Light, Fire, and Bagpipes

Have you ever been at one of those points in your life when you suddenly realize the routines you find yourself in are driving you nuts? I'm not talking about family; there is nothing routine about family because they change all the time and always keep me on my toes (in a good way, certainly). I'm talking about work and things we do from day-to-day. For the last fifteen years I've focused on computers. I work with them all day and I'd come home and find new and interesting ways to work with them some more. Technical, step-by-step thinking. I like the technical stuff but there is only so much I can take of routine. How can I change from that? Retool by going back to school? Get a different job? Those just don't work for me right now. Some routines I can't really break out of but by changing track in my interests I can change how I view those dull routines. Since I've taken up photography (granted, it's expensive - but that's what a decent paying job is for) and built my forge I've challenged myself in quite a new way. Photography and blacksmithing both have their wonderful technical side which I quite like but they are also intrinsically artistic; light and angle, bend and form. I'm finding it's quite enjoyable running the extension cord out to the workshop (it's about one hundred feet from the house) and firing up the forge at night when the world is silenced by a thick blanket of snow. The heat and smell of the charcoal and iron is somehow satisfying and comfortable.

I'm now looking at the world in terms of light and form and my normal, routine job doesn't seem quite as mind numbing at the end of the day. Now I just have to make the bag for my bagpipes...