Belated Update

Last time I posted my goals, I mentioned that they had completely fallen apart. And here I am – three days past the deadline I had given myself for said goals. I did okay on them, except for being three days late on telling you that.

Here are the goals I made for myself on April 22 to have been achieved by May 26:

Writing:

1)     Publish my Covid Chronicles. I published it as an e-book, but I am still waiting for the print copy to proof. Do any other self-publishers do this? Make sure the print copy is absolutely perfect in every way, but kind of let some things slide on the electronic version? I have fallen into that habit. I do most of my reading on my Kindle and find a fair number of errors, some of which seem to be more formatting than grammatical.

2)     Get back to work on my next novel, working title of “New, Old Spies. Nope, haven’t started.

3)     BONUS GOAL. I finished writing the memoir of my sister Pat and hope to publish that by the end of this week. 

Reaching:

1)     Promote that latest novel, “Prior to Now” on social media once a week. Mostly.  

2)     Attend vendor sale for my books April 29. Yes.

3)     Research other vendor sales. Sign up for one. Yes, I signed up for one here in town on July 3.

4)     Sew five more book bags. Oops, nope, haven’t sewn a one.  

Reading:

1)     Read two books. I read two and actually started two but couldn’t finish them because I just didn’t like them.

2)     Read and study five chapters in the Book of Acts for my Thursday Bible study group. I think I have.  

Retiring (yeah, the new subtitle and most exciting one):

1)     Take the camper out of storage on May 2. Took it out of storage but have not cleaned it.  

2)     Research our trip to Seattle this summer. Did a lot of research and then had to cancel the trip.

3)     Research my trip to Cambodia in the fall. I did some.

4)     Figure out what I’m going to do for insurance once I quit work. Yes, I have, and unfortunately, I am going with the most expensive option for now (see below).  

Ranching (okay, you know I don’t have a ranch, right? But I wanted to stick with the “R” theme and ranch was all I came up with for the house and yard):

1)     Start cleaning closets in the house. Nope.  

2)     Start prepping the garden and getting some flowers planted. Nope.  

My back went out on April 1 and continued to deteriorate after that. It still isn’t back to normal. Finally starting to get there, but I think it’s going to take some time. Hence, no work done around the house. And that’s also why I have to go with the expensive health insurance, coz there is no guarantee this latest treatment on my back is going to cure it. The back is also why we cancelled our trip to Seattle and why I haven’t gotten the camper cleaned. Sounds like one big sorry excuse, doesn’t it?

So let’s move on and see if the month of June will pan out better.

Writing:

1)     Publish my Covid Chronicles in paperback form.

2)      Publish “Holding All the Aces”, the memoir about my sister.

            3)   Get back to work on my next novel, working title of “New, Old Spies.”

Reaching:

1)     Promote all three of my latest works, “Prior to Now”, “Chris Coping with the Covid-19Crisis” and “Holding All the Aces” twice a week.  

2)     Prep for and promote the vendor sale on July 3.

3)     Research other vendor sales.

4)     Sew eight book bags to sell at my book sales.  

Reading:

1)     Read two books.

2)     Read and study four chapters in the Book of Acts for my Thursday Bible study group.

Retiring:

1)     Clean the camper and get it ready for camping.  

2)     Research my trip to Cambodia in the fall.

3)     Sign up for that expensive insurance.  

Ranching:

1)     Thoroughly clean one room in the house.

2)     Plant some flowers in the yard. Thanks to my back, I gave up on the vegetable garden.   

Well, there it is, what I’m going to shoot for the month of June. My first month of not having to go into work at all!

Wish my luck, Chris  

(Flowers above are from my co-workers for my last day. Aww!)