It’s been a very very very long time since I posted a blog update. That long trend of barely ever publishing a blog update is going to be ending. I am about to delete my Facebook account, which is a very odd and freeing feeling. It will also drive me more to post actual thoughts about the world and the work that I do here, right here, on this platform. Does anyone even read blogs anymore? Lol. I guess I will find out.

Update, with brevity. And verve.
I haven’t worked with video content or worked for money at all since about September of 2019. I have instead, been working harder than I ever have, in my entire life, but without pay. I became a full time live-in caretaker for both of my parents in October of 2019. It was going to be a temporary thing. I was just going to help them through a health scare. I packed my bags, traveled to VA from NC…just for a few months. Right? Wrong. I am still here over 2 years later.

My mother died of dementia and cancer in October of 2020. Then I took care of my dad, who has cognitive decline issues as well…and, well…it’s been a long journey my friends. I have aged about a decade in the last 2 years. Sort of like dog years but even longer.

My dad moves into a retirement community at the end of November 2021. That marks the end of my unexpected journey of being the full time caregiver for my parents. I’ll still be hanging out in the town where Dad will be living-Charlottesville, VA.

Over the last 2 years I have turned away job after job. Amazing work travel opportunities had to be turned down. I was to film in Toronto and Nova Scotia. I was invited to film in England and Norway. I had to decline everything. I lost all my paying clients for my social media management accounts.

If you haven’t been a full time caretaker for folks with dementia, you won’t understand why I couldn’t just work while doing it. But if you have been in my shoes, then you know why work was the last thing I could have possibly attended to.

First things first…I won’t be getting back to work right away after Dad moves into his new digs. Oh hell no. This boy needs a serious break for sanity’s sake. I am taking a king sized holiday. My first real vacation in about 3 years actually. I will be visiting friends and camping and skiing my way across the USA for the entire month of December. I just got a lovely pair of classic telemark skis…as well as an equally lovely pair of discounted twin tip freestyle park skis for the lift served action. They will see a lot of use!

Come January I should be ready to get back to work. I said that rather hastily. What I meant is that come January I will need to get back to work, because you know…money!

I am genuinely eager to soon be working once again with clients. Learning to write, edit video, create content, run social media accounts…it’s no fun when you don’t know how to do all that stuff. But it’s a lot of fun for me to help clients who have other things to do while I do those things for them.

I did manage though to do at least one big creative thing during the last 6 months. I launched a website, podcast and an ESRI mapping project.

This aligns with my values and I will be working on The Video Slab stuff while also seeking funding and grants for this long term project.