39: Depth Year Update

If there’s one thing I can say about COVID-19, it’s that it has forced me to progress on some of my Depth Year goals. Not quite halfway through the year but I thought it would be a good time for an update.

Obviously, there’s a lot bigger and more important stuff happening in the world right now than my reading list, but I am not going to add my comments on that. I have been trying to do my part to support anti-racism by reading and watching and donating. I am working to educate myself, and I am optimistic that vast changes are on the horizon as others do the same.

You can find my original Depth Year post here. I’ll go topic by topic again:

Writing

This one has taken a back seat lately. I have been doing reasonably well with regular blog posts and I’m in the middle of The 100 Days Project currently, but I haven’t worked on any other writing much in the last couple of months.

When I first started staying home, writing seemed to be the easiest thing to work on, but lately I have been having trouble motivating myself. I think that my interests tend to move from project to project, so as long as I’m working on something, I’m not too worried about other things falling off the map.

Dancing

I don’t want to talk about it.

Obviously, this should be the ideal time to dig in and work on technique, but it’s just not happening. See my post, A Year Without Dancing, for more info.

 Stained Glass

This practice, which I wasn’t sure if I would fit in this year at all, has actually come a long way. I have spent many hours over the last few weeks working on the glass panel for our front door, a project that has been on my ‘to-do’ list for years and years.

Since I got past the hurdle of setting up a work space and re-acquainting myself with my tools, it has been pretty enjoyable. I think it’s still too early to say whether this will be something I continue doing once my project is complete, but for now, it’s great.

I find it meditative to spend a few hours working on glass and listening to music. It gives me the freedom to let my mind wander while my hands focus on creating.

Interior Design

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve decided to drop the idea I was working on for a side hustle. The only Interior Design I’ve been doing has been a few hours a week for my day job, and I am fine with that.

Renovations

While we haven’t really made any progress on finishing up the bits and pieces inside, we’ve made great strides out in the yard. Having no place to go on the weekends and no travel plans coming up, most of our time is being spent in the yard, whenever the weather is decent.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve got the front yard (the only area I’d started on in previous years) in great shape, we’ve replaced all the railings and added a roof over the deck, and now we’re getting started on the side and back yards.

We had to purchase new materials for the deck, but for the yard we’re mainly using salvaged and free items. Tonight I’m picking up 3 variegated sedges and some raspberry plants from someone a few blocks away.

Reading

So far this year, I’ve re-read 5 of my past favourites, with mixed results:

Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – This one is a doozy! It really set me back on my Reading Challenge progress, but I’ve gained a lot of ground since I finished it. (And I did put it down a few times so I could break things up a bit with fluffy, YA romance novels and such.)

Did I enjoy it? Yes. It was a bit of a slog at some points though; the characters don’t talk so much as lecture and it gets a bit tiresome. It was also a lot more black and white than I remembered. It’s an interesting viewpoint and well written, though I don’t agree with the philosophy it was promoting.

I still have Atlas Shrugged on my list too, but I’m waiting until I’ve read enough to meet my Reading Challenge for the year before I pick that one up.

Emily of New Moon series (3 books) by LM Montgomery – This was a favourite of mine when I was in elementary school. I seem to recall it being very romantic and inspirational.

Not so much now. I don’t know if I felt differently because I’ve grown up, or if the era of the book is to blame, but there was just so much miscommunication and conflict due to people not saying what they really thought. It was frustrating to read. They are still good books, just not as great as they were when I was in grade 5.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson – First of all, it blows my mind that this is non-fiction. It was as good as I remembered it, if not better.  The story is crazy and I can’t believe he can even function well enough to write, which makes it that much more amazing how brilliantly he puts things into words. (If the whole thing is actually completely made up, I’m no less impressed.)

Overall, I’m happy with my progress, but I’m also curious how things might have gone differently in a ‘typical’ year. There would have been more dancing, for sure.