It's been 16 days since my last stream, 14 days since I sat in on my wife's stream playing #rimworld, and a week since my wife's last stream, but this short hiatus is not without good reason. What was supposed to be a quick break from streaming for a few days, as mentioned in my last installment of #streamlife "The struggle is real", turned into a week long battle with strep throat and other conflicts.

This post isn't meant to be a part of the #streamlife series, but it might set a good example for what life can sometimes be like for those that partake in the juggling act of maintaining a #streamlife/real-life balance. I mentioned in my previous post that sometimes it's best to take the time you need in the midst of chaos, which is what I was planning to do after the news about our house planning to be sold by our landlord.

A real shot to the gut.

That weekend, Syd was so anxiety ridden she decided to quit her job. We had a pretty heated argument about that, and the next day I started feeling the swell in my throat, and by Monday the 10th, I battled with strep for the rest of the week which is something I haven't had to do since I had my tonsils removed back in 2015, and just as I was starting to get better that weekend there was another obstacle in the way of our #streamlife; hurricane Florence.

We expected the worst when it came to the storm that was approaching the coast of North Carolina so Syd ( @reptimom88 ) got one last stream in and we prepped the best that we could with canned food and water, cleaning the gutters, and just making sure we could handle a few days without power. But as the storm hit the coast it slowed down quite significantly and we (out further inland) only got hit with a bit of rain, so we got off pretty easy.

However, on Saturday night, it didn't just rain... It poored.

My wife was in the process of giving our 8.5ft Albino Boa, Xanthia, a routine bath, but she suddenly began behaving strangely, and about an hour later, she passed. This hit my wife exceptionally hard because Xanthia was one of her rescues from 3 years ago. You can check out her story here. Needless to say, this sudden shock sent our morale tumbling down and it didn't help that her baby corn-snake just mysteriously died the next day!

Our struggle has been like a layer cake; just one thick layer of shit on top of another. With the next thick layer shit being our financial struggles, (which probably applies to most everyone), but one good thing has come out of this extended hiatus from streaming! I found out that I want to start learning to code! Matter of fact, I have been learning! I started doing a few lessons on CodeAcademy, and I met another streamer named @jrswab that's working on a project for the #STEEM blockchain called @nebulus, and he recommended freeCodeCamp. So I've been working on that ever since and it's been pretty awesome! Hopefully it lands me a decent job soon...

Ordo ab chao guys... Order from chaos

"Welcome to the layer cake, son." J. J. Connolly, Layer Cake.

P.s. The show must go on...
Expect streams from my Wife and I on @DLive very soon ;)