feeling like a beast

I am trying hard not to panic. I’m telling myself to stay calm, it will all work out, this crisis will be averted. My son will show up in his armor and riding his white horse and will bring my laptop back to life. (In reality, my son not only doesn’t have a white horse, he doesn’t have anything on four wheels, much less four legs. He got a ride up to my house for thanksgiving with a friend, so is currently at another friend’s house, so I’m not quite sure how he will come to me anyway.)

So my laptop has been so slow and just quirky. It refuses to recognize the printer, no matter how many times I disconnect and disengage and delete it and then reconnect it. So I haven’t been able to print anything for a month or two. A few weeks ago, when I plugged the external drive in to save my stuff, the laptop now refused to recognize that as well. I plugged the drive into our desktop and it popped right up, so I didn’t get too concerned. At least that was working, right?

My son came over yesterday and got the printer working again and was thinking about what to do with the external drive, when we ran out of time, and we had to leave (that’s a longer story than that, but it doesn’t matter). I didn’t think much of it.

Came home last night and the little box was open on the LT asking something about do I want to restart coz it had updated some files. You know those boxes that always pop up? So, I obliged.

When I turned the thing back on, I got the opening screen and it will not move from there. No amount of hitting any keys on the keyboard or the mouse. Have turned it off and on too many times to count. Have even taken the battery out and back in, I don’t know why, but what could it hurt, right?

Even then, I wasn’t close to panic mode. Whatever. Until I plugged that external drive into the desktop just now and realize that it apparently hasn’t been working for some time. I try to save my stuff (ie, that novel I have been writing fervently on) at least once a week. So I thought, worse case scenario, I lost about two weeks of the novel.

Umm, wrong. Nothing has been saved on the drive for two months! Which was twenty chapters ago!

Ok. In reality it is not that bad. Believe it or not, I also emailed myself a copy of the manuscript on November 6, coz sometimes I do that. Yes, I’ve still lost a huge chunk, about seven chapters, and I don’t know if my mind can retrieve it, but I guess I can power through that much, if my son, the white knight, can’t get to my house and save the day.

So, that would be my update for this week. I got nothing else. Good thing is – I didn’t work on my novel all this past week.

How about you? What crises have you had to face in your current WIP? 

What I am starting to feel like. 

Busy, but not on my writing

I can’t say that I was a lazy sluggard this week. I certainly was busy, concentrating all of my energy on just one goal, basically. (Green highlight is a goal that is on track, yellow highlight was at least worked on, red letters is a total fail.)

1)        Finish writing my current novel, “The Big House”. I only wrote 2,388 words last week and two chapters, for a total word count of 30,139. A little shy of the number of words I had been putting in the previous weeks. I was swamped all week with other stuff. See below.

2)        Work on readying “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” for publication. Nope.  I haven’t heard any more from the publisher, but they said it would be the first of December before they got the first round of edits to me. Yes, I still have other stuff to do on it – research places willing to host book signings and such – but I have been so wrapped up in the story of my newest novel. I know I need to get my heart back around to “Sky Meets Sand”, but maybe after the end of this month.

3)        Do some editing on my two memoirs, “Pat’s Story” and “Two More Trips To Africa”. Nope. I think I should take this goal off my list, at least for now.   

4)        Continue posting to my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles” three times a week.  On track, three posts last week.

5)        Work on my daughter’s nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers.  And this is where all my time has been spent in the past week. My daughter Val came up Monday night for overnight as she had to be at the craft sale on Tuesday by 7:30 am. The whole evening we spent working on stuff. Then Tuesday night, after the sale, she stopped at the house for what I thought would be long enough to drop off the merchandise she didn’t sell and give me an update, but instead she stayed for hours. We worked on the website, brainstormed fund-raising, I don’t know what all we did. Then she came back Friday night for overnight, because we had the craft sale Saturday morning here in town. The goal of the next trip to Kenya next spring is to set up rabbit farming at the community where we started chickens this past spring. To get it up and running, they recommend we buy 36 pregnant rabbits, after we have built their hutches of course. Each pregnant doe costs $50. So Val came up with this idea that we should get people to sponsor each rabbit, and for an incentive, we would give them a handcrafted folk-art bunny. So we handstitched five of them Friday night. Sold two on Saturday. And today, as I was just starting to write this post, Val called again, working on updating the website some more and wanting my input. I am so happy that she is this dedicated and so proud of her for having her heart in Kenya. But I just want her to relax and be a 26-year-old newlywed with a full-time job, house that is in the middle of DIY projects and a dog – my grandpuppy, which I expect to be taken care of and spoiled when I am not around. Anyway, we both need sleep. But by the way, we did raise over $400 between the two sales.  

6)        Get my body in shape. Umm? I don’t have a clue, so the answer is probably just no.

7)        Bonus Points – I submitted a poem to a poetry challenge. Boy, and I sure need bonus points this week!

I’m going to admit up front that I probably won’t get a chance to work on any of these goals this coming week. I’m hosting the annual Thanksgiving dinner on Friday and it has gotten completely out of control. In past years, I’ve invited up to 20 people but have been averaging 12 or 13. So I upped the invites to 28, estimating that based on previous years, I would get 16 or 17 people. Well, I was up to 18, when I called the last cousin on my list, who said she and her spouse would love to come and since their daughter and son-in-law from out of town will be in town that weekend, they would love to come too. Really? And as you may or may not be aware, the whole point of Thanksgiving dinner at my house is to fit everyone around one table, just like on TV. I have enough room and enough tables to string together, the funny thing is that I don’t know if I will have enough chairs. I’m still working on that. My hubby is stressing about how we will be able to cook enough turkey, but I am going to leave that problem to him.

I bet you just can’t wait to hear how that all turns out.

How about you? What are your Thanksgiving plans? Do you have any traditions around this holiday? 

Lots of color and bonus points too!

Due to a death in my boss’s family, I had an extra day off from the day job last week. I’m pretty sad about his loss, but to make up for it, I tried to be ubber-productive.

So was I ubber-productive? (Green highlight is a goal that is on track, yellow highlight was at least worked on, red letters is a total fail.)

1)        Finish writing my current novel, “The Big House”. I wrote a record 5,482 words last week and five chapters.  Which puts me at 21 chapters, 27,698 words and 36% complete. Then yesterday morning, because the Hubby had worked the night-shift so was sleeping in the basement, instead of cleaning house and making noise, I researched background information for the story for nearly four hours.

2)        Work on readying “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” for publication. Nope, nothing that I can think of.  But I think that now is the time to concentrate on other goals anyway, as once the first round of edits gets back to me, I am really not going to be able to work on anything else.

3)        Do some editing on my two memoirs, “Pat’s Story” and “Two More Trips To Africa”. Nothing at all.  

4)        Continue posting to my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles” three times a week.  On track, three posts last week.

5)        Finalize the next trip to Kenya for my daughter’s nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers.  Somehow last week, I even managed to do a boatload of work on Tumaini. My daughter called one night ready to hang it up, shut down the organization and send all of our funds to the organization we work with in Kenya. She was so frustrated and discouraged. I rallied her and told her that since most new nonprofits fold after five years, we have to make it another two years just so we can say we beat the odds. The next day I ran into a former teacher who asked how we were doing and if we had another trip planned. I’ve talked to him before about it and that day, he was like, send me the information, I’m free and I have the cash. Then yesterday the Hubby talked to a co-worker of his who had expressed interest once before and he also said, I’m sure I can get off from work in the spring, send me the info. We’ve also got three craft shows coming up in the next month, so are getting ready for those. So, yea, but busy.

6)        Get my body in shape. I think I exercised three mornings and two evenings. My weight is holding the same, but all I want to do is eat. Can’t someone give me a pill that just turns me off from food?  

7)        Bonus Points – I updated my author website.

That should be enough, huh? A little bit of everything along with a spattering of nothing.  

How about you? Do you find some weeks you can work on one or two goals, but nothing on the others? Or do you just concentrate on one goal at a time? 

From our last craft sale last summer. If you are anywhere near Central Wisconsin, let me know and I'll tell you where we'll be at coming up. 

A Mixed Bag

I had a medical assistant meeting for the day job yesterday. Drove over for it Friday night and spent the night with some friends from our medical assistant organization. It’s fun to get together and catch up, but even though lights were out at 9:30 and we only talked for another half hour or so, I didn’t get any sleep. I don’t know why I can’t remember to take sleeping pills with me, coz I know that I never get any sleep in a hotel room. Then I didn’t get home til after ten last night, but because I ate supper late on the way home, I didn’t sleep last night either. Argh. I’m a little shot today, but am going to power through.

So, other than that glitch, how did I fare in the last week? (Green highlight is a goal that is on track, yellow highlight was at least worked on, red letters is a total fail.)

1)        Finish writing my current novel, “The Big House”. I wrote an amazing 4,660 words last week. Is that even possible??? I really did not want to stop, the words kept flowing and the characters kept talking. If it hadn’t been for that meeting yesterday, I’m sure I would have kept going. Somewhere I thought I was shooting for 5,000 words per week and with my word count at 22,031 total, I’m 31% finished. So I am giving this goal a green this week, coz that is pretty darn close.

2)        Work on readying “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” for publication. Nothing really. I had emailed my Pre-Publication form the week before and never heard back, so I did send it again, saying, “in case you didn’t receive this the first time…” They emailed me back that they had gotten it the first time and were just busy. Makes me nervous. To my mind, no matter how busy you are, you acknowledge receiving an email, even if it is a form letter kind of thing. Makes you professional. But maybe that is just my narrow opinion. I’ll be patient and wait to hear from them again I guess. Hopefully sooner than later.

3)        Do some editing on my two memoirs, “Pat’s Story” and “Two More Trips To Africa”. Nothing at all.  

4)        Continue posting to my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles” three times a week.  On track, three posts this week. And even a mid-week post here.

5)        Finalize the next trip to Kenya for my daughter’s nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers.  Nothing concrete. Talked to some people about it, sold one coupon book. Finalized a craft show my daughter will have to work at by herself on the 15^th. So I guess that all adds up to something.

6)        Get my body in shape. Only exercised three mornings and two evenings. My back is still bugging me and the headache I’ve had since the first part of October is still hanging on too. Makes it hard to want to do anything physical, but I know that exercising will relax some of those muscles. Not going to sweat it right now.

So last week was kind of a mixed bag. I guess that’s okay. I’ll take it.

 How about you? Do you fluctuate on what goals you achieve? Or are you steady and making even forward progress? 

(The only picture of a bag that I had on my camera.)

Hug a Veteran

I am having a really hard time keeping track of the days lately. Am I just getting old or am I losing it?

Anyway, I know that I posted last time that I wasn’t going to write a mid-week post, unless I had something of merit to say. But don’t get all excited. This post isn’t going to be a Pulitzer Prize winner, but maybe it will plant a seed for one. You never know.

I haven’t said much about my current WIP, the novel which currently has the working title of “The Big House” for lack of something more eloquent. Actually I don’t think I’ve said anything about it.

It is about events that happen in a big house (duh) in 1974 and has various characters who are Native Americans, monks, and Viet Nam War veterans. One of the main characters suffers from PTSD. We hear about that a lot now, but I thought I better look it up and learn more.

Believe it or not, with all the wars that have been fought over the centuries and all the other horrible atrocities mankind has suffered, such as the Holocaust, PTSD was only diagnosed in 1980. Or at least that’s when the American Psychiatric Association first named it as such. I feel I will need to go down that rabbit hole and pay this disorder its dues.

I did write 1,700 words before making this discovery, so I think can afford to take a break to do research. 

Hope you are having a great week. Now go out and hug a Vet. Just don’t sneak up on them.