And then, depression set in...

With the early evenings, damp weather, darkness shrouded world, it's not difficult to see why people get depressed at this time of year. Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the most upbeat people I know, but even I feel at the moment that the world is getting too much and I'd give my left arm to become a sheep (fnarr!) farmer on an outer hebridean island.

And why does life leave me like this? Not because of the long evenings, not because of the failure to be recognised, not even because I feel distended from the rest of the world...

Let me give you some examples.

I have spent the past month working flat out. I haven't taken a true day off, working as much as 15 hour days, and all for a pittance. I would raise my rates, but then people wouldn't pay them.
I advise people on things to do. I back up my reasoning with evidence of fact, I favour the 'sitting on the fence' opinion as far as possible. Then they go ahead anyway, and who do they bitch to when it all goes wrong?
I go out of my way to do favours for people. I don't charge them for my time, I do work for them to the best of my ability, then when one thing isn't quite right (because I have a real job to go to and have to rush off) they moan and groan, and I have to go and fix it.
Even worse is when I leave a job, and all is working very well, and when I return I find that the customer has taken it upon themselves to install some crap program their son's cousin's best mate's boyfriend's colleague installed on his pc and it worked great! When the internet stops working, they have popups, or they contract a virus, it's my fault because I told them about the ISP/Antivirus/website that they got the dodgy program from in the first place.

I think I'm going to set up my own Sheep dating website. oh damn.