major time saver. Since the design program I use is not very widely known, it was impossible to Google the problem to find the answer. I just had to keep at it until I discovered it myself.