I’m not even going to look at what my goals were.  Doubt I made any of them because this week had an unexpected hurdle.  It’s one that may carry through the entire summer from the look of things.

For those who don’t remember or know, I caught Covid at the end of June.  It was a very mild case with fatigue as the biggest symptom.  Since then, I’ve had days where I’m not that focused (brain fog) and feel sleepy halfway through the day.  I was still able to work through those periods to finish Darwin & the Halfling Hunt.  I was ready to handle those again, but things changed last Sunday morning.  Not for the better and things kind of went downhill from there.

So, I woke up feeling off, but testing negative.  Had very little appetite and felt drained of energy.  Still went to a friend’s place to watch ‘Resident Evil’ on Netflix and I was fine by the time I got there.  Kind of tired when I got home, so I didn’t think anything of it.  Then, I woke up feeling like the undead on Monday.  Same on Tuesday and Wednesday was even worse with me wondering if I was dying.  I couldn’t focus on anything, so the little I did write took me 3x the amount it normally would.  The slightest errand would leave me drained and I had a lot to do.  What did this mean?

Well, it looks like I have Long Covid.  This is when the symptoms continue after the infection is over.  A mild case can still lead to a nasty Long Covid period, which I seem to be stuck in.  This was probably amplified by the heat and stress over a few things that are coming up.  Doesn’t help that I’ve run into some people who think I’m faking it.  They won’t tell me what I would gain from it since I’m still doing everything I have to do aside from writing.  The fatigue also triggers my anxiety, so I spend most of the day spiraling into being a mess.  For some reason, it all ends around 9 PM when I feel somewhat normal, but it’s too late to do anything.  I think I’m up for another booster, so I might get one next weekend and see if it helps alleviate some of this.

With all of this in mind, I know I won’t finish Darwin & the Avenging Elf before the end of summer.  I’ll try to get it done before the end of September, but I might have to switch to preparing November blog posts at times too.  Have some shaky topics for that month since I’m trying to do all of this with brain fog.  That’s when you can’t really focus and forget things easily.  For example, I keep forgetting words right after I hear it or write the same sentence twice.  Big reason that the writing is going slow.  Maybe I’ll prep November stuff this coming week and get that done?  Might be too much for my battered mind.

Moving away from covid and writing, my son turned 13 this past Thursday.  He’s officially a teenager, but he’s had that attitude for a while.  I want to say he grew up so fast, but it feels like I’ve been parenting him for decades.  Doing a Mobile Arcade for him and a bunch of kids this morning.  Then pizza and cake.  Tomorrow will be ‘DC League of Super Pets’ and video games will be played on the home system.  Last night, we got his godfather from the train station, which was a surprise appearance.  So, ‘Super Smash Bros’ will get some attention.  As long as my son doesn’t hold us hostage and make us watch hours of him playing ‘Pokemon Legends: Arceus’.  We’ll see what happens.

Crud, I walked away and forgot about this.  Where was I?

I’ve got nothing else going on.  Just hoping to dive back into writing whenever I get the energy and mental clarity.  Things may improve once the birthday party planning is done and I have fewer things on my mind.  For now, I’ll keep going through my television show list since I lack the energy to do much else.  I finished ‘Fate/Grand Order- Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia’, which was . . . something.  This overall series was recommended to me, but I can’t get fully into it for some reason.  I jumped to ‘Granblue Fantasy’ once I was done.  This is a fun adventure story based on a video game, which I may have watched some of years ago.  If it was ever on Netflix then I probably did and just forgot.  Oh well, I’m enjoying it again.  Not sure what I’ll go after next.  Maybe I’ll rewatch one of the shows that just finished dubbing season 2.  I would watch season 3 of ‘Harley Quinn’, but it won’t be entirely out until mid-September and I want to binge.

Now, goals of the week?

1. Son’s birthday party.
2. ‘DC League of Super Pets’ tomorrow!
3. Write as much of  Darwin & the Avenging Elf as possible.
4. Rest and try to get through the chronic fatigue.
5. Get a covid booster next weekend.
6. Puzzle time to keep mind active.
7. Biking if feel up to it.
8. Try to plan stuff for the non-camp week I have my son.
9. Maybe a few November posts.