Diary

The following are my ten latest entries. To see all of them, click here.

• 21 Jul, 2026 VII XXI MMXXVI

  Had a pretty big day today.

  Finally finished The Gaslight Effect, by Robin Stern. Next up is Atomic Habits, by James Clear. I’ll also start Kaķīša dzirnavas by Kārlis Skalbe, my first Latvian book.

  Cleaned the bathroom. That’s always a big task every week. Managed to finish that earlier than usual too.

  Then the indoor bicycle arrived, and after assembling it, I spent the rest of the day on it, probably four or more hours. 😂 I loved it that much. It’s so sturdy, yet so compact. I can do so many other things while riding. It’s really made for someone like me who hates exercise because it feels like a waste of time (even though I consciously know that it’s important).

  Also called my dad for his birthday. Yes. He asked me about my job “situation”, as I expected, but... either I was very skilled at skirting around the issue, or he was being lenient, or both. The conversation went much better than I expected, which is a good thing.

• 20 Jul, 2026 VII XX MMXXVI

  I did manage to write a whole bunch of my next sermon for August 1 this morning, but after lunch I just ended up not really knowing what to occupy my time with. I should have planned better.

  With my wife staying at my in-laws’, there just isn’t much in terms of chores for me to do or errands for me to run.

  I felt too tired and uninspired to do much of anything, so I just hung out on YouTube and Discord for most of the afternoon.

  This is why I ended up writing my latest essay, but of course, the inspiration for it didn’t come until 8 PM, so I’m going to bed one hour later than I should.

  Tomorrow I reckon that I’ll be pretty busy though. I also have to call my dad for his birthday, which I dread, because I think that it’s likely that he’ll bring up my unemployment status. Yikes.

• 19 Jul, 2026 VII XIX MMXXVI

  Yesterday I arrived at home after 10 PM. It still took me an hour to feed my cats and take care of a bunch of other little things before I could go to back.

  I’m good at sticking to a strict routine and enjoy that, bet when some major event, like driving over to my in-laws’ place, three hours there and three hours back, throws me off, that’s when I get vulnerable.

  I ended up “rewarding” myself with some down time until it was past midnight and as a consequence, I had to turn my alarm off so I would be able to get enough sleep. I woke up at around 8:45 AM.

  Still, I didn’t let that ruin my day. I managed to do everything that I set out to:

  • Do my daily reading.
  • Clean and reorganize the entrance.
  • Wash all the dishes from yesterday.
  • Take the trash out.
  • Buy groceries.
  • Do and hang the laundry.
  • Order the indoor bicycle.
  • Order another Latvian book.
  • Change the diary page to a feed.

  I forgot to mention it yesterday, but we had a bicycle at home that belongs to my in-laws, which my wife planned to use but never did. It was taking up a lot of space at the entrance to our apartment. That’s finally free now, and it’ll serve a purpose, but more on that some other day.

• 18 Jul, 2026 VII XVIII MMXXVI

  I’m typing this from the car my wife and I rented today to go visit her parents in Liepaja, a city about three hours due east of Riga.

  I had never been here before, so everything was new, including the church we visited.

  We had a nice lunch, with the salad and pasta my wife and I prepared this morning, alongside the brownies I made yesterday for desert.

  They then showed me a few interesting places along the coast. Apparently, some locations here were the sites of battles that were fought during or before WWI.

  Anyway, it’s 7:22 PM and I have three hours of driving ahead of me, so off I go.

• 17 Jul, 2026 VII XVII MMXXVI

  Had a lot to do today.

  I managed to clean the kitchen, vacuum the house, prepare the brownies for tomorrow, and also prepare the marinated tofu for tomorrow. Sounds like little, but though I started at around 8 AM, I wasn’t finished until 6 PM.

  I took a picture of the brownies, but I did so while I had YouTube playing in the background, and I felt that my iPhone glitched out there for a moment. I then tried to upload it, but it’s hopelessly corrupted. Too bad.

  During breakfast, my wife and I watched a video that she really liked, about a guy who built himself a standing desk with a cabinet containing 86 drawers. She was fascinated by all the tools that he had at his disposal. The result was also impressive.

• 16 Jul, 2026 VII XVI MMXXVI

  Had Italian grapes for breakfast.

  After my morning routine, I sat down to continue working on my sermon for the 25th. I didn’t expect to finish it, but I did. I even translated it. I also managed to keep it to around 3,000 words, so it’s just the right length. Maybe I’ll publish it here.

  This made me quite happy. I can start working on my sermon for next month now.

  Set up my Bear Blog right before lunch. It’s been such a back-and-forth fight in my head over whether I should return or not, given that I’ve started a thousand blogs on here and ended up deleting all of them. I’ve been craving the writing though, so even if this leads nowhere, at least I will have gotten it off my system.

  I had a long conversation with my wife about our finances and future plans. She feels anxious because we’re not saving as much as she thinks we could. I’m surprised that we’re saving as much as we are. I gave her a rundown on our current budget. She agreed with me in the end. Still, she’s afraid that it will disappear somehow before we make good use of it.

  In her mind, she wanted us to buy an apartment once we move to Jēkabpils. It didn’t occur to me that she considered that a possibility. I always told her that we’re saving this money for the moving expenses.

  I suggested that she talk to her parents about this, since part of our plan, whether we buy or rent, is to obtain an apartment that is large enough that they could move in with us. My father-in-law father is still working, though he could retire (he actually loves his job, unlike what I had before). My mother-in-law is retiring soon.