Definitely have a lot of ground to cover.  First and most importantly:

Do I Need to Use a Dragon? goes live on Monday!

To be honest, it really goes live tomorrow, but I’m not doing a big announcement until July 3rd.  I’ve found that people don’t really pay attention to blogs on Sundays, so I’m hoping Monday’s sticky note post gets the job done.  The eBook will be 99 cents for an entire month, so grab your copy now if you want.  July and August are going to be all about ‘how to’ books and advice as well.  A summer of craft chat and hopefully a decent amount of book sales for my first publication in 2 years.

Soooo . . . I guess I’ll give a health update.  That way we get the ‘ugh’ out of the way before the exciting stuff.  To put it simply, I got put on another blood pressure medication that I’m starting tonight.  It’s called Lisinopril and is an ACE inhibitor.  Why are all of these meds a type of inhibitor or blocker?  Aren’t they blocking things that do more than affect blood pressure?  I would assume the side effects are going to be nasty, but here we are with another attempt.  Probably doesn’t help that I’ve been stressed out for the two days leading up to the appointment.

I am trying to do an herbal supplement too.  Read that beetroot helps with blood pressure, so I’m taking 2,000 mg of that every day.  Only been two days, so I haven’t noticed any major changes.  I do feel a bit more energized without the side effect of my anxiety getting riled up.  Kind of bummed that I couldn’t try the beetroot alone for2 weeks to see if I need the meds.  This would be along with improving my diet and getting back into exercising after a vacation.

That’s a nice segue to where I was from last Saturday through Wednesday.  The day after school ended, my parents, my son, and I drove up to Cape Cod, Massachusetts for some relaxation.  We rented a house with a pool and it was in a nice quieter area.  Not far away from the town of Hyannis, so it was easy to do some grocery shopping.  We didn’t have much of a plan besides resting.  Checked out a few beaches when the weather wasn’t raining.  This appealed to my son who now has Pokemon Go on his phone after getting Honor Roll 8 quarters in a row.  Let’s just say we did a lot of walking.  In fact, he had me walking around the large park near our house for about 3.5 hours on Thursday before he went to his mom’s for her half of the break.

Cape Cod was a lot of fun and we found some good eating places.  I tried to eat healthy, but it wasn’t really possible when we were out.  I had a good breakfast and, at times, a good lunch, but dinner was an indulgence.  Guess it’s fine since we were on vacation and I’m back to behaving and biking now.

Oh yeah . . . There was the one planned event:

Really hope that video works.  I have a post with another video and more pictures going up a week from Sunday too.  Basically, my son got to go whale watching for the first time.  It was my third time and the most successful one yet.  Actually saw whales instead of thinking I did.  We took a boat out to a marine sanctuary where humpbacks lived near this underwater mountain.  Had to be at least 8 of them that kept coming around and they got pretty close.  There was a smaller ship out there trying to help a calf that supposedly had fishing line wrapped around its fin too.  Not sure if they got the job done, but we were told that they’d come back the next day if they had to.

This coming week is going to be an odd one.  The same day that I announce Do I Need to Use a Dragon? is when I got back to work.  I’m working the summer Life Skills program, which is 9-2 every weekday until mid-August.  A nice change from when I was struggling to recover from Covid last summer.  Not to mention, I miss spending time with our students and we have a new one this summer.  All levels of excitement, especially with our Thursday field trips.  Definitely looking forward to the fun and being able to wear casual clothes at work.

Only other big thing going on is that I’m hoping to start writing Darwin & the Beast Collector today.  If I can do 3 chapter sections a day, it would take me 21 days to get it done.  I don’t have that many free days during the summer, but I will be able to write a bit after getting home from work every now and again.  Still, I’m going to assume that this book won’t be finished until late September.  The reaction to the new meds will also be a factor.  As far as the story goes, it’s fairly contained and runs differently than Darwin’s previous adventures.  I had to rewrite the outline a few times to make sure the major points are arranged and work together since I changed the overall ending.  I also need to remember how a character from a previous series operates since he’s teaming up with them.  Doesn’t help that the story has massive ‘Jurassic Park’ vibes since it involves the Beast Collector’s island zoo that he plans to use to make money.  Had to revamp that character too.  Fingers crossed that this can work, but Darwin has made all previous books go off the rails so I expect chaos.

Oh, the music video is a catchy opening song from the anime I’m watching called ‘Mob Psycho 100’.  It’s about a psychic boy who restrains his emotions, but losing control if he ever reaches 100%.  Kind a strange series, but I’m warming up to it.  The opening rocks so much harder than I think it has a right to given the goofiness of the series.

Goals of the week:

1. Final preparations for Do I Need to Use a Dragon?
2. Start writing Darwin & the Beast Collector.
3. Summer job!
4. Get things ready for my son to start camp in a week.
5. Biking.
6. Keep an eye out for medication side effects.
7. Check blood pressure.
8. Escort my son on Pokemon catching trips.
9. Go ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at some fireworks.
10. Puzzle time when I need to rest up.