Posts

Early River Hour With My Two Favourite Girls

By
Image
 Kim’s ball‑toss and Dixie’s splashy chase say everything about the simple joy of our river routine on a warm summer day. A River Hour With Kim and Dixie Today had that perfect Lethbridge heat — the kind that makes the river feel like the only sane place to be. Kim and I headed down early, Dixie trotting ahead like she already knew the plan. We ended up spending about an hour, maybe an hour and fifteen, tucked right along the shoreline with the whole riverside to ourselves. That’s rare on a hot day, and it made the morning feel like a little pocket of calm carved out just for us. Dixie was in full river‑dog mode the second her paws hit the water. We played ball, splashed around, tug‑of‑war, the whole routine. She was all smiles, no bark — just that excited, tail‑wagging joy she gets when she realizes she’s got both her people and a whole river to play in. Kim and I sat in the shallows, talking about nothing and everything, letting the cool water take the edge off the heat. There’s...
1 comment
Read more

The Power of the Stacked Calendar: How 7 Years of Journaling Outsmarted Executive Dysfunction

By
Image
  Why breaking one task into ten lines—and using multiple calendars—is my ultimate mental momentum builder. That wooden "JUNCTION" box packed wall-to-wall with custom-labeled journals is an absolute work of art. Seeing seven full years of monthly indexes, pocket notebooks, and daily logs lined up chronologically makes that draft hit even harder—it’s tangible, physical proof of the momentum you've built. # The Power of the Stacked Calendar: Overcoming Executive Dysfunction One Line at a Time Looking into my wooden "Junction" journal box, I don't just see notebooks. I see seven full years of living on my own terms—chronological stacks of pocket logs, monthly indexes, and relentless daily tracking. For someone living with schizophrenia, maintaining a habit like this for over seven years isn't just unusual—it’s a massive victory. But the secret isn't just about being organized. It’s about understanding how my mind works, embracing the executive dysfuncti...
Post a Comment
Read more

100,000 Views — A Milestone I Never Expected

By
Image
  100,000 Views — A Milestone I Never Expected Today I hit 100,000 views on this blog, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. When I started writing about my walks, my days, and the small adventures with Dixie, I never imagined anyone would click in, let alone follow along long enough to turn this into something real. Yet here we are — a hundred thousand times someone opened a piece of my life and shared a moment with me. That’s something I won’t forget. This blog has become more than a journal. It’s turned into a kind of mental health routine, a way to steady myself, to make sense of the days, and to keep track of the chaos in my head. It’s helped me change my life for the better. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t plan it. It just happened through the simple act of walking a dog and writing it down. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about where this goes next. The last week of August is coming, and I’m not sure what direction I’ll take. Part of me wants to keep going forev...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunshine, Solace, and a Golden Day at Popson Park

By
Image
  Dogs, Drinks, and Deep Water: Recharging the Batteries at Popson Welcome back, everyone! If you’ve read my last post, you know I’ve been juggling a lot with work lately. I’ve been trying to swap as many of my evening shifts to mornings as possible, and it’s been a challenge. After a late-night call at 11:00 PM last night, I finally landed an upcoming morning shift. It’s a win! I’m hoping to stack enough shifts to create some free time for a wedding coming up soon. Needless to say, after only four and a half hours of sleep, I was pretty beat. I was seriously in need of some rejuvenation. When Nick and his dad invited me and Dixie (my sweet dog) to Popson Park, I knew I had to go. The river was calling! Dixie’s Great (and Not So Great) Adventure Dixie, as usual, was raring to go. The dog is treated like a human and, as such, behaves about as well as you’d expect from a human in dog form! She is well-behaved, mostly because she thinks she’s one of us. When called, she’d come tro...
1 comment
Read more

The 100k Crossroads: Momentum, Monetization, or a Poetic Exit?

By
Image
 The 100k Crossroads: Momentum, Monetization, or a Poetic Exit? We are officially staring down the barrel of a milestone I never thought I’d see. If current trends hold, this blog is about six days away from hitting the **100,000 lifetime views mark**. And if I keep riding this wave until January 1, 2027, the math says we’ll be looking at **160,000 views**. To put that into perspective: **I have gotten the exact same number of views in the last six months (around 50,000) as I did in the previous six years of blogging combined.** It is absolute lightning in a bottle. But sitting at the peak of this hill has brought me to a massive, unexpected crossroads. What do you do when a quiet, personal outlet suddenly demands that you decide whether or not you want to be a "social influencer"? ## 💵 Option A: The Modern Answer (Monetize It) When a niche blog hits this level of traffic, the world tells you there is only one logical response: turn on the ads, build the brand, a...
8 comments
Read more

The External Brain: Walking, Wearable AI, and the Pursuit of Mental Clarity

By
Image
  We’ve all been there: you step out the door for a walk, hoping for some peace and quiet, only to find your mind immediately flooded with noise. Intrusive thoughts, daily anxieties, a mental to-do list a mile long—sometimes, the inside of our own heads can feel incredibly loud, disorganized, and downright chaotic. For a long time, the solution was traditional journaling. But recently, I’ve found a much more dynamic, interactive way to declutter my mind: **using AI as an external sounding board.** By constantly putting my raw, unfiltered thoughts through AI, I’ve been able to transition from mental chaos to structured clarity. It’s a process of active self-improvement—grooming myself to be more organized, more grounded, and far less bothered by the background noise of my own mind. And now, the next logical step in this journey is staring me right in the face: **smart glasses.** ## Why Wearable Tech Feels Like the Next Chapter Right now, my mental-decluttering routine ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Journey to 100k, the Final Pivot, and Farewell

By
Image
When I started  Animal with Home Value by Virgil(Nigel) and Dixie , I never anticipated where this path would lead. I was just writing, sharing my thoughts, and documenting my corner of the world. But recently, something wild happened. I watched the traffic charts go from a quiet, years-long hum to a vertical spike. I want to share those numbers with you today—not to boast, but to celebrate the incredible, global community that somehow found its way to my digital doorstep. 📈 The Journey in Numbers : From Slow Burn to 100k Looking at the analytics, the trajectory of this blog is nothing short of remarkable. It is a story of a slow burn that suddenly caught fire: ⏱️ The Timeline of Growth   The Last 30 Days (A Final Sprint):   In just the last few weeks, the blog pulled in **9.41k views**, peaking at around 600 views in a single day on July 13th.   The Last 3 Months (The Summer Surge):  Over the late spring and summer, we maintained a steady baseline, bri...
Post a Comment
Read more