Right. Well. Um. I had a stroke.

The months between September November 2020 have been crammed full of doctors appointments, with naps in the spaces.

It wasn’t a big stroke. Just a small one with no ongoing physical effects.

For a while there, I couldn’t read, or write, or talk sense. It was horrific.

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Virtue	Aug	Sep/Nov	Notes
Pleasure: Recharge Read 78 104 lots of books	🙂	🙂	I’ve blitzed my reading goal for this year. Twice! I’m just leaving it as-is for the rest of the year. There’s too many to mention, so if you’re curious, you can look at my Goodreads challenge page.
Friendship: Friends I love meeting new people, and as I am friendly and outgoing, I make friends easily. • Make some local writer friends.	🙁	😐	I haven’t spent much time with friends, except for weekly zoom chats with one long-suffering friend who helps me practice talking like a grown-up.
Friendship: Creatures My creatures are happy and healthy and find my garden a haven.	😐	😐	We’ve about chosen a breed of dog, and are narrowing down breeders. Though now people are going back to work, the shelters are filling up again, so who knows.
Friendship: Contribution I share my knowledge, time, and money with those who need it. • Write and publish stories.	🙂	😐	I’ve not got too much of anything.
Beauty: body I enjoy exercising my lean, healthy 59 kg body several times a week. • Eat < 5g of salt and sugar per day. • Walk 10,000 steps per day. • Sleep 8 hours each night.	🙂 69.4 kg	😐 68.2kg	Have a new crop of pills to enjoy, and a bunch of new dietary requirements to get used to. I’m tired all the time, taking one or two naps in the day. Funnily enough, I still wake up at night. One time I thought I heard a dog whining to go out, and was up and at the door before I remembered I don’t have a dog.
Beauty: garden My garden is peaceful (lush and abundant, providing habitats, weather protection and a mystical threshold) Q3 & 4: finish the plan and start landscaping/planting.	🙁	😐	Pbbbbt! (apparently that’s how you write blowing a raspberry.) Maybe next year.
Beauty: home I live in a comfortable home that soothes my soul.	😐	😐	See above. Maybe I’ll buy a new house.
Wisdom: growth I learn and grow every day. • Visit a historically or culturally significant venue or event each month.	😐	🙂	Well, at least they’re halfway to open now. And after a long trip to Wilson’s Prom, I can really see how much I need to get out now and again.
Wealth: time Turn the computer off by 5:30 pm.	😉	😐	Ah. Well. Sometimes I don’t actually turn it on until 5.30.

Most of September and October 2020 passed in a haze of brain fog, naps and staring into space. In some ways, it’s been fascinating how far off track I can get. But at the same time, I can obsessively research things that just don’t matter. I lost my Inner Monologue, and I’m not sure whether it will be coming back.

November 2020 started to get a bit more normal. But I discovered a simple trip outside is full of sights, sounds, and smells that I can’t screen out, so I come home exhausted and overwhelmed.

And if it’s not a simple trip I might need a day or two to recover. In fact, I found that my clothes are incredibly distracting, and I’ve taken to wearing black to screen out the “noise” of my clothes.

My productivity journal has a lot of spaces. As you’d expect, what with not being very productive.

In December I’ll be starting to work out what my new normal is like. How I can manage distractions and fatigue. How I can schedule my time to get things done.

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You can find my monthly reports and other planning related information on the Life Worth Living page.