2023 Week 50: Help! Bunnies Have Taken Over My Life!

 My main update for last week is that we got the windows and bedroom doors changed. We arranged for both contractors to come in on the same day - on the one day this month we had no bunnies at home.

Doors before:

We didn't have an opinion on these doors when we moved in (thus did not change them during renovation) but grew to dislike them horribly. They're an ugly colour and design, trap massive amounts of fur and dust in the grooves, are infested with ants, and worst of all, one of them drags on the floor so we can't even open and close it.

Doors after:

We got the plainest lightest doors we could find and I think they go nicely with Jon's handpainted door frames. And they actually WORK.

Windows before:

These windows came with the flat. Again, didn't hate them enough to change them during the initial renovation, but after 5 years they are incredibly dirty. The frames were the old kind without little holes for rainwater to flow out. So they were perpetually semi-flooded and crusty with black dirt.

Windows after:

Due to a communication error the window people installed GREEN glass instead of clear. Apart from that the windows are good and I am pleased.

Still waiting for new washing machine and can't make any decision on main door/gate so no updates on those. Wow, it's fun being a bourgeois homeowner! 

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I'm feeling quite burned out by the rabbit boarding business. We are at max capacity for the rest of the year and it's far too many. Even though it's only a modest 5. There are home-based boarders with a LOT more, I think. 

With multiple bunnies per room, I have to subdivide each room with pet fences. I hate those things. It also means we also lose our freedom of movement in and the use of our rooms. 

Another problem is time. While taking care of bunnies isn't very time-consuming, handling 5 bunnies means I don't have much time to hang out with each of them. Less connection with the bunnies = less fun and enjoyment = less motivation to do the work. 

Check-in and -out days are also time-consuming; we are either stuck at home or else delivering or collecting bunnies ourselves. Although they sure look cute in the car.

I am not even going to talk about grooming. Grooming bunnies who are staying here is easy; I can do it whenever I (or the bunny) am in the mood. But I don't think I want to pursue it as a career.

And I've already offloaded the biggest stressor - customer service - to Jon!

All these thoughts point to the same conclusion: it's time to scale down. I don't think I have the passion it takes. 

After 2 years of trying out different forms of freelancing - writing, food delivery, pets - I think I'm just not suited to self-employment. I would actually prefer more hours at my part-time job than to have to hustle. I like having fixed hours and co-workers and paychecks. Well, it's been a good experience and I'm glad I can start next year on a cleaner slate.

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I've been in a book funk after Rebecca. I tried reading The Great Gatsby, On the Road, The Wind in the Willows, and The Big Sleep. They were all on my to-read list and seemed promising to begin with. But none of them "took". (I usually give a book 50 pages or so.) 

Now I am reading Ernest Hemingway's Men Without Women (short stories) which is sort of the opposite. I felt very irritated with the terse prose the first few times I tried reading it. But all of a sudden, I got hooked. WTF?

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I went on another shopping spree, this time for self-improvement things for next year. 

I bought a huge 2024 stick-on-the-wall planner (you can see it in the picture of the new doors), an NYT crossword book (because doing the crossword is nice but I don't want to do it on the NYT Games app), Susie Dent's Word Perfect (365 new words to learn), and a drawing journal (so I can be a better person next year and start drawing again).